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sears
sears
If You Give Sears Your Phone Number, They Might Harass You Like A Clingy Stalker
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2012 9:30 AM
51 Comments
Sears, Sears. We know that you're desperate. But acting clingy and desperate is no way to win over customers, especially the ones who have just made a purchase in your store. While it seems like every retailer is pushing their service plans on customers, they don't usually resort to phone stalking, like what you did to your poor customer Mike. He had to resort to contacting the FTC and your corporate offices about the stalking.
It's over, Sears. You should have taken the hint one of the first few dozen times you called. Now Mike really never wants anything to do with you again. More »
Sears Might Repair Your Fridge, Isn't Really Sure
By Laura Northrup on February 8, 2012 9:00 AM
39 Comments
For generations of Americans, Sears has simply been where you go when it's time to outfit your new home. (At one point, you could even order your house itself out of the Sears, Roebuck catalog.) They, and their Kenmore appliances, were trustworthy, reliable, and quintessentially American. Now? Is Sears any of those things?
Waiting for the second repair on her two-year-old fridge, Joyce was surprised to learn that her Kenmore is just an LG with a badge slapped on it. Oh, and no one knows when the new compressor is coming, or whether it's actually been ordered at all. More »
Shoppers Give Costco Highest Overall Marks Among Major Retailers
By Chris Morran on February 7, 2012 1:30 PM
54 Comments
Our pals-in-arms at the Consumer Reports National Research Center recently asked more than 26,000 readers to rate their shopping experiences at the nation's top retailers — both in-store and online — and in spite of being a members' only warehouse store, Costco came out looking the best. More »
Sears Has Your Toaster In Maine. You Live In Alaska.
By Laura Northrup on January 4, 2012 9:00 AM
35 Comments
In hindsight, Marla would have been better off ordering a toaster and a toaster oven from anywhere except Sears. But she didn't know that the company has entered the next phase of its existence as a massive anti-capitalist prank, and has now added an absurdist theater aspect to the project. At least, that's the only explanation for some of the conversations Marla had when her toaster didn't show up. First, they refused to understand that the toaster wasn't in the box at all. Then, she received a call to come pick up her floor-model toaster at a store in Maine. Marla lives in Alaska. More »
First Sears And Kmart Closings Of 2012 Concentrated In Midwest And South
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2011 8:00 AM
39 Comments
Sears Holdings, owner of the perpetually troubled retailer power couple Sears and Kmart, has released the locations of 80 out of the 100 to 120 "under-performing" stores that will close in the coming months. Most of the stores on this first list are in the southern and midwestern U.S. More »
Sears To Shutter 100 To 120 Sears & Kmart Stores After Disappointing Holiday Sales
By Mary Beth Quirk on December 28, 2011 4:00 PM
67 Comments
Sears is pointing to a big drop in this year's holiday sales as the reason they'll have to close 100 to 120 Sears and Kmart stores in 2012. Which means it's your fault, consumers, for failing to shell out big dough at Sears. Kidding! Mostly. More »
Sears In-Store Pickup: Not Fast, Not In Stock, Not Helpful
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2011 9:00 AM
60 Comments
Sears is trying to coax actual customers into its stores with great sales, but don't be fooled. They're still Sears. Donald ordered some tools for in-store pickup in order to save on shipping, but the store didn't actually have the items they promised. Not "didn't have them waiting for him," but "didn't have them at all." While he waited for forty-five minutes, he couldn't help but feel insulted when he saw a sign touting in-store pickup as "fast, in stock, and helpful." Zero for three, really. More »
(XISMZERO)
Sears Actually Has No Idea When Your Item Showed Up At The Store
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2011 5:00 PM
41 Comments
This holiday season, Sears continues its mission as an elaborate anti-capitalist prank, mocking the feeble attempts that shoppers make to obtain useful information from customer service representatives, and preventing consumers from exchanging money for merchandise. LouAnn, a longtime Sears customer, was left so frustrated after a recent encounter with the retailer that the vented to Consumerist, "I am tired of giving MY money to companies who CLEARLY don't understand that I have a choice of where and how to spend my money." That could be a mission statement for this site. More »
Man Repays Money He Stole From Sears Over 60 Years Ago, With Interest
By Mary Beth Quirk on November 29, 2011 5:30 PM
65 Comments
A guilty conscience is a funny thing. An elderly man recently left an envelope with $100 in it on a Sears service counter in Seattle, with a note that said he'd stolen money from a Sears store in the late 1940s. More »
Sears Apparently Incapable Of Matching Its Own Prices Across Stores
By Mary Beth Quirk on November 28, 2011 1:00 PM
47 Comments
One might think that if one iteration of a store has a sale on a certain product, another store under the corporate umbrella could feasibly offer the same product at the sale price as well. Not so with Sears and its various stores, according to one Consumerist reader. More »
Sears Lost $421 Million Last Quarter, Didn't Spend It Fixing Up Stores
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2011 8:00 AM
66 Comments
Last year, I formulated a theory that the continued existence of Sears is a massive anti-capitalist prank. The stories that readers send us indicate that the chain isn't very good at key parts of retailing: attracting customers, selling merchandise to them, and not actively driving the customers you already have away. It's not just Consumerist readers avoiding Sears these days: the power couple of Sears and Kmart lost $421 million in the quarter that ended on October 29. More »
Sears Is Determined To Not Send Us Any Sheds
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2011 12:30 PM
60 Comments
In the early part of this century, you could buy kits to build an entire house from Sears. It's probably just as well that they don't do that anymore—at least, based on the experience Joe's wife has had trying to get Sears to ever deliver the shed that she paid for. At least she gets the excitement and inconvenience of receiving delivery notices, then not having anyone show up with her shed. More »
It Should Not Take Six Attempts To Deliver A Dishwasher
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2011 12:32 PM
51 Comments
Ariel has read Consumerist for long enough that, given a choice, she probably wouldn't order a dishwasher from Sears. But she rents, and her landlord is not so wise. Here is their sad but familiar tale: lots of delivery appointments, missed days of work, and no dishwasher. More »
When Buying A Mattress From Sears, Maybe Also Invest In A Truck
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2011 9:00 AM
28 Comments
This probably isn't news to you, Sears, but you've lost another customer for good. This time, it's reader Jeff, who had a nice experience buying a mattress at his local Sears store, but a terrible experience trying to get the mattress delivered to his house. People do not enjoy taking a vacation day from work and then not having the delivery person show up. Four times. More »
A Precise Timeline Of How Sears Screwed Up Selling A Car Battery
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2011 11:30 AM
55 Comments
Dennis found a $5 off code to purchase a new car battery from Sears, but assumed that ordering his item online and then picking it up at the store would not be a two-day odyssey involving a half-dozen employees and an order that somehow only materialized once it was canceled. He did things the old-fashioned way and just bought a battery at the physical Sears store. Now he has to wait seven to ten business days for his refund for the original order. More »
Reader Saves $400 Using YouTube To Fix Her Washer
By Ben Popken on October 4, 2011 3:00 PM
75 Comments
The fable goes that the nice white-haired appliance guys are a dying breed and they're way better than their outsourced, van-driving, retail store counterparts. But sometimes the local guy is just as bad as the guy in the store wearing the official colored shirt. When her Kenmore model 417 front-loading washer went bust-o, Jane discovered she was able to save $400 in repair costs by learning how to fix it herself from Youtube videos. More »
Sears To Make DieHard Batteries Available For Sale At Meijer
By Chris Morran on September 29, 2011 1:15 PM
20 Comments
One month after Sears realized it could make more money by allowing its Craftsman tools to be sold through Costco, the retail chain has decided to allow another of its long-standing exclusive house brands to be sold by another retailer, as it has given Meijer stores the rights to sell DieHard car batteries. More »
(akeg)
Buying Sears Refrigerator Ends In Gnashed Teeth
By Ben Popken on September 19, 2011 5:00 PM
89 Comments
Remember when stuff just worked? You bought it, brought it home, and it diligently performed its advertised function? Me neither, but suposedly there was a bygone era where products were made to last, instead made to break. In any event, we're certainly not in those times now, and Jeff's tale of trying to buy a simple refrigerator from Sears is proof positive. More »
5 Appointments To Deliver Sears Dishwasher, Still No Dishwasher
By Laura Northrup on September 8, 2011 12:15 PM
42 Comments
When Wesley's dishwasher died, he found himself in a sad and typical modern predicament: it was easier and more cost effective to go and buy a new dishwasher when his broke. So he ordered one from the Sears Outlet. This turned out to be a bad idea, at least if he wanted a dishwasher actually delivered to his house. If you enjoy waiting around for installers to never show up, perhaps Sears is your store. More »
Sears Repair Stands Customer Up 4 Times, Delays Repair 7 Weeks
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2011 8:05 AM
63 Comments
It seemed to a California woman that spending a few hundred extra bucks on an extended warranty for her Sears washing machine was a good investment. And with a newborn in the house, the ability to summon a repairman with a phone call for no out-of-pocket cost. That's true: assuming they show up and actually repair the appliance. Local Sears employees instead dismantled the machine, ordered parts, and then proceeded to stand her up four times, leaving the family without a working washer for seven weeks. More »
