U.K. Retailers / Loan Sharks BrightHouse Have No Stock

Latest reports are saying that BrightHouse, a U.K. high street, "rent to buy" operation targeting the "sub-prime" market, have absolutely no stock.

The high street stores are still pushing their "no deposit", "low weekly payment", "no credit checks" schemes at the poor and non-credit-worthy using the pushiest, most immoral sale tatics ever developed. However at the moment it seems that new customers are not getting items delivered! Well they can't have a delivery, there's no stock!

Hire Purchase agreements are being created using an item that might be in a shop's store room, like a portable T.V. or a table lamp, but the Hire Purchase agreement has been created to get a customer signed up for a large screen L.C.D. T.V., furniture, kitchen electricals, etc. The customers have entered into an agreement so are signed up and paying weekly but there's no sign of a delivery of the product they actually want. If the item they actually want turns up the agreement gets changed to this item. You see the computer system doesn't allow you to create an agreement unless you have an item available to create the agreement with.

There's no stock, except the little things like the already mentioned portable T.V. and table lamp, in the shops and sources say nothing in the warehouses and distribution centres either. Sources also say there's no word on stock being in the pipeline either.

Doesn't sound honest or right to me, but so what? I wonder how you could get the U.K.'s D.T.I. to look into something like this? I believe they take a dim view of sales people taking money, especially in a weekly Hire Purchase sense, on goods that don't exist.