I went to the Shopping Town Mall Sears in Syracuse, NY with my wife since I had time kill prior to meeting my family for dinner. I was looking at replacing tools that were stolen out of my garage. I was looking at a 260 piece tool set that was on sale. That is when I was approached by a sales representative that informed me that if I was looking at tool sets, there was a 540 piece mechanic tool set that was on clearance at a great price. I was intrigued and asked him to show me the tool set. I was happily surprised to find that the tool set was over half off. I found this hard to believe and looked closely at the clearance tag that was marked as used. I asked the sales rep why it was on clearance and he said that it was probably bought online and was just returned since it was marked used and reassured me that it was a great price for the tool set. Since I was fine with the fact that the tools were used I decided to purchase the tool set. Later that night when I got home over an hour away from the store I opened the box and found that the set looked incomplete. The next day I spent around an hour and a half inventorying the tools only to find that over a hundred tools were missing. I then called the store to inform them of the problem. The individual on the phone then told me that this was no surprise since all of the clearance tool sets were missing tools and then to add insult to injury, he said why do you think they are marked so cheap? I stated that the sales rep never even hinted that the set was incomplete and only returned used. I also asked him why the clearance tag was only marked used when there were about eight total reasons for the clearance on the tag? He said that there is usually a note on the tag with more information on why the item is on clearance, but they must have missed it with this one and the sales rep must not have known why it was on clearance. He then told me that if I didn’t want it then I can just return it and that was all he could do since the tool manager was out until Tuesday at which time we ended our conversation. Afterward I still felt as though I had been misled into buying the tool set since the apparently common knowledge that all clearance tool sets were missing tools was never mentioned the day I purchased them. Even more so due to the fact that it was marked and suggested by the sales rep that they were just used and returned. That is when I decided to call back and speak to a manager. That is when the frustration really started. Between me and my wife, we spent almost an hour being cycled through the automated system and countless unhelpful people. I lost track of how many times we were transferred and disconnected. All of that trouble only for my wife to finally get the acting manager. Her name was Pat and she was very pleasant, but unable to do anything but have us fax her the list of missing tools so the tool manager could call us back two days later. As one might guess, Tuesday came and went and no call ever came. I will not waste any more effort chasing Sears. I couldn’t even find a spot on the sears website to file a complaint and phone contact is a waste of time. I already have hours of wasted time invested in this for trusting Sears. I will just return the tools and be done with Sears altogether. It will be their loss since we will be buying a grill, riding lawnmower and would have needed buy a tool box to put my would be tool set in. I shopped at Sears since I thought they were a good company that was trustworthy and cared about the customer. There is nothing that Sears sells that cannot be bought elsewhere. The main reason to shop at Sears is trust in the Sears name and that they would back it up. Since these important factors are lacking, I will spend my money elsewhere. Especially for any major purchases and the service warranties for those major purchases. My advice to others will be to do the same. Shop at a place where they care about the customer.
0 comments