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Forum 141

TV rental.

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Till Eulenspiegel
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Been told that there is a reawakening of the TV rental trade, mainly renting out flat screen TVs equipped with a coin meter.   Count me out! I'm almost free of this awful trade.  Can you imagine anyone wishing to return to working in the TV servicing game?  Yes, it was a great business to be in during the boom years of the seventies and eighties, and even the nineties wasn't too bad, but the thought of having to fix this LCD just beggars belief.

Till Eulenspiegel. 

 
Posted : 26/12/2017 11:28 am
PYE625
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Ha-ha, I can just see this bolted to a flat-screen....

vintage patent applied for alberice meters ltd poole england 6d coin slot tv time switch 1960s television display prop yale lock no key 261 p

To understand the black art of electronics is to understand witchcraft. Andrew.

 
Posted : 26/12/2017 11:32 am
Katie Bush
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Surely though, given the relative pricing of sets in the frame of then, and now, it's hardly worth renting? Back in the days when a colour set might have cost around £600, and a 'good' wage might have been £40 to £50 a week, renting may have made more sense, but since you can buy a 40" set along with your cornflakes and bog-rolls, and pay as little as £250 for it, it would scarcely stand up to renting, unless the rent was for pennies per week - For example, £250 for the set, or rent at £12.50 per month? In less than two years you've paid for the thing!

It seems to me that the only sets worth renting out would be the true 'monster' sets that carry a big price tag - looking in our local retailer (Gotch's of Selby) a really decent/branded/large set can be bought for around £1200. Even then, is it realistically worth renting out something that is still proportionally cheaper in the here and now than in the early days. Add to that the reliability, or lack of, in the early days Vs the reliability of modern kit, there would be little to drive the customer toward renting, and let's not forget the 'accidental' fall of the TV off the wall, which if claimed through the insurance, helps to facilitate the regular 'upgrade' to the latest models - if you don't own it, there's not a lot to gain from it's accidental fall, if you take my meaning?

 
Posted : 26/12/2017 9:27 pm
Nuvistor
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I thought there were still some rentals including washing machines as well as TV for student accommodation, not heard of the slot meter though.

 

Frank

 
Posted : 26/12/2017 9:37 pm
Katie Bush
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I can't say for certain on the rentals, but even in my student days it didn't add up - you could rent a fridge (supplied by the university) for the three years duration of your chosen course, but a quick reckoning up revealed that you would end up paying more for the fridge than it was worth. I went down into town and bought a near identical fridge that cost me about £15 less than the purchase price of the uni supplied ones, was bought and paid for in one transaction, and was mine to keep for all time. Renting from the uni would have cost me about £50 more than I paid outright for my own - it didn't make sense to me to rent. I still have the fridge, and it still works, in fact, it's the one that needed a new starter just about a year ago.

My brother and his wife once got a telly on what then called a "Rent To Buy" scheme - it was basically a rental, but once the rental payments had exceeded the purchase price plus whatever additional fees, the ownership of the set was transferred to my brother. The only incentive to rent was that the set would be repaired as a rental set, if it broke down (and it never did), and that you would ultimately end up owning the set. Of course, if the customer failed to meet his obligations, the set was entirely owned by the company and they could come and take it away again.

The nearest thing I can think of right now is outfits like 'Brighthouse' or whatever, where 'special' schemes exist for people who are hard-up for cash. As far as I know, these schemes work (or worked) on a similar rental/purchase footing.

In a similar vein, cars are leased along the same lines, except that you either, never get to own the car, or, you must pay a full and final cash sum to purchase the car at the end of your lease agreement.

 
Posted : 26/12/2017 10:07 pm
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