Rent-A-Center Reviews

I have been working at Rent-A-Center full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Large company with decent benefits. Looks good on a resume. You get to learn how to hire people constantly.

Cons – Constant management change over. Delinquency issues, always chasing a number. The job itself is a lifestyle and not a career move. You must enjoy being a number and not an individual.

Advice to Senior Management – Understand your people are a commodity. Stop the constant threat of being replaceable. Accept that the product is geared toward people who normally are slow payers or won't pay.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Rent-A-Center full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – decent wage for retail
no sundays (for now)
not commission based

Cons – I last worked for RAC 6 months ago, but I gave them 5 years of my life. By that I mean working at RAC literally steals your life away. They do not care if you have a spouse, kids, or personal hopes and dreams. You will pretty much never see them again. It is a joke among employees with a running tally of how many divorces RAC has caused. You must work 8am-until the work is done. If you do not hit arbitrary metrics the work is not done. The more kool-aid you drink the more you give until you are suddenly working 8am-9pm five days a week. If you do something to better yourself on your days off (like take college courses) management will actively try to stop you - up to and including cancelling your day off. There is no requirement to have a degree at any level so their reasoning is why would they want you to get one...you'll only be able to leave the company for better options more easily. If they keep you from getting a degree you will feel stuck there. (This is the reasoning I was presented by my District Manager).

Job duties include:
1) Calling delinquent customers repeatedly (at least twice a day) and then being told to sell them something else when they finally make a payment.
2)Delivering product to dangerous neighborhoods in hazardous conditions (they don't care if there is a blizzard, you need to deliver that big screen so the crack head can steal it)
3)Bug bombing the truck and store on a regular basis for roaches and bedbugs
4) repossessing product from those same dangerous situations (and now they are pissed)
5) repossessing bedroom sets from small children.
6) being constantly harassed by management to "hit 5.9%" and be "up" on the week

The hourly rate may sound good to a stockboy from another environment but in the greater scheme of things the pay is terrible, the benefits package is a joke, and health care costs are double out of the standard employee's paycheck over average.

Advice to Senior Management – Advice to management: try treating the employees with a modicum of respect.
Advice to current employees: there are jobs out there that will both pay well and treat you with respect
Advice to applicants: Run, quickly, in the opposite direction.

I worked at Rent-A-Center full-time for less than a year

Pros – Weekly paycheck, get to work outside, some of my coworkers were really cool and genuinely nice people, every Sunday off

Cons – I could write an entire thesis on my experience with Rent A Center, but for easier reading digestion, I will stick to some main observations. In no particular order:

-Disgusting merchandise which was almost never fully re-cleaned before being spun off on the next lucky customer (keeping in mind that the idea of renting a mattress which had been "previously rented" sounds like the worst purchase anyone could make)

-A customer base which thinks nothing of lying to or deceiving RAC in any possible manner to keep possession of merchandise

-Daily pressure and absurd sales expectations, especially considering the customer base rarely changes for any particular store. You often rent/sell to the same customers whom you had just collected from the previous week

-Asked on more than one occasion to handle merchandise solo with weight in excess of 200 lbs

-I am a large individual with a solid frame, and some of the merchandise required to transport to and from homes were ridiculously heavy and near-impossible to maneuver. And you may be back to pick up the same furniture the very next week. But I'm sure RAC is happy they got that one $23.99 payment.

-Cockroaches in the store, the office, everywhere. The hired pest company would come, spray, and not even have one foot out the door before they came back. Complaints fell on deaf ears. Disgusting.

-Impossible to be sick. Impossible. Strep throat? Call the doctor line. Broken hand? Call the doctor line. Ebola virus? Call the doctor line. You get TWO sick days a year. And if you use one you are made to feel guilty.

-Need a Saturday off? Hahahahahahahaha, never gonna happen.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop renting to the same awful customer base that has never paid you, isn't paying now, and never will. Build a solid foundation. Practice what you preach with the work-life balance.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Rent-A-Center full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good benefits
Decent pay
Great opportunity for promotiom
Overtime if wanted
Good skills(Collections and Sales)

Cons – Schedule
Micro-managed
Hard work
Manual Labor
No social life

Advice to Senior Management – Pay more for the hard work and hours.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Rent-A-Center full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – job stability, over time, no sundays

Cons – not good raises, unrealistic goals

Advice to Senior Management – pay more to bilinguals

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Rent-A-Center full-time for more than a year

Pros – It's a job! Work some where else

Cons – Upper Management, Hours, Pay, Demands, If you see a store manager that has been there for more than a year it is because they can not find any thing else, Almost 70% of the workers hate the job and working here only for the time until they find another. Call any store and they will tell you how bad it sucks, DO NOT WORK HERE , WHY DO YOU THINK THEY HAVE SUCH HIGH TURN -OVER . If you are reading this and take the job, trust me in 3 months you will hate the company and the job.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire educated Management. Ged and Highschool graduate's do not need to be manager's or DM, sadly some make it to RD level then fail. There is a reason why this company's core RTO is failing .

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Rent-A-Center full-time for more than a year

Pros – job stability
not really much else

Cons – horrible raises, only store managers make a decent living
as a asst. manger or lead you are expected to run the store for about a .50 cents an hour raise
inflexible hours, you work from open to close.
insurance is very expensive

Advice to Senior Management – Pay your employees a decent wage, they shouldn't have to work 8-10 hours a week overtime just to have a paycheck they can live on

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Rent-A-Center full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Meet new people on daily basis. Able to send customers home happy. Closed on Sundays. Keeps a person very busy during their scheduled hours. Somewhat flexible for needs. Get one day off during the week, generally either Tuesday or Thursday. Some local travel for deliveries on island.

Cons – Long hours and mandatory work on Friday, Saturday and Sundayy. Each has their own responsiblity. Each person is expected to work all aspects of the company, however sometimes that is not always the case. Some people are hired assistant manager, where they aren't knowledgable on all aspects of company.

Advice to Senior Management – Very hard to do for a store mananger. It's easier to advance to an Assistant Manager then to the store manager. Some people are hired as an assistant and they don't don't have to climb the ladder.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Rent-A-Center full-time for less than a year

Pros – Working here was great, people on this website like to whine about 48-55 hours a week but they pay you time and a half for anything over 40 hours, do you people not like money? With the way the economy is I took the job and worked my butt off and smiled. They could definitely afford to pay more but that will be discussed in the Cons section.

 This job is like any other, if you have good leadership your time at RaC will be great, if you have bad leadership your time will suck. The one thing I did notice is that ALL managers who give a crap did take everything any employee suggested and really tried to work it out with the higher ups, they do listen and they do try to help all employees.

I left this job, but only because a better paying one was available.

Cons – There aren't too many Cons to this job (if you are a hard worker and not a whiny crybaby). The one thing that sucks is trying to collect money from people who are broke, if they have no money for rent, their 55" plasma tv bill is the least of their worries. Also chasing after skips/stolen accounts is a hassle but you get paid for it so it's whatever. Honestly for the work you do and for how profitable this company is, they could easily bump your pay about 3-4$ an hour and still make billions.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop being so cheap, pay your employees a batter wage, you can afford it you greedy scumbags.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Rent-A-Center full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Great pay, Good Benefits, stock options for District Managers and above, lots of opportunity for advancement if your willing too move.

Cons – Long hours, 5 1/2 day work week for District Managers and above.

Advice to Senior Management – Get rid of the 5 1/2 day work week, require DM's and above to work more during the week, 7am to 6pm and they would happily do that then work even an hour on Saturdays. Work/Life balance.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company