Sears is crooked

[meadowlark]

in 2000 I bought a washer, and put it on a Sears card. Becasue of the VERY HIGH price I turned down the extened warranty (300.00). I had the balance paid off and 'closed the account, cancelled the card, cut it up' the interest rate if very high, in about 2 months in which time I moved. 3 years later I get a bill from SEARS 600.00 for an extened warranty, that I never asked for, on a credit card that had been cancelled. I never authorized this. I called customer service and they told me that they had to check and see if their had been any other activity on the account, their hadn't....and so I waited. I get another call from collections....they had to check and see if there was any activity on the account, but since they were only collections I had to call customer service, so I called customer service, they said they had to see if there was any activity on the account...and so I waited. I finally get a supervisor who backs off the money for the warranty, but she won't back off the late fees. This makes no sense to me...but I wait. April, 2004 my lovely wife, not knowing that I had been fighting with the morans for over a year now, gets a call from collections and pays them 40.00. In the mean time I'm still fighting with them, February 2005 they tell me that the payment in 4/2004 proves that the charges on the accout were MINE and that all monies owed, late fees etc...are MY RESPONSIBILITY. These people are crooked theives. I'm be forced to pay for something I never authorized in the first place, isn't that fraud? I hope the suckers fold. If they're making their money by screwing honest people, they shouldn't be here.

[Juergen Hannappel]

[...]

This shows a clear lack of essential communications in your family, so you should work on that before you blame other for poor communication... ;-)

[News]

If you were responsible for this, they should have paperwork that is signed by you authorizing same -- do they?

I figure, no contract, no responsibility on your part.

[Leon]

In so much that you should not be posting this here and the fact that you and your wife are a classic example of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, it does not and would not surprise me that you get in to problems like this quite regularly.

[Bill Otten]

Hmmm.....perhaps you meant to post to alt.bitch_about_sears?

[David]

What exactly has this got to do with woodworking, pray tell?

Dave

meadowlark wrote:

snip

[Tom]

I suspect the problem started with the telemarketing dept that called someone at your phone number after the original warranty ran out and offered the protection agreement. Either someone at your number didn't understand and said yes to the wrong question which would have ordered the extension and at the same time re-open your closed account. Or more likely someone in the telemarketing dept had their job on the line if they didn't produce and they simply pushed the right buttons to add a protection agreement to their sales figures. Of course, the bill would have been sent to your old address and you wouldn't have been aware of it as the post office doesn't forward after a year. I suspect that if you went to the manager of the store where you bought it and calmly explained the situation, the store manager will cover those late charges and I would also get a letter sent to all credit bureaus affected. On a side bar...the government recently shut down a very large collection agency here in Rockford, Il. They had been buying old debts for pennies on the dollar and then using very heavy handed methods to collect on those debts. It didn't matter whether the debts were for real or not, they threatened all sorts of bad things if the debtor didn't come up with some money. They would call people who simply had a similar name to the original debtor and insist they pay up. Tom.

>

[Vic Baron]

erm.....'cuz he's banging his head against a wooden wall?

could be cuz he sounds like a blockhead too.

:)

v

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Right. Any payment is akin to accepting responsibility and acknowledging it is your debt.

You may also want to review your lifestyle and/or family communications. My wife knows of anything going on that is important (and this battle is) so she would not do anything until we talked. You can perhaps cut your losses by calling a lawyer. Meantime, be sure to challenge this on your credit report.

[Dave]

You may have ratified the debt by your wife making a payment. Repost to misc.legal or google "ratification". Good luck.

-David

[George]

Truth. Might be some Sears subcontractor, too.

Got a "final notice" letter from some collection outfit in Atlanta for something like $180 dollars. Complete mystery to me, but they claimed it was for a purchase on an "installment contract." Couldn't even tell me what it was I had supposedly purchased.

Not much to do but say that true copies of the authorization would be honored by me when furnished. Calls without would be turned over to the AG.

[Ba r r y]

Was that a lure I heard hitting the water?

[Searcher 1]

You need to immediately contact Sears Corporate headquarters. Try the Sears.com site and go from there, I would be willing to bet the farm that you will get a response within 24 hrs and your money promtly refunded.

I too had a problem with Sears, But I contacted Corporate, and the issue was resolved toot sweet!!!!

Searcher1

[G.E.R.R.Y.]

I guess nowhere is exempt from this sh*t.

I just received a letter from such an agency up here in Canada. They said I still owed Canadian Tire $600+ but with interest was $2400+, however, if I were to pay $700+ *immediately*, they would cancel the debt. This was a debt supposedly owed *from* *1993*. I asked them to send me copies of the ITEMIZED debts. They said it would cost too much to produce copies. I told them I'd see them in court where I would of course subpoena those "frightfully expensive" copies.

Gerry < laughingly waiting for the next contact >

[butch]

Myself and several friends were targets of a MCI scam. Got a notice of owing them several hundred dollars for phone service - only I had not lived at that address for several years. I finally got to a supervisor and was told there was a billing address mistake - yes I told him your scam did not have my current billing address - the mail was forwarded to me.

So be careful there are crooks out there.

[Will]

You're right... but...

It's a small claims issue -- so a small claims court judge would likely give him the benefit of the doubt and allow a trial.

He would just say the obvious "The payment was an error." Then the trial would cover the real issues. And Sears would likely be found in error if they have their act together. Which is another issue :-)

Least that's what I've seen.

Dave wrote:

[loutent]

This is very strange. I have been dealing with Sears for 40+ years. You have to know what you are signing and you have to pay your monthly statements. If you do, everything is great.

What do you mean by "I had the balance paid off?" - Did you pay it off with a check that you have a copy of? How did you "close the account?" Tearing up a card does not close an account. Moving does not close an account either.

Every time I bought something from Sears, I get a print-out on the spot of what I have purchased, how much it costs and so forth. If you have the original receipt, you have no problem. If you don't, then *THEY* do and I'll bet you bought that warranty.

Sorry for the bad news.

Lou

[Phisherman]

Personally, I have not had any negative uncorrected issues with Sears, Walmart, Home Depot, or Lowes. But, I have had the most problems with items bought from Sears. I had a charge on my VISA, supposedly from "something I signed at Home Depot for home warranty service." I notified both Home Depot and VISA that I was to initiate prosecution procedures if my name and credit information were not immediately removed from all their files. VISA cancelled my account, created a new account, and sent me a new credit card which I have not used due to a little paranoia. I still shop at all stores and guarding my privacy.

[bob]

And what exactly do your credit card woes have to do with woodworking (which, by the way, is what this newsgroup is about).....

[Juergen Hannappel]

Wow. 300 quarantee for a single washer. I usually buy washers by the hundred and no one ever offered a quarantee for that, so this one must be a real large one. M100? (40"?) But then im astonished that sears sells parts for so large constriction work...