In this episode, we meet a man who says his life was irrevocably changed, for the worse, by a truck dealership.

Some background for trucking neophytes, a group that included the Haggler until last week. Our letter writer, James Bryant, once ran a two-man trucking company with his brother. (There are about 350,000 such “owner-operators” in the United States.) Quite simply, the brothers signed deals with companies that needed stuff hauled. When a truck they owned broke down, Mr. Bryant signed a contract with a dealership that would allow him to rent a truck, which he would own after a certain number of payments over time.

That, at least, is how he understood the arrangement.

Q. In October 2013, I signed a rent-to-own deal with the American Truck Group of Gulfport, Miss., for a Peterbilt truck — essentially the tractor part of an 18-wheel tractor-trailer. It was a disaster almost from the start.

During negotiations for the vehicle, I’d been led to believe my weekly payment would be somewhere between $400 and $500. It was about $900. I thought the truck was covered by a warranty if it broke down. It was not. When the truck was under repair at American Truck, I was told to continue sending $900 a week to keep current, although I had no way to earn my living.