Hi, my partner is a teacher and has a daughter in Year 7, who broke her $900 HP Notebook screen, back in April. It was only 3 months old. I managed to source a screen to fix it (for $180) rather than have it repaired by HP which was $700 (albeit a touch screen). The replacement took a few weeks to get here and my partner is using it. However, the daughter needed a notebook quick, We decided that the wiser option, given the replacement may break, was to lease it through Bealisa (Flexigroup), as she can claim the payments, and we can trade up after 2 years, which would see her through to Year 12 hopefully.
Yes, I know a lot of people have felt ripped off by leasing, however we still feel this was the more sensible option for us.
However less than 6 months later, Flexigroup are no longer accepting Consumer leases, which gives us no option to trade up after 2 years.
Yes we are insured, over and above the Product Care, that is already available as an optional extra, however, it means we will pay $1600 plus for a purchase that would have been $1050. I suggested to my partner that she should call the Flexigroup to try and negotiate a better pricing/shorter term.
Hi @Darug, welcome to the forum and thanks for letting everyone know about the changes to the Flexigroup, in relation to leasing arrangements.
Just trying to understand that each component of the agreement you have with the Flexigroup are. It appears from the website and your post that you have two agreements (could be combined) with the Flexigroup. These being:
Flexirent: A lease agreement which in your case is for 2 years. At the end you believe that it allows you to upgrade to a new product or model every two years.
Flexicare: You have a Flexicare agreement which means that if the touch screen notebook has a breakdowns, gets damaged or is even lost, that the agreement covers such events…sort of like insurance for the device.
The website link you have posted says that
As an existing customer your agreement will continue to be serviced in accordance with your existing terms and conditions including access to the FlexiCare Program.
From this information, it appears that Flexigroup no longer will offer any new lease agreement (under Flexirent). This means that that at the end of the existing lease (2 years), any upgrade or what they call a new purchase can’t be made using this Flexirent.
Now a couple of questions:
- When you took out the lease, was it sold on the basis that one could upgrade under the existing lease arrangement or did a new lease arrangement need to be taken out at the end of the 2 years for the new or upgraded device? It might be worth looking at the agreement document which were signed.
- The terms and conditions which were signed and agreed, what does it say in relation to the termination of the lease by Flexigroup? The lease PDS on their website provides information about lease terminations, but it is not clear about terminations as a result of the leasing company.
- Has Flexigroup indicated why Flexirent is no longer offered and whether it is possible to get out of any existing lease arrangements as a result of this change?
It would be interesting to know what the wording is as there may be an option for you to break the lease without penalty under such circumstances, especially if you only entered into the lease and a device could be upgraded under the existing lease. If this option now no longer occur, one could argue that the lease which was originally entered is different to the present situation.
If the new device/upgrade occurs under a new lease, which may be the case since the general product PDS states ‘You can upgrade the existing Goods by entering into a new rental agreement with us for new goods.’. If this is what your own lease agreement states, then it would be difficult to argue that the existing lease conditions have changed as you should have been aware at the time of the lease signing of this limitation…however, if the leasing company/employee said (and can be proven) that the upgrade could occur under the existing lease, this is misleading information and may have changed your decision in relation to entering the existing lease if you had know that this was not the case on signing. This could be a point of argument to break the existing lease without penalty…but again, one would need to have some sort of evidence that the lease was verbally sold with such a condition.
I have a Lisa agreement due to expire on the 1 July 2021. They recently told me I can pay $285 to end the agreement and buy outright but I was told at the beginning I could upgrade.
I want to take action as I think I have been mislead from the beginning.
Welcome to the Community @rebellady,
What action is that?
Rather than reiterate, @phb’s post covers it well.
How do you think you were ‘misled from the beginning’?
