To be delighted that Brighthouse is about to go bust?

[AgeLikeWine]

It’s not all bad news at the moment. .

Brighthouse is a nasty, exploitative business which rips off the poor, the uneducated and the vulnerable by selling household goods at inflated prices on finance at extortionate interest rates. Their business model relies on creating spirals of debt in a similar way to Wonga.

Normally I would sympathise with the staff of businesses which go bust, but not in this case. Good riddance.

I'm really proud to say that my charity has directly supported women in poverty. One group actually increased income (or decreased outgoings) for a group of women to the tune of over £50,000!

Perhaps if I didn't have that safety net I'd feel differently about the ethics of working for someone like Brighthouse. Or perhaps I wouldn't: there's no point in me keeping my house if my job is so exploitative of me or others that I am suicidal from it. I have both depression and strong opinions about ethics, and when I am compelled to do something that I believe to be wrong, it severely aggravates my depression.

You have such strong ethics that you would rather you and any children you may have be starving on the street than work at Brighthouse and expect everyone to do the same? What a bastion of fucking morality you are.

bd67thSaysReinstateLangCleg

Figurative compared to literal.

Also, I believe there is more choice in Brighthouse stores.
But please carry on. I am so enjoying this thread.

"I have both depression and strong opinions about ethics, and when I am compelled to do something that I believe to be wrong, it severely aggravates my depression."

A lot of people also feel this way about the threat of impending homelessness and starvation.

"My local Lau drette costs vary for load size.
£4.50 for a family 7kg wash only.
£1.50 for 60min dry.
£9.50 for a double non feather duvet.
It's a fab launderette tbh bit it also costs £6.50 return to get there on the bus.
Using it for a year would cost a fair bit and I only have the one kid."

One 7kg wash is not a lot either so even with trying to limit laundry, with a family you are going to need a few of those a week.

7kg dry is one thing, but if you are not drying then that might be around double the weight to carry back wet. You might struggle to do more than one load in a trip if you are a small framed woman, so that is a lot of time and a lot of travel costs.

The one nearest to me doesn't open at the weekend which i discovered when I returned from holiday to a broken machine and we work full time.

The models we see today such as Brighthouse, and other sub prime lenders, feed into such worries.

They may feed into those worries, but surely better to give other options, better options, than remove those options.

My parents were abusive and neglectful. Everyone knew, but nothing could be done for a long time because my father was smart as well as evil. We were eventually taken by my grandparents when I was 7 when my father burned my brother's arm with the iron and my Nana basically took us and dared my parents to take her to court.

When my kids were 6 months old my ex left. By the time they were 3 I had the girls and my Nana to care for, she had dementia. My ex made repeated vexatious calls about concerns about my parenting - he didn't visit his kids or pay a penny toward them, just made my life hell.

I had a job in a school, I struggled with the cost of childcare, but I was told it looked better if I worked. I was monitored by a social worker who clearly expected me to go down the drink or drugs route like my parents had. Unannounced visits. Checks with the nursery. Phone calls if they missed a day and I didn't call her quick enough. Basically making sure the same fuck up wasn't made with my kids as was made with me. When I eventually quit work and went onto benefits full time I was actually £12 a week better off.

I'm not unusual. Thousands of women are financial abused by their exes. Thousands are in the poverty trap and thousands have a sod's law situation whereby two things always happen at once.

I paid £8 a week for my machine and cooker. I think it was for 3 years. So over £1000. But they were reliable, new, delivered quickly and affordable on a week-to-week basis. They were a shit option, but they were an option.

Choice is the greatest wealth in life imo. Removing yet another choice from the poorest in society without replacing it with something better just forces them to go for the next worse option. Local money lenders will have a field day with this because there is no-one else who will lend the people who use Brighthouse for essentials money.

@MonkeyToesOfDoom

www.brighthouse.co.uk/appliances/washers-and-dryers/hoover-13kg-washing-machine-graphite-hv413lwg

I'm not sure where you get £200 from. But a washing machine over 52 weeks, as shown in the example here, is £923. Have you seen a 9kg in Currys for £923?

I agree that launderettes aren't the answer in terms of economics.

My washing machine cost £329, in 2012. It's a 9kg drum.

If I went to Brighthouse, I'd be paying well over a grand for the same model.

My washing machine cost £329, in 2012. It's a 9kg drum.

If I went to Brighthouse, I'd be paying well over a grand for the same model.

yes, but what if you didn't have £329 in 2012? What if you had no way of borrowing £329 in 2012?

I worked with very vulnerable, poor families and they liked Bright House, they got new goods which got replaced when they broke ( which was more often than the average). Bright House is similar to what radio rentals was and no one used to foam at the mouth about them

You have such strong ethics that you would rather you and any children you may have be starving on the street than work at Brighthouse and expect everyone to do the same? What a bastion of fucking morality you are.

When you have the scars from a workplace suicide attempt, you get to judge me. Until then, you have no fucking idea.

@lyralalala

I'm sorry you've been through so much. I do agree. That's the point though. It shouldn't have to be the only option.

Until we examine needs such as basic sanitary requirements, and address poverty as a social malaise, then models such as Brighthouse will continue to exist. They dont meet a need, they create further needs. As a short term option, a quick cash injection, yes. That's what PDL companies did initially. PDLs relied on people being able to pay them back within a month. It spiralled out of control.

I keep saying it, if one thing comes out of this pandemic, it is putting even the hardest out of business, there will be no winners. But, those that have been abused financially now stand a chance of building a new life and not subject to high interest because they cant afford to buy, the most basic of needs.

I have, and I still have ethics about what work I'll do. There's no point doing a job that makes me suicidal, I've made that mistake before and it doesn't end well.

Please. So you would rather your family starving and on the streets than lower yourself to work somewhere like Brighthouse? If you were given that choice, which is a choice that many have to make every day, what would you choose? Your morals, or your family?

@MonkeyToesOfDoom

But I did link to the thread topic....

You're telling me, your friend bought a washing machine for £200 and repaid £320, 12 months ago from Brighthouse?

Bright House is similar to what radio rentals was and no one used to foam at the mouth about them

It really isn't.

@absentwomen

If there was a better replacement for Brighthouse in place then I'd be the first to campaign for them to be scrapped. However, tomorrow morning there are no new options for people who are in that position. They are not suddenly better off and there are not budgeting loans, more credit unions, better access to libraries etc.

The problem hasn't been fixed by the removal of Brighthouse. It's been compounded by it. Someone who would have been forced to use Brighthouse today isn't going to get a bank loan or bumper pay rise tomorrow.

Just because it shouldn't be the only option doesn't mean that removing it as an option is a good thing. This happening without new things in place first means the benefit will be for local money lenders. No-one else. And their interest rates are even higher than Brighthouse, trust me.

If you were given that choice, which is a choice that many have to make every day, what would you choose? Your morals, or your family?

Neither. In the past, I have tried to choose suicide and I still have the scars. Depression trumps all else when it kicks in, and working for exploitative arseholes makes it kick in pretty quick.

When you have the scars from a workplace suicide attempt, you get to judge me. Until then, you have no fucking idea.

And when you have to choose between homelessness and starvation for you and your family and taking a job at a company you don't like, you get to judge those who choose the latter. Until then, enjoy the view from your high horse.

@WaxOnFeckOff

I wouldn't have signed up for a machine from a company that would have charged me three times and then some.

I had to save up. I took on a cleaning job at the local school, went without for a couple of months. I was bankrupt. With no way of raising credit.

And when you have to choose between homelessness and starvation for you and your family and taking a job at a company you don't like

I did. Hence the scars and the refusal to have children*. I never want to be in the situation where minors depend on me because I cannot guarantee being here for them.

It goes way beyond "don't like". It's looking at the customers and knowing that my job is to rip them off and literally feeling sick.

• I'm here until someone makes Auntsnet.

Oh I get angry every time I pass one of these shops and see their amazing ‘deals’ in the window offering you a £150 tv for £800. I completely feel for the people that work there as they still have bills to pay but these businesses shouldn’t be legal.

But some people who work at Brighthouse who potentially have no other choice do have children. And even if they don't, expecting them to be homeless rather than work there because you're oh so moral is fucked.

My whole house is full of bright house furniture and gadgets. I hate the interest they charge and are in the same category as payday loans in terms of predatory behaviour and exploitation of poor people. However, what is the alternative? How would I buy new things for the house?

To be fair, it wouldn’t be a choice between bright house and the streets, necessarily. That’s too stark and black and white.

There are some jobs I simply wouldn’t do. Bright house isn’t one of them, but I know I could never, would never, work for an abattoir. I would never work for a bailiffs collection agency. I would prostitute myself first. I would be more morally comfortable with selling my body than I would with slaughter and killing or with profiting from people’s desperation and misery. For me, Brighthouse doesn’t fall into the latter category but some people think it does. So I get that.