Sears Revisited...for the last time

After about 50 some odd years, it's finally come time to sever all ties with what was once the greatest retail store on America, Sears Roebuck and Company, now simply known as Sears. Sadly, I attempted to make a large purchase last week and after hours of frustration and their bait and switch shopping cart tactics, I'd had enough. I bought the appliance from a Big Box store, something I have avoided in the past simply due to my long association with Sears.

The story: On September 6 I brought up the appliance sale and chose a Bosch dishwasher which was highly rated by Consumer Reports. It was on sale for $808, a large discount off the regular price of $999. Added installation, extra parts, haul away, etc. I didn't check out immediately as Sears will hold your purchase in your cart for several days, and the sale was good until Sept 8. I anted my spouse to look at the dishwasher to be sure it was the one she wanted. She agreed and when I went back to purchase the dishwasher, the price in the cart was now way over $1100. The dishwasher had reverted to the non-sale price.

Not to worry, I e-mailed customer service which is in India or the Philippines and here's their answer:

 

Dear Valued Member,

Thank you for contacting sears.com. Please accept our apologies for the pricing error on the dishwasher you have found on our website. Let me look into this for you.

I want to make it right! It does appear that this item has an error in pricing and we have notified our web pricing team to correct it. The sale price listed on the item page is part of a promotion that has now ended. The price in the cart is the correct price.

The feedback that you have provided today will be taken into consideration as we continue to enhance our services to meet the needs of our customers going forward.

You have been an excellent customer to us and hope this experience does not deter your shopping interests from sears.com. I appreciate you for your understanding and patience.

Sincerely,

Alex A. (jambro3)

Sears Customer Care
webcenter@customerservice.sears.com
1-800-366-3028

Have you ever heard such a bunch of crap? They admit there is a pricing error but then tell me the price in the cart is correct? WTF? And "he wants to make it right"?

I wrote them back telling them they didn't understand the problem so here's their next idiotic response:
 

Dear,

Thank you for contacting sears.com. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience that you are experiencing with the price of the item. Let me see what best I can do to get this resolved.

I have checked our available resources and I see that the current price of the item is $999.99. As we are unable to honor the sale price, you are valuable customer and we do value your time and business with us. We encourage you to place a new order for the item and reply to this email with your new order confirmation number, and we will gladly issue 10% refund for the item value. Please click here to place an order. We always want our customers to be happy.

I have found a similar item, please click here to view it. This Dishwasher is one of the top seller on our site.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth G. (nganapa)

Sears Customer Care
webcenter@customerservice.sears.com
1-800-366-3028

These people are morons. The last time they promised to credit me anything it took a month and an act of congress to get it as they immediately develop amnesia and can't read nor remember who might have sent an e-mail offering a discount. No way would I believe this offshore call center person.

Then Sears home office gets involved, after I have already ordered a new dishwasher from the Big Box store. They want to honor the original price less 15% . No thanks. I let them know I am so done with Sears they could stick a fork in me. No more tools, no more appliances, no more At Home Services, not a damn thing from them or their affiliates. This was the final nail in the Sears coffin for me. And they can't understand why their profits are so bad. I can tell you. Using offshore call centers to handle their business. A bunch of assholes who keep saying they want to make the customer happy but just piss them off. And who keep their jobs by working for pennies on the dollar while taking work away from Americans here in the US who might actually be able to understand the problem without reading from a script board.

5 Brands Most Likely To Be Gone By 2015       FORBES CMO NETWORK

Prophet recently conducted a spot survey of some 5,000 U.S. consumers to see which brands they’d put on the deathwatch for anytime between now and 2015.
Anyone who even skims the news headlines will find their rankings no big surprise: Eastman Kodak topped the list with 27 percent of the group, with Netflix and the U.S. Post Office coming in with 19 percent and 18 percent of the vote. RIM (Blackberry) came as fourth most likely to fail (14 percent), and Sears came in fifth (11 percent).

TomTom Does it Again - Lousy Customer Service

TomTom wanted to update their database, so they sent out an e-mail promising a $10 coupon off future purchases at tomtom.com if you updated your information. True to their word, they did send an online coupon supposedly valued at $10. That's where the good part stops.

Nowhere in the coupon does it state that it cannot be used for map upgrades or map downloads. But, when you try to use it, there is no place or space to enter the code in your shopping cart. Neither can you enter it as a promotional code.

So, I contacted TomTom asking how to handle this as I wanted to upgrade my current map and but an annual map update, at a cost of about $48.00 less the $10 coupon.

TomTom e-mails me a reply NO. The coupon is only good towards hardware and accessories. I tell them the coupon doesn't say, that and TomTom simply sends me another e-mail telling me that they understand my frustration and will "pass my comments on for review." Basically, another too bad, too sad that we baited you to do something for us, and we're now screwing you once again and not performing as promised. Hmm, seems they have done this in the past too. Must be a pattern with them.

Here's what the coupon states:

If you are having trouble viewing this email, view it online. To ensure you receive our future emails, please add US.news@tomtom.com to your address book now.

Thank you for updating your email preferences! Use the coupon code provided below next time you're shopping at TomTom.com, and we'll take $10 off* your purchase during checkout. 3UYP__grAqDGaa6QAAAEiw6wZdxjO Thanks again! *Product purchase total must exceed $10. Coupon must be used on TomTom.com. Privacy Policy | Update Your Preferences | Unsubscribe

Does anyone see anything about "must use towards hardware or accessories"? And isn't maps and map upgrades a "purchase"?

As usual, TomTom makes and changes the rules during the game, gets what it wants and then lets you stand out in the cold if you actually go to use the coupon for something you can use. Factually, why would anyone buy a GPS from their website when most retailers and Internet vendors sell for much cheaper? The only reason to go to TomTom is their maps, and their service, which leaves me cold. Maybe their customer service is offshore and that's the problem?

Time to put the TomTom on Craig's List and get a Garmin where they actually believe in customer service.