--ing Sears
Feb. 24th, 2006 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sab123A story of how Sears sucks.
A few weeks ago the battery on Camaro has died. When trying to start the engine only the starter relay would do click-click-click and nothing else. Next day I've checked the voltage on the battery - 5 Volt. Next day after that - 0 Volt. Looks like something has shorted inside the battery. Exactly same picture as last May, only that one lasted for about 4 years and this piece did not last a year.
Well, I grab the battery and bring it back to Sears. They've tested it on their machine (almost an hour, good thing that I've read the message on the tester's screen and went to other stores in the meantime instead of waiting there). Found that it's really dead (no surprise). Asked them if instead of warranty they could return the money for this crap. They said no. Well, OK, even though I should have bought an Energizer instead.
The warranty is supposed to be 36 months outright replacement, 100 months (from the purchase date) replacement with pro-rated extra charge. And I must say that last time (in May) it has worked pretty good: I didn't even bring a receipt, they've found the battery in their database by their serial number and gave a $20 discount for the new one.
Well, I say, let's change it by warranty then. The guy says, show the original receipt. Here it is, you've been looking at it for a long time now. No, he says, this is not the original one. Huh? He says, see - this receipt shows that you've got a $20 discount for an old battery, so the original receipt must be for the old battery. And the warranty term must be counted from the purchase date of the old battery. Huh? I've paid $65 for this battery (after that $20 discount) and they say I don't get any warranty. He offers to discount another $20. I say in exactly those words that I'm not going to pay any more of my money for their shit and leave. Go buy an Energizer.
Next morning I'm felling pissed off at them, so I find the phone of the corporate customer service at their web site and call them. They've agreed that since I've paid $65, the warranty must be counted from that date according to the corporate policy. They've called the store manager (Lee). He has called me and said that they'll replace it. He won't be there in the evening himself but he'll tell the guy called Laurence to replace it. Fine, I stop by again in the evening. Laurence turns out to be the same asshole I've talked to the previous day. Refuses to replace. I tell him to call the manager. He calls, can't reach him, says to wait for a call back. I wait for a few minutes then leave.
Next day try to call them a few times. Nobody answers. Call the corporate office. They manage to raise the manager and tell me that he'll be there on Saturday. Come there on Saturday. Talk to yet another asshole. He refuses to replace it again. Get the manager. Talk to the manager. He says, yeah, replace it. The subordinate assholes finally do replace the battery while telling me that it's against the policy. Wrote on the new receipt that the replacement was authorized by the manager too. BTW, the new receipt explicitly states that the warranty is counted from the original purchase date, from last May. The old one did not have anything of this sort.
Returned the Energizer (good that I didn't install it yet).
The moral of the story is that apparently Sears saves on the warranty costs by making the salesmen to adhere to a different policy than the official one. And if the customers don't complain they get screwed. Only these who complain get the warranty fulfilled. It's definitely a con. The only question left is if it's carried on by the whole corporation or by the local store.
But it's not the end of the story yet. After I've changed the battery I've noticed that the voltmeter shows good voltage, not below 14V like it used too. It looks like the failing battery was screwing up the electrical system. And was the most probable source of all these troubles I've had in the summer (spark plugs, O2 sensors, catalyst - over $1000 in damage, plus other unnecessary things which didn't fix the issue, like alternator change). And apparently it was defective to start with, as all this crap has started soon after I've installed that battery in May. Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to sue them by now :-( Well, next time I'll replace their crappy battery to a decent Energizer at the first sight of things going strange.
A few weeks ago the battery on Camaro has died. When trying to start the engine only the starter relay would do click-click-click and nothing else. Next day I've checked the voltage on the battery - 5 Volt. Next day after that - 0 Volt. Looks like something has shorted inside the battery. Exactly same picture as last May, only that one lasted for about 4 years and this piece did not last a year.
Well, I grab the battery and bring it back to Sears. They've tested it on their machine (almost an hour, good thing that I've read the message on the tester's screen and went to other stores in the meantime instead of waiting there). Found that it's really dead (no surprise). Asked them if instead of warranty they could return the money for this crap. They said no. Well, OK, even though I should have bought an Energizer instead.
The warranty is supposed to be 36 months outright replacement, 100 months (from the purchase date) replacement with pro-rated extra charge. And I must say that last time (in May) it has worked pretty good: I didn't even bring a receipt, they've found the battery in their database by their serial number and gave a $20 discount for the new one.
Well, I say, let's change it by warranty then. The guy says, show the original receipt. Here it is, you've been looking at it for a long time now. No, he says, this is not the original one. Huh? He says, see - this receipt shows that you've got a $20 discount for an old battery, so the original receipt must be for the old battery. And the warranty term must be counted from the purchase date of the old battery. Huh? I've paid $65 for this battery (after that $20 discount) and they say I don't get any warranty. He offers to discount another $20. I say in exactly those words that I'm not going to pay any more of my money for their shit and leave. Go buy an Energizer.
Next morning I'm felling pissed off at them, so I find the phone of the corporate customer service at their web site and call them. They've agreed that since I've paid $65, the warranty must be counted from that date according to the corporate policy. They've called the store manager (Lee). He has called me and said that they'll replace it. He won't be there in the evening himself but he'll tell the guy called Laurence to replace it. Fine, I stop by again in the evening. Laurence turns out to be the same asshole I've talked to the previous day. Refuses to replace. I tell him to call the manager. He calls, can't reach him, says to wait for a call back. I wait for a few minutes then leave.
Next day try to call them a few times. Nobody answers. Call the corporate office. They manage to raise the manager and tell me that he'll be there on Saturday. Come there on Saturday. Talk to yet another asshole. He refuses to replace it again. Get the manager. Talk to the manager. He says, yeah, replace it. The subordinate assholes finally do replace the battery while telling me that it's against the policy. Wrote on the new receipt that the replacement was authorized by the manager too. BTW, the new receipt explicitly states that the warranty is counted from the original purchase date, from last May. The old one did not have anything of this sort.
Returned the Energizer (good that I didn't install it yet).
The moral of the story is that apparently Sears saves on the warranty costs by making the salesmen to adhere to a different policy than the official one. And if the customers don't complain they get screwed. Only these who complain get the warranty fulfilled. It's definitely a con. The only question left is if it's carried on by the whole corporation or by the local store.
But it's not the end of the story yet. After I've changed the battery I've noticed that the voltmeter shows good voltage, not below 14V like it used too. It looks like the failing battery was screwing up the electrical system. And was the most probable source of all these troubles I've had in the summer (spark plugs, O2 sensors, catalyst - over $1000 in damage, plus other unnecessary things which didn't fix the issue, like alternator change). And apparently it was defective to start with, as all this crap has started soon after I've installed that battery in May. Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to sue them by now :-( Well, next time I'll replace their crappy battery to a decent Energizer at the first sight of things going strange.
