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Report: #215618

Complaint Review: Rent-A-Center - AStoria New York

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  • Updated:
  • Reported By: New York New York
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  • Rent-A-Center 32-75 STEINWAY ST AStoria, New York U.S.A.

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***Inappropriate Behavior and poor business practices***

On Saturday October 7th 2006, my daughter and her husband approached a Rent-A-Center store located at 32-75 STEINWAY ST ASTORIA, NY 11103 with the intention of renting some furniture for their new apartment in Woodside, NY. My daughter has recently moved into New York where my son-in-law is starting a new career opportunity. She is 6 months pregnant.

On that particular day, during their visit to the store, she asked one of the store employees to allow her to use their public restroom. The employee identified himself as "judd" (we are not sure of the correct spelling) and asked her to follow him into the store's storage room to show her their employee-only bathroom. She followed him while her husband continued shopping at the store. When my daughter finished her business in the bathroom, she opened the door with the intention of exiting and found Mr. "judd" outside the door. He then proceeded to make several comments and propositions of sexual-nature and told my daughter that "he had this thing for pregnant women" and that "what was she doing with a man like her husband because she was too pretty", he also offered her directly to engage into sexual contact at that exact time. My daughter threatened him with screaming and he then told her that he was joking, that it was a big mistake and please not to say anything to the manager because he could lose his job. He then received a phone call on his cell phone and moved away from her (although he never made actual physical contact with her, he was at all times blocking her only exit way back to the store). In an obvious shock, my daughter ran back to the store and asked her husband to leave immediately.

She did not say anything to him until they finally got back to their house. My son-in-law called me immediately asking for advice before doing something crazy, I told him that I would contact the store manager at once. I did that around noon time. An individual that picked up the call (I believe that he said something like "Luis" when he picked up the phone but I am not sure about this) transferred me to another male employee that refused to give me his name. At the beginning of our conversation he said he was the store manager but upon listening to the allegations he told me that the manager wasn't there and that he would have him call me back later on. I refused to get off the phone and told him that I was going to call the police. He got very nasty and told me to do "whatever you have to do" and that he didn't believe the accusation because "judd" was his "homeboy" and that "he wouldn't do that". I asked him to provide me with his supervisor's contact information and he refused to do that. I never received a call back from the "store manager" or from anyone. I did call back twice that Saturday and after asking me "what was this in reference to..." they told me that the store manager wasn't available.

At one point, an employee gave me RAC's main 800 number which directs you to "customer service". I was put on hold for a long time every time I called this number, and I left my contact information twice but did not receive a call back (a recorded message said that someone would get back to me within 2 hours). I went to our local police precinct with my daughter and my son-in-law and although they allowed us to file a complaint, they didn't give us much hope because as per the officer..."this type of situations always turn to one person's word against another". On Monday the 9th and Tuesday the 10th, I left several messages on the 800 number that I was provided with with no luck. Finally on Wednesday the 11th I got thru and spoke with a customer service rep. He said that they "don't take that type of complaints on that line and that he couldn't even help me because I wasn't a RAC's customer" When I asked him for guidance including phone numbers to call or names of people I could talk to he said that RAC "does not publish or allow the distribution of their corporate offices numbers" I asked him to put his supervisor on the phone and he then transfer me back into their endless voicemail loop.

As a father, I'm extremely aggravated by this situation. In the meantime, I have a pregnant daughter that has suffered from what I consider to be sexual harassment and apparently NOBODY can do anything to help??? We have not heard back from the police yet. My son-in-law spoke with couple of attorneys in the area and he has appointments set for next week. The attorneys told him that RAC has hundreds if not thousands of complaints of all kind but that they always get away one way or the other and that their personnel is trained to think that they are "above the law" at all times

Now...-What is going to happen when somebody else goes through the same situation as my daughter???? (perhaps it has already happen several times) -What if this "judd" gentleman is some kind of sexual predator and in a future date he actually tries to rape someone??? will then somebody help???

-Isn't RAC responsible for their employee's behavior as a company??? -Why are they allowed to have this type of shady business practices, specially when dealing with a critical and potentially criminal situation like this???
help anyone???

A desperate father in New York

George
New York, New York
U.S.A.

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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 10/13/2006 02:05 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/rent-a-center/astoria-new-york-11103/rent-a-center-astoria-store-manager-employee-named-judd-ripoff-sexual-harassment-poor-215618. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
11Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#11 Consumer Comment

Responding to D - _______, from North Carolina

AUTHOR: Saoul - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, November 17, 2006

George-

You did the right thing man don't listen to this D - _______ guy. if you do a search on this website this guy has posted rebuttals and smart comments on almost every ripoff report related to rent a center.

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#10 UPDATE Employee

Question about a response

AUTHOR: D - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, November 16, 2006

I currently work in a RAC store in North Carolina, so I personally do not have anything to do with the stores in New York. I totally agree that if this did happen, this should've NOT happen & if I was in this situation, I would try to get in touch with whoever I could in the upper management level and police as well.

George, one thing I do not understand is after your original complaint, why did you respond with an update looking like you were a different reader with the following:

Update Submitted by the original author
Submitted: 10/13/2006 2:46:01 PM Modified: 10/13/2006 2:46:01 PM

EASY ANSWER
I'm very sorry to read this. I don't know what I'd do if this happens to me. My advice? Go to your local State Attorney's office and file a direct complaint. Lawyers might take your money away. Try not to deal with the store anymore because they might make something up against you.

Geroge - New York, New York
U.S.A.
________________________________________________

George, even though the action from that particular employee is unacceptable, this is not a practice that RAC approves of. I just hope the above posted is some sort of computer glitch and that you are NOT trying to stir up something against an RAC store because of something else.

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#9 UPDATE EX-employee responds

I know exactly what you are going through!

AUTHOR: Michelle - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, October 19, 2006

George,

On behave of the company I USED to work for, I will apologize. Apologize for there outright disrespect and for pushing this aside as they do all the time. I have absolutely no connection with RAC anymore and I am very happy with this decision. I am glad that you have reached out to me as well. As you can see from my own report, I have dealt with this type of harrassment and I was an employee there. I am glad to hear that they are doing an investigation for you, but from prior experience, the investigation is bogus. They say that they are just to shut people up and most times it works.

If your daughter did not become a customer, I am happy. I would not steer you the wrong way and tell you to drop it, but in my own situation, I came up with nothing. The head office didn't even call me back after my supposed investigation took place. I think that you should go full force with this and do whatever is in your power to prove your point!!! They should pay for what they do and that person should no longer work for the company. The problem is, like I said in my report, that they hire trash, so they treat their customers like trash. It is a big joke there and most are there to get a paycheck and could care less that the customers feel like garbage.

I wish you all the best of luck with everything you are doing. If I can do anything to help you then just ask, if you go on my report, they will send me an email and I wil gladly get back to you. I hope your daughter doesn't let this keep her up at night. Im sure she's above this trash at RAC!!!

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#8 Consumer Comment

That Is So Great!

AUTHOR: Chris - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Please let us know what happens, and whether or not this "Judd" lowlife has a record, etc.

I'm quite certain that RAC has so many unanswered complaints because they don't think their type of clientele (young, poor or inexperienced) would know how to pursue anything that is done to them anyway...whether it's collection practices, harassment or sexual misconduct.

Why anyone would ever rent stuff is beyond me anyway! You're spending SO much more than if you just bought it outright.

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#7 Author of original report

UPDATE

AUTHOR: Geroge - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Wednesday, October 18, 2006

In an unexpected turn of events, RAC Corporate offices contacted me via email two days ago and informed me that they are conducting their own internal investigation. They have involved their Human Resources Department as well as their regional manager office. Also, the NYPD has finally assigned a detective to this case. He interviewed my daughter yesterday and he will be conducting a full-scale investigation on this matter. I will keep anyone posted with future events.

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#6 Author of original report

UPDATE

AUTHOR: Geroge - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Wednesday, October 18, 2006

In an unexpected turn of events, RAC Corporate offices contacted me via email two days ago and informed me that they are conducting their own internal investigation. They have involved their Human Resources Department as well as their regional manager office. Also, the NYPD has finally assigned a detective to this case. He interviewed my daughter yesterday and he will be conducting a full-scale investigation on this matter. I will keep anyone posted with future events.

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#5 Author of original report

UPDATE

AUTHOR: Geroge - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Wednesday, October 18, 2006

In an unexpected turn of events, RAC Corporate offices contacted me via email two days ago and informed me that they are conducting their own internal investigation. They have involved their Human Resources Department as well as their regional manager office. Also, the NYPD has finally assigned a detective to this case. He interviewed my daughter yesterday and he will be conducting a full-scale investigation on this matter. I will keep anyone posted with future events.

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#4 Consumer Suggestion

Take them to Court

AUTHOR: Marla - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, October 14, 2006

I'm a retired attorney. It is sexual harassment and both the store and the company are liable for it. There are many charges that I can think of, including assault, failure to respond or correct a potential criminal misconduct, negligent hiring or even harboring a criminal. Your daughter can also claim pain and suffering particularly during her condition.

Remember that companies like RAC usually record their phone conversations for quality purposes and have security cameras on the store, so you should be able to ask for both. The fact that you are not an existing customer should not prevent you from filing a complaint.

My guess is that their employees are intentionally trained to handle situations like this by ignoring them and they probably think their low-income clientele will not pursue legal action.

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#3 Consumer Suggestion

I can't believe this

AUTHOR: Rori - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, October 13, 2006

THIS COMPANY IS OUT OF CONTROL AND SOMEBODY NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. MY GIRLFRIEND USED TO WORK AT ONE OF THEIR STORES HERE IN OFRT LAUDERDALE AND THEY HAD STUFF LIKE THAT HAPPENING ALL THE TIME. BUDDY YOU SHOULD GO TO A TV STATION WITH THIS STORY.

RORI

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#2 Author of original report

EASY ANSWER

AUTHOR: Geroge - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, October 13, 2006

I'm very sorry to read this. I don't know what I'd do if this happens to me. My advice? Go to your local State Attorney's office and file a direct complaint. Lawyers might take your money away. Try not to deal with the store anymore because they might make something up against you.

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#1 Author of original report

EASY ANSWER

AUTHOR: Geroge - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, October 13, 2006

I'm very sorry to read this. I don't know what I'd do if this happens to me. My advice? Go to your local State Attorney's office and file a direct complaint. Lawyers might take your money away. Try not to deal with the store anymore because they might make something up against you.

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