CLEAN RENTS

Thank you for the opportunity to address Ms [redacted] ’s complaint about Clean RentsMs [redacted] did submit a contract for washer/dryer rental on Saturday, June 28th It was approved and the washer/dryer was delivered two business days later on July1, We had one service issue call from her Saturday, December 13, stating the dryer was noisyRepairs were made Monday December 15, 2014, the next business dayRent was collected on time monthly with the exception of months when her card was declined at the auto draft for rent we do on the 3rd .of each month We were able to contact her each time and collect rent before late fees were addedThis changed in January Her card on file was declined in the auto draft on the 3rd of the monthMonday January 4th was the first business day after that run and we tried to contact Ms [redacted] by phone on the number ending in She did not answer and we left a messageWe followed this up with an emailed invoice and request for payment, also sent on Monday, January 4, We later found out she had changed her phone number, but did not update usThe email address is the one she still uses to communicate with us, [redacted] When a card is declined, we use both phone and email notification to try to reach the customer to collect rent before late fees are added on the 5thWe had no response from Ms [redacted] in JanuaryIf rent is not collected by the 15th of a month, we again try to reach out to the customer through any form of contact we haveSo on January 15th, we tried Ms [redacted] ’s number ending in againThis time the voice mail recording said the phone belonged to “Lisa”We emailed an updated invoice asking for response/paymentBy January 21st and still no response from Ms [redacted] , we mailed by USPO a statement to her last known addressThat statement has not been returned to us by the post office, so we believed it to have been deliveredBy January 28th, we still had no response from Ms [redacted] and with February’s rent soon dueI went to Ms [redacted] ’s apartment and knockedNo response, so I taped a statement and request for contact to her doorNormally, if someone is having financial difficulties and are not trying to take our equipment, they will call within a few days of our first attempt at contact and work out a payment plan or a pick up plan so they are no longer financially obligated for the washer/dryer rent Page 2This didn’t happen with Ms [redacted] After taping a statement to her door with no response, we called Ms [redacted] ’s landlord at the N Richland Hills apartment complexThis information was provided to us by Ms [redacted] when she submitted her contract in July We were told that Ms [redacted] had left at the end of her year lease in July A one year lease is standard in the apartment communitySeventeen month leases (July through November 2015) are not standardThe landlord said that Ms [redacted] had not skipped before the end of her lease nor ended her lease earlyThis does not agree with the time frame in Ms [redacted] ’s complaintWe can supply you the landlord name and phone number if you would likeMs [redacted] ’s card on file was declined for February rentOur contract, which Ms [redacted] agreed to and signed her agreement to, states on page “Clean Rents must move the equipment”There are several other clauses that address the removal of our equipmentClause states “Failure [to return equipment] may result in Lessee being held responsible for ALL reasonable costs incurred by Clean Rents to retrieve its equipment and/or the entire replacement cost of the equipment if Clean Rents is unable to retrieve its equipment.”When a customer moves our equipment without notification of the move or information as to where our equipment is, stops paying rent and does not respond to our attempts to contact them, we view this as theftBoth theft of property and rental theft as explained in the contract and Texas Penal Code Section And we start the process of reporting said theftOn February 15, 2016, we again reached out to Ms [redacted] by email since no other contact information was validIn this email we warned her about theft chargesWe again requested her to contact us to settle her accountOn February 25, 2016, days after our first attempt to reach her for non-payment and only after we warned her of theft charges, Ms [redacted] contacted us for the first timeHer email stated:“I have moved east tx unexpectedlyI can either make the payment to bring the account up to date or we can make arrangements for pick upPlease let me know your preference and I do sincerely apologize for the inconvenienceThanks,Sylvia” She did not include current contact information other than the email address we had been using.Page 3We use a Vonage phone lineThis is through the computerThis service records every phone number from calls made and received and allows us to look up dates and times of calls based on phone numbersWe have searched this database for calls from Ms [redacted] ’s phone number on account ending in 7327, her current number ending in and her boyfriend’s number ending in We find no calls from any of these numbers from June 2014, a month before her apartment lease ended, through February when she finally contacted usThere were also no emails from her during this periodFrom this information we conclude that Ms [redacted] did not try to contact us to move or pick up our equipment at any time before she moved itOur contact information is on the control panel of every machine we rentShe states in her complaint that she spent her last $on a Uhaul large enough to hold her belongings and our equipment and only had days to pack and moveShe might have lowered her Uhaul expense and definitely cut her loading time by contacting us to come and get our equipmentShe might have left our equipment behindUsually in these cases the landlord contacts us to come get our equipment when they find it in an abandoned apartmentOur label on every unit includes our name, phone number, email address and our website addressMultiple ways for a customer or landlord to contact us to retrieve our equipment or to discuss problems like a sudden moveThe message function of our phones is available hours a dayWe would have contacted her the next business day to work out a plan if a message was left overnightBut Ms [redacted] states she was unable to do this minute task in the days she was packing We responded to Ms [redacted] ’s February 25th email on that date asking for the location of the equipment to be able to make a decision about picking up the equipment.March 3rd, Ms [redacted] ’s card was declined for March rentMarch 4th, days after our email to her, Ms [redacted] responded again by email with the address where the units were: [redacted] ***On March 8, 2016, after another email request to her for a call, Ms [redacted] called to discuss her accountWhen I told her we are in Tarrant County and do not serve Athens, Texas, she begins to insist that we come pick up our equipmentContrary to her email stating she will get her rent caught up, she says she cannot afford to pay the back rent and late fees which had accrued to over $by that time, but says she will pay the $per mile pick up fee for an over mile trip when we arrive to get Page 4the equipment I offer to sell her the equipment for a much reduced price than their value to usShe says the machines don’t work; she won’t buy them, and again insists we pick them up.According to Google maps, round trip to the Palestine street address in Athens, TX is miles and would take us at least to hours with traffic through Dallas and loading machines time includedSince she said she could not afford back rent nor to purchase the equipment for around $200.00, we felt that her paying for our mileage when we got there was in doubtPlus our busiest time is the first weeks of the monthWe did not have hours to devote to driving to Athens to pick up equipment that she had broken the contract to moveI suggested she rent a Uhaul and bring the units back to NE Tarrant County since that was how she had gotten them to their current locationAfter our call, I sent her an invoice for the sale of the equipment for a total of $216.50, $for each unit plus taxWe are not in the business of selling washers and dryersWe rent washers and dryers for $per monthThis comes to over $per year per setWe expect to get to years of service from our machines, so we value them at quite a bit more than someone who would be purchasing used machinesBut in an effort to close this account, we offered Ms [redacted] a used machine priceWith the back rent, her total due came to over $I offered to allow her to pay it out over timeShe refused and insisted we pick upOn March 17th, days later, Ms [redacted] emails her agreement to make payments of $per month and gives the credit card information and phone number for [redacted] to pay the debtWe have no relationship with Mr ***, so we try to call him to obtain permission from him to use his charge cardWe tried over several days to contact Mr [redacted] by the phone number givenNo one answered the phone and it had no voicemail functionSo on March 23, we emailed Ms [redacted] that this isn’t workingThat day, Mr [redacted] calls us repeatedly to cuss us out, make threats against us, tells us he will charge us storage fees until we come to get the machines and generally harass usI call Ms [redacted] and tell her Mr [redacted] is not our customer and we will not be answering his calls or dealing with him againApril 3rd, Ms [redacted] ’s card was declined for April rentThe next business day April 4th, we emailed Ms [redacted] a statement of her account saying we were still waiting for paymentWe did not tell her we filed charges against her in Henderson County as she statesWe did tell her we had contacted the Henderson County District Attorney’s office about what could be done thereThis was done on the recommendation of our attorneyThe Henderson County DA’s office Page 5seemed more interested in the voicemail recordings left us by Mr ***We really weren’t interested in pursuing harassment charges against Mr [redacted] and so did not file any charges in Henderson CountyApril 5, 2016, Ms [redacted] sent an email suggesting I was stupid to pursue her and should just write this off as a bad debt because in her words, “Bless your heart, it must be tough not realizing that bad debt is a write off your taxes”And “Oh and since my momma raised me right...despite your rude behavior”.Ms [redacted] called several times this day as well, but did not speak when I picked up the phoneAlthough, if I let the voicemail answer, she was able to leave several rants that have been savedShe attributed this to the fact that she “lives way out in the country and calls drop out here” even though the address she gave for the washer/dryer is only miles from downtown, on a major road and within the city limits of AthensI tell her we are no longer willing to accept a credit card payment or a payout planWe felt she would not follow through on either option of paymentI told her we need a money order for the total debt of $(back rent from January through the sale date in April 2016, plus sales price) to clear her accountBy April 7th, we are in the 4th month of this and very tired of trying to settle this account only to be abused by Ms [redacted] and Mr ***I tried to call her several times this day, but she did not answerWhen she does call back late in the day, I make her a onetime/one day offerI drop the back rent so she only owes for the sale price of $Now she says that she wants to continue to pay rent but will not agree to pay past due amountI reemphasize that this offer of a drastically reduced price will last only one day and end the phone callApril 8th, Ms [redacted] ’s brother in law, Joe Lassiter calls and says he will pay the sales price for the washer/dryer for herWe email him a charge card permission form, he signs and returns to usWe collect the sales price and send both [redacted] and Lassiter a paid invoice for the washer/dryerAt this point, we thought the account closed and the harassment endedBut apparently, not for Ms [redacted] In answer to some points in her complaint:Although Ms [redacted] gave us several different accounts as to why she had to “unexpectedly move” to Athens, moving for her boyfriend’s job was not one of themOne story she told us was that her mother in law became sick suddenly and they picked up and moved to Athens to take care of herThis care was required hours a Page 6day, seven days a week for the months from January 3rd to February 25th, so that Ms [redacted] was unable to contact us either by phone or emailShe says the move was unexpected, costly and time consumingAgain I would say, her move would have been easier had she left the washer/dryer behindAnd if they spent their last $in November on a Uhaul rental and a new place to live, how did our rent payment of December 3, get made with no problems in the auto draft?She does offer to pay the past due rent amount in her emailsBut when speaking on the phone, she says she cannot afford to pay the past due account and continues to insist we pick up with every callIn her second paragraph she states that I have “been calling her repeatedly and sending emails”Then sentences later she states that she is “trying to pay [me] but [I] won’t answer or return [her] calls!!!” I find this rather ironic that I could do bothSome days I did call her repeatedly because our calls were constantly “dropped”, according to herSo when a call “dropped” in mid conversation, I did try to reach her again to try to finish the conversation and settle the accountShe states again “I want to pay bc my mother raised me right and I value my credit.” We believe our contract states clearly upfront what is expected from each customer and she signed her agreementWe believe we gave her ample opportunity to abide by the contract and pay her debts to usWe believe we went over and above to settle this account and close it by offering to sell her a perfectly good set when it was delivered for well below its value to us as a businessIf she values her credit rating and how her mother raised her right, then like everyone else who values their credit rating and family reputation, she should pay her obligations in full and on time to protect said rating instead of spending months doing everything possible to avoid paying what she owesOtherwise, there are consequences she will incurMs [redacted] and Mr [redacted] insisted in their phone calls that our equipment is junkWe delivered them working machines in July with only one complaint in the year and a half while they were being paid for that was quickly repaired We do not know what Ms [redacted] might have done to them in the interimMoving a washer and dryer without proper equipment can cause damages that will impair functionThis is one reason we insist on moving our equipmentBut if the washer and dryer were such ‘junk” as they state, why would they take the units when they moved?Page 7Thank you for your timeI will include a copy of our contract so that you can see what was agreed to by Ms [redacted] We have copies of all emails both to and from Ms [redacted] We have invoices, statements and payment history on the accountWe have notes from phone calls and recordings of the last few calls that we can forward as well if you would likeWe hope this meets your standards for good customer serviceWe value our reputation and have worked hard to provide good service to our customersWe feel that this sets us apart from our large competitorsWe have a long list of customers and apartment complexes in Tarrant County that regularly refer us to new customers because of our good serviceAs you stated when we spoke on the phone on April 18th, you didn’t find complaints against usThat is because we work diligently to provide good customer serviceOccasionally, we have had instances where we made apologies to customers and tried to correct what was wrongWe do not believe this to be a case of bad customer service on our part [redacted] [redacted] *** [redacted] ** [redacted] *** *** [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] ***

Thank
you for the opportunity to address Ms ***’s complaint about Clean RentsMs
*** did submit a contract for washer/dryer rental on Saturday, June 28th? It was approved and the
washer/dryer was delivered two business days later on July1, We had one
service issue call
from her Saturday, December 13, stating the dryer was
noisyRepairs were made Monday December 15, 2014, the next business dayRent was
collected on time monthly with the exception of months when her card was
declined at the auto draft for rent we do on the 3rd .of each month
We were able to contact her each time and collect rent before late fees were
addedThis
changed in January Her card on file was declined in the auto draft on the
3rd of the monthMonday January 4th was the first
business day after that run and we tried to contact Ms *** by phone on
the number ending in She did not answer and we left a messageWe followed
this up with an emailed invoice and request for payment, also sent on Monday,
January 4, We later found out she had changed her phone number, but did
not update usThe email address is the one she still uses to communicate with
us, *** When a card is declined, we use
both phone and email notification to try to reach the customer to collect rent
before late fees are added on the 5thWe had
no response from Ms *** in JanuaryIf rent
is not collected by the 15th of a month, we again try to reach out
to the customer through any form of contact we haveSo on January 15th,
we tried Ms ***’s number ending in againThis time the voice mail
recording said the phone belonged to “Lisa”We emailed an updated invoice
asking for response/paymentBy
January 21st and still no response from Ms ***, we mailed by
USPO a statement to her last known addressThat statement has not been
returned to us by the post office, so we believed it to have been deliveredBy
January 28th, we still had no response from Ms *** and with
February’s rent soon dueI went to Ms ***’s apartment and knockedNo
response, so I taped a statement and request for contact to her doorNormally,
if someone is having financial difficulties and are not trying to take our
equipment, they will call within a few days of our first attempt at contact and
work out a payment plan or a pick up plan so they are no longer financially
obligated for the washer/dryer rent.? Page 2This
didn’t happen with Ms ***After
taping a statement to her door with no response, we called Ms ***’s
landlord at the N Richland Hills apartment complexThis information was
provided to us by Ms *** when she submitted her contract in July We
were told that Ms *** had left at the end of her year lease in July
A one year lease is standard in the apartment communitySeventeen month leases
(July through November 2015) are not standardThe landlord said that Ms
*** had not skipped before the end of her lease nor ended her lease
earlyThis
does not agree with the time frame in Ms ***’s complaintWe can supply
you the landlord name and phone number if you would likeMs
***’s card on file was declined for February rentOur
contract, which Ms *** agreed to and signed her agreement to, states on
page “Clean Rents must move the equipment”There are several other clauses
that address the removal of our equipmentClause states “Failure
[to return equipment] may result in Lessee being held responsible for ALL
reasonable costs incurred by Clean Rents to retrieve its equipment and/or the
entire replacement cost of the equipment if Clean Rents is unable to retrieve
its equipment.”When a customer moves our equipment without
notification of the move or information as to where our equipment is, stops
paying rent and does not respond to our attempts to contact them, we view this
as theftBoth theft of property and rental theft as explained in the contract
and Texas Penal Code Section And we start the process of reporting said
theftOn February 15, 2016, we again reached out
to Ms *** by email since no other contact information was validIn this email
we warned her about theft chargesWe again requested her to contact us to
settle her accountOn February 25, 2016, days after our
first attempt to reach her for non-payment and only after we warned her of
theft charges, Ms *** contacted us for the first timeHer email stated:“I have moved east tx unexpectedlyI can either
make the payment to bring the account up to date or we can make arrangements
for pick upPlease let me know your preference and I do sincerely apologize
for the inconvenienceThanks,Sylvia” She did not include current contact
information other than the email address we had been using.Page 3We use a Vonage phone lineThis is through
the computerThis service records every phone number from calls made and
received and allows us to look up dates and times of calls based on phone
numbersWe have searched this database for calls from Ms ***’s phone number
on account ending in 7327, her current number ending in and her
boyfriend’s number ending in We find no calls from any of these numbers
from June 2014, a month before her apartment lease ended, through February
when she finally contacted usThere were also no emails from her during
this periodFrom this information we conclude that Ms ***
did not try to contact us to move or pick up our equipment at any time before
she moved itOur contact information is on the control panel of every machine
we rentShe states in her complaint that she spent
her last $on a Uhaul large enough to hold her belongings and our
equipment and only had days to pack and moveShe might have lowered her
Uhaul expense and definitely cut her loading time by contacting us to come and
get our equipmentShe might have left our equipment behindUsually in these
cases the landlord contacts us to come get our equipment when they find it in
an abandoned apartmentOur label on every unit includes our name, phone
number, email address and our website addressMultiple ways for a customer or
landlord to contact us to retrieve our equipment or to discuss problems like a
sudden moveThe message function of our phones is available hours a dayWe
would have contacted her the next business day to work out a plan if a message
was left overnightBut Ms *** states she was unable to
do this minute task in the days she was packing? We responded to Ms ***’s February 25th email on that date asking for the location of the equipment to be able to make
a decision about picking up the equipment.March 3rd, Ms ***’s card
was declined for March rentMarch 4th, days after our
email to her, Ms *** responded again by email with the address where the
units were: *** * *** *** ** ***On March
8, 2016, after another email request to her for a call, Ms *** called to
discuss her accountWhen I told her we are in Tarrant County and do not serve
Athens, Texas, she begins to insist that we come pick up our equipmentContrary
to her email stating she will get her rent caught up, she says she cannot
afford to pay the back rent and late fees which had accrued to over $by
that time, but says she will pay the $per mile pick up fee for an over
mile trip when we arrive to get Page 4the equipment
I offer to sell her the equipment for a much reduced price than their value to
usShe says the machines don’t work; she won’t buy them, and again insists we
pick them up.According
to Google maps, round trip to the Palestine street address in Athens, TX is
miles and would take us at least to hours with traffic through Dallas and
loading machines time includedSince she said she could not afford back rent
nor to purchase the equipment for around $200.00, we felt that her paying for
our mileage when we got there was in doubtPlus our busiest time is the first
weeks of the monthWe did not have hours to devote to driving to Athens to
pick up equipment that she had broken the contract to moveI suggested she
rent a Uhaul and bring the units back to NE Tarrant County since that was how
she had gotten them to their current locationAfter
our call, I sent her an invoice for the sale of the equipment for a total of
$216.50, $for each unit plus taxWe are
not in the business of selling washers and dryersWe rent washers and dryers
for $per monthThis comes to over $per year per setWe expect to
get to years of service from our machines, so we value them at quite a
bit more than someone who would be purchasing used machinesBut in an effort
to close this account, we offered Ms *** a used machine priceWith the
back rent, her total due came to over $I offered to allow her to pay it
out over timeShe refused and insisted we pick upOn March
17th, days later, Ms *** emails her agreement to make
payments of $per month and gives the credit card information and phone
number for *** *** to pay the debtWe have no relationship with Mr
***, so we try to call him to obtain permission from him to use his charge cardWe tried
over several days to contact Mr *** by the phone number givenNo one answered
the phone and it had no voicemail functionSo on March 23, we emailed Ms
*** that this isn’t workingThat day, Mr *** calls us repeatedly to
cuss us out, make threats against us, tells us he will charge us storage fees
until we come to get the machines and generally harass usI call Ms ***
and tell her Mr *** is not our customer and we will not be answering his
calls or dealing with him againApril 3rd, Ms ***’s card
was declined for April rentThe next business day April 4th,
we emailed Ms *** a statement of her account saying we were still waiting
for paymentWe did not tell her we filed charges against her in Henderson
County as she statesWe did tell her we had contacted the Henderson County
District Attorney’s office about what could be done thereThis was done on the
recommendation of our attorneyThe Henderson County DA’s office Page 5seemed more interested in the voicemail
recordings left us by Mr ***We really weren’t interested in pursuing
harassment charges against Mr *** and so did not file any charges in
Henderson CountyApril 5, 2016, Ms *** sent an email suggesting
I was stupid to pursue her and should just write this off as a bad debt because
in her words, “Bless your heart, it must be tough not realizing
that bad debt is a write off your taxes”And “Oh and since my momma raised me
right...despite your rude behavior”.Ms *** called several times this day as
well, but did not speak when I picked up the phoneAlthough, if I let the voicemail
answer, she was able to leave several rants that have been savedShe
attributed this to the fact that she “lives way out in the country and calls
drop out here” even though the address she gave for the washer/dryer is only
miles from downtown, on a major road and within the city limits of AthensI
tell her we are no longer willing to accept a credit card payment or a payout
planWe felt she would not follow through on either option of paymentI told
her we need a money order for the total debt of $(back rent from January
through the sale date in April 2016, plus sales price) to clear her
accountBy April 7th, we are in the 4th month of this and very tired of trying to settle this account only to be abused
by Ms *** and Mr ***I tried to call her several times this day, but
she did not answerWhen she does call back late in the day, I make her a
onetime/one day offerI drop the back rent so she only owes for the sale price
of $Now she says that she wants to continue to pay
rent but will not agree to pay past due amountI reemphasize that this offer
of a drastically reduced price will last only one day and end the phone callApril 8th,
Ms ***’s brother in law, Joe Lassiter calls and says he will pay the sales
price for the washer/dryer for herWe email him a charge card permission form,
he signs and returns to usWe collect the sales price and send both ***
and Lassiter a paid invoice for the washer/dryerAt this
point, we thought the account closed and the harassment endedBut apparently,
not for Ms ***In
answer to some points in her complaint:Although
Ms *** gave us several different accounts as to why she had to
“unexpectedly move” to Athens, moving for her boyfriend’s job was not one of
themOne story she told us was that her mother in law became sick suddenly and
they picked up and moved to Athens to take care of herThis care was required
hours a Page 6day,
seven days a week for the months from January 3rd to February 25th,
so that Ms *** was unable to contact us either by phone or emailShe says
the move was unexpected, costly and time consumingAgain I would say, her move
would have been easier had she left the washer/dryer behindAnd if they spent
their last $in November on a Uhaul rental and a new place to live,
how did our rent payment of December 3, get made with no problems in the
auto draft?She does
offer to pay the past due rent amount in her emailsBut when speaking on the
phone, she says she cannot afford to pay the past due account and continues to
insist we pick up with every callIn her
second paragraph she states that I have “been calling her repeatedly and
sending emails”Then sentences later she states that she is “trying to pay
[me] but [I] won’t answer or return [her] calls!!!” I find this rather ironic
that I could do bothSome days I did call her repeatedly because our calls
were constantly “dropped”, according to herSo when a call “dropped” in mid conversation,
I did try to reach her again to try to finish the conversation and settle the
accountShe
states again “I want to pay bc my mother raised me right and I value my
credit.” We believe our contract states clearly upfront what is expected from each
customer and she signed her agreementWe believe we gave her ample opportunity
to abide by the contract and pay her debts to usWe believe we went over and
above to settle this account and close it by offering to sell her a perfectly
good set when it was delivered for well below its value to us as a businessIf she
values her credit rating and how her mother raised her right, then like
everyone else who values their credit rating and family reputation, she should
pay her obligations in full and on time to protect said rating instead of
spending months doing everything possible to avoid paying what she owesOtherwise,
there are consequences she will incurMs
*** and Mr *** insisted in their phone calls that our equipment is
junkWe delivered them working machines in July with only one complaint in
the year and a half while they were being paid for that was quickly repaired
We do not know what Ms *** might have done to them in the interimMoving
a washer and dryer without proper equipment can cause damages that will impair
functionThis is one reason we insist on moving our equipmentBut if the
washer and dryer were such ‘junk” as they state, why would they take the units
when they moved?Page 7Thank
you for your timeI will include a copy of our contract so that you can see
what was agreed to by Ms ***We have copies of all emails both to and
from Ms ***We have invoices, statements and payment history on the
accountWe have notes from phone calls and recordings of the last few calls
that we can forward as well if you would likeWe hope
this meets your standards for good customer serviceWe value our reputation
and have worked hard to provide good service to our customersWe feel that
this sets us apart from our large competitorsWe have a long list of customers
and apartment complexes in Tarrant County that regularly refer us to new
customers because of our good serviceAs you
stated when we spoke on the phone on April 18th, you didn’t find
complaints against usThat is because we work diligently to provide good
customer serviceOccasionally, we have had instances where we made apologies
to customers and tried to correct what was wrongWe do not believe this to be
a case of bad customer service on our part? ***
*** ***?
*** ***?
** *** **?
*** ** ***?
***? ***?
***?
*** ***

Thank
you for the opportunity to address Ms [redacted]’s complaint about Clean Rents. Ms
[redacted] did submit a contract for washer/dryer rental on Saturday, June 28th.  It was approved and the
washer/dryer was delivered two business days later on July1, 2014. We had one
service issue call...

from her Saturday, December 13, 2014 stating the dryer was
noisy. Repairs were made Monday December 15, 2014, the next business day. Rent was
collected on time monthly with the exception of 2 months when her card was
declined at the auto draft for rent we do on the 3rd .of each month.
We were able to contact her each time and collect rent before late fees were
added. This
changed in January 2016. Her card on file was declined in the auto draft on the
3rd of the month. Monday January 4th was the first
business day after that run and we tried to contact Ms [redacted] by phone on
the number ending in 7327. She did not answer and we left a message. We followed
this up with an emailed invoice and request for payment, also sent on Monday,
January 4, 2016. We later found out she had changed her phone number, but did
not update us. The email address is the one she still uses to communicate with
us, [redacted] When a card is declined, we use
both phone and email notification to try to reach the customer to collect rent
before late fees are added on the 5th. We had
no response from Ms [redacted] in January. If rent
is not collected by the 15th of a month, we again try to reach out
to the customer through any form of contact we have. So on January 15th,
we tried Ms [redacted]’s number ending in 7327 again. This time the voice mail
recording said the phone belonged to “Lisa”. We emailed an updated invoice
asking for response/payment. By
January 21st and still no response from Ms [redacted], we mailed by
USPO a statement to her last known address. That statement has not been
returned to us by the post office, so we believed it to have been delivered. By
January 28th, we still had no response from Ms [redacted] and with
February’s rent soon due. I went to Ms [redacted]’s apartment and knocked. No
response, so I taped a statement and request for contact to her door. Normally,
if someone is having financial difficulties and are not trying to take our
equipment, they will call within a few days of our first attempt at contact and
work out a payment plan or a pick up plan so they are no longer financially
obligated for the washer/dryer rent.  Page 2This
didn’t happen with Ms [redacted]. After
taping a statement to her door with no response, we called Ms [redacted]’s
landlord at the N Richland Hills apartment complex. This information was
provided to us by Ms [redacted] when she submitted her contract in July 2014. We
were told that Ms [redacted] had left at the end of her year lease in July 2015.
A one year lease is standard in the apartment community. Seventeen month leases
(July 2014 through November 2015) are not standard. The landlord said that Ms
[redacted] had not skipped before the end of her lease nor ended her lease
early. This
does not agree with the time frame in Ms [redacted]’s complaint. We can supply
you the landlord name and phone number if you would like. Ms
[redacted]’s card on file was declined for February 2016 rent. Our
contract, which Ms [redacted] agreed to and signed her agreement to, states on
page 1 “Clean Rents must move the equipment”. There are several other clauses
that address the removal of our equipment. Clause 7 states “Failure
[to return equipment] may result in Lessee being held responsible for ALL
reasonable costs incurred by Clean Rents to retrieve its equipment and/or the
entire replacement cost of the equipment if Clean Rents is unable to retrieve
its equipment.”When a customer moves our equipment without
notification of the move or information as to where our equipment is, stops
paying rent and does not respond to our attempts to contact them, we view this
as theft. Both theft of property and rental theft as explained in the contract
and Texas Penal Code Section 31.04. And we start the process of reporting said
theft. On February 15, 2016, we again reached out
to Ms [redacted] by email since no other contact information was valid. In this email
we warned her about theft charges. We again requested her to contact us to
settle her account. On February 25, 2016, 53 days after our
first attempt to reach her for non-payment and only after we warned her of
theft charges, Ms [redacted] contacted us for the first time. Her email stated:“I have moved east tx unexpectedly. I can either
make the payment to bring the account up to date or we can make arrangements
for pick up. Please let me know your preference and I do sincerely apologize
for the inconvenience. Thanks,Sylvia” She did not include current contact
information other than the email address we had been using.Page 3We use a Vonage phone line. This is through
the computer. This service records every phone number from calls made and
received and allows us to look up dates and times of calls based on phone
numbers. We have searched this database for calls from Ms [redacted]’s phone number
on account ending in 7327, her current number ending in 6454 and her
boyfriend’s number ending in 9645. We find no calls from any of these numbers
from June 2014, a month before her apartment lease ended, through February 2016
when she finally contacted us. There were also no emails from her during
this period. From this information we conclude that Ms [redacted]
did not try to contact us to move or pick up our equipment at any time before
she moved it. Our contact information is on the control panel of every machine
we rent. She states in her complaint that she spent
her last $200.00 on a Uhaul large enough to hold her belongings and our
equipment and only had 3 days to pack and move. She might have lowered her
Uhaul expense and definitely cut her loading time by contacting us to come and
get our equipment. She might have left our equipment behind. Usually in these
cases the landlord contacts us to come get our equipment when they find it in
an abandoned apartment. Our label on every unit includes our name, phone
number, email address and our website address. Multiple ways for a customer or
landlord to contact us to retrieve our equipment or to discuss problems like a
sudden move. The message function of our phones is available 24 hours a day. We
would have contacted her the next business day to work out a plan if a message
was left overnight. But Ms [redacted] states she was unable to
do this 2 minute task in the 3 days she was packing.  We responded to Ms [redacted]’s February 25th email on that date asking for the location of the equipment to be able to make
a decision about picking up the equipment.March 3rd, Ms [redacted]’s card
was declined for March rent. March 4th, 8 days after our
email to her, Ms [redacted] responded again by email with the address where the
units were: [redacted]On March
8, 2016, after another email request to her for a call, Ms [redacted] called to
discuss her account. When I told her we are in Tarrant County and do not serve
Athens, Texas, she begins to insist that we come pick up our equipment. Contrary
to her email stating she will get her rent caught up, she says she cannot
afford to pay the back rent and late fees which had accrued to over $130.00 by
that time, but says she will pay the $1.00 per mile pick up fee for an over 200
mile trip when we arrive to get Page 4the equipment.
I offer to sell her the equipment for a much reduced price than their value to
us. She says the machines don’t work; she won’t buy them, and again insists we
pick them up.According
to Google maps, round trip to the Palestine street address in Athens, TX is 220
miles and would take us at least 4 to 5 hours with traffic through Dallas and
loading machines time included. Since she said she could not afford back rent
nor to purchase the equipment for around $200.00, we felt that her paying for
our mileage when we got there was in doubt. Plus our busiest time is the first 2
weeks of the month. We did not have 5 hours to devote to driving to Athens to
pick up equipment that she had broken the contract to move. I suggested she
rent a Uhaul and bring the units back to NE Tarrant County since that was how
she had gotten them to their current location. After
our call, I sent her an invoice for the sale of the equipment for a total of
$216.50, $100 for each unit plus tax. We are
not in the business of selling washers and dryers. We rent washers and dryers
for $35.67 per month. This comes to over $428 per year per set. We expect to
get 10 to 15 years of service from our machines, so we value them at quite a
bit more than someone who would be purchasing used machines. But in an effort
to close this account, we offered Ms [redacted] a used machine price. With the
back rent, her total due came to over $400. I offered to allow her to pay it
out over time. She refused and insisted we pick up. On March
17th, 9 days later, Ms [redacted] emails her agreement to make
payments of $50.00 per month and gives the credit card information and phone
number for [redacted] to pay the debt. We have no relationship with Mr
[redacted], so we try to call him to obtain permission from him to use his charge card. We tried
over several days to contact Mr [redacted] by the phone number given. No one answered
the phone and it had no voicemail function. So on March 23, we emailed Ms
[redacted] that this isn’t working. That day, Mr [redacted] calls us repeatedly to
cuss us out, make threats against us, tells us he will charge us storage fees
until we come to get the machines and generally harass us. I call Ms [redacted]
and tell her Mr [redacted] is not our customer and we will not be answering his
calls or dealing with him again. April 3rd, Ms [redacted]’s card
was declined for April rent. The next business day April 4th,
we emailed Ms [redacted] a statement of her account saying we were still waiting
for payment. We did not tell her we filed charges against her in Henderson
County as she states. We did tell her we had contacted the Henderson County
District Attorney’s office about what could be done there. This was done on the
recommendation of our attorney. The Henderson County DA’s office Page 5seemed more interested in the voicemail
recordings left us by Mr [redacted]. We really weren’t interested in pursuing
harassment charges against Mr [redacted] and so did not file any charges in
Henderson County. April 5, 2016, Ms [redacted] sent an email suggesting
I was stupid to pursue her and should just write this off as a bad debt because
in her words, “Bless your heart, it must be tough not realizing
that bad debt is a write off your taxes”. And “Oh and since my momma raised me
right...despite your rude behavior”.Ms [redacted] called several times this day as
well, but did not speak when I picked up the phone. Although, if I let the voicemail
answer, she was able to leave several rants that have been saved. She
attributed this to the fact that she “lives way out in the country and calls
drop out here” even though the address she gave for the washer/dryer is only 2
miles from downtown, on a major road and within the city limits of Athens. I
tell her we are no longer willing to accept a credit card payment or a payout
plan. We felt she would not follow through on either option of payment. I told
her we need a money order for the total debt of $422.74 (back rent from January
2016 through the sale date in April 2016, plus sales price) to clear her
account. By April 7th, we are in the 4th month of this and very tired of trying to settle this account only to be abused
by Ms [redacted] and Mr [redacted]. I tried to call her several times this day, but
she did not answer. When she does call back late in the day, I make her a
onetime/one day offer. I drop the back rent so she only owes for the sale price
of $216.50. Now she says that she wants to continue to pay
rent but will not agree to pay past due amount. I reemphasize that this offer
of a drastically reduced price will last only one day and end the phone call. April 8th,
Ms [redacted]’s brother in law, Joe Lassiter calls and says he will pay the sales
price for the washer/dryer for her. We email him a charge card permission form,
he signs and returns to us. We collect the sales price and send both [redacted]
and Lassiter a paid invoice for the washer/dryer. At this
point, we thought the account closed and the harassment ended. But apparently,
not for Ms [redacted]. In
answer to some points in her complaint:Although
Ms [redacted] gave us several different accounts as to why she had to
“unexpectedly move” to Athens, moving for her boyfriend’s job was not one of
them. One story she told us was that her mother in law became sick suddenly and
they picked up and moved to Athens to take care of her. This care was required
24 hours a Page 6day,
seven days a week for the 2 months from January 3rd to February 25th,
so that Ms [redacted] was unable to contact us either by phone or email. She says
the move was unexpected, costly and time consuming. Again I would say, her move
would have been easier had she left the washer/dryer behind. And if they spent
their last $200.00 in November 2015 on a Uhaul rental and a new place to live,
how did our rent payment of December 3, 2015 get made with no problems in the
auto draft?She does
offer to pay the past due rent amount in her emails. But when speaking on the
phone, she says she cannot afford to pay the past due account and continues to
insist we pick up with every call. In her
second paragraph she states that I have “been calling her repeatedly and
sending emails”. Then 3 sentences later she states that she is “trying to pay
[me] but [I] won’t answer or return [her] calls!!!” I find this rather ironic
that I could do both. Some days I did call her repeatedly because our calls
were constantly “dropped”, according to her. So when a call “dropped” in mid conversation,
I did try to reach her again to try to finish the conversation and settle the
account. She
states again “I want to pay bc my mother raised me right and I value my
credit.” We believe our contract states clearly upfront what is expected from each
customer and she signed her agreement. We believe we gave her ample opportunity
to abide by the contract and pay her debts to us. We believe we went over and
above to settle this account and close it by offering to sell her a perfectly
good set when it was delivered for well below its value to us as a business. If she
values her credit rating and how her mother raised her right, then like
everyone else who values their credit rating and family reputation, she should
pay her obligations in full and on time to protect said rating instead of
spending 4 months doing everything possible to avoid paying what she owes. Otherwise,
there are consequences she will incur. Ms
[redacted] and Mr [redacted] insisted in their phone calls that our equipment is
junk. We delivered them working machines in July 2014 with only one complaint in
the year and a half while they were being paid for that was quickly repaired.
We do not know what Ms [redacted] might have done to them in the interim. Moving
a washer and dryer without proper equipment can cause damages that will impair
function. This is one reason we insist on moving our equipment. But if the
washer and dryer were such ‘junk” as they state, why would they take the units
when they moved?Page 7Thank
you for your time. I will include a copy of our contract so that you can see
what was agreed to by Ms [redacted]. We have copies of all emails both to and
from Ms [redacted]. We have invoices, statements and payment history on the
account. We have notes from phone calls and recordings of the last few calls
that we can forward as well if you would like. We hope
this meets your standards for good customer service. We value our reputation
and have worked hard to provide good service to our customers. We feel that
this sets us apart from our large competitors. We have a long list of customers
and apartment complexes in Tarrant County that regularly refer us to new
customers because of our good service. As you
stated when we spoke on the phone on April 18th, you didn’t find
complaints against us. That is because we work diligently to provide good
customer service. Occasionally, we have had instances where we made apologies
to customers and tried to correct what was wrong. We do not believe this to be
a case of bad customer service on our part.  [redacted]
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