Baltimore, MD - BlueHippo Funding, a Maryland-based merchandise finance company, today announced several new sales practices aimed at increasing customer options, flexibility and loyalty.  The new practices being announced today include a refund policy, as well as layaway and financing options.   

"Working closely with our key stakeholders, we have taken a hard look at ways to offer our customers increased flexibility without sacrificing customer service" said Joseph K. Rensin, BlueHippo's Chairman and CEO.  "We hope these concepts, as well as our recently released suite of best practices will serve as a model for other companies in our industry."

New Refund Policy.  Under BlueHippo's new refund policy, customers may elect to receive a full refund of monies paid during the layaway period, after paying a $175 early termination fee.  The early termination fee will be disclosed and agreed to by customers at the time of their order.  In order to be eligible for a refund, customers must cancel their purchase contract prior to the computer being ordered.  The $175 fee is consistent with cancellation fees charged by other companies, such as cellular service providers.      

Layaway Program.  As part of the company's new suite of sales practices, BlueHippo will now offer a 52 week layaway program through Nevada-based BlueHippo Capital.  All payments made prior to the computer being ordered will be eligible for a refund after a $175 early termination fee is paid.

Balance Financing.  Under the new program, customers in good standing can also choose to accelerate delivery of their computer and finance the outstanding balance on their account.  To do so, customers will be required to successfully make at least 6 weekly payments and return a signed financing agreement prior to the computer being shipped.  Of course, customers may always elect to remain on the layaway program if they should desire to.

Today's announcement comes on the heels of the recent announcement of BlueHippo's "Best Practices" program.  The first-of-a-kind "Best Practices" program is focused on raising customer service standards across the industry.  The suite of standards, which outlines leading practices in the areas of disclosure, quality assurance, employee training, and complaint resolution can be found at www.bluehippo.com.

BlueHippo Funding, LLC. is one of the nation's largest direct response merchandise lenders with more than 160,000 customers nationwide.  Through innovative financing, the company sells high quality, name brand electronics to Americans with limited financing options due to credit challenges.