So you are skint, the recession has hit you hard and the tv has just blown up. What are your options?
Go with out a TV?
Look on Freecycle?
Check local ebay sellers?
Ask friends and family if anyone has a spare they dont use?
Or use a hire purchase company like Bright House?
Now I know not all families are like ours, we could do without the TV if we didnt have one. With dvds on our laptops or just good old fashioned entertainment we would be able to fill the hours and not sit there staring at a black box that doesnt work but even if we were the type of family that needed a TV we would never go to somewhere like Bright House.
A company that has grown during the recession yet its a company with no morals. Yes what they are doing is legal but it certainly doesn’t make it right. The problem is that their customers get hooked in by the low weekly payments and the fact that you can get credit even when you have a bad credit score.
I know people who are customers of Bright House and they don’t just have one item that they had to get in an emergency. They have lots of items. They have unnecessary items. Games consoles, flashy tvs and furniture they didnt need. That one low weekly payment turns into lots of low weekly payments which in turn just get bigger and bigger as you pay off items over a long period of time.
I have been trying for a while to convince the person in question that they really shouldnt use Bright House to buy an item from but they refuse to listen. I knew that they were a rip off but as I have never considered being a customer of theirs I never really understood just how bad it was.
Take an XBOX One, lots of teenagers would have been bugging their mum for one for Christmas.
On the High Street Price – £618.47
– Xbox one with forza £459.99
– extra controller and play and charge kit £69.99
– 12 moth xbox live membership £39.99
– £50 voucher for xbox live £48.50
Brighthouse price for the same contents – £1560.00
Cash price £966.70
Weekly payment £15
Interest price £593.30
How does that make good logical sense to anyone?
I have seen lots of articles where the chief executive defends the business model using examples of single mothers who cant afford a new washing machine and I get that. What I don’t get is why the starting price has to be 50% higher than in other high street shops! Isn’t it bad enough that these people are having to pay 69.9% APR on the items without already having a huge % added on to the original price?
I find myself struggling with his argument and one fabulous quote from this article in the guardian states
Go with out a TV?
Look on Freecycle?
Check local ebay sellers?
Ask friends and family if anyone has a spare they dont use?
Or use a hire purchase company like Bright House?
Now I know not all families are like ours, we could do without the TV if we didnt have one. With dvds on our laptops or just good old fashioned entertainment we would be able to fill the hours and not sit there staring at a black box that doesnt work but even if we were the type of family that needed a TV we would never go to somewhere like Bright House.
A company that has grown during the recession yet its a company with no morals. Yes what they are doing is legal but it certainly doesn’t make it right. The problem is that their customers get hooked in by the low weekly payments and the fact that you can get credit even when you have a bad credit score.
I know people who are customers of Bright House and they don’t just have one item that they had to get in an emergency. They have lots of items. They have unnecessary items. Games consoles, flashy tvs and furniture they didnt need. That one low weekly payment turns into lots of low weekly payments which in turn just get bigger and bigger as you pay off items over a long period of time.
I have been trying for a while to convince the person in question that they really shouldnt use Bright House to buy an item from but they refuse to listen. I knew that they were a rip off but as I have never considered being a customer of theirs I never really understood just how bad it was.
Take an XBOX One, lots of teenagers would have been bugging their mum for one for Christmas.
On the High Street Price – £618.47
– Xbox one with forza £459.99
– extra controller and play and charge kit £69.99
– 12 moth xbox live membership £39.99
– £50 voucher for xbox live £48.50
Brighthouse price for the same contents – £1560.00
Cash price £966.70
Weekly payment £15
Interest price £593.30
How does that make good logical sense to anyone?
I have seen lots of articles where the chief executive defends the business model using examples of single mothers who cant afford a new washing machine and I get that. What I don’t get is why the starting price has to be 50% higher than in other high street shops! Isn’t it bad enough that these people are having to pay 69.9% APR on the items without already having a huge % added on to the original price?
I find myself struggling with his argument and one fabulous quote from this article in the guardian states
“If I look at the products that we sell,” McKee goes on, “they have a utilitarian purpose or in some cases an educational purpose. We are selling products that play a critical role in the home. And if that happens to be an Xbox, then, yes, it’s an Xbox. It’s not going to the theatre: it’s home entertainment. It’s cheaper.”
REALLY!! I mean come on! I struggle to comprehend how the guardian journalist could even stand to listen to such garbage.
It is hard to think that people get so caught up in the low weekly payments and shiny new gadgets that they don’t look at the bigger picture but unfortunately that is the case and shops like Bright House will continue to thrive whilst the poor keep getting poorer as they pay more and more each week.
I dont often go off on a rant about something like this but it is Ranty Friday and if this post has stopped even one person from walking into that rip off shop then I am happy!
It is hard to think that people get so caught up in the low weekly payments and shiny new gadgets that they don’t look at the bigger picture but unfortunately that is the case and shops like Bright House will continue to thrive whilst the poor keep getting poorer as they pay more and more each week.
I dont often go off on a rant about something like this but it is Ranty Friday and if this post has stopped even one person from walking into that rip off shop then I am happy!
