ID:36333
 
I just got screwed.


The TV I wanted to buy is on clearance, so I figured it's now or never. I want this exact model for a bunch of reasons, the main one being that it goes perfectly with my stereo equipment and pretty much everything that will surround it.
I walked into Harvey Norman, wallet overflowing with cash, ready to buy my new TV. It comes to the part where I ask for their highly advertised we'll-give-an-18-month-interest-free-loan-to-a-dead-hobo-if- it-asks deal. I need that because I'm being pushed a little ahead of schedule by this clearance thing. I answer all their questions. The girl hits ok. DECLINED.
At that point I'm asking myself how that happened. It's a few hundred dollars on a $2,200 TV. She informs me that they just can't give a $2,200 loan to a guy in my position. I explain to her, 'no, when I said I have $1,800 I wasn't trying to impress you, I meant that I have cash and only need a $400 loan'.
Of course we can't simply reenter the correct details, because apparently the system wont even lend me a pen until 3 months have passed (at which point by magic I'm suddenly alright to ask for any amount of money I want).
I feel really bad for the people who actually need what they're buying. Imagine your fridge breaks. You go in and ask for an interest free loan on the entire thing because you don't have the money to pay in cash. The system rejects you because you're a hundred dollars over the limit it set for you. This is pretty important, so you decide that you'll have to put in a hundred dollars out of your wallet. It's not plan A because you want that money for something else, but if you have to you have to.
The person behind the desk now has to explain to you that you can't have a fridge because while your smaller loan would have went through it was automatically declined because you don't qualify for an entirely different loan.

Anyway, I go back to think about my options. What does the sales clerk I was talking to try to do? Get me into the Flexirent system. For those that don't know I'll explain.
Flexirent is when you rent something for an insanely high price, then later down the track (according to the guy pitching it, after I had used the rental period to save up) you can buy it cheap. And by cheap I mean very expensive for outdated technology.
So he was pretty much pitching the idea that the guy who couldn't afford to pay $20 a month should pay $50 a week instead. You know, while he saved up all that extra cash so he could buy it when it was out of date.
When I mention that as much as I'd rather buy it here, I have no choice but to go next door and get it done there they inform me that the company that handles their interest free loans is used by pretty much everyone. So sure enough when we go around to all the other stores in the area we get the same response.

The kicker is that I would have got the $2,200 loan if I had a credit history (aka, I was in debt). Why don't I have a credit history? Because credit is for when you can't afford what you need, and I have cash to burn. You'd think that being 22 and never having to borrow money would look good on an application.
I make literally ten times more than what I require to pay all my expenses. My spare change would have paid this thing off.

Arrghh. It hurts my brain.
What is your employment?

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Also, that does suck. I never liked those loan things. I always either have the cash or I don't get it. Unless it's an overdraw of my debit account, THEN I make sure money is on it's way to the account when I do.