I am fortunate in that I have not yet been ripped off save for time; by not giving into the salesperson in this matter and by doing some quick fact checking I've avoided what likely may have been a rip off of time and money. I am posting this warning so that others know what they may be getting into should they think about Cabinet Refacing from Sears Home Services.
We received a mailer for Cabinet Refacing from Sears (AKA Sears Home Services) and we signed up. You don't go to the store for this, they send a sales person to your home; this makes sense since measurements, etc. Are required to quote the job. The sales person asked some brief questions about what we were looking for and took some measurements. The salesperson also brought a number of samples and other sales material, and also brought material for countertop replacement... So far nothing unbecoming for a sales call.
After the measurements we sat down so the sales person could give me her pitch. After a short introduction to Sears Home Services, the first red flag went up. She started in on a 15-20 minute discussion of how bad everyone else was: she had a book of 'statistics' on how 80% of contracting jobs leave customers dissatified. But most importantly she started naming names dscribing how horrible Home Depot was and how they hired out 'contractors' to do installation work.
In fact, she even had printouts of consumer complaints.com pages showing Home Depot horror stories. What took the cake was she also showed me a consumer complaints.com printout with Sears Home Services showing 'No reports found'. Of course there are reports for Sears Cabinet Refacing, not many, but not under the search term her paper used ("Sears Home Services"). So first problem: Sales people that focus on trash mouthing the competition and scare tactics rather than their own product are usually out looking for a sucker. (I had never heard of Usa Consumer Complaints.com until she showed me those printouts... Oops!)
As she was telling me about how bad Home Depot and Lowes and others were for hiring contractors that could go out of business at any second and that Sears doesn't do that. She even talked about how 'mechanics leins' could be outstanding with the contractors and the jobs have to be paid for twice. So I asked, 'so Sears employees come out then?'.'Well, no but' was the answer. She then went on to tell me how Sears didn't want them directly on payroll since they couldn't fire them as easy. Clear B.S. Sears does precisely what Home Depot and Lowes do. So second red flag: she did her best to misrepresent the situation rather than show why Sears handled the situation better.
I asked her to skip the rest of the how-bad-everyone-else-is speech, which she sped up at least, and we discussed the Sears product itself. Great, sounded interesting, looked at and color matched samples and seemed like a viable option for our project. Then came the third red flag: Pushing hard to close the deal on the first sales call. Remember the only way you can get information concrete information is to have the sales person come out... Makes sense since they'll have to quote it anyway. But to have an expectation to close on a ~$10K deal during the first visit is 100% unreasonable. It wasn't just an eager sales tactic either, Sears offers a 10% discount for closing on the spot; clearly what the earlier scare tactics were trying to drive. When I explained that she was the first vendor out and that we needed to she others, she went back to the book and had materials on how the 'three quote bidding' process was so flawed. She spent at least 5 minutes trying to tell me what kind of mistake I was about to make and that everyone signs on the first visit.
The whole Sears program is structured for this on the spot, no thought sales process. They may as well be selling used cars. It wasn't the sales person's fault. All the printed materials and the deal's structure show that this is Sears trying to push people into buying something on the spot without giving them a chance to think it through and decide on the merits of the product. The sales person, as she was leaving (and I had not disqualified them at that time) said that she's only ever received one callback after the first visit. That was the first honest word I know I heard all night. What does that say about the product? Well, now that I've researched them a bit (since they raised the red flag) I have disqualified them and recommend you beware too.
Steven
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.
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