Apr
06
2008

Rent-A-Center? More like Rent-Away-Your-Soul

My youngest son is spending his spring break with me this week. As with most 16 years old, he’s big into Xbox 360 games. Somehow I didn’t think he would enjoy an evening flipping coins into a beer mug. So in preparation for his visit, I found that Rent-A-Center (RAC) had the best price for a weekly rental on Xbox and stopped there on Thursday to get a game system.

I’ve rented movies. I’ve rented cars. So I expected to fill out a little paperwork. After all, these companies have to protect their investments. Yet, I didn’t expect the “bloody Spanish Inquisition” of forms and questions when I walked into RAC that evening. (“Nobody expects The Spanish Inquisition!”) While the personnel was friendly and patience, I felt I was dealing with a cross between a used car salesman and a crooked lawyer. They wanted my salary, work history, my social security number, my mortgage company’s phone number; contact info on my parents, my neighbors, and my friends; the names of my pets – dead and alive, my favorite color, my blood type, and whether I was wearing clean underwear or not.

I couldn’t give them any info on my deceased parents except to tell them that RAC would need an Ouija board for any contact. As for the Social Security request, well, that is a big NO-NO especially in this day of identity theft. Not a day goes by that you don’t hear of some trusted agency losing a vital laptop with everyone’s personal information; or of a store that had it’s database hacked exposing all of its customers’ credit card data.

You do know that your Social Security (SS) is like your bank account’s PIN number? How easily do you give your PIN number out? Because of this dangerous threat to your financial safety, you are NOT legally required to give out your SS number. More importantly, companies who aren’t dealing directly with your income in some way, are NOT suppose to use your number for identification or tracking purposes. This includes your doctor, your auto insurance company, your grocery store, your mechanic and your brother-in-law. I got around RAC’s system by verbally telling my number to store clerk. I watched him type it in, verified what he needed, and then had him back completely out of his screens to remove any trace of my number.

An hour later, after they spoke with my children and my friends, called my work and my mortgage company, and verified my blood and urine samples, I was about to get an X-Box 360. ‘About to get’ because the advertised sales on the store’s placecard suddenly didn’t mean a thing. According to the sales clerk, the one week rental was now a two week minimum. The game and memory card listed were no longer part of the rental. “That’s a little like false advertising, isn’t it?” I asked. He just sheepishly grinned and suggested that we could do a weekly rental. After all of this hassle, I got the game system home to find an interface cable missing for the second controller. ::: sigh :::

This entire process would make for a great, frustrating video game. You too can play “Rent-A-Product” where you get to prove your qualifications without losing your soul! This game is more enjoyable if you are already bald — less hair to pull out, don’t you know ….

Popularity: 31% [?]

My youngest son is spending his spring break with me this week. As with most 16 years old, he’s big into Xbox 360 games. Somehow I didn’t think he would enjoy an evening flipping coins into a beer mug. So in preparation for his visit, I found that Rent-A-Center (RAC) had the best price for a weekly rental on Xbox and stopped there on Thursday to get a game system.

I’ve rented movies. I’ve rented cars. So I expected to fill out a little paperwork. After all, these companies have to protect their investments. Yet, I didn’t expect the “bloody Spanish Inquisition” of forms and questions when I walked into RAC that evening. (“Nobody expects The Spanish Inquisition!”) While the personnel was friendly and patience, I felt I was dealing with a cross between a used car salesman and a crooked lawyer. They wanted my salary, work history, my social security number, my mortgage company’s phone number; contact info on my parents, my neighbors, and my friends; the names of my pets – dead and alive, my favorite color, my blood type, and whether I was wearing clean underwear or not.

I couldn’t give them any info on my deceased parents except to tell them that RAC would need an Ouija board for any contact. As for the Social Security request, well, that is a big NO-NO especially in this day of identity theft. Not a day goes by that you don’t hear of some trusted agency losing a vital laptop with everyone’s personal information; or of a store that had it’s database hacked exposing all of its customers’ credit card data.

You do know that your Social Security (SS) is like your bank account’s PIN number? How easily do you give your PIN number out? Because of this dangerous threat to your financial safety, you are NOT legally required to give out your SS number. More importantly, companies who aren’t dealing directly with your income in some way, are NOT suppose to use your number for identification or tracking purposes. This includes your doctor, your auto insurance company, your grocery store, your mechanic and your brother-in-law. I got around RAC’s system by verbally telling my number to store clerk. I watched him type it in, verified what he needed, and then had him back completely out of his screens to remove any trace of my number.

An hour later, after they spoke with my children and my friends, called my work and my mortgage company, and verified my blood and urine samples, I was about to get an X-Box 360. ‘About to get’ because the advertised sales on the store’s placecard suddenly didn’t mean a thing. According to the sales clerk, the one week rental was now a two week minimum. The game and memory card listed were no longer part of the rental. “That’s a little like false advertising, isn’t it?” I asked. He just sheepishly grinned and suggested that we could do a weekly rental. After all of this hassle, I got the game system home to find an interface cable missing for the second controller. ::: sigh :::

This entire process would make for a great, frustrating video game. You too can play “Rent-A-Product” where you get to prove your qualifications without losing your soul! This game is more enjoyable if you are already bald — less hair to pull out, don’t you know ….

Popularity: 31% [?]

Written by sprezzaturon in: |

156 Comments »

« Older Comments
Newer Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a Reply

CAPTCHA Image
*

Powered by WordPress. Theme: TheBuckmaker. Schufa KSV, How To

Bad Behavior has blocked 147 access attempts in the last 7 days.