Reply #38: They lie pretty blatantly about the terms.

[LeftyMom]

I posted a few years back about a customer who came into the (real, not RTO) electronics shop I was working at comparison shopping the camcorder she was about to own. The rent to own shop had told her it was worth $800, and that after all the payments it was going to cost her about $1200.

We had that exact model on sale for $269 every few weeks, it was $299 when not on sale. It was the cheapest model we sold at the time, and they were going to charge her as much as our most expensive model ran.

Back then we still did layaway, so we found her a slightly nicer model that actually did what she wanted, and she took it home after a month of prompt weekly payments. She was young and I had a feeling it was the first nice thing she'd ever bought for herself, she looked really proud when she made the final payment and took it home. I was pretty proud of her, even though she was a complete stranger really, for saving up and making an informed buying decision rather than getting suckered in by sketchy salespeople and a desire for instant gratification.

I do think rental shops would be useful if they were geared toward people who only need an item for a vacation or party or something, rather than for overcharging those who can least afford to pay extra for things.