I got a HDTV from Arrons over a year ago..and paid on it great till I switched jobs and got behind.. I knew i was close to paying it off. They sent me a letter saying "You have 3 days to the Amount to Satisfy (below) to Aaron's store nearest you. Amount to Satisfy: 143.53 I knew I was close to paying off so I thought it was the 143.53 they stated would satisfy. So the next day on my way to work I drop odd a 100.00 money order in the night drop with a letter saying I will pay the 43.53 in two days. That night they call my wife and say I owe 280.00 and that was after getting the 100.00. As far as I can find out on the web "To Satisfy" means sat·is·fy (sts-f) 1. To gratify the need, desire, or expectation of. 2. To fulfill 3. a. To free from doubt or question; assure. b. To get rid of (a doubt or question); dispel. 4. a. To discharge (a debt or obligation, for example) in full. b. To discharge an obligation to (a creditor). satisfy Definition: 5. transitive verb "law" pay debt: to pay a debt in full The letter does not say ...bring payments up to date or arrears etc. Now they say unless I pay 300.00 and something or give the TV back they will take me to court. Will this letter stating "AMOUNT TO SATISFY 143.53" stand up in court and mean I owe them 143.53?
You need to do a full accounting of your payments, to understand perhaps what was meant by "satisfy". Aarons may have meant that the $143.53 was only the "past due" amount (the payments you were behind on). You must have statements, sit down and go through them, to figure out where you are. My bet is you'll be surprised at some late fees added on.
My husband has worked in the vicious RTO/LTO business for 6 years (2 of the largest companies, multiple states). I'm not sure what state you're in but most (if not all) states have laws that actually prevent these companies from suing you for the money. Technically when you rent or lease to own something, it does not belong to you until you complete the contract. They can charge ridiculous late fees, and generally it is all spelled out in that fine print. (Aarons is probably one of the worst) They can sue you for failure to return rented property, which means at that point regardless of how much you had paid over the last 2 years you would have to return the TV. Aarons is a large corporation with well paid lawyers that review all the correspondence. Honestly if you don't want to give up your TV, you'll probably have to pay out your contract and consider it a life lesson. Luckily they don't report to CRA's...
