they still do the hard sell at Sears...
Sears still seems to push people from BOL to MOL/TOL, and they REALLY want you to buy the extended warranty. When I purchased my LG/Kenmore TOL steam front loader, which was a discontinued clearance floor model, I was going to buy the matching dryer until I learned that I could get a "free" one due to the fact that Sears offered 50% back in rewards on clearance floor models. The BOL model would have been paid for by the points I earned on the washer. So, I opted for the venerable 29" Whirlpool-built BOL Kenmore because I'm cheap and I believe a dryer is a dryer, unlike a washer.
After turning down the extended warranty, the salesperson tried to convince me that the dryer I wanted to buy was "cheap" in not a good way. After establishing that I did not want to buy the LG/Kenmore FL dryer, she tried to get me to buy an upper-MOL Kenmore 29", where if I did, I would pay $200 out of pocket after redeeming the points versus settling for the same dryer (only with less cycles and a different control panel) for free after redeeming the points from the washer. Like I said before, a dryer is a dryer, I am not as picky like with everything else (like wanting a radiant convection range), and it just came down to a few extra dials on a different control panel. Not worth it to me.
She tried to tell me that the MOL Kenmore had more features. True, but then she went on to say that the build quality was better and that the one I wanted was a little "flimsy". I told her, politely, that these things have been produced with very little changes for what, 40-50 years, so Whirlpool surely must have "gotten it" by now and that all of the 29" top filter models are the same thing underneath (and not-so-underneath), just some have different control panels and different cycles. I clued her in on the design of the drum, the placement of the lint filter and even the door, all of was identical between the two. Told her I could swap control panels between the two in half an hour and she would never notice. A minute later, I had the stockroom guys pulling the TOL KM FL off the floor and pulling a new BOL KM dryer out of the stockroom and loading it into my truck.
When I went to Lowe's to buy my MOL Whirlpool fridge, DW, range and MH, it was as simple as saying what I wanted to buy. Saying no to the extended warranty was as easy as a simple no thanks. It was like I was getting my morning coffee.
I want to like Sears since they have great products but it seems like they are more aggressive in their selling practices. I always seem to have to participate in a mini-seminar on their credit card at checkout every time I go in to buy something. I've noticed that other stores never seem to ask you to sign up for a card, even though those stores have their own cards.
