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Rent-to-own (RTO) retailer Aaron’s Inc. proudly claims on its website that over 55 million North American households swear by its name. But the company can now safely transfer one Casper, Wyoming couple out of its swear-by-us list to the swear-at-us list. Because Crystal and Brian Byrd are now suing the Atlanta-based firm for snooping on them using a “device and/or software” called PC Rental Agent that came pre-installed on the Dell Inspiron notebook they rented in 2010. Hit the jump for more.
On the face of it, PC Rental Agent is a product designed to help companies like Aaron’s monitor their machines and lock out non-paying customers. The Byrds claim that PC Rental Agent has a lot of undisclosed features that the company has been using to furtively “gather, intercept, transmit and store private electronic information and communications from RTO customers, including but not limited to photographs, screen shots and keystrokes.” This information is said to be housed on a central server belonging to DesignWare - the company behind PC Rental Agent.
How did they find out?
Aaron’s failure to properly record a payment made by the Byrds in October, 2010 lead to a company rep visiting the couple’s house to repossess their rented Dell Inspiron on Dec 22. The Byrds’ surprise guest, store manager Christopher Mendoza, showed them a remotely obtained photo of Brian Byrd using the computer “to further support his attempts to collect the Byrd computer.” A shocked Brian Byrd confronted Mendoza about how the company had managed to obtain the photograph. The store manager, however, evaded the question and left the house after being convinced that the Byrd’s had not defaulted on their lease agreement. Brian Byrd soon contacted law enforcement, an investigation followed, and the rest is a lawsuit.
What do they want?
In a class action complaint filed with the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania Tuesday, the Byrds requested the court to grant an order certifying their suit a class action. They are further seeking injunctive relief and damages against Aaron’s.
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theimmortalmoo
May 09, 2011 at 11:27am
I got a wii/TV/PS3 through them, If I got a laptop I would wipe and put Linux on it.
jgrimoldy
May 04, 2011 at 3:56pm
RTO places are almost as bad as PayDay Loan places... Preying on the most vulnerable...
The only time that using an RTO makes sense is when your intention is to furnish a home for a few months. In that case, it's cheaper than buying, and much of the headache is removed.
To use an RTO to actually Rent to Own is a fundamental economic mistake. Suck it up, buttercup, live on milk-crates for a few months while you save the money to BUY decent things outright.
It's like entering into a car lease with the full intention to pursue the end-of-lease buyout option. It's as if you're looking for the MOST EXPENSIVE WAY POSSIBLE to buy a car...
fellowleo
May 04, 2011 at 2:33pm
On Aaron's web site they claim that the software was installed and used by their independent franchise owner and that Aaron themselves do not do any business with PC Rental Agent.
In other words....
Aarons Inc.: "Hey Aaron's of Casper, Wyoming. We got this complaint, can you come up to the front of the bus for a bit?"
Aaron's of Casper, Wyoming: "Yea sure! What can I do fo... Ahhhh........!"
germanogre
May 04, 2011 at 9:56am
Anyone remember the fiasco over a laptop loaned to a student by a school?
A teacher activated the webcam and watched the student at his home. He/she was
convinced he was popping pills; he claims they were Jujubes. School tried to suspend
him, parents filed charges. The school and the teacher got off with NO PUNISHMENT!
p47riot
May 04, 2011 at 8:37am
How unbelievably stupid could a company be? If this is true, then they've doomed themselves. Hard to believe that any corporation who handles leases and rental agreements for a living did not have a legal advisor warning them that this could potentially land them in bad juju. If the class-action suit doesn't bankrupt them, the loss of business nationwide will once this gets out.
jgrimoldy
May 04, 2011 at 9:22am
Unless these little intrusions are spelled out in the Rental Agreement (and they might as well be, because nobody reads those either), this will not end well for Aaron's. I'm particularly disturbed by the photo. What'd they do, take a picture of him with the built-in camera? YIKES!
If a friend/relative ever did an RTO on a computer, I would insist that I have the opportunity to reload their OS without any sort of spyware...
EDIT: 'Just read the leagal complaint that was filed. As part of the complaint, a copy of the rental/lease contract is attached. Nothing is mentioned about any of this monitoring. On top of that lunacy, RTO companies ABSOLUTELY REAM their customers. They had a $900 buyout option at the end of their $600 lease. They were paying $130/month for this thing. They could get a 4-5 year old laptop for about $250 which would be more than adequate for surfing the web and creating/editing documents...
Wingzero_x
May 04, 2011 at 6:53pm
That's the problem with the types of people that go to places like this. Not only do they want everything now, they believe they are somehow entitled. And I may be out of line here, but there is only one reason why somebody would choose to go this route, verses saving, or even putting it on a credit card. In that they have a history of not paying their bills, or being disciplined enough to save.
Peanut Fox
May 04, 2011 at 12:48pm
You can get new laptops that offer that kind of power for that much if you know where to look.
Wingzero_x
May 04, 2011 at 6:58pm
Very true. I just picked up a new Acer laptop, with AMD's new APU(E350) for $350, and its way more powerful than the crap that you'll find at any of these RTO places!
