Have I mentioned Lately that I HATE SEARS?!?!?!?!?!

Two Sears salesmen -

Glad things are finally working out. Maybe someone from Sears was reading your posts and thought "we better not mess with the Bee"

I coudn't agree with your (very funny) rant more, Keith. I have had the same experience with trying to return a screwdriver. Luckily, I just walked around to a different area and found a girl who switched it for me, then i got to walk past the sour lookin' guy who woudn't help, carrying my new screwdriver.

That wasn't a big deal, where I am really pissed off is the very expensive front-loading washer and dryer that didn't last a year. Turns out, I got a good one, my mother in law bought the same model that needed to be fixed four times in the first year!!! And, like you, we got the villiage idiot repairman who came up from the cellar saying it was gonna be like $700 to fix it. I looked at him and said "no, it's not". He went back down cellar for a few minutes and came back up and announced that he had "discovered" that a number of the needed parts were under warrantee, now the bill is like $150.

I also made the mistake of trying to have my Sears vacuum cleaner fixed. The latch was broken. What a joke. After waiting for weeks and weeks, to hear back about the vac, I start calling. They don't know where it is. At all. When i finally got word about it, they wanted about a million bucks to fix a whole list of stuff they say is wrong with it. BTW, it worked fine. AND they will not fix any of it (the latch)if they arent allowed to fix everything THEY think is wrong. I called them up and told them to send it back to the store W/O touching it. When I went to pick it up, they couldn't find it. Don't be fooled by that big screen up on the wall that gives the wait time for service, they stop the clock if someone from the store even LOOKS at you, nevermind actuall handing you what you are waiting for. I was at the store for 45+ minutes longer that my entry on the big screen said, and they advertise that if you are there longer than a certain length of time, they'll give you a 5 or 10 (I forget) gift certificate for your trouble. But they will send a person who wasn't involved in your misadventure to give it to you, because they don't want you to get the chance to ream them for eating up 1/4 of the day off you took. I fixed the latch with two screws, which is what I should have done in the first place.
If any of you have seen the King of the Hill where the MegaloMart blows up, you what I'm rooting for....

I work at sears automotive center and it gets somewhat ridiculous there with the batteries.

It used to be if a battery just tested bad, there bam no problem warranty, now though because i guess we warrantied too many die hards we are supposed to put them on a trickle charger for at least an hour, then the fast charger to evaluate them for 45 minutes.

Its stupid, the fast charger should be enough as long as the battery is near (80%) full charge!!!

To be fair though we take alot of crap also though. I've had a customer come in saying that my battery killed thier alternator and that they've had the alternator replaced twice at two different shops, and the battery replaced also at a third shop. They want us to cover the cost of both alternators and a battery for something that is very unlikely to be true!!

Even better i had a foreign couple come in (i mention foreign because they could barely speak english) also they were fairly low income. I mention that because there are two types of low income people, those who learn because they need to know how to save thier money, and those who spend willy knilly and blame others for thier misfortune, these were the second type. They were mad because we sold them a starter, the car started up fine, then they said the car died later that day. So they bought a new battery at walmart, then that battery died, so they bought one at kragen, then they put a new alternator also bought at kragen in. Finally they supposedly took it to a mechanic who said the starter was wired up improperly, of course he gave them a paper with no info on the car other then the year and model, or info on what he found, or that he did any work, or that he charged them. Just a pencil writing of what was found, and a phone number to call with any questions. Now of course they want us to reimburse them for the starter (which was covered under warranty previously), the two batteries, and the alternator (which they would bring the reciept in later). We inspected the vehicle and honestly found nothing wrong, it started fine, battery was fine, and alternator was putting out voltage. Checked wires, everything was fine.

This of course is after the lady spent thirty minutes yelling at me about how her family didn't have time to wait and that we needed to make it top priority. I had already told her at least three times that it was going in right away, in fact i was pulling it in myself (and i was) but that i could not giver her an accurate estimate because we needed to find the problem before we could fix it.

I just don't understand why people who know absolutely nothing about how to do something think they should be telling you how to do your job. Also if i had just gotten work done on my car and something went wrong, guess where i go first, the person who did the work!! By the time they got their car to us so much of everything had been messed with that we couldn't identify if there ever had been a problem, so what are we supposed to do.

Basically the problem is that they started losing money on things because of giving stuff away for people who did stupid things. Then they decided they had to get stricter about what they do, and eventually it all leads to the complaints here.

Now to us it would all make sense that they just shouldn't have the warranty if they wont honor it. Or if the part keeps breaking, perhaps change manufacturers, after all this is america, is not capitalism all about providing the best product? Thats what you learn in economics class. In the end it boils down to this though, the in store brand is cheaper to provide then going and finding a higher quality item, and its no longer about selling the best product or having the best service, its about profit margins and numbers.

I'm even pressured because i don't sell enough road hazard on tires and because my sales per hour aren't high enough. Road hazard i guess is "free" money, and perhaps they should rethink the sales per hour complaint. I get paid 5.75 an hour plus commission, my sales per hour equate to 160 or 180, so tell me, even with my combined earning making about 10.75 an hour am i really preventing the store from profiting?

We can all agree that corperate america used to be something you could trust and count on (detroit back in the day) but now its all moved production to foreign countries for cheaper labor, and it just wants to make money.

I understand about the frontloaders 69GT. When I was in Iraq my old toploader washer went south on the wife so I just got on line and ordered her a new front load Maytag washer dryer setup.....Ya know..... lonely maytag repairman and all.....yeah right. they have been out on the washer twice and the dryer once in the first year. I ended up buying th extended warranty on them just because of the poor service in the first year. at least the maytag people were prompt about coming out and no hassles on the warranty.

Keith/Bumble

Originally Posted by Calspec

Two Sears salesmen -

Could this be the early start of .... Country Rap ??

tried to buy a tool box setup the other day...come to find out the have the top box but not the bottom box....so i found another similar one (but not in blue like i wanted) and they had the bottom box but not the top box....A**holes...so i tried to buy the display model (discounted of course) but no....they can only sale it if they are on clearance. so they said they could order it and i would have it in ten days to two weeks....don't think so i need one now due to the fact that all my tools were piled up on a bench due to a truck i was working on that ended up not having any brakes....pictures of that catastrophe will be up shortly...i'll just go back to snap on

Man I hear you ive got my own stories about Sears most of which end in utter disgust. A good one though is about a sears tire center, I refuse to let anyone but myself behind the wheel of my Torino so many years ago when it was time for new skins I removed my weld wheels and headed over to the Sears Tire center as this was the only place within 300 miles that had BF goodrich comp t/a's. This was early 90's no internet like there is today. I told the sales guy the exact brand and size I needed and he says "what kind of vehicle?" so I happily replied 1970 Torino.

He gets this smug look on his face and tells me that 1970 Torinos did not have 15" rims so he couldnt sell me the tires. I was astonished, and explained to him that the rims were aftermarket and i didnt even bring the car I just brought the wheels. He actually laughed and said we can't put tires on rims without the vehicle you might use them for something other than they are intended for then we are liable.

I finally said "Fine you caught me the tires are for a 4 wheeled trailer sell me the F*'n tires." he entered then in the systems told me trailer tires do not have a warranty and refused to mount them. I bought the tires took them to another shop and have never been back. Sears can kiss my big bottom i work for my money if they dont want it there are people who do.

I can feel the pain from everyone in this thread about dealing with Sears.

I won't go into a rant about my dealings, but my last response to the area customer service rep was "This is why you people work for K-Mart now"