Aaron's Sales And Lease Ex-Employee tells inside workings Houston Texas

I was recently employed by aaron's for about 2 years. I have read all the other reports here and understand how and why most of these complaints are here.

#1 Aarons promotes from within and fast tracks most employees for management positions. This translates to a steady stream of new faces at stores. A customer can count on dealing with LOTS of new employees as well as experienced employees from oth er stores who are not familiar with a given store established customers.

#2 Sales employees are taught to SELL. They have strict quotas and are routinely told they will be fired if qoutos are not met. Also because Aarons sells a wide selection of furniture electronics and aplliances most sales people do not have the experience to have a full understanding of all the produsts they sell. Sales people are also routinely given wrong or incorrect info about the products they sell, often being told that one product can do the same as others( ie. all computers they sell can read and burn dvds) so sometimes the sales people give customers false info because they themselves are given false info.

#3 employees the work collections for Aarons are under extreme stress at all times. They always have to be on the lookout for customers that are trying to steal and are trained to assume the worst. Higher management trains to be considerate and understanding of customers situations, but employees are punished for being too nice to customers. I personaly have been punished for granting permission for a customer to pay 19 days late because her son died and she had to pay funeral expenses. I personaly visited her house on a day that family was there to grieve and therefor knew she was being truthful. this company does try to help customers obtain ownership, but emloyees are very misled about what they are allowed to do. Most management is very hipocritical and only concerned about bottom line profit and how big their bonus checks can get.the only motivation offered is to keep your job.

For those who may not realize..employees are required to work at least 50 hours a week..often much more. i often worked 55-60 hours per week. add 1 hour lunchs and an hour or so communte every day, and you can see why almost all employees of this company are under 35. It doesn't take long to burn out .

So, as an overall response to complaints I've read here, Be aware of the contracts you are signing. Ask questions..talk to the managers that go over the paperwork. Also, most complaints should be directed at the store amnager. They are the ones who are resposible for approving everything that happens there. Whether that is allowing service to be performed or allowing a delivery to be made or allowing merchandise to be repo'd. From what i've seen, most employees want to do the right thing but are limited in the actions they are allowed to take.

C
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.