SEARS customer (dis)service - Return policy WARNING!

Two sides to that coin.
The policy has been in place for at least three years and is pretty clearly stated on their paperwork. It's understood that your return doesn't really hurt them, but look at the big picture: How many THOUSANDS of people would want that return policy to be ignored because they missed the deadline?
It's really not reasonable to think that you are the only one who would need that courtesy.

On the other side of the coin, a manager can override that policy easily, and a smart one would do it in a heartbeat. A REALLY smart one would be happy to refund you even if the package were empty, as the good service would pay back in spades.

Customer service is not what's killing them. Online shopping and an inability (refusal?) to change with the times is what is killing them.
Adapt and survive, or die trying is what they SHOULD be doing.
They're not.

Shame on me for not knowing that their policy had changed. Now I know. If I had known about the change, it is very likely that I would have purchased essentially the same chest that is obviously manufactured in the same factory from Home Depot under a different brand name. I suggest that, among many others, one very significant reason that Sears has not been able to keep so many of their stores open is the policy change that is precisely the reason that they lost me as a very long time good customer. How many customers have they lost over the past three years? Do they really think that their asinine return policy is worth loosing customers? My God, a simple return for credit or exchange for other merchandise is a win-win for everyone involved. They built their empire on a foundation of good customer service. They are pissing it away at an alarming rate. If they don't fix the fundamental problems that they are facing, providing excellent customer service being #1, there is no hope for their survival. Nothing else that they do matters.


Check out Sears Holiday return policy? Based on your facts, it looks like you have until the end of January 2018.

http://www.sears.com/en_us/customer-service/policies/sears-store-returnpolicy.html

I was in the store on January 27th. The salesperson that I dealt with was fine. She was the same person that sold me the chest and the dividers. She recognized me as a semi-regular customer at their store. The stone manager that was called to assist was a complete jackass. Apparently he chose to ignore their own policy. So shame on HIM!

I've had some good luck and some bad luck with Sears customer service, mostly with Craftsman tools.

I had an older set of metric and SAE ratchet wrenches, and they were starting to rust pretty bad and the ratcheting mechanism was broken in several of them. I took all of them with me, but expected to get a run around or maybe get only the broken ones replaced AT BEST. They ended up being a discontinued model, and the sales guy replaced ALL OF THEM with two brand new higher end sets. I was shocked.o_O

Another time, I took one lousy socket that had broken to get exchanged. It was a less common size, and they didn't have it on the shelf, of course. I talked to the salesman, and he gave me a major run around and finally said "Well we can charge your credit card and order one and exchange it when (IF) it comes in.":rolleyes: I said never mind and chucked it in the garbage on the way out. I think I had a spare anyways.

And speaking of their tools, not too long before they decided to start closing stores, I bought a giant Craftsman socket set from their website. They are CRAP quality compared to what they used to. I guess they moved a lot of production to China as of late. Gee, Sears, that's great.:rolleyes: I could have gone to Harbor Freight and gotten sockets that are probably just as good, or better, and probably got less of a hard time exchanging them if they broke. And now that there are no more Sears stores in the area, I would have been better off going with HF stuff. Especially since one just opened locally.

Ahh, the good old days of Sears. I have been a good Sears customer for MANY years for the same reasons that you mention. Too bad, so sad, those days are gone. Their declining product quality and their lack of their once excellent customer service makes it crystal clear why they are in a flat spin with a certain destiny. How can they not see this obvious problem? Who is driving this bus and where the hell do they think they are going?

Sears could have been Amazon. They once had a catalog of everything you would ever need, if they had only went with the times and used that to start online sales before anyone else. To bad, I liked Sears.
Absolutely! And based on my personal experience, the very same thing can be said for Radio Shack (in a more narrowly defined market). However, if customers do not have the confidence to make a purchase due to weak or poor customer service, there is absolutely no point in even trying to adapt to a changing market. If you don't have a firm foundation of the most basic business principles, nothing else will matter. At least not for very long.

Its really sad to see the once mighty Sears falling apart right before our eyes.
 
Costco.
Awesome return and customer service. Once the CEO was in a conference call with shareholders and one quipped "you should pay your workers less and maximize profit". He rebuffed him making a case of quality store tied to pay.
Case in point. Circuit city fired their top sales people to maximize profit and replaced them with warehouse guys on the sales floor.
THAT worked out well.
I watched Sears do exactly the same thing back in the 80s. They fired their full time career commissioned sales staff and replaced them with part timers. They saved a lot of payroll dollars and lost millions in sales. I knew many of those commissioned sales pros that knew everything about Sears and how to deliver excellent customer service. Their next meal depended on building durable customer relationships. That concept wasn't explained to the part timers - and they really didn't care anyway. They were little more than cashiers with little or no incentive to treat customers well so they would come back and shop again. That was the beginning of the end for Sears, That was years before online shopping was even thought of.

With apologies to the accountants among us, the old saying that "Accountants know the cost of everything and the value of nothing", I suggest that may be behind what we are seeing at Sears and what we have seen at Circuit City, Radio Shack, and countless others that are now closed forever.
 
My wife does the shopping there and is appalled at how customers abuse the policy on returns. They buy stuff, use it for what they need it for, then return it. :thumbsdown:

A friend of mine was in Walmart last year and saw some guy who had just bought a huge big screen TV for next to nothing. He asked the cashier about it and got this explanation - it was just a few days after the super bowl. People come in, buy a big expensive TV for their party, then bring it back and say there's something wrong, or they don't like the quality. They get a refund, and Walmart can't sell them as new, so they cut the price way down just to get rid of them.

That's what kind of customers they have these days.
 
I miss the "old" Sears that offered -quality- tools with a no hassle exchange/return policy.
Amen to that! That is exactly why I never hesitated to buy from Sears. They always delivered value. Good quality for the money with a warranty and policies that you could always count on. They built their business on that concept.

As a former retailer, I know all too well that there will always be a small percentage of people that will take advantage of your policies and good nature. What a sad way to live. That small percentage of people do cause some aggravation but all-in-all, it is calculated into the cost of doing business. It's a numbers game. You can't let the few idiots dictate how you treat all of your other customers.
 
I watched Sears do exactly the same thing back in the 80s. They fired their full time career commissioned sales staff and replaced them with part timers. They saved a lot of payroll dollars and lost millions in sales. I knew many of those commissioned sales pros that knew everything about Sears and how to deliver excellent customer service. Their next meal depended on building durable customer relationships. That concept wasn't explained to the part timers - and they really didn't care anyway. They were little more than cashiers with little or no incentive to treat customers well so they would come back and shop again. That was the beginning of the end for Sears, That was years before online shopping was even thought of.

With apologies to the accountants among us, the old saying that "Accountants know the cost of everything and the value of nothing", I suggest that may be behind what we are seeing at Sears and what we have seen at Circuit City, Radio Shack, and countless others that are now closed forever.

many years back, I worked in retail mgmt. for a family-owned chain that knew the value of customer service, prided themselves on it, and paid their employees well to provide it.
A major chain competitor moved in nearby and they sent out teams to recruit our employees.

When they spoke to me, I told them I'd have to be offered at least 15% more income to even consider talking to them.
They asked how much I made, and I gave them an honest answer.
It was almost double what their mgmt. earned.

The business I worked for is still thriving. The major chain is out of business.
Go figure.
 
My wife does the shopping there and is appalled at how customers abuse the policy on returns. They buy stuff, use it for what they need it for, then return it. :thumbsdown:

Have you heard of the LL Bean return policy?

This is the calculated cost of good customer service. The bad apples actually don't ruin it for everybody... I do not condone this behavior, it just must be predicted and expected when dealing with the full spectrum of humanity. Appalling, sure... but humanity is appalling... just look at what we allow.
 
LL Bean return policy?

Yes, the Mrs. always encourages me to shop there. Complete satisfaction guarantee for as long as you own it.
I look at this one to be a little different. Their customers are of a little higher class than Costco and Walmart. Most don't intend on returning their purchase after they use it. They pay more to start out because they expect higher quality.
Bad apples do make it worse for everyone. Theft and fraud are all paid for by the honest people, the cost is built in to a good or a service. It makes me want to scream when I hear the ad on the radio saying how some attorney can settle your credit card debt for pennies on the dollar. Yeah, just get your neighbor to pay it.
I agree with all you said....with people you just never know and you have to play the odds.
 
I've had some good luck and some bad luck with Sears customer service, mostly with Craftsman tools.

I had an older set of metric and SAE ratchet wrenches, and they were starting to rust pretty bad and the ratcheting mechanism was broken in several of them. I took all of them with me, but expected to get a run around or maybe get only the broken ones replaced AT BEST. They ended up being a discontinued model, and the sales guy replaced ALL OF THEM with two brand new higher end sets. I was shocked.o_O

Another time, I took one lousy socket that had broken to get exchanged. It was a less common size, and they didn't have it on the shelf, of course. I talked to the salesman, and he gave me a major run around and finally said "Well we can charge your credit card and order one and exchange it when (IF) it comes in.":rolleyes: I said never mind and chucked it in the garbage on the way out. I think I had a spare anyways.

And speaking of their tools, not too long before they decided to start closing stores, I bought a giant Craftsman socket set from their website. They are CRAP quality compared to what they used to. I guess they moved a lot of production to China as of late. Gee, Sears, that's great.:rolleyes: I could have gone to Harbor Freight and gotten sockets that are probably just as good, or better, and probably got less of a hard time exchanging them if they broke. And now that there are no more Sears stores in the area, I would have been better off going with HF stuff. Especially since one just opened locally.

Well, I never bought Craftsman tools, I prefer Snap-On or SK. More expensive, yes but I've had them for over 30 years without any problems whatsoever. ;)
 
Well I got some craftsman tools you could consider their great granddaddy and their still like new.They were handed down to me.But like anything else investors demand more so the lowest bidder gets a nod.
 
I have a copy of one of the original on line catalogues circa 1908 by sears and roebuck.Want a house,we have it! Want a shotgun ,we have it! The list is endless .What a giant sears use to be .
 
:):)
Well, I never bought Craftsman tools, I prefer Snap-On or SK. More expensive, yes but I've had them for over 30 years without any problems whatsoever. ;)

I have a copy of one of the original on line catalogues circa 1908 by sears and roebuck.Want a house,we have it! Want a shotgun ,we have it! The list is endless .What a giant sears use to be .

Remember that Sears never built anything. They would just have others build it on contract, slap their name and claims and promise on it, and then sell it. Craftsman was just another name before Sears bought it in 1927.
https://www.craftsman.com/history

Sears was never a manufacturer, nor did they ever R&D or invent anything.... other than their business model. The catalog /shipping scheme for rural America and " lets just claim our products are superior, and have a great warranty" .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craftsman_(tools)
*** It is not as though they were an innovative American company that designed a great product to last throughout the ages... like McIntosh:)

...and don't forget their false advertising suit in 2004 about " just what does Made in America mean?"


So, before we start lamenting the loss of some great company, let us remember what Sears was and is : A drop-shipper with "fantastic" marketing.




.
 
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Remember that Sears never built anything. They would just have others build it on contract, slap their name and claims and promise on it, and then sell it.

Sears was never a manufacturer, nor did they ever R&D or invent anything.... other than their business model. The catalog /shipping scheme for rural America and " lets just claim our products are superior, and have a great warranty" .

My sister worked for Sears Customer Service/Claims back in the 80's when she was pursuing her nursing degrees, and that was truly the "beginning of the end". Some of the "horror stories" that she would tell me seemed utterly ridiculous. They sold siding and windows, and used the cheapest products and cheapest subcontractors for installation (read three guys with a hammer and a truck)--claims of siding literally peeling off of houses, windows leaking like a sieve, and even falling out of the house. Then to the auto service centers--cars being dropped off of lifts, RVs being burned to the ground in the parking lot due to improper battery installations--but they paid to repair/replace them all with no question. Sure, profit was high, but damages and pissed off customers is not a good business model.
 
my old hammer, I will call it 'bruce' gave it up just after I got this house. had it as my first new sears tool, not hand me down or flea market find, just outta college. I built rooms, basements, decks, sheds, garages with it...for 30 years. then I was doing demo on my 'new' house kitchen and snap, off comes the handle. given that there are almost as many sears stores left as there are radio shacks...a 30 minute each way drive later, and I had a new one. that is the best thing I can say about sears...its not strictly the employees fault, sears big boss is raping the company of all assets and cash cuz the feds will step in and pick up the tab for minimum pension and he has lots and lots of money. the american way. that sort of capitalism, needs dealt with, with an electric chair...
 
Sears recently completely gone in Canada. Laid off the employees with no severance... gave bonuses to the executives because "they needed to retain the skills to handle an orderly shutdown."
 
Some valid points made here ... except for the OPs original premise that Sears had no right to enforce their clearly stated and documented return policy.
 
Those Sears "Craftsmen" houses were very cool. You'll find most of them within a few miles of the railroads.
 
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