Shop at Sears.

Tom-D

Tom-D

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Tom-D
Subject: Sears - Christmas shopping has already started

I know I needed this reminder since Sears isn't always my first choice. Amazing when you think of how long the war has lasted and they haven't withdrawn from their commitment. Could we each buy at least one thing at Sears this year?

How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years.

I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. I suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well deserves.

Pass it on.

Decided to check this before I sent it forward. So I sent the following e-mail to the Sears Customer Service Department :

I received this e-mail and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your company. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item, even if it's cheaper at that store.

This is their answer to my e-mail:

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting Sears.The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback.

Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.

Bill Thorn < /B>
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@sears.com
1-800-349-4358 & nbsp;

Please pass this on to all your friends. Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our mili tary!!!

It's verified ! By Snopes.com at:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp
 
I don't know who you work for Scott. lol
 
Sears perhaps may back their called up employees, they are not the place I would ever choose to shop again.

I remodeled my kitchen a few years back and purchased all the appliances from Sears.
When the top of the line dishwasher broke down it took six trips and over a month for their repair department to fix it. Six days lost from work. Their service contracts are worth next to nothing. They closed all of their repair shops, so everything has to be repaired or replaced on location.

They send out inexperienced people who have no understanding whatsoever about repairing appliances. I even got reprimanded by some woman who works for their repair "team" for being sarcastic on the phone.

It would have been less expensive for me if I had just gone out and bought a new dishwasher considering all the time I lost from work.

Nope, I will not spend one cent of my money with that outfit ever again.

John
 
unfortunately, I suspect that same story could be told time and again with just about any retailer's name in the blank...
 
My experience with Sears repair service has been good - while I've had to wait several days for an appointment, in every case the guy has shown up, known what he was doing, and fixed my problem, with no re-work needed later.

I'm in Metro DC area, where there are LOTS of savvy contractors around, so I expect that it's fairly easy for Sears to find good people to do the work. Other parts of the country will vary.
 
I had the timer in a Sears dryer burn out twice, the first time was 2 months out of warranty. Replaced it myself - even though it was/is a common part for several dryers, the local Sears parts office didn't stock it. The guy behind the counter: "We've gotten a number of requests for that part, but it's not an item we keep in stock. You have to order through the website".

2 weeks to get.

I was not pleased.

BTW, Sears outsources appliance manufacturing. Whirlpool gets (or got) most of the business, Maytag got some. Often the parts (and repair info) is identical.
 
John Baker said:
Sears perhaps may back their called up employees, they are not the place I would ever choose to shop again.
<snip>
When the top of the line dishwasher broke down it took six trips and over a month for their repair department to fix it. Six days lost from work. Their service contracts are worth next to nothing. They closed all of their repair shops, so everything has to be repaired or replaced on location.
Click to expand...


While I'm glad they're treating our veterans well, my experience with Sear is sadly similar to yours. I bought three top-of-the-line Sears Kenmore dish washers for our aviation-themed, all-suites hotel in 2007. They all broke within one week, in exactly the same way. The spray head would pop up -- and fall off! Their "service" guy came out, ordered a bunch of parts -- and didn't fix the problem. My maintenance guy finally fixed it with a zip tie, which would hold for 3 or 4 months, and then fall off again. Our guests thought that was real classy...

I just threw all three of them away last month, and had a real appliance store (the last surviving one in the area) install three real, new dish washers.

I also bought a single-stage snow thrower from Sears two years ago. One of those cheap plastic-covered things. Last winter something wrapped around the auger and it cut through the plastic sides like a lathe, leaving a slice in the side that allowed snow and ice into the belt drive. Needless to say, the belt then failed.

I took it into Sears two weeks ago. They sent it to (I'm not kidding) CHICAGO for repairs. It was $125 to fix a $300 snow thrower's plastic side, and replace the belt.

It's sad how far they've fallen. When I was a kid, Sears and the Kenmore brand were the Gold Standard of service and equipment. Now, after this kind of crap, I will never, EVER buy another Sears appliance.
 
Yeah, that Sears post is making the rounds "again" this season. It turned up two days ago (verbatim) on a marketing forum I frequent and I have recently received it in a few emails.

I have no problem with Sears. I have been buying and using Craftsman hand tools for nearly 50 years.
 
Bear in mind that some Sears appliances are merely relabeled versions of
other (good) brands. When we remodelled our kitchen we bought an Amana refrig.
A year later my parents bought the same refrig, only from Sears as a Kenmore.
 
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The Sears/Whirlpool relationship has been in place since at least 1960's. At the accounting firm, I did inventory observations at a bunch of outlying warehouses of Whirlpool's finance company Applicance Buyer's Credit Corp. during that time. Most of the inventory was Kenmore stock. It was back when private flying was illegal on firm business, but I was allowed to use my "fast car" and receive a higher mileage rate reimbursement. Oldtimers may remember that the company came under scrutiny for some hanky-panky at the home office and the CEO's plane crashed soon thereafter, into some body of water in the midwest.
wsuffa said:
I had the timer in a Sears dryer burn out twice, the first time was 2 months out of warranty. Replaced it myself - even though it was/is a common part for several dryers, the local Sears parts office didn't stock it. The guy behind the counter: "We've gotten a number of requests for that part, but it's not an item we keep in stock. You have to order through the website".

2 weeks to get.

I was not pleased.

BTW, Sears outsources appliance manufacturing. Whirlpool gets (or got) most of the business, Maytag got some. Often the parts (and repair info) is identical.
Click to expand...
 
BaltimoreBill said:
Yeah, that Sears post is making the rounds "again" this season. It turned up two days ago (verbatim) on a marketing forum I frequent and I have recently received it in a few emails.

I have no problem with Sears. I have been buying and using Craftsman hand tools for nearly 50 years.
Click to expand...

Me too, I'm using some of the wrenches that I bought when I was a kid.

We build this house in 1987, and put all sears appliances in it, so far we have replaced the hot water heater.

My pressure washer quit, it was 3 weeks before the warranty ran out, I took it in for repair, 2 weeks later they called me to come get it, the one I got back was a new one.
 
When I would spend my money there, I found that most of Sears merchandise was very good. As long as it had few or no moving parts, and did not require electricity or gasoline in order to operate it. If they do not offer to sell you a service contract with the purchase, it is probably a safe bet.

Sears Roebuck Co. was at one time very admired my most American families. It is a darn shame what has become of that company.

I can still remember the Sears catalog out in my grandmothers outhouse, a well read company.

John
 
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BaltimoreBill said:
I have no problem with Sears. I have been buying and using Craftsman hand tools for nearly 50 years.
Click to expand...

Sears in the U.S. has U.S.-made tools, I think. Much better than here in Canada, where the Craftsman hand tools are Chinese. The same tools are available, with a different name on them, from places like Home Depot for considerably less money.
When I was a kid my folks shopped at Sears (known here as Simpson-Sears in those days) and everything they bought was of decent quality. Sometimes they shopped at Eaton's, an exclusively Canadian company that was Sear's main competition. Both of them issued thick catalogues four times a year plus a Christmas catalogue. For decades they were the main mail-order sources for farm and small-town folks all across the country. They sold nearly everything. We have an antique hoosier sold by Simpson's mail order that's probably close to 100 years old. (A hoosier is a kitchen cabinet/counter/cupboard affair that was popular in an age when there were no built-in cabinets and counters in kitchens. Google "hoosier.") My Dad bought an 11-foot aluminum boat from Simpson-Sears in 1960 and that boat has been everywhere. It was cheaply built but I still have it and still use it. All beat up from being dragged over the rocks and from bouncing around on a pickup truck. 48 years of fishing stories in that boat. He used to have an Elgin outboard for it, something else I think he got from Sears.
And then some other outfit bought Sears and things went downhill fast. Now they have no boats or outboards or fishing tackle. No decent bicycles. Almost no hardware of any sort. The tool section is as quiet as a morgue. The store is stocked primarily with ladies wear and cosmetics. Same stuff a gal can buy at Wal-Mart, too.

Dan
 
Over the years I've dealt with Sears and the results have been one that lead me to believe that they set an example for others to follow.

When I was in jr high or high school I got a pair of walkie talkies for Christmas. Shortly thereafter one died. Sear replaced the pair with the next higher quality units as the ones I got were no longer available. One of those units died, so they upped the level once again. Those radios still work, 40+ years later. They were priced at twice the original units.

More than once I've needed a new battery for a car and Sears was having a sale on batteries. Needed one for my 1981 Buick Skylark a number of years ago. Old car, wanted a cheap battery. They were out of stock in my size, so they offered the next quality level for the same price. Oops, out of stock. I drove out with a top of the line Sears Die Hard for the sale price of the bottom feeder. Not sure I was so lucky with my Jeep a while ago, but...

I haven't had to replace a Craftsman tool too often, but when I have it's been no questions asked. I understand my SK Wayne sockets have a similar guarantee, but in almost 40 years of use I haven't broken any of them. Got to love a company that stands behind their products.

Oh, and I had excellent service from Sears on a refrigerator that needed repair, too.

I don't shop at Sears too often simply because their store isn't as conveniently located as some of the competition, but I sure don't have a problem with them.
 
So if I could find a Sears competitor that does the same thing, does that mean that we should not shop anywhere? LOL.

I like Sears, a lot! But they're a bit too pricey for me.
 
Sears has been fine for me so far. Kudos to them and anybody else who supports our troops.
 
The last time I looked, it still says over the entry doors at Sears "Your satisfaction guaranteed or you money back." I have, on rare occasions had someone at Sears give me a hard time and all it ever took to resolve it was quoting their claim over the door to a manager. You should never have to do that but it's not only Sears that isn't what they were 30 years ago - it's society in general. Good help is going to be increasingly hard to find in our self entitled, morally bankrupt culture. Jeez, I sound just like my grandfather...
 
I personally think Sears was a lot better before it ran into trouble, was purchased by the private equity/hedge fund group, and merged with K-Mart.

These days, on the appliance & hardware side, most of the stuff is relabeled - I've got a Sears (by Black & Decker) electric lawnmower. Can't get the parts from Sears, ordered them from B&D directly.
 
I have a lot of Craftsman tools. Pretty good tools for half the price of the tools on the trucks. The Sears here closed so I have to buy my Craftsmans at K-Mart. Sears belongs to K-Mart now, you know.
 
I can spend all day looking at tools at sears--craftsman is a little over priced but generally worth it. I try to buy any (hand tool) that I want to last at Sears. The crap I know I'll only use once comes from Harbor Freight.
 
jesse said:
I can spend all day looking at tools at sears--craftsman is a little over priced but generally worth it. I try to buy any (hand tool) that I want to last at Sears. The crap I know I'll only use once comes from Harbor Freight.
Click to expand...

I'm actually of the buy cheap and repeat group. I break all tools, whether high dollar or cheap, so I'd rather just replace the tool a bunch of times than deal with paying more and replacing it through warranty.
 
SkyHog said:
I'm actually of the buy cheap and repeat group. I break all tools, whether high dollar or cheap, so I'd rather just replace the tool a bunch of times than deal with paying more and replacing it through warranty.
Click to expand...

It is pretty easy to replace Craftsman hand tools at Sears. Walk in, hand them it, and say "give me another one".
 
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