Sears -the evil giant

[partscounterman]

Any one else read this?
What the article does not tell you is how poorly Sears treats their employees. When I worked at the sears here, they were never happy about how much appliances you sold, only how many of the rip off service contracts you peddled. "You're holding back the district-You holding back the store" the manager would harp at us. They also tormented us constantly about getting people to open up their crummy credit card @ 22% interest! Profit indeed!
To make selling the contract even harder is the fact that sears service here is the pits-People wait days even weeks to get their refers fixed-and we're in the tropics! Hello!
I had one lady get P.O.ed and cancel the service contract on her washa' cuz it took so long for dem to fix her refrigArAtor.(accent on the 'a' in pigin english).
So I could only eat so much of that reheated "poo" everyday, so now I have my own business, which is not without its worries-I am still a whole bunch happier now that I am not being browbeaten at sears

http://www.appliancemagazine.com/news.php?article=7688&zone=0&first=1

 

[goatfarmer]

My dad had a Panasonic fax machine he bought through Sears,and got the infamous "service contract" with it. It took a dive one day,so he took it to the local Service Center,here in South Bend.
A week went by,with no answer,so he started making phone calls.Finally got an answer. They didn't work on electronics at this service center,they had a guy from Grand Rapids,Mi,drive down every 2 weeks,pick up the repairs,and drop off what was repaired.He came on a Wednesday,and my dad dropped off the fax on a Thursday,the day after the repair guy was there.So his machine was going to sit on a shelf for 2 weeks,before the guy would pick it up to look at it!Then at least another 2 weeks,before he would get it back! He raised all kinds of stink about that,but got no where with Sears management.
I believe he told them where to shove the fax,and their service contract,and bought another machine.

kennyGF

 

[gyrafoam]

I have known many ex-Sears folks---all say pretty much the same thing. At Roberds, we were always encouraged to sell those service contracts too, but that was'nt hard on a $1500.00 Refrigerator. No one wanted to risk having to put one out on the curb over a power surge or lightning strike! I used to really shake people up pushing the service contracts on the Maytag appliances! Oh' they would say---the Maytags never break down----yeah---right. Well, at least Roberds management did not screech at us constantly about selling contracts. In the end though, the company went bankrupt----I wonder who is servicing those contracts now--------. -Steve

 

[gansky1]

I worked for Sears in the mid-80's, selling paint! I loved it for a part-time school job, no stress, fun people and decent pay. I knew many people in other "hard-lines" departments who were seriously browbeaten into cramming service contracts on customers. It didn't matter that of all the contracts sold, there was over a 60% after-sale cancellation rate, it was just the number of sales that mattered. The true story is that there are bonuses and premiums for several layers of management for sales numbers so everything hinged on their own pockets - not what was best for the customer. Sears, like Maytag and many other retail & service organizations have shifted the focus to only the numbers, not the products or customers.

 

[super32]

It seems this holds true for any big retailer. I worked at swallens which was a local retailer here in cincinnati. They had about 8-9 stores. It was the same thing, we didnt make any money selling small or llow end items. Only if we sold the biggest most expensive item with a 5 year service contract on it did we make any money. Like gyrafoam said where are they now?