"
With respect to the "rental" payments customers made to appellants, the Division determined that, "[l]ike the `purchase price,' the intervening `rent' payments were unrelated to the actual value of the property listed in the transactional documents." As noted earlier, the lease agreement required that customers pay appellants $30 per item as "rent"which the Division characterized as "$30 per $100 principal"at 15 day intervals.
With respect to repayment of the funds advanced to customers, the Division pointed out that,
[i]f a customer did not have sufficient funds to pay the money advanced on the due date, he or she could continue to pay $30 "rent" with respect to every $100 advanced for successive 15-day terms. Many customers found it difficult to come up with the $270 ordinarily required at the end of the first 15-day period and often paid "rent" many times the value of the property they were "renting."
As one customer testified, "I really got stressed out ... paying $60 and never getting anywhere." Another explained: "It was hard for me to get $270. I was behind already with my bills. And ... the interest part I could pay but I just couldn't pay the $270." The Division concluded that if customers "had known of an option to surrender property rather than repay the funds advanced, they would have done so.... [C]ustomers whose goods were worth less than $100 also would have surrendered the property, if they understood it was an option." That conclusion was further bolstered by the testimony of customers Sharon Martin, Cynthia Peacock, and Joanne Anthony. Martin was asked, "If anybody had told you you could turn in your car phone and radio and not have to pay the $200 back, would you have?" She responded, "Yes, I would have turned it in." Peacock gave similar testimony:
Q. Did the person at Cash-2-U tell you anything about your being able to bring the TVs in and their forgiving the $200?
A. No, that was never mentioned.
Q. If someone had offered to take the TVs off your hands for $200, what would your respons