PC World Rentsmart conned me!!!

James_Turner wrote: »

Hi,
I used to work in asset finance and I am concerned about your story...
First and formost, RentSmart provide rental contracts to BUSINESS OWNERS ONLY...not students.
Do you own your own business? If you do, then you will be bound by RentSmart's rental contract.
If you do not own your own business - then it is a different story entirely. If the PC World representative informed RentSmart that you are a business owner and you did not confirm the same to RentSmart; then, the PC World representative has clearly lied to RentSmart and in the process invalidated the rental contract between RentSmart and yourself.
My advice to you is to send a letter to RentSmart and advise them that you would like to terminate the rental contract on this basis. If RentSmart's letter of reply threaten action, fees etc. simply reply that it is the PC World representative who has provided misinformation to RentSmart - not you. Further, if Rentsmart do not agree to cancel their invalid rental contract; then, you will take the matter to the ombudsman for their review of this matter.
In another words, don't take any crap. It really annoys me that RentSmart appear not to have carried out any cross-checks with you and confirmed that the information provided to them by the PC World representative is entirely accurate, prior to the sign-off of any rental contracts between you and them.
Be ready for a fight though, as neither RentSmart nor PC World will want to deal with this issue. Remember that RentSmart have already paid PC World's invoice (which you would have had you paid cash!) and they will want their money back, plus interest and fees of course!
PC World have sold the PC and will not want to deal with this issue at all, as the disagreement is between you and RentSmart's contract. By the way, which PC World store was involved?
You MUST always read the T&Cs of ANY contract before you sign it. Take it away and think very hard (maybe over two-three nights) before you sign ANYTHING! If it sounds too nice to be true...it usually is.
Take my advice...always pay cash for a laptop. Don't be sold finance...except the purchase of a house!
Good luck, James

Just to add to the ever increasing list of those folk who are brave enough to admit they've been conned. My father in law went into his branch of PC Work (Bolton) with his £400 ready to buy a laptop.
He came out with a 4 year leasing deal at £35/month and he wont even own the laptop at the end of it.
Yes I hear you say, he SHOULD have read the small print.
He is a bit old school - ie he believes what people tell him.

"Are you a Business?" the salesman asked him? "No course not - I've been retired for twenty years" he said. "Well - do you use Excell or Word?" "Yes - sometimes" he said. "Then you are a business ! This is a great deal for businesses" and in fact you could argue it is a good deal for business.

Yes I hear you. He should have read the small print.

I don't know what to do now. Is this worth pursuing? Or am I being naive to think that PC World have any morals when selling.
I see from another blog that "lawyergirl25" managed to get out of her contract by threatening the Financial Ombudsman. Is this worth doing I wonder?
At 85 my F-i-L is too tired to take on this hassle and is happy to continue to pay his £35/month till 2013.
This is a very sad reflection on our society and it makes my blood boil.
What should I do?
Write to BBC Watchdog?
Chain myself to the town hall steps in Bolton?
Thanks
Walter Rooner.

I am in the same boat - bad times!!

I was completely mis-sold this product. I was a full time student about to leave uni 2 years ago. I decided i needed a new lap top, i had the cash but the sales advisor said the rent smart business type plan would be the best option for me. I told the sales advisor that I wasn't sure what i would be doing after uni and had thought about working freelance. The sales advisor said I would save lots of money with rent smart that it was a 2 year contract where after the 2 years i would make a minimal payment at the end say 10 - 30 pounds (at most one months rental) to own the computer outright. I made it 100% clear that i didn't have a business yet, i even told the rent smart person on the phone the day of sale that i was only thinking about working freelance after uni (which never transpired as i was lucky enough to find a full time job).

I was advised rentsmart was the best plan for me, unfortunately i didn't really check the contact enough, as the friendly sales person made it seem like they were doing me a favour and completely downplayed the business part.

I only realised this was a problem today... when 22 months into my contract i made contact with rentsmart - thinking my minimum payment term was nearly over (sold as 2 years!!) so i asked the man how long i have left thinking it was one or 2 months.... the answer - 14 MONTHS. If i wanted to cancel that was okay as long as i payed the remaining due rents at a cost of 400+ pounds, a joke as ive been paying for 22 months.... and the computer was only worth £600 originally. So i googled rentsmart/pc world and it came up with this website (and many more with lots of people all having similar issues).

I was lied to on the day of sale and sold "rental" as a good option the irony is that it isn't even rental its a loan. I feel that rentsmart should not accept people without proof of a business bank account at the very least - but i do feel PC world are to mostly to blame. Its disgusting that their sales staff deliberatively mislead people when they should be there to advise impartially. Personally I would really just like what i was promised on sale, a 2 year contract and the option to buy then - I know it is a lesson to read the contract thoughly.

I am prepared to continue paying for the 14 months remaining as i feel stupid that i didn't read the small print but i'm not going to take it lightly I have made a complaint today to their customer services email address and included an email to pc world. I've also contacted watchdog and i suggest you do the same.

I was about to buy an HP laptop in PC World for £425, then for some reason, which I am still struggling with, I took out a rentsmart plan that means that that laptop will now cost me £1,400 and, yes, even then I will still have to buy it!

I can't believe how stupid I was, as I am in business, but obviously wasn't concentrating. They have also attached insurance to the payment, which, even though I am already insured, I couldn't get out of.

Anyway, this needs to be reported, possibly to Trading Standards or the Financial Ombudsman, or the Consumer Action Group (CAG), who I think were instrumental in getting the PPI insurance scam stopped. I think everyone should report this, because otherwise it will be allowed to continue and just out of principal alone, this should be stopped.

I'm pretty sure there would be an arguable case for those who are not in business, so don't be intimidated by rentsmart, the law protects consumers from misselling. Will see what I can find out.

Just to let people know .. PCWolrd will now let you cancel and now hav a 14 day cool down period - and it seems to be retrospective. After my father in law signed up to Infinity we went back in and spoke to everyone we could who I have to say were very rude but thats another matter. My father in law went back in today about a month and a half after he originally signed and they were as nice as pie and cancelled it

Oh and the Ininifty product isn't the same as rent smart. It's done for people to get the same benefits but you don't have to be a Business to sign up.

My elderly mum was also mis-sold a 3-year business lease and business insurance for a computer she tried to buy for my teenage nephew's birthday.

The PC World salesman bamboozled her with talk of saving money by paying monthly and getting cashback and a free upgrade after 2 years. The salesman tricked her into to naming the company she used to work in before she retired - they then put the lease in that company's name, but with my mum's address. She didn't notice this when she signed because it was on another page with a lot of small print.

She got really worried when she later got the insurance paperwork sent to her address in the company's name. When she showed me the lease I was livid to see what they had misled her into signing. I went with her to take the computer back and get the whole thing cancelled. The manager wouldn't cancel, but we left the computer with them at the service desk until it was sorted out. I got the original salesman on the phone a few days later and he was completely unrepentant.

We then wrote to PC World head office with a detailed complaint of mis-selling, and we sent copies to the leasing company, Trading Standards and Which? Magazine. We told them that the mis-selling makes the contract null and void and demanded that they cancel everything and keep the computer.

They then backed down. Head office offered to cancel everything if we would buy the computer for the list price.

They still weren't prepared to offer any discount as compensation for our travel expenses or my elderly mum's distress and worry, but we are pursuing this further. The fact that we gave them the computer back makes it their problem, not ours.