Jagtech wrote: Your biggest mistake was buying Sears tools in the first place. They aren't the quality "Craftsman made in USA" tools that they used to be. Now its "Craftsman made in China". No service, no replacement parts available, and now no refunds either!!
Its too bad, really. Sears used to be one of the best, but now they are struggling, and likely on the way out.
BTW, no ~ you are not being unreasonable!
What tools aren't made in China? Dewalt has a factory there.
I have a Craftsmen and a Milwaukee drill-driver. I paid more for the Milwaukee but when you hold the two next to each other they are identical. The battery is even the exact same shape except they aren't interchangeable because they moved the little plastic fins around. I'm guessing they came off the same assembly line and one was made a Craftsmen and the other a Milwaukee.
You're absolutely right... MOST tools are now made in China, with the exception of more costly ones such as General Tools (Canada). But one big difference is in the battery packs - the low quality ones have cells made in China, whereas some better ones have cells made in Japan, even though the case says Made in China. My experience has been the Chinese ones only last about a year.
Why on earth can't we start making stuff in America again??? The original Craftsman tool line was mostly made in USA, which is what made them famous "way back then".
1998 Triple E F53 with 460 Ford
1995 Jeep Wrangler toad
I had a problem with Sears a few years ago (about 5) with Sears not living up to a coupon they were giving when signing up for one of their newsletters. I pulled out all stops. Wrote and wrote! Even wrote a detailed letter to the president outlining how I had been a customer for almost 50 years. My first bicycle, furniture, etc. NOTHING WORKED!!! They wouldn't even respond. After almost 50 years and who knows how many thousands of dollars, we parted company! I put them in the same category as I do Apple...which is a similiar story. Saw the "new" Sears President on TV a while back touting the "NEW SEARS" and how they were using Facebook. I wrote on their Facebook: still waiting for an answer. I don't miss Sears and I certainly haven't missed Apple! Yes, everything happens for a reason!
Mike LeBlanc, "The Digital Guy"
Professional Photographer, Retired Art Educator
Sour Lake, Texas
Why can't we make stuff in America? I think it was Steve Jobs that said if he had the iPad made in America he would have to sell them for $2000 to make a profit. (The quote was something like that.)
2004 National Tropi-Cal T-350, Class A, Triple slide, 330 HP Cat DP. 2006 Dodge Dakota 4x4 or
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2004 Polaris Quad on the Trailer
slarsen wrote: Some of you assume that my son is guilty of not saving the receipt. In fact, I didn't ask for it because I didn't want to make him feel bad. $50 isn't worth it to me.
Regarding the suggestion it could be stolen, clerks can usually spot those who might have done that, but more importantly, I carried it in directly to the checkout counter, 30 feet from the door, and the clerk saw me carry it into the store. Added: and I had the receipt from my wife's purchase of the set of two devices, one of which was the identical item, both in a single box.
What gripes me is, giving store credit means that I would spend the same amount or more on other things, with presumably the same kind of markup. So there is no loss to the store . . . just some minor inconvenience at the register. And that would be true even if I DID buy it somewhere else, or even at a different price. One item comes in, a different item or two goes out.
It just reflects a lack of service and consideration for the customer. And that $50 issue will cost Sears thousands of dollars over the next few years in lost business.
Minimum wage store clerks can spot a thief? I spent 28 years as a cop and I saw all kinds of people steal all kinds of things. Even once handled a case where grandma stole some stuff and hid in the grand babies stroller to get it out of the store. And guess what, it was a Sears store.
Was reading thru the posts, saw this and . . . bingo!!
Before I was a FF, I worked in retail stores. The store I worked for hired a lot of off-duty LA City cops to cut down on shoplifting at Christmas time. Learned a lot from those guys - and was often surprised at "who" would steal "what" - and techniques on spotting them.
One shift (as a FF) we were dispatched to a Sears store for a heart problem. An employee had spotted an elderly gent walk out with an item he hadn't paid for. When the employee and mgr brought "grandpa" (gramma was with him) back - he started to complain of chest pains.
The mgr met me as we went to the back of the store - said he didn't want to press charges (etc.) - the old guy had told him it was a momentary lack of judgement, never done anything like that before, etc., etc. - and the whole event had stressed him out, causing the chest pains.
However, the mgr was worried about releasing grandpa with a possible heart attack and had called us.
While the medics were checking vitals and running an EKG (BTW - which were just fine), I asked the mgr -
"Where did he put the merchandise he took?"
The mgr indicated inside his jacket - which was on a chair across the room.
Looked it over - full "booster" jacket with "special" (extra) sewn-in
pockets! Upon looking over gramma's coat - her's had the same set-up.
Told the mgr - they were "pros" - call the PD.
Reminded me of my "retail" days - pretty gal came into the market with a maternity smock - but barley "showing".
Only because she was a "looker", the same guy noticed her (again) on the way out of the store.
Now she was nine months plus!
Maternity smock had a "baby" 15lb turkey in a sling underneath!.
~
Sears *is* going downhill - but my vote is for - "receipt required".
No big deal - common sense - and good policy for *ANY* retailer..
I havent walked into a Sears store since last year, however I found a tweaked out Craftsman three eights drive ratchet somebody was scrapping so I snagged it knowing I can walk into the store and get a free replacement without a sales reciept....but hey, can't go wrong with having too many free ratchets right ?
As the man that chucked out the ratchet was telling me he wouldn't have anything to do with Sears whatsoever for the same reasons others have mentioned about their quality of service and products while giving the customer the run around on service repair calls, etc.
I cannot recall the exact timeframe on their current policy they have now, however Sears has had a policy in effect for awhile reference to their power and electric tool line specifically stating no refunds or exchanges without a sales reciept.
As of last year they still upheld their no sales reciept exchange policy with their Craftsman brand of handtools as I exchanged that tweaked out ratchet, one question asked.
Guess the clerk already classified me as attempting to get money while I set the ratchet on the counter as she asked : return ?....I stated : nope, exchange !
She says to me "that'll be easy".
Quote: Regarding the suggestion it could be stolen, clerks can usually spot those who might have done that....
Sorry to laugh at this statement, but back in the day when I worked for Sears between the early and late 1980's span :
(one B store in Indio CA, one A store in Brea CA, and under contract at the former catalog C store in Fairbanks AK before they committed a B store to the area in the early 1990's)
A sales clerk could care less about theft prevention unless they were absolutely bored on the sales floor, as their primary tasks are mainly stocking merchandise and retail counter.
The department of personnel in charge of spotting stolen and altered items would be theft prevention, which also took over tasks of full time security and store auditing as these individuals did not play, they had full powers vested as if you were dealing with the IRS in an audit when they arrived in your department looking for discrepencies either in the books or inventory items that were unaccounted for upon question....they always had my boss squirming when they showed up.
They kept an eye on employees more so than the general customers as they mainly concentrated on warehouse personnel and sales clerks the most, as I told my friends the one place you do not wanna try to rip off is Sears because they keep tabs on everyone and everything.
As like msmith1199 stated, sales clerks made practically minimum wage as I had also in which I was under the service tech department ($4.85-hr was my wage working for Sears as minimum wage was at $3.10).
In the day with Sears and Roebuck when I worked for them, service department and automotive depts. were on 6 day a week schedules and worked the most at over 40hours a week, as warehouse dept. varied in scheduled hours, while retail-sales clerks (other than higher seniority individuals) were strictly part time schedules at 20 hours per week, managers were 40 plus hours per week.
I could not get a break with Sears the times I worked for them as they wanted you working 6 days a week in the service department as I averaged over 48 hours per week labor, the Brea store I was at $5.15 per hour and the Fairbanks catalog store I was at $6.50 per hour, and that was only two days per week schedule....What was nice is that Sears was weekly payroll.
They did away with pension plans when I got hired as they offered profit sharing plans instead back in the 1980's.
Sears kept tabs of everything on file upon the info for each and every sale and service, was also databased and entered at the corporate HQ in Chicago.
I was supposed to learn everything on repairing all their appliances and on the job training upon out on service calls with all the different personnel I had to tag with each day, however it never ended up that way because I was pretty much doing a gopher role for the techs while them stacking me with all the service call forms that I completed pretty darn accurate I might add, as the boss called a meeting stating I was a blessing to him because I was soooo flawless on all the service form paperwork after my first two days on the job versus people been there as much as 12 years that still cannot do the paperwork correctly by either entering the codes in the wrong places on the form or simply messing up on the data codes...so crazy at times for a small handful of them could not tell the difference between a model number and a serial number and enter the info wrong on the service form.
I knew practically all the division codes, store codes, task codes in two days without looking it up anymore but did double check my database entries before submitting them to the boss...I got to the point I started memorizing Sears size letter and assigned store numbers throughout Southern California.
Sears was also famous for their pre hire physical you had to take prior to being hired, as if you even so stated you had an ailment in the past or restricted upon any physical capability, you were rejected as a candidate for hire.
I left Sears in Brea after a brief stint, as a commercial laundry outfit in Anaheim called me for an interview and was offered $6.50 per hour to start with weekends off with an option to work on Saturdays if I wished, ....A $1.35 per hour increase, 5 days a week work schedule while cutting my commute from 18 city miles to just a much closer one mile commute, so I resigned from Sears naturally.
Yeah it is too bad a giant company like Sears used to take pride in customer satisfaction along with backing up every product they sold with maintenance agreement option, and servicing your product when needed with a more leanient return policy at the time...those days are long gone now.
One last mention about the $11 billion merger as a lot of people had it all wrong when they heard Sears was buying out K-Mart in that blockbuster deal while K-Mart was still closing out many of their stores at that time......Then people were in disbelief when they actually realized that it was K-Mart buying out Sears and their divisional companies.
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2000 Fleetwood Angler 8ft Cabover
Air Lift 1000(Front)
Air Lift Loadlifter 5000(rear)
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Goodyear G171 LT Series(siped)
I made a vow about 5 years ago that I would never set foot in another Sears. So far I've kept that vow. I bought the top of the line lawn mower from Sears for like $600. It wouldn't cut grass, the bagger wasn't functional and the self propel mechanism didn't work properly. I returned it and told them that if that was the quality of their product I just wanted my money back. They charged me a 10% restocking fee for returning a piece of junk. I had paid cash so there was no recourse. That $60 cost them thousands. I've remodeled two kitchens since them with new appliances that I probably would have bought from them. I drive buy the local Sears store often and never see more than 3 or 4 cars there. i think that they have more employees than they have customers. It's just a matter of time and they will be gone but not missed.
Randy & Dianne
2011 Ford Superduty F250 6.7 Lariat Crewcab
2008 CrossRoads Cruiser CF30SK
I bought the best lawn mower I've ever owned from Sears/K-Mart. I bought it on sale, PLUS I had a coupon(sent to me by mail). Bottom line was $200. It's always started on first or second pull, and after several years of reliable operation it's still going strong. All I've done is sharpen the blade (many times), and clean the air filter:
Willie & Betty Sue
Miko & Sparky
2003 41 ft Dutch Star Diesel Pusher/Spartan
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Blazer toad & Ranger bassboat
You guys do know why stores like Sears have died don't you? It's because of the big box wharehouse stores like Costco, Home Depot, Sam's Club, etc. People go shop where the bargain in. You ever try and get help at a Costco to get something off a top shelf? Good luck. Same with Home Depot. But Sears used to have great customer service and great customer service costs money. They had to start cutting that to compete with the big box stores and the Internet takes a huge chunk too. How many of us have gone to Sears to look at some item and then ended up buying it for cheaper on the Internet? I'm guilty of it. I'm not willing to pay extra just for customer service, in most cases. I will go to Orchard Supply over Home Depot if I'm looking for something I may need help with. I go to Home Depot if I know what I want and don't need help.
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