No wonder Sears is failing...

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frapjap
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I used to really enjoy shopping with Sears. Thumbing through that big a** catalog in the fall, checking out the Levis, and looking at the pocket knives at Christmas time, but this last experience has thoroughly soured me on shopping with them in the future.

I placed an online order yesterday and opted to have them pull the order and I'd pick it up at the store. A pretty simple thing, hell grocery stores pull this off pretty well. Well, go to figure that half of the went to the store nearest me and the other half to another despite both items being in stock at both stores. The other store was approximately 55 miles away. The system did not notify me at all that there would be two pickup locations  (like Best Buy, WalMart or Target might do), and it went unnoticed until I only received one item upon pickup at the store near me. If the stores were closer together, I’d understand two pickup locations, but really would have hoped the system would have notified me if one item wasn’t available at the selected store designated for pickup.

Once we noticed the mistake, it appeared that this was a very difficult problem to solve and resulted in me waiting for 1 hour and 20 minutes for what should have been a 5-10 minute in an out pickup of an online order.

I appreciate the employees at the store helping me out, but seriously amazed that the circumstance happened in the first place. Though a very convoluted system, the store I was at was able to call the other store, and after some discussion, have them cancel the order for the item to be picked up there. The item available from the store I was in was “returned,” and the entire order was rung up through the cash register. I appreciate that they were able to find a resolution, but man, an impressive amount of time was dedicated to this mishap- internally for the employees and on my end.  Knowing all of this now, I would have never made the purchase at all.

I guess I'd be more understanding if it was 2002 and online ordering was a new concept. But man, in a world where I can hop on the internet, make a selection, and purchases magically show up at my house in two days or groceries are waiting for me at the store, its really no wonder why Sears is tanking. I felt really bad for them, but this was crazy. 

Further, I wrote them to (nicely) give them a heads up about the trouble with their system and suggested they take a look at their internal processes. I didn't ask for any money back, no coupons, nada- just being friendly in hopes it doesn't happen to others. The message I got back was a half hearted one liner stating, "Sorry about inconvenience. We show that you got your purchase." 

That was it. No name, signature, or anything that really has any call back to what was once the Amazon of the day. Its unfortunate, but theres a pretty good reason they're circling the drain. 


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Rogue One
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I think I'd have to agree with the sentiment of others I've spoken to, they are Sears in name only. A few months ago I attempted to buy a new fridge from Sears. Worst experience I've ever had trying to buy an appliance. The salesperson flat out lied to me several times. When I told them to cancel the transaction, I was told I'd have to wait almost 2 weeks for a refund check because I'd paid with a debit card.

After waiting the required 10 business days for a refund that never came, I contacted Sears customer service and was told the refund would be in my account by the end of the week. When the refund wasn't there, I contacted them again and was told they were waiting for the first check they allegedly sent to be returned before they'd send a second check. As this was clearly not what I'd previously been told, I hung up on them and contacted my bank to dispute the transaction.

What got me was that a manager had to approve the cancellation of my purchase and he did nothing to try and resolve the problem in order to retain the sale. After being treated this poorly, I will NEVER purchase another appliance or anything else from Sears.

Heavy
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They do have good prices on Levis, thats about it. I stopped buying tools from there after they wouldn't warranty a few ratchets that fell apart less than a year from purchase. Harbor freight blows them out of the water now with quality IMO.

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audtatious
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Once Craftsman went the cheap Chinese route they started failing.

macgiver
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mac, absolutely audtatious ,Craftsman - big giveaway was the steel in the hand tools "acquired" that cheap grainy appearance , ratchets that used to be precise like a Snap-on or Utica brand are now sloppy and feel like they'll slip -scrape your knucles under toque! ALL the Union trades considered it the goto place for screwdrivers & hand tools for that Life - Craftsman warranty , and for brands like Crescent & Channellock ,but those "Names" are no bargain there either now. :frown:

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Sears is really something. Their clothing lines are just old and out of trend, due to higher prices and mediocre sales at best. We recently ordered a treadmill from them, and it was a Nordic Track, but it was dirt cheap compared to Am-a-zon and trash-Mart. Ironically, now there is only one Sears close to me, and that's at the Florida Mall. No wonder why business is going bad for them.

MikeRL411
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The decline of the SEARS brand was a slow but steady trend! ! I bought a treadmill from my local store many years ago. There were several models on sale. I picked my choice and then the fun began ! The sales rep said that I could not get the advertised discount because it only applied to models with adjustable incline features. So I pushed the " Incline " button and invited him to stand on the belt while the track inclined. He had to call the floor manager to explain what "Incline" meant, even though the feature was clearly listed on the product tag. You cannot build customer satisfaction bases with STUPID salesmen or floor supervisors ! I bought it with the advertised discount and use it to this day, no thanks to the idiots untrained to the standard of customer service .

The last things I bought from SEARS was a beer bottle opener made to look like a wrench ! What could be simpler ? Well, when "they" machined the recess with lugs to actually pull the bottle cap "they" machined off 2 of the required 3 lugs to engage the bottle cap ! Totally useless ! Where was the most basic visual final inspection of the part before shipping to the selling store ? Oh by the way this was their premier 75 anniversary anodized blue collectible version ! Premier issue, collectible, and totally useless ! I took it back and insisted on a standard issue replacement but only if the store opened the pack and verified that it had 3 lugs and would work I hope to hell that the store did not put my defective "collectible" back on the rack !

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Kompresshun
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It has been at least 3-4 years since I have purchased anything from Sears and that was some ratcheting wrenches. You can look through my toolbox and see the steady decline of their tool quality, which is why 75% of my tools come from Harbor Freight these days and the rest come from Lowes or Home Depot. I have yet to need to use the "lifetime" warranty on any of the tool brands I own though, so I rarely even care about the warranty anymore unless I spend over $100 on it.

It's sad though, because I remember going to Sears on the weekend with my dad to browse through the tools and electronics. Now there isn't even a Sears left to go to in this area.

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Bubba1
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Heavy wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:03 am
They do have good prices on Levis, thats about it.
:yesnod That's about it, and is the last thing I purchased there a long time ago. It's sad they waited so long to embrace the internet, and when they did, they did so half-assedly for too long. Sears is paying the price now.

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numbnuts240
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it took me over 1 hour and 2 different registers to purchase 2 pairs of jeans. absolutely the most painful checkout experience of my life. normally i would have bailed on the whole purchase, but i had time to kill while my gf was shopping for something else.

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Desert Rat
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They'll be completely gone soon. Another American icon bites the dust.

macgiver
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mac, icon yeah , didn't Oswald buy his Carcano from SEARS mail order? Or maybe that was Dillinger ordered the Tommy gun ? :facepalm:

Buzzman
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Sears closed it's last stores in Canada in January (2018). Sears Canada is gone.
I doubt the few stores still left in the U.S. will be far behind.
Given how poor they got in the last ten years, they don't deserve to survive.
I didn't shop at a Sears in the past five years, maybe more. They were just awful.
No tears for them up here.

macgiver
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mac, how about that Amazon / Walmart "Wake" :frown: Brave New World (Order?) bus. model :sad:

MikeRL411
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Wasn't the Canadian branch "Simpson Sears" ?

Buzzman
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MikeRL411 wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:20 pm
Wasn't the Canadian branch "Simpson Sears" ?
Used to be, years ago.
The Simpsons part disappeared in 1978.
It became wholly owned by Sears at that time.

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PapaSmurf2k3
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Sears can't blame amazon and walmart for their decline. They did this to themselves.

I remember back in the day being able to take a busted socket or ratchet in there and they'd swap it out on the spot. I went to do that one day and they said "nope, you have to mail it in. Usually about a 4 week turnaround time". Meanwhile, my engine is in pieces. Luckily I plead my case to the local manager and he took care of it for me, but made it extremely clear that that would be the last time.
I made it extremely clear that if he didn't get me my replacement ratchet, it would be my last time there.
Anyway, that store closed down about a year later... and this was back in the late 90s/early 2000s. They got rid of the best things going for them and focused on all their weaknesses, which other vendors did better than them. That's just bad business.

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Jesda
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Eddie Lampert took what was left of Sears and ran it into the ground. The company is now a real estate scheme where he wins whether or not the stores fail.

Some manufacturers have ceased shipping products to their warehouses because of unpaid invoices.

Sears is dead.

macgiver
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mac , I just wikipedia-ed this turd - NICE :tisk:

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Ace2cool
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I love how Jesda always knows the name of the person in charge when things take a schite. Don't get him started on Chrysler.


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