PC World Rentsmart conned me!!!

Randall43

Hi,

Last year I had to force Rentsmart into a final settlement, £1280 in total for a "managers special" desktop priced at £600 in 2008.;)

(sorry I cannot copy links as I am new here and a potential spammer :eek:)

Went to ombudsman . org . uk / consumer complaints and followed the process,
explained that I was a consumer not a business user, they wrote to Rentsmarts solicitors (debt collectors) who then agreed to a final lumpsum.

All the forum intellects will only tell you to read the small print which as we have to learn the hard way, is to do it at the time, even if your in PC World on a busy day and have other impatient customers queing behind you, tutting loudly, let them tutt all they like, read the T&C's and don't TRUST anyone! Everyone is out there to screw you. :T :rotfl:

bigbird144

Im a care assistant. Not a business owner and im paying rentsmart for a lap top thats broken that i have to get fixed myself. why should i have to pay £30 a month to fix a laptop myself. paying out my own dosh wen im paying for insurance. help please. its getting outta hand here. i only have 6 months left on the contract.

Stoffy

bigbird144 wrote: »

Im a care assistant. Not a business owner and im paying rentsmart for a lap top thats broken that i have to get fixed myself. why should i have to pay £30 a month to fix a laptop myself. paying out my own dosh wen im paying for insurance. help please. its getting outta hand here. i only have 6 months left on the contract.

Hi,

Not sure where you stand with the repair/replacement but if its insured I assume its Rentsmarts or PC Worlds responsibility to fix.

I have written to the FOS and have received a letter back stating that they have written to both PC world & rentsmart and to await a response from them. If they do not get back to me then I need to inform the FOS to take further.

bigbird144

I wonder can you help me with a problem. I have a rentsmart buisness contract for a laptop that 1. isnt working at the moment. rentsmart informed me that it was not there responsability to fix it. thay said i had to ring pc world were the contract was set up through. pc world said it was rentsmart. second time i rang they said it was up to me. i took it to a computer tech and they informed me the brain of the laptop needed replaced and it would cost up to 200-300 pounds. that the brain wouldnt go in the space of two and a half years. they adviced that the brain of my laptop was a faulty part. i rang pc world again they wanted £50 just to look at it and then if it was a faulty part i would get my money back if it wasnt i wouldnt plus get billed for fixing it. concerned they could tell a lie. but im aware that rentsmart would terminate contract if goods are beyond repair or not worth repair is what i read on contract. i was also never asked if i was a buisness owner which i am not. if i terminate my contract early my and leave faulty goods back i will not only be charged for goods to be fixed but termination fee. please can u help me i dont no how to stop this rubish and anguish there putting me through. i cant afford to pay that amount for a laptop as i am a single parent and it would put me in servere hardship.

bigbird144

I found my contract and much more read bellow for the new unresonable prices i would have to pay to fix it myself

graemeswalker

I've just been in to my local PC World regarding a miss-sold rent-smart agreement.

My period is now up and I went in to see what is happening regarding the agreement.

In May 2008 I purchased a top of the range iMac and this turned out to be through the RentSmart programme - I did just want this on finance... This was a private purchase as I don't have a business to purchase it for (so I'd love to know how a business agreement can be sold to an individual).

Now the period is up I have three options:
1) Upgrade the goods and sign a new agreement (fat chance);
2) Buy the goods outright for a charge of approx £280;
3) Return the goods.

Now, considering my agreement was 48 months at approx £68 per month (and it has gone up to over £70), that means I have paid in excess of £3,264 for a device worth around £1,600 at the time.

I accept that a lot of this was down to me and not understanding what I was getting myself into, but the icing on the cake today was that the guy who served all those moons ago me had apparently done this to a lot of other people in the Sunderland store of PC world. Clearly this guy was out to meet his sales quotas and had no interest in providing me with good guidance and service.

I am therefore return the goods to the RentSmart office, which will be by the most basic way I can (I will of course provide proof of posting) and all contact with this terrible company and their greed will be ended. I shall never go into another branch or Currys Digital, Currys, PC World or anything else related/operated by Dixons Retail plc.

Does anybody have any pointers on as to where I stand with this? (I do believe that there's not much to be done... c'est la vie)

Rant over...

Stoffy

graemeswalker wrote: »

I've just been in to my local PC World regarding a miss-sold rent-smart agreement.

My period is now up and I went in to see what is happening regarding the agreement.

In May 2008 I purchased a top of the range iMac and this turned out to be through the RentSmart programme - I did just want this on finance... This was a private purchase as I don't have a business to purchase it for (so I'd love to know how a business agreement can be sold to an individual).

Now the period is up I have three options:
1) Upgrade the goods and sign a new agreement (fat chance);
2) Buy the goods outright for a charge of approx £280;
3) Return the goods.

Now, considering my agreement was 48 months at approx £68 per month (and it has gone up to over £70), that means I have paid in excess of £3,264 for a device worth around £1,600 at the time.

I accept that a lot of this was down to me and not understanding what I was getting myself into, but the icing on the cake today was that the guy who served all those moons ago me had apparently done this to a lot of other people in the Sunderland store of PC world. Clearly this guy was out to meet his sales quotas and had no interest in providing me with good guidance and service.

I am therefore return the goods to the RentSmart office, which will be by the most basic way I can (I will of course provide proof of posting) and all contact with this terrible company and their greed will be ended. I shall never go into another branch or Currys Digital, Currys, PC World or anything else related/operated by Dixons Retail plc.

Does anybody have any pointers on as to where I stand with this? (I do believe that there's not much to be done... c'est la vie)

Rant over...

My only advise is to put everything in writing and send copies to both the PC World head office and the store you purchased from. Also send one to rentsmart.

Also send them to trading standards at the Hertfordshire address mentioned on this thread earlier and also your local CAB. As well as a letter I also included screen shot print outs of this thread stating that I was clearly not the only person affected by this mis-selling scheme that so many people in PC World seemed to have told their customers. Either the PC World reps have been lied to when told how to sell this scheme or they have been given all the true facts then realised nobody in their right minds would sign up for it so they have lied to make a sale.

Either way its clearly a scam as so many people have been affected by it.

I'm currently waiting for a response back from PC World & Rentsmart after contacting the Financial Ombudsman. If I don't receive a satisfactory response back from either company I have been given forms by the FOS to escalate this further. I would advise to send everything you have to the FOS as well, the more people that you inform about this the more attention it will bring and hopefully make them listen!

thebroons

This is the first time I have posted on a forum but feel so strongly about this con that I felt I needed to share my story
I have been fighting with PC World and Rentsmart for the last month after I was duped in to leasing a laptop from PC World Birkenhead Wirral.
In Feb 2010 I was advised that I could take out a lease for 2 years on a laptop and after the lease was up could buy the laptop for the cost of a monthly payment (around £35). I thought it sounded like a good idea but it was only when I contacted Rentsmart in March this year to ask how much I needed to pay to own the laptop, they told me i had another 2 years on the agreement. Like other victims I signed the agreement, believing the sales advisor (why wouldn't I ?). I wasn't asked if I had a business by either the PC World rep or the Rentsmart rep.
Anyway I have had a reply from Rentsmart which appears to be the standard "tough" response. I have also had a reply from PC World who haven't even acknowledged the fact that I was lied to by a member of their staff. I have written again to both parties and have been in touch with my local trading standards office in Wirral. I am certainly not going to let this matter drop until I am satisfied that something is done regarding this awful con. I have also sent my complaint to Watchdog in the hope they have received enough complaints to investigate.

Stoffy

thebroons wrote: »

This is the first time I have posted on a forum but feel so strongly about this con that I felt I needed to share my story
I have been fighting with PC World and Rentsmart for the last month after I was duped in to leasing a laptop from PC World Birkenhead Wirral.
In Feb 2010 I was advised that I could take out a lease for 2 years on a laptop and after the lease was up could buy the laptop for the cost of a monthly payment (around £35). I thought it sounded like a good idea but it was only when I contacted Rentsmart in March this year to ask how much I needed to pay to own the laptop, they told me i had another 2 years on the agreement. Like other victims I signed the agreement, believing the sales advisor (why wouldn't I ?). I wasn't asked if I had a business by either the PC World rep or the Rentsmart rep.
Anyway I have had a reply from Rentsmart which appears to be the standard "tough" response. I have also had a reply from PC World who haven't even acknowledged the fact that I was lied to by a member of their staff. I have written again to both parties and have been in touch with my local trading standards office in Wirral. I am certainly not going to let this matter drop until I am satisfied that something is done regarding this awful con. I have also sent my complaint to Watchdog in the hope they have received enough complaints to investigate.

This is exactly what happened to me and others on here. The exact same lies being fed to us by PC World Reps undoubtedly so they'll earn commission. It is not a coincidence that we were all told this bulls*** and something needs to be done about it.

The only thing I can suggest is to forward all of your paperwork onto your local PCWorld and their HQ. Obviously trading standards and watchdog are there for a reason so use them too. I have already contacted them about this but the more people that do it, the better case we have. I also copied and pasted stories from this thread and printed them out which shows that other people have been told the same lies. This shows that obviously something is going on here.

The next step is the Financial Ombudsman. I sent them copies of all letters I have sent to PCW and Rentsmart and copies of their replies along with the posts from on here. They advised me to write to both companies again to advise them that they are now involved in this and I need to wait for a response from them.

I'm still currently waiting for a response from both PCW & Rentsmart. I sent the letters over a week ago but obviously, Bank Holidays ect, I'll give them another week or so before I inform the FOS that they still have not responded and take it from there.

thebroons

Stoffy, many thanks for your comments. I will contact the Ombudsman first thing on Monday with my case. I dread to think how many other victims are out there. It sickens me to think that some people don't care how they affect other lives. I haven't been able to sleep properly, blaming myself for my stupidity for agreeing to take on such an awful agreement.

Please keep in touch regarding your case and I will let this forum know of any developments in my case.