Author Topic: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)  (Read 9372 times)

slugline

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This is more suited for the "shame" file. Customers should already be looking at rent-to-own as financially radioactive. Laws like this are just one more reason to stay away.

How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail

I'm a red panda

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2017, 08:46:38 AM »
I wish the people rent-to-own was targeted at knew that it was so toxic.

acroy

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2017, 09:23:00 AM »
Consumer beware!

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honeybbq

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2017, 10:16:46 AM »
Unbelievable how they use public services (police officers) as their own little army.

Police officers here won't even investigate actual petty thefts and break ins (like into vehicles). Sigh.

Chesleygirl

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2017, 01:22:45 PM »
I have known people who did rent-to-own. It seems like a raw deal, to me. It sounds like they also don't really explain the contract to consumers. And many consumers are ignorant about reading their contracts or don't understand the fine print.

It's probably better to buy some used furniture at the Salvation Army. They actually have a lot of nice stuff there, a little outdated but so what. There's no way I would ever rent furniture.

So, after reading that article, I am thinking, she would have been safer just buying the furniture and putting it on a credit card? The worst thing that could happen is, her credit report would get dinged if she missed payments. But there would be no risk of jail time.

Disgusting that businesses do this.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2017, 01:27:13 PM by Chesleygirl »

Chesleygirl

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2017, 01:28:04 PM »
Unbelievable how they use public services (police officers) as their own little army.

Police officers here won't even investigate actual petty thefts and break ins (like into vehicles). Sigh.

Same here. We were discouraged from even filing a police report in one instance. But they'll act instantly if it is a business that makes a complaint.

ritz

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2017, 02:41:02 PM »
So, after reading that article, I am thinking, she would have been safer just buying the furniture and putting it on a credit card? The worst thing that could happen is, her credit report would get dinged if she missed payments. But there would be no risk of jail time.

I would assume that these stores deal mainly with people that can't get credit cards, because why else would people rent furniture from them?

Chesleygirl

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2017, 06:27:48 PM »
So, after reading that article, I am thinking, she would have been safer just buying the furniture and putting it on a credit card? The worst thing that could happen is, her credit report would get dinged if she missed payments. But there would be no risk of jail time.

I would assume that these stores deal mainly with people that can't get credit cards, because why else would people rent furniture from them?

I guess that makes sense. It just seems they would need some kind of credit to be able to rent.

EricL

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2017, 10:44:28 PM »
I wonder if it's possible for Texas citizens to sue the rental industry for lost police man hours devoted to collecting private debts?

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libertarian4321

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #11 on: October 28, 2017, 01:41:33 AM »
Unbelievable how they use public services (police officers) as their own little army.

Police officers here won't even investigate actual petty thefts and break ins (like into vehicles). Sigh.

Same here. We were discouraged from even filing a police report in one instance. But they'll act instantly if it is a business that makes a complaint.

I think the reason for that is that the police know they have effectively ZERO chance of finding a criminal who does a smash and grab unless there is a witness.

But with people who don't pay their debts, it's easy to collar the perpetrator.

libertarian4321

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #12 on: October 28, 2017, 01:55:40 AM »
Someone "rents" a nearly $3,000 bedroom set?

WTF? 

I'm a multimillionaire, and my bedroom furniture probably cost half that- including the sheets and pillowcases.

I don't know what these people are thinking.

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #13 on: October 28, 2017, 05:04:05 AM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

runbikerun

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #14 on: October 28, 2017, 05:14:21 AM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

I'm trying to find an Ikea bedroom layout that comes close to this, and failing. It's possible to fit out an entire bedroom fairly well for a thousand, including lamps, sheets and the like.

boarder42

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #15 on: October 28, 2017, 05:45:24 AM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

You're a ridiculous spendy pants.

Kimera757

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #16 on: October 28, 2017, 08:04:47 AM »
Someone "rents" a nearly $3,000 bedroom set?

WTF? 

I'm a multimillionaire, and my bedroom furniture probably cost half that- including the sheets and pillowcases.

I don't know what these people are thinking.

Someone could spend $800 CAD, pre-tax, on a really fancypants mattress. It's memory foam or something. Plus a canopied bed is expensive. And then high thread count sheets...

Mustachians woudln't buy something like that, of course.

bobechs

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #17 on: October 28, 2017, 09:44:12 AM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

You're a ridiculous spendy pants.

And probably belong in jail.

In Texas, anyway.

libertarian4321

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #18 on: October 29, 2017, 05:31:40 AM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

Holy cow.  That's insane.

We just hooked together our two basic twin bed we had when we were single (23 years ago), bought simple mattresses (each to our own taste- mine firm, hers soft- $400 total- we replace them every 20 years or so), our end tables are auction chic (probably spent $40 for the two of them), I don't think we have a bureau (what is that, exactly?), our dresser was one we got at a garage sale and I refinished (total cost may $65).

Maybe that's why we are multimillionaires and this woman is going to prison because she can't pay for her fancy "rented" bedroom furniture?

Our stuff may not impress the neighbors, but it's for damned sure beats going to prison.

And yeah, we live in Texas. :)

Cranky

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #19 on: October 29, 2017, 06:43:22 AM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

I'm trying to find an Ikea bedroom layout that comes close to this, and failing. It's possible to fit out an entire bedroom fairly well for a thousand, including lamps, sheets and the like.

But you've got to have $1000, a truck to get it home (and an IKEA, for that matter.)

Long, long ago, we lived in a large and crummy apartment building in Miami. The rent was cheap, we were broke and frugal, my dh was a postdoc, and we had a new baby.

Many of our neighbors rented living room suites or washing machines from the Rent A Center place. They didn't have credit cards (and neither did we.) All you really needed to rent was a paystub - that's why the costs of renting are so high, they're renting to people with poor credit. Furniture got repo'd all the time.

Our neighbors thought we were a sorry couple because we didn't really have any furniture.

However, I was willing to sit on the floor because I knew that ultimately, I would be able to afford a couch, and I don't know that most of my neighbors had any longterm expectations that they would be better off.

Chesleygirl

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #20 on: October 29, 2017, 06:17:38 PM »
She should have gone to IKEA. It wouldn't have cost $3,000 for a bedroom set.  Some people furnish their entire home with second hand thrift store furniture. This seems to be an entitlement issue. But no, the police shouldn't be involved at all.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2017, 06:19:46 PM by Chesleygirl »

I'm a red panda

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #21 on: October 29, 2017, 07:47:24 PM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

Holy cow.  That's insane.

We just hooked together our two basic twin bed we had when we were single (23 years ago), bought simple mattresses (each to our own taste- mine firm, hers soft- $400 total- we replace them every 20 years or so), our end tables are auction chic (probably spent $40 for the two of them), I don't think we have a bureau (what is that, exactly?), our dresser was one we got at a garage sale and I refinished (total cost may $65).

Maybe that's why we are multimillionaires and this woman is going to prison because she can't pay for her fancy "rented" bedroom furniture?

Our stuff may not impress the neighbors, but it's for damned sure beats going to prison.

And yeah, we live in Texas. :)

I don't have an Ikea near me, and never have (though places I used to live in Texas now have them.)
I was thinking solid wood furniture.  I've never paid $3,000 for a set- and never would; but I've certainly seen plenty in that price range, and way higher.  I've seen beds alone go for that amount, I grew up in a house with Ethan Allen furniture, much of which is now more than 50 years old and in fabulous condition; cheap stuff doesn't usually do that.

Clearly, anyone shopping at a rent to own isn't making good financial decisions anyway.

My husband made our current bedroom set.  Wood isn't cheap though, so he added a piece a year until we had the full set.

slugline

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #22 on: October 30, 2017, 12:31:55 PM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

I'm trying to find an Ikea bedroom layout that comes close to this, and failing. It's possible to fit out an entire bedroom fairly well for a thousand, including lamps, sheets and the like.

But you've got to have $1000, a truck to get it home (and an IKEA, for that matter.)

Doesn't IKEA still offer delivery service? Even with the fees it's probably still much cheaper than fancypant-priced furniture.

Chesleygirl

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #23 on: October 30, 2017, 01:09:56 PM »
I think you can even order furniture off the IKEA website. You just need to build it yourself or find someone who can help with it. It's not the most sturdy furniture in the world, in my opinion. I have lots of IKEA stuff in my house. I would NOT recommend buying one of their sofas. Especially if you are taller than five foot three. A full sized adult is not going to be comfortable sitting on an IKEA sofa for more than ten minutes. People often don't realize this until they get home and spending considerable time sitting on the sofa.

Their bedroom furniture is okay. A whole lot cheaper than the three grand that this lady spent.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2017, 01:11:43 PM by Chesleygirl »

MgoSam

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #24 on: October 30, 2017, 01:31:42 PM »
I have to laugh whenever I hear of someone wanting all new furniture because "I just bought a house and want it to look nice."

The loveseat in my bedroom is one I got for free from a friend's boyfriend (he was moving in with my friend and she told him that his loveseat was not coming along) and my bed is one that I bought from a friend that was upgrading (mattress only 3 years old at the time!).

In my living room I have 3 couches that were sitting in my parent's basement collecting dust. They don't look all that great but for the grand price of FREE, I wasn't going to say no. My dinner table is something I found at a garage sale and my coffee table is  made out of pallets.

I want to get some new couches but will wait, first thing I think I will replace is my bedroom couch.

Travis

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #25 on: October 30, 2017, 02:14:36 PM »
I have to laugh whenever I hear of someone wanting all new furniture because "I just bought a house and want it to look nice."

The loveseat in my bedroom is one I got for free from a friend's boyfriend (he was moving in with my friend and she told him that his loveseat was not coming along) and my bed is one that I bought from a friend that was upgrading (mattress only 3 years old at the time!).

In my living room I have 3 couches that were sitting in my parent's basement collecting dust. They don't look all that great but for the grand price of FREE, I wasn't going to say no. My dinner table is something I found at a garage sale and my coffee table is  made out of pallets.

I want to get some new couches but will wait, first thing I think I will replace is my bedroom couch.

This was the first piece of advice I received after receiving my commission in the Army in 2003. A handful of us were in a meeting and the Major giving the brief basically said "you make a good living now. Don't go blow it all on a bedroom set that is going to get knocked around by movers every couple years."  Apparently he just ran into one of our peers who dropped $20k on furnishing his entire house (we were all 23 years old).  At the time our salary was around $30k/year.  DW and I kept our college beds and dressers until 2009, and our sofas (purchased by in-laws in 1981!) until 2012.

Chesleygirl

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #26 on: October 30, 2017, 04:13:10 PM »
I have to laugh whenever I hear of someone wanting all new furniture because "I just bought a house and want it to look nice."

The loveseat in my bedroom is one I got for free from a friend's boyfriend (he was moving in with my friend and she told him that his loveseat was not coming along) and my bed is one that I bought from a friend that was upgrading (mattress only 3 years old at the time!).

In my living room I have 3 couches that were sitting in my parent's basement collecting dust. They don't look all that great but for the grand price of FREE, I wasn't going to say no. My dinner table is something I found at a garage sale and my coffee table is  made out of pallets.

I want to get some new couches but will wait, first thing I think I will replace is my bedroom couch.

That's great, not everyone is blessed to have people in their life to give them free furniture. (Of course, that doesn't mean they should max out credit cards to buy brand new stuff at Haverty's either). 

When I saw the prices of sofas at major furniture retailers, I just said no thanks. $5,000 for one sofa? No way.

SavingIsForSuckers

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #27 on: October 30, 2017, 04:31:01 PM »
An oldie but a goodie: http://www.somethingawful.com/comedy-goldmine/stories-from-renttoown/1/

They need to make a TruTV series about Rent-a-Center employees just going out and Repo'ing TVs and furniture

Cranky

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #28 on: October 31, 2017, 12:00:27 PM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

I'm trying to find an Ikea bedroom layout that comes close to this, and failing. It's possible to fit out an entire bedroom fairly well for a thousand, including lamps, sheets and the like.

But you've got to have $1000, a truck to get it home (and an IKEA, for that matter.)

Doesn't IKEA still offer delivery service? Even with the fees it's probably still much cheaper than fancypant-priced furniture.

Sure. But unless you are pretty close to IKEA, it costs over $100 to have it delivered and they have terrible and unreliable delivery windows. (Let me tell you about the Thanksgiving when we had a lot of people over and no living room furniture.)

I quite like IKEA, but it's not always an option.

Chesleygirl

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #29 on: October 31, 2017, 12:09:44 PM »
Renting furniture wouldn't be an option for me. Even if no IKEA anywhere around.

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #30 on: October 31, 2017, 02:01:42 PM »
I have to laugh whenever I hear of someone wanting all new furniture because "I just bought a house and want it to look nice."

Me too, but generally for different reasons. I'm not a fan of rooms that look as though someone actually planned them in any recent or consistent way. I'm more comfortable in rooms that sort of develop over time.

It's kind of like when someone buys art specifically to go on a particular wall, and you can tell because of how it fits and perfectly harmonizes. My parents accidentally acquired a room that has that sort of thing in it. It came with the rest of the house that provided the view they wanted. But the house was so weird, and so modern-- I don't mean that in a nice way-- that they ended up having to pay people to de-McMansionize it a bit, in order to make it aesthetically tolerable. Sadly, they kept the offending piece of art and some of the furniture from that room.

Chesleygirl

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #31 on: October 31, 2017, 02:17:04 PM »
I decided on casual decor and ambience for my home. No crystal chandeliers or heavy drapery. I don't feel comfortable in those kinds of homes anyway. No offense to anyone who has a house like that, but it's not for me. I wanted an affordable home and a place where guests would feel at ease. And that meant I wound up spending a lot less money too.

I went in a super fancy home recently; it wasn't large but very formal, and they even had statues in their house. That creeps me out. To me, statues belong in a museum. Not something I'd put in a home.

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #32 on: October 31, 2017, 02:59:08 PM »
I wish the people rent-to-own was targeted at knew that it was so toxic.
Clearly they're targeting people who aren't all that smart:

- When Melinda Sandlin walked out of Discount Furniture in Austin in late 2014, she was sure the store had put her on a payment plan to buy a new bedroom suite worth $2,750 ... A year later, after realizing she had sent in more than $3,000 for her seven-piece set, she figured she was done.   Do you just "figure" you're done paying off a debt? 

- Otis Keels was arrested over a dispute involving a $1,320 set of custom wheels and tires he leased from Rent-N-Roll. Keels, a maintenance supervisor at an elementary school, spent three hours in jail after he was late on payments and did not return the rims. Who rents-to-own wheels?  Who needs wheels costing more than $1000?  Who needs custom wheels?

- She said a string of personal calamities — she lost her job, got evicted from her home and briefly went to jail for driving with an invalid license — overwhelmed her and she forgot to make payments after she put the furniture into storage.  Okay, going to jail for driving with an invalid license isn't a personal calamity; it's a stupid mistake.  Note that she was making payments on rented furniture that was in storage. 

- “Back in the ‘70s, you could rent a $10,000 compressor and never take it back and nothing would happen to you,” said Phillips, who is now retired. Is he pretending it was okay to steal rental tools then?

- Sandlin said she never would have signed the contract if she’d known she was actually doing business with a rent-to-own company.  This is stupid, but I blame part of it on the word "lease".  So many people don't know it's a synonym for "rent".

- “She's an educated woman. She wasn't going to sign anything she didn't understand,” Tovar said. Doubtful. 

And the rent-to-own place tries to pretend it's the victim:  “What are we supposed to do, just write off that each time a customer skips out on us?” said Darrell Perkins, store manager for Advantage Furniture in McLennan County. “Then people aren't making no money ‘cause you're giving all your merchandise away.” 

I'm a multimillionaire, and my bedroom furniture probably cost half that- including the sheets and pillowcases.
Yeah, and I've been sleeping for a decade and a half in a bed that originally belonged to my grandparents.  I know they bought it used at an auction.  And I'm rich!  What ARE they thinking? 

Just Joe

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #33 on: October 31, 2017, 03:16:29 PM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

I'm trying to find an Ikea bedroom layout that comes close to this, and failing. It's possible to fit out an entire bedroom fairly well for a thousand, including lamps, sheets and the like.

But you've got to have $1000, a truck to get it home (and an IKEA, for that matter.)

Doesn't IKEA still offer delivery service? Even with the fees it's probably still much cheaper than fancypant-priced furniture.

Sure. But unless you are pretty close to IKEA, it costs over $100 to have it delivered and they have terrible and unreliable delivery windows. (Let me tell you about the Thanksgiving when we had a lot of people over and no living room furniture.)

I quite like IKEA, but it's not always an option.

Got a friend with a pickup truck or a trailer? Make 'em dinner and pay for the fuel and/or slip him some cash.

We're living with old furniture from my grandparents' house. We've bought some newer pieces but paid cash when we could.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2017, 03:32:40 PM by Just Joe »

paddedhat

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #34 on: October 31, 2017, 05:43:52 PM »
Over the last twenty years the DW and I slowly dumped the college dorm/handed down from parents/Ikea look and started buying decent furniture. We stuck with local Amish made stuff, and it's been a good decision. Everything is solid oak, with dovetailed drawers and full extension bearing slides on the drawers. All of it would almost pass for new, and judging by very similar antique stuff sold around here, there is no reason to think it won't last for another century or two. Yea, a dresser is $600. It's also 200 lbs of hand built oak and it's built like a tank, so is it really more expensive than a $200 Ikea particle board piece that's falling apart in 10-15 years?

MgoSam

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #35 on: November 01, 2017, 09:44:58 AM »
I have to laugh whenever I hear of someone wanting all new furniture because "I just bought a house and want it to look nice."

The loveseat in my bedroom is one I got for free from a friend's boyfriend (he was moving in with my friend and she told him that his loveseat was not coming along) and my bed is one that I bought from a friend that was upgrading (mattress only 3 years old at the time!).

In my living room I have 3 couches that were sitting in my parent's basement collecting dust. They don't look all that great but for the grand price of FREE, I wasn't going to say no. My dinner table is something I found at a garage sale and my coffee table is  made out of pallets.

I want to get some new couches but will wait, first thing I think I will replace is my bedroom couch.

That's great, not everyone is blessed to have people in their life to give them free furniture. (Of course, that doesn't mean they should max out credit cards to buy brand new stuff at Haverty's either). 

When I saw the prices of sofas at major furniture retailers, I just said no thanks. $5,000 for one sofa? No way.

Of course, I hope I didn't come across as expecting everyone to have friends and family with furniture to give them. What I was trying to get across is that I could have gone ahead and just bought a new bed, living room furniture, and bedroom furniture but instead took stuff that other people didn't want. Had these opportunities not existed I would have scoured for deals and used furniture first before buying something new.

Chesleygirl

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #36 on: November 01, 2017, 10:06:00 AM »
Some people have more luck in that department. When I graduated from college, i saw my friends getting married and having wedding showers getting thousands of dollars worth in free home goods. The rest of us had to scrounge for what we needed, or hope to land a really good job to buy it all.

remizidae

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #37 on: November 01, 2017, 06:39:51 PM »
Thing is, though, buying any furniture requires money--or a credit card that isn't maxed out. Even if it's just $50-100 from Ikea or the thrift store, not everyone has that. Rent-to-own places are the only option if you have no money or credit card (maybe no bank account either).

Also consider that poor people may have very unstable lives. Someone mentioned a high-quality dresser that weighed TWO HUNDRED POUNDS. You couldn't pay me to take that! What would I do when I need to move in a few months or years? (I'm not even poor--just too cheap to pay movers.) And if you move often enough, $10 a week might well seem like a better deal than $100 for forever. Renting allows you to retain the option to return the furniture and be done with the debt, which is not an option if you pay with a credit card (assuming you have one).

So, I agree that rent-to-own places are a terrible financial idea. If you're *that* poor, the prudent thing to do is to go without a couch/mattress/TV/video games if you can't get them for free. But...have a little understanding, guys.

Indexer

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #38 on: November 02, 2017, 04:08:00 PM »
An oldie but a goodie: http://www.somethingawful.com/comedy-goldmine/stories-from-renttoown/1/

H O L Y  F... U D G E

My thoughts exactly! What is this? If it was a reality show I would watch it(I don't want reality shows). I can't stop reading this.

MrsPete

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #39 on: November 02, 2017, 07:48:25 PM »
Also consider that poor people may have very unstable lives. Someone mentioned a high-quality dresser that weighed TWO HUNDRED POUNDS. You couldn't pay me to take that! What would I do when I need to move in a few months or years?
I have a friend whose husband buys old, small houses and rents them out cheaply -- his places are decent, clean, and in good repair -- but certainly not luxurious and not in the best of neighborhoods.  Most of his clients are poor or working-poor. 

She tells me that when their renters move out, they don't take much of anything with them.  They abandon furniture, kitchen goods, even a lot of clothes.  I know this makes NO SENSE, but she says she's seen it for years and years. 

paddedhat

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #40 on: November 02, 2017, 08:07:03 PM »
Thing is, though, buying any furniture requires money--or a credit card that isn't maxed out. Even if it's just $50-100 from Ikea or the thrift store, not everyone has that. Rent-to-own places are the only option if you have no money or credit card (maybe no bank account either).

Also consider that poor people may have very unstable lives. Someone mentioned a high-quality dresser that weighed TWO HUNDRED POUNDS. You couldn't pay me to take that! What would I do when I need to move in a few months or years? (I'm not even poor--just too cheap to pay movers.) And if you move often enough, $10 a week might well seem like a better deal than $100 for forever. Renting allows you to retain the option to return the furniture and be done with the debt, which is not an option if you pay with a credit card (assuming you have one).

So, I agree that rent-to-own places are a terrible financial idea. If you're *that* poor, the prudent thing to do is to go without a couch/mattress/TV/video games if you can't get them for free. But...have a little understanding, guys.

LOL, when it comes to moving heavy stuff, you got to be smarter than the load. Due to a miscommunication, my help didn't show up when I moved us out of our last home, about a year back. (I am the guy you find to be a moron for owning heavy, high quality furniture) I wasn't happy, but managed to move all of the heaviest stuff I own, completely alone. If ancient cultures moved blocks of stone weighing ten of thousands of pounds without modern knowledge and equipment,  I would hope that EVERY physically capable, intelligent person here could handle a 200 lb dresser with simple devices like a furniture dolly, hand truck, and that long aluminum ramp that comes with the U-haul truck. It's cool to be able to drop everything and move in an hour, if you own little of value, or substance, I get it. But I did that, got the merit badge, then life happened and the decades passed. I no longer have any desire to sit on a piece of shit chair I found on the curb, or look at a bookcase I made of stolen milk crates and boards. One day you too will reach that point. Nothing wrong with either style, but once you settle down, there is something wrong with spending hundreds on cheap shit furniture, repeatedly, when there are more durable, and (in the long run) less expensive options out there.

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #41 on: November 03, 2017, 03:06:12 AM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

I'm trying to find an Ikea bedroom layout that comes close to this, and failing. It's possible to fit out an entire bedroom fairly well for a thousand, including lamps, sheets and the like.

But you've got to have $1000, a truck to get it home (and an IKEA, for that matter.)

Doesn't IKEA still offer delivery service? Even with the fees it's probably still much cheaper than fancypant-priced furniture.

Sure. But unless you are pretty close to IKEA, it costs over $100 to have it delivered and they have terrible and unreliable delivery windows. (Let me tell you about the Thanksgiving when we had a lot of people over and no living room furniture.)

I quite like IKEA, but it's not always an option.

Got a friend with a pickup truck or a trailer? Make 'em dinner and pay for the fuel and/or slip him some cash.

We're living with old furniture from my grandparents' house. We've bought some newer pieces but paid cash when we could.
Abiut 400 miles round trip to the nearest Ikea. I do have a friend with a truck, but that might be a bit much to ask.

It seems like a lot of mustachians rely on others to be spendy. Shouldn't we all just have bikes and small cars?

I think rent to own is a horrible choice. But the people who use it generally aren't educated to understand that. But pretending that Ikea or parental hand me downs are an option for everyone is silly.

Yes, I sat on call furniture until I found a freebie couch (which we've since replaced with nicer furniture). But it is a lot easier to make frugal choices when they are actual choices.  When it's not a choice to live with so little spending it is easy to think financial services are there to help you, because you lack the experience to know they only exist to screw you over.

Travis

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #42 on: November 03, 2017, 09:37:47 AM »
Call me ridiculously spendypants but $3000 for a bedroom set (bed, dresser-often with mirror, bureau, 2 end tables) isn't really that much.

I'm trying to find an Ikea bedroom layout that comes close to this, and failing. It's possible to fit out an entire bedroom fairly well for a thousand, including lamps, sheets and the like.

But you've got to have $1000, a truck to get it home (and an IKEA, for that matter.)

Doesn't IKEA still offer delivery service? Even with the fees it's probably still much cheaper than fancypant-priced furniture.

Sure. But unless you are pretty close to IKEA, it costs over $100 to have it delivered and they have terrible and unreliable delivery windows. (Let me tell you about the Thanksgiving when we had a lot of people over and no living room furniture.)

I quite like IKEA, but it's not always an option.

Got a friend with a pickup truck or a trailer? Make 'em dinner and pay for the fuel and/or slip him some cash.

We're living with old furniture from my grandparents' house. We've bought some newer pieces but paid cash when we could.
Abiut 400 miles round trip to the nearest Ikea. I do have a friend with a truck, but that might be a bit much to ask.

It seems like a lot of mustachians rely on others to be spendy. Shouldn't we all just have bikes and small cars?

I think rent to own is a horrible choice. But the people who use it generally aren't educated to understand that. But pretending that Ikea or parental hand me downs are an option for everyone is silly.

Yes, I sat on call furniture until I found a freebie couch (which we've since replaced with nicer furniture). But it is a lot easier to make frugal choices when they are actual choices.  When it's not a choice to live with so little spending it is easy to think financial services are there to help you, because you lack the experience to know they only exist to screw you over.

If the only people who owned pickup trucks were the ones who really needed them, then by-hour pickup trunk rental businesses would pick up the slack.  We replaced our dining room table a year or so ago and rented a pickup from Home Depot to move it.  I don't think it cost more than $50 to rent it for a couple hours.  They only had the one truck.  If the demand was there I'm sure they'd have a small fleet.

Just Joe

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Re: How renting furniture in Texas can land you in jail (Texas Tribune)
« Reply #43 on: November 03, 2017, 10:33:53 AM »
I'm surrounded by people with trucks who use them like cars. A couple of friends actually use them like trucks.

I've done so many favors for friends (fixing their vehicles, houses or the computers mostly) that some of them literally beg me to let them help my family in some way.

Usually it comes back as "borrow my truck anytime you need one" or dinner Saturday night. Don't bring a thing.

Friends and family are good to have.

We also own a small utility trailer. They are CHEAP used and last forever if you keep the rust bug away. You can pull them with anything.

I guess apartment life would not be conducive to owning things like trailers or other tools.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!