rent to own varity of furniture etc..

State of Ohio ex rel. Aaron Rents, Inc., Relator,
v.
Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, Respondent.

No. 09AP-232.

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Tenth District, Franklin County.

Rendered on January 26, 2010.

Millisor & Nobil Co., L.P.A., Daniel P. O'Brien and Nicole H. Farley, for relator.

Richard Cordray, Attorney General, and Gerald H. Waterman, for respondent.

TYACK, P.J.

{¶1} Aaron Rents, Inc. ("Aaron Rents"), filed this action in mandamus seeking a writ to compel the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation ("BWC") to vacate its order which required Aaron Rents to report product technicians under a different manual and which allowed the BWC to collect additional funds for the two-year period prior to the reclassification.

{¶2} In accord with Loc.R. 12, the case was referred to a magistrate to conduct appropriate proceedings. The parties stipulated the pertinent evidence and filed briefs. The magistrate then issued a magistrate's decision containing detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law, which is appended to this decision. The magistrate's decision includes a recommendation that we uphold the BWC's reclassification of the product technicians but allow the reclassification to be billed only prospectively.

A single mother in Washington State used the store to furnish her living room. But the goods she received were damaged and worn. When she stopped making payments while awaiting replacements her home was accosted by employees of the Rent-A-Center she had patronized. Elsewhere in the same state, a man who called to say his payments would be late due to his wife’s hospitalization said collectors tried to kick his door down to repossess his rent-to-own goods.

In California, Rent-A-Center was ordered by the state’s attorney general in 2006 to pay more than $7 million in restitution to thousands of customers. In Florida, one man reported to consumeraffairs.com that after his house burnt down he rented a TV. "Every day the payment was due they called at 8:00 a.m. wanting to know what time we would be there to pay. They threatened to come get the TV if we did not pay that day."

All over the country, from Nevada to New Jersey, Miami to Mercer County, hundreds of complaints about rent-to-own businesses are sent to attorneys general and websites like Ripoff Report. Most of them have to do with Rent-A-Center or Aaron’s, the two giants of the thriving rent-to-own industry.

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