Aaron's Sales And Lease Ownership Violation of verbal agreement and overall treatment by store manager Austin Texas

I have never done anything of this nature before, so I have no clue about the effectiveness your website, but I guess we'll see. I also plan on filing a report with the Better Business Bureau here in Austin TX and possibly with the state Attorney General's Office. It will be interesting, to say the least, where this is going to lead. All I know is I cannot sit idly by while the manager of a local store in a national company is allowed to continue to operate in the manner he has chosen.

First of all, I am not a "credit criminal". I needed a computer and later some bedroom furniture, and the only way I could get either was to rely on a local rent-to-own company. I have stage 4 cancer and am disabled, have acquired a few unpaid medical expenses in the past 2 years and 8 months, and have very limited income due to my inability to work full-time anymore.

I paid down my computer to where I only owed 2.5 more payment. In the course of doing so, I "rented to own" a bedroom set from Aaron's. In both agreements with the store, I dealt primarily with John, the manager. I bought the bedroom set, leaving the first month's rent payment, after a discussion with John that the purchase would include Aaron's delivering and handling every aspect of setting up the bed.

When the furniture arrived, I was told by Joe, the person apparently in charge of delivery, that the bed required 2 bolts which they had not brought, therefore they were unable at the time to attach the bed to my generic frame. Joe called John on his cell phone to tell him that bolts would need to be brought out, and this is what John said (very clearly due to the loudness of his voice on the cell phone and easily understood by me), "tell the f***er that we're not giving him any f***ing bolts, he needs to get them himself and install the f***ing bed". I told Joe that I heard what John said, and Joe apologized and said he would bring the bolts by later in the day and hook the bed headboard to my frame on his own. He did that. Yay Joe. Screw John.

My payment on the bedroom set is $80 a month for 2 years. My payment on the computer is $179 a month for 1 year. I have made both payments on time or within 4 days of the due dates every single month. However, when Nov. 1, 2008 came, I had been doing through a period of being extremely ill due to chemotherapy, had to pay a few extra medical bills in order to literally save my life, and was having a rare financial crisis.

I called Aaron's to see if they would defer the computer payment (due on the 1st) since I was a good customer and only had 2.5 payments remaining. I talked to James this time. James said he talked to Joe, the manager, and got permission for me to write a hold check dated 11-25 (a date I was going to receive an extra few dollars) for $179. I did so, and James came to my home and picked up the check. While here, he told me that I needed to make the smaller payment ($80) on time (Nov. 15), and I agreed to do so. It was the larger computer payment that was the issue, so I agreed to his terms in order to defer the $179 payment for 3 weeks.

I called today (Nov. 15) to make the $80 payment via my debit card. Marissa, who answered the phone, put me on hold after she asked if I'm paying on both accounts, and I told her about the agreement James made. Well, Joe got on the phone. He said I was in default on the computer payment, regardless of them having a post-dated check, and that he could not accept a payment for the bedroom set.

I told him that James said I could and that all I needed to do was to 1) make the bedroom set payment on time, and 2) make sure the check cleared on the 25th. Joe proceeded to tell me that James "works for me, and he had no right to tell you that", then added that I was taking him (Joe) for a fool if I thought it to be any differently. He told me I would be in default on the bedroom set if I didn't make the payment on the computer by having him tear up the check and taking both payments through my debit card. I could not afford to do so, but I also refuse to give up the stuff I've been diligently paying for, so I agreed to do it. I told him I do not trust him and that I wanted assurance that he would destroy the check I had written.

To put it nicely, Joe is a piece of sh*t. He's a liar. No other way to describe him. He has now bitten off more than he can chew, since I'm going to take this to any means I can in order to let the public and appropriate agencies know that he advocates deceptive sales practices. I'm starting here. I've always been one to believe in the adage "screw me once, shame on you...screw me twice, shame on me", and that's what he's done now.

After reading through many of the other complaints people have written here regarding Aaron's stores throughout the country over the last few years, I am now 100 percent convinced that the company has no public-relations or legal-aspect training programs for its managers or employees and has the attitude it can do pretty much as it wishes with customers who have no other choice in life than to deal with a rent-to-own company. I'm a human being, not a worthless bogue or a roach, and I deserve to be treated better than I have by the person running this store.

Now I guess we'll see where this goes, if anywhere.

Paul Austin, Texas
U.S.A.

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