Sears-my experience

[Michael Lane]

I bought a dishwasher from sears on a transfer sale. I live in Tn & was to be installed in Florida. I asked sales clerk in Florida ( calling from sear store) if was in stock & when could install, immediately was reply. I paid with check, big mistake.This was a rental condo in Destin with guests in it & right before July 4. Three days later no dishwasher, just got to sears store ( sez clerk ) installation a week away. So I cancelled contract , got maintenance man to go borg get on e & install. Asked sears clerk how to get my check back. He sez "Sears will issue a refund check but not send it to me, will only send to address of installation. " No matter how hard I tried could not get past clerk to manger or higher up. So I stopped payment on check. Get letter from a collection agency they bought check from sears & I owe them $$$$. Did not matter that I did not receive merchandise, told me to prove it. Sears clerk would not provide a proof of cancellation . Remember ' clerk in Florida & I am in Tn. & Tn sears clerk just shined me on' Called a local T V station they got involved & got it cleared up. Asked me what I learned " Don't pay with a check, use the plastic instead." T V people said manger of Sears store treated him like crap ,I said 'How you think they treated me?'

Michael Lane

It ain't bragging, if you can back it up___ Dizzy Dean

[kpg*]

[e-mail] (Michael Lane) wrote in news:14124-46C1B1F8-264 @storefull-3133.bay.webtv.net:

Interesting. I've always had a good opinion of Sears, mainly because of their customer service. While any operation as large as Sears will be somewhat impersonal I am a little surprised at your experience.

The fact that you were not able to show up in person to deal with it no doubt had a negative effect - A manager will likely want to make an irate customer standing in his store happy at any cost.

But once the cash is pocketed I'm sure they must follow their refund procedures - which apparently are "we'll mail you a check".

I am curious as to why you think a CC purchase is better than Check? How would this have improved the situation?

kpg

[jJim McLaughlin]

MUCH SNIPPED

Because under federal law, administered by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) a credit card charge can be contested for 60 days after the charge first shows up on the credit card statement and becase when its an issue of non delivery of merchandise ( and according to OP Sears sure as hell didn't deliver in Florida or anywhere else) the burden of proof as to actual delivery of the merchandise is on the vendor / merchant.

If Sears can't proove they actually delivered and installed the DW in Florida, Sears gets the charge back.

QED

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Sears is not Sears any more, they are now K-Mart and whoever owns them. Years ago, you went to Sears because of their reputation for customer satisfaction. Times change.

Years ago, they built much of their reputation on the catalog. You did not have to stand in front of the manger. I guess that went to hell years ago too.

Yes, but to who? They state the delivery adres but it is recorded someplace that the check was recived at another location. Money should go to the buyer, not the recipient. A CC would have fixed that problem.

[RickH]

I used to work for Sears catalog installing their 800 number calling center equipment, I helped built about 16 call centers across the US with thousands of terminals per call center. In 1993 they liquidated the Sears catalog (for a write off), then 2 years later the Internet age arrived with on-line shopping. Talk about fate, stupidity, or whatever, but Sears could have been the king of the Internet had they kept catalog and plugged that massive distribution/credit infrastructure into the web, along with a 100 year old history/ reputation of that catalog. After a mistake like that they deserve to be a KMart, which never learned its lesson either about customer service after emerging from bankruptcy over bad customer service...

[willshak]

on 8/14/2007 3:29 PM Edwin Pawlowski said the following:

You got it backwards. Sears owns K-Mart.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Nope. Sears Holdings is a paper corporation that owns both corporations. K-Mart bought Sears but they are using the Sears name because they had a better reputation.

[willshak]

on 8/14/2007 4:02 PM Edwin Pawlowski said the following:

After checking further, I see you are right. But, do you think that Craftsman, Kenmore, et al, will suffer?

[N8N]

How could they suffer? the only reason to buy Craftsman tools is because of the guarantee, if it weren't for that they aren't any better than any other tools and worse than many (S-K, K-D, Matco, Snap- On, etc.) Kenmore branded appliances are just relabels of GE, Whirlpool, etc. you can do better at an independent appliance store

nate

[Red]

I see that Harbor Freight now has a lifetime guarantee on hand tools. Guess that really negates that reason to buy Craftsman.

Red

[Michael Lane]

I posted ,

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I had several calls today about sears + e-mails. Everybody found it hard to believe what happened. sears got a lot of bad publicity. sears store was in cool springs galleria, brentwood tn & other sears was in mary esther Flordia, goes as Fort Walton Beach.

Michael Lane

It ain't bragging, if you can back it up___ Dizzy Dean

[RickH]

And I see that Stanley dropped their lifetime guarantee on their tape measures. I used to turn in my tape measure for a new one, no questions asked, whenever they went bad. I have not had to buy a new tape measure for years. Last week I tried to exchange one where the spring went bad, Home Depot said Stanley no longer guarantees their tape measures and they would not take the old one. So I bought a different brand.

[runsrealfast]

My father used to swear by craftsman. He would get everything at sears, tools, cloths, lawnmowers, and even car batteries. I'll bet he hasn't been to a sears in 3 years.

John

[runsrealfast]

I think the true Wall Street term was they merged...

[Tekkie®]

Why not? The one you were returning WAS lifetime guaranteed. Should have gotten your money back and gone sears & hockbuck; theirs still are.