Sorry to stay off topic but I just had to tell two recent stories relating to Sears customer sevice. You just never know with these guys.
#1
Had to buy a riding lawnmower last year because I recently bought 5 acres of land with about 2.5 acres to cut. I had several friends who had bought returned/used mowers from Sears with good results, they come with full warranties. Seems that many customers buy them for a season's use and return them because they weren't satisfied, in addition to legitimate returns. My local Sears has a bu%%laod of them sitting outside. They are supposed to be serviced/reconditioned before being resold. I found one that is normally 1250.00 new but was 850.00 used, but it had not been serviced yet; needed battery, blades, belts, etc. This was on a Saturday and salesman assured me that mower would be ready next weekend on Saturday to pick up. Long story short that next Saturday mower was still sitting outside in same condititon. Went through two more weeks of repeat trips and calls to Sears and mower still sitting outside. Sears is about 30 miles from my place and my grass was about a foot high by then, needless to say I'm very pi$$ed off. BTW my card has been charged since day one of this ordeal. After much discussion with a manager the third week the manager assures me my mower would be ready in two days. I go back 2 days later to pick up and mower still sitting outside, in same place, with nothing done to it. You can just imagine my anger.
BUT, much to my surprise, the manager sees me coming and says he has my NEW mower ready. Seems he finally admits that service dept. is so backed up that he doesn't know when he could get my used mower fixed up. Therefore he is selling me a NEW mower like the used one I wanted for the same 850.00. This NEW one has the automatic transmission which retails for 1450.00 versus 1250.00 for the manual trans. one i was purchasing. In the end got a 1450.00 new mower for 850.00, big bonus but much hassle.
#2
Wanted to get a cheap set of tires for my old '87 Honda Civic. Saw some good deals at Sears in sales ad, figured I'd go down there pick 4 up, have my local tire fixer put 'em on and be done. BTW Sears charges a small fortune to mount, balance etc. Well I get down there and nothing in stock on their 4 or so cheapest tire to fit this car(very common size i might add). Found this out after waiting for about an hour because according to salesman the computer never was acccurate with real inventory numbers. These guys would say let me go check and would disappear for thirty minutes. This happenend every time I went. Was consistenetly told they(specific ad tires) would be in on next truck even when you would go down there on the day the ad came out. Went through this about three weeks, never did get any tires there.
This place is frustrating to say the least but you can find SOME good deals there SOME of the time. Must say that I have done much Christmas shopping there because when Christmas Day is like tomorrow and I still haven't done my Christmas shopping (procrastination is my worst enemy) Sears is still the one place you can cover just about everyone on your shopping list, and their Christmas sales are usually excellent.
#1
Had to buy a riding lawnmower last year because I recently bought 5 acres of land with about 2.5 acres to cut. I had several friends who had bought returned/used mowers from Sears with good results, they come with full warranties. Seems that many customers buy them for a season's use and return them because they weren't satisfied, in addition to legitimate returns. My local Sears has a bu%%laod of them sitting outside. They are supposed to be serviced/reconditioned before being resold. I found one that is normally 1250.00 new but was 850.00 used, but it had not been serviced yet; needed battery, blades, belts, etc. This was on a Saturday and salesman assured me that mower would be ready next weekend on Saturday to pick up. Long story short that next Saturday mower was still sitting outside in same condititon. Went through two more weeks of repeat trips and calls to Sears and mower still sitting outside. Sears is about 30 miles from my place and my grass was about a foot high by then, needless to say I'm very pi$$ed off. BTW my card has been charged since day one of this ordeal. After much discussion with a manager the third week the manager assures me my mower would be ready in two days. I go back 2 days later to pick up and mower still sitting outside, in same place, with nothing done to it. You can just imagine my anger.
BUT, much to my surprise, the manager sees me coming and says he has my NEW mower ready. Seems he finally admits that service dept. is so backed up that he doesn't know when he could get my used mower fixed up. Therefore he is selling me a NEW mower like the used one I wanted for the same 850.00. This NEW one has the automatic transmission which retails for 1450.00 versus 1250.00 for the manual trans. one i was purchasing. In the end got a 1450.00 new mower for 850.00, big bonus but much hassle.
#2
Wanted to get a cheap set of tires for my old '87 Honda Civic. Saw some good deals at Sears in sales ad, figured I'd go down there pick 4 up, have my local tire fixer put 'em on and be done. BTW Sears charges a small fortune to mount, balance etc. Well I get down there and nothing in stock on their 4 or so cheapest tire to fit this car(very common size i might add). Found this out after waiting for about an hour because according to salesman the computer never was acccurate with real inventory numbers. These guys would say let me go check and would disappear for thirty minutes. This happenend every time I went. Was consistenetly told they(specific ad tires) would be in on next truck even when you would go down there on the day the ad came out. Went through this about three weeks, never did get any tires there.
This place is frustrating to say the least but you can find SOME good deals there SOME of the time. Must say that I have done much Christmas shopping there because when Christmas Day is like tomorrow and I still haven't done my Christmas shopping (procrastination is my worst enemy) Sears is still the one place you can cover just about everyone on your shopping list, and their Christmas sales are usually excellent.