Abuses From Aaron Rents

Folks, it is unfathomable to me why anyone - a customer of Aaron Rents in this case - to put up with any kind of abusive speech from it's employees either calling you on the phone, or visiting you at your doorstep. Being late on a payment does not give a company the right to demoralize you, insult you on the phone, or worse, threaten you in person.

I was once customer of Aaron Rents. I rented-to-own a large-screen TV that - ended up burning up into a small, dense piece of plastic when my house burned down. Ummm, I had just gotten done paying that TV off when that happened, not a pleasant experience, but then again, a house fire is probably not most people's first choice of a great time.

Anyway, I was late several times on payments. I unabashedly admit this. Paychecks didn't always coincide with payment dates. I always made the payment - within 5 days of due date - but certainly not all of my payments were on time.

One day I was working on my yard in front of my house. An Aaron Rents truck pulled up. A young guy - very large man though - walked up to me, I knew this guy and he knew me. He actually got in my face and demanded the payment right then and there or he was going to take the TV, right then and there.

I don't mean in a civil way, either, he was posturing as if he were going to hurt me if I didn't succumb to his agreement.

I stood up, I'm no small man myself, got right back in his face and informed him if he didn't back down, get OFF of my property, I was going to defend myself and the outcome would not be pretty, and THEN I would be calling the police. I further informed him about the FACT that he's ON - MY - PROPERTY - THREATENING me, ON MY PROPERTY.

I don't take such things lightly. I don't care how big a man is, I am not going to have a person talking to me like that - on my property. He's lucky I didn't thrust my right foot into his crotch, as I had determined to do if he had further forced himself upon me.

Let me tell you something straight, right here and now: They CANNOT just walk into your house and take whatever you're renting from you!! If you give them permission, of course, but if you don't, they are engaging in an act of burglarly and criminal trespassing!! Now, if you WANT them to take the thing away, fine, let them go in there and get it. If you are going to pay the bill, tell those dudes to take a hike!!

If they don't leave, CALL THE POLICE!!! You are NOT a criminal!! It is not a crime to owe money. It is a CIVIL problem, if it comes to that, it MUST be taken up in the courts. PERIOD. There is no state in the Union that has a provision that says some thuggish looking dudes from a rental company can come and harass you, threaten you and force themselves into your house to get their rental unit. Police can't force that upon you, either.

I called the manager of that store after I told that FREAK to get OFF of my property before I HURT him and informed him of his employee's actions and my intended reaction if they EVER come back to my house and act like THAT again. He took me seriously - I was QUITE serious - those guys never showed up again.

Now, did it end there? No. In a subsequent month, I was a few days late - 2 days I think I remember, and some person from that store called and started verbally abusing me on the phone. I hung up on that person and went down to the store. I would like to SEE these people talking to me like that TO MY FACE. No-one there took credit for the call, of course, the manager - of whom I was on a first-name basis at this point - Brian - didn't specifically condone that kind of call, either, but who knows if he was saying something different when I left. The end of the story? I paid every payment, owned the TV - and lost it to flames.

Well, that wasn't Aaron's fault and certainly I didn't blame them for that.

I write this stuff for the Googlers in the world that are looking for such information. I was reading a story about RAC - Rent A Center and then found more about all of the rental centers. I would NEVER put up with the abuse I read about in the RAC story, which was far worse than what I reported about my experience with Aaron Rents.

Obnoxiously Slow

I have decided to alter my plans a bit on the east side of the property. I originally wanted it lined with evergreens - but as in their name, they take forever to actually grow!!! I've had a small one in the ground for a year now and that thing has barely grown at all - that with frequent waterings and Miraclo Gro applications.

The nursery that is going out of business where I bought the Sissoo's has an ad still up on Craigslist saying that they are doing the last few weeks of the sale and then - bye bye. They are practically giving these trees away now. I can plant 7 or more of those trees over there and eventually this place will look like a Sissoo tree farm. Excepting I'll be loving it, of course, provided I'm still living here.

My battles to keep tenants in this place are seemingly never-ending. The economy is dictating people moving around for various reasons - jobs/family/whatever the case may be. I have to be able to deal with this factor, yes, but - it gets old. A woman just called and wanted me to hold the room for 2 months by giving me a deposit. Yeah, right - give me a deposit equal to the 2 months - non-refundable, lol. No, I was outside at the BBQ doing the chicken wings and this person left a message. I will not be holding a room for 2 months for anyone. I need the money NOW.

The Taco Bell kid - well he's 24 years old but still - is allegedly going to call me back tomorrow about the room that is currently occupied by the saleslady who is leaving on Tuesday. I tell them all now that I do not hold rooms for anyone unless a non-refundable deposit is given. Not applicable to the 2-month people. I sometimes have to learn the hard way, but usually I DO end up learning.

It's warm outside - again - and I am not doing anything else out there until the sun starts going down later today. The dogs have already been laying in the grass - so far so good. The hummingbirds are relentlessly feeding at the feeder - it's fun to watch them coming and going like giant bees they move so fast!

Sunday

I would really like to do another neighborhood type of BBQ/party. The last one drew a large number of people from around the community and it was a good time. Some people just wanted to complain about everything under the sun - granted. There are always people like that, they must be bored, lonely - whatever in life because there are a lot of better things I can think of to do than sit around whining all day long. It serves no purpose. To MAKE it serve a purpose, go out and DO something about that of which you are complaining about.

It is still too hot, IMO, to do any kind of party like that. It is still getting very warm during the afternoons in the direct sunlight and I think something like that is better off waiting. I will say that I have a freezer full of chicken and beef - and brats now that I think about it - Fry's was getting rid of a bunch of packages of it for cheap a while back cause the due date was 2 days off - I bought all of them and dumped them into my freezer.

Brats are VERY popular at BBQ's, I have learned. They aren't cheap. Up to $6 for a 5-brat package. Other than that great sale I found, the lowest I ever see them on sale is $2.50 per package. Not bad, but - still pretty pricey considering the amount of meat you are getting. Which, in turn, is why I suppose they're so popular - they have a wonderful flavor.

I just got done doing a Miracle Gro nutrient spray on all of the plants on my property. That stuff seems to really make plants grow like crazy. I also took down the temp fencing I had around the patch of grass. See what happens. The grass is tall and already needs cutting, actually. I know the dogs are going to go out there and lay down on it, again, see how that grass handles it. I MAY go out there and continue on with the rock shovelling ceremonies today - but - I am going to start cleaning house here in a few minutes which is going to take precedence for a couple of hours worth anyway.

Plus I want to watch NFL - whatever is showing - today as well. I'm going to try the new carpet cleaning machine also, see if it stands up to the rave reviews it has received by SO many people. HUNDREDS of them.

Anna's Linens has some sort of drapes on sale and I would like to try that instead of the vertical blinds I have up there. They pretty much got destroyed - almost half the slats are gone. The reason is that the doggy door used to be in the sliding glass door where this setup is at. The dogs going in and out - well it's just plastic stuff, it can't really take a lot of abuse like that. I could replace the vertical blinds with a new set, but I sort of like the idea of trying out some drapes there and see how it looks. There IS no doggy door there now, so that problem is eliminated.

Well now that I think about it, I have a rather ambiitous list of things I would like to get done today - I best git to gitting to it!

ben