Couch + Chainsaw = Repo.

[repsac]

Not sure if this should be in sightings or not since well, I didn't exactly see it. It was related to me way back when I worked for a Heilig Myers. And yeah, I suspect I spelled that wrong

I don't have all the details to do it justice, but one story that sticks in my mind is a wonderful reposession done just before I started working there.


This woman had purchased a couch from the store using a payment plan. Real easy payments too, only about ten dollars a month or so. Back then, even I could have afforded that, and I was a college student. (nuff said)

Well, after paying for a month or two, the woman decided she'd paid enough and didn't want to do anymore. So, she quit paying. The store sent the delivery truck and the sales/credit manager out to get the couch.

Here's the thing. This lady lived in a single wide trailer. When the crew had taken the couch out the first time, they had to remove a window to get it in the home. (this is actually common) The lady, when they returned to take it, refused to let them remove the window. Her idea being that if they couldn't get it out the door, they couldn't take the couch back. This she said to them point blank.

She was wrong. So very wrong.

One of the men wandered out to the truck, dragged out the chainsaw they kept in there just in case they needed to trim a limb or two so the truck could pass. Walking back inside, the credit manager turned to her and asked one last time for her to let them take out the window. When she refused, they cut the couch into manageble bits right there in her living room and tossed each one out through the front door.

They then posed in front of her trailer, holding up the bits of couch and saw proudly.

I remember seeing the pictures, and have to admit that even now while I may not agree with their chosen method...

You gotta admit. It had STYLE!

[gypsywitch84]

Either way, the store isn't going to get money for the couch. Unless they can put it back together without it looking like Frankencouch.

[Worker-Intellectual]

should have cut up the trailer

[Sofar]

I for one would buy a Frankensofa.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

We used to have a really cheap, flimsy couch in our breakroom. Basically a plank of wood to serve as the back surrounded by a bunch of foam rubber to form a couch and covered in some cheap fabric cover.

That thing was so groaty and stained when we got rid of it. We recquisitioned a futon and mattress instead, and I got the task of cutting the couch apart and tossing the pieces into the compacto.

Getting paid to destroy stuff at work is fun.

[Crosshair]

There is a couch in my Hi-School called the Orgie Couch. Yea, you never sat on that Couch. It is hidden in one part of the school that I am not going to devulge.

[Ree]

should have cut up the trailer

Well that would be an incredibly destructive way of handling things, wouldn't it?
It was just a couch, so why would you destroy a person's home over it?

Funny story, but who really won with that solution?
The lady doesn't have the couch anymore, but the company still doesn't have their money. They paid the staff to retrieve the couch, and now they can't sell the couch to recoup the loss.

[Banrion]

Funny story, but who really won with that solution?
The lady doesn't have the couch anymore, but the company still doesn't have their money. They paid the staff to retrieve the couch, and now they can't sell the couch to recoup the loss.

I think this is a case of principal. Yes the store took a steep loss, but they would have taken the same loss by letting the SC keep the couch. So as a matter of principal they destroy the couch instead. Why let the SC benefit? This is one of those times that most of us pray for in retail because someone finally stood up to a customer.

[protege]

Getting paid to destroy stuff at work is fun.

This is true. Has anyone seen what happens to a shopping cart in the compactor? We had one get hit by a car...and was written off. Boss told us to "make it disappear" so we had a little fun

[Broomjockey]

You know those large carboard cut-out movie advertisements they have in theatres? Try taking those suckers apart! You have to get creative, which has in the past using a broom handle to break it apart, full-body tackles, taking it through a doorway too small to get it through, punching it to pieces, and kicking it. Then, once it's in manageable pieces, into the compactor it goes!

[Banrion]

Then, once it's in manageable pieces, into the compactor it goes!

SACRILEDGE!!! You very carefully take them apart, put them back in the box they came in, and sell them on E-BAY!! (for the good movies at least) I still have my 6' x 8' American Beauty standee, and the 8' Goldmember balloon, and a LOTR standee. You are in a position of great power when you hold onto these pieces of pop-culture. That was one of my favorite things about the theatre, getting paid to sit in a backroom and put together/ take apart standees. You also wouldn't belive how handy those silly plastic screws and wingnuts can be in some household settings.

[MadMike]

I think this is a case of principal. Yes the store took a steep loss, but they would have taken the same loss by letting the SC keep the couch. So as a matter of principal they destroy the couch instead. Why let the SC benefit? This is one of those times that most of us pray for in retail because someone finally stood up to a customer.

I have to agree -- if the customer was able to keep the couch by simply refusing to let them remove the windows to get it out, how long would it have been before every other scammer started doing the same thing? Either eat the cost of one couch now, or the cost of a hundred couches later on.

[Crosshair]

You know those large carboard cut-out movie advertisements they have in theatres? Try taking those suckers apart!

An 8 pound sledgehammer works wonders on those things.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

You know, I worked a couple short, seasonal stints at the zoo when I was younger. They used the same method to remove a dead hippo from a moat.

Come to think of it, they also used this method of removal on a very large dead giraffe, too.

[Ree]

Yes the store took a steep loss, but they would have taken the same loss by letting the SC keep the couch.

But there are always collections agencies and garnishment of wgaes or small claims.
I guess all of those cost money too.
Maybe I'm just tight with my money, but it seems like a huge loss just for a principal.