Rise Credit Misleading payment plan

Your loan or line of credit will be setup to be paid back over time.  For installment loans, depending on your state of residence, you will be able to select the number of payments based on your amount and pay frequency.  The above highlighted statement comes from the website you provided.  I suppose the answer to whether you were ripped off or not, depends on your understanding of what you were offered.  Now, if you interpreted $178/pay period as $178/month....?  However, it seems pretty clear based on the website that payments are based on how often you're paid.

The other thing you need to consider is what the interest rate on what you're paying back is/was.  If you were paying back to a collection agency, then you may wish to look at the interest rate they were getting from you compared to what this company is doing.  It's possible you're now paying a much lower interest rate which would eventually reduce the overall amount you would have paid.  Hard money guys like this, will charge you less in interest than a collection agency, which can use rates closer to that of a pay day loan place or pawn shop.

There is not enough information here to determine the answer to your question.  Should you have looked at any agreement before signing?  Always when it comes to money.  However, if the new loan reduces the overall amount you would have paid, then it isn't necessarily a rip off - it's just pretty painful right now.