I Hate My Sears Card

[Numo]

My Sears CC# was stolen online last week and I have been trying to sort out the damage. Today I checked my online statement and it's very difficult to understand. For example, the recent activity page shows all transactions, both debits and credits. However, it doesn't indicate which is which, and at the bottom totals up all the transactions, as if they are all debits.

But what really bugged me is when I tried to call a service representative for an explanation, I was forced to listen to 2 solid minutes of Sears commercials, and was then put me on hold while the line played extremely scratchy music - it sounded as if someone was constantly fiddling with a loose speaker wire. Periodically, a recorded voice assured me that they knew my time is important and my call was being put on a priority basis (yeah, right). Finally, I got so irritated that I conceded defeat and hung up - which I think was exactly what they wanted me to do. How can anyone have such crappy customer service and survive? :cursin:

[Black]

I've been a Sears supporter (the Chicago history/ local business thing) for a long time, but I have to say based on my own recent observations that Sears has jumped the shark and won't be around much longer.

[mattkime]

i hate your sears card too!

[Jack D.]

Sears is on my $hit list and has been for a long time. Many years ago their method of credit reporting/management almost cost me my mortgage. They showed me having several delinquent cards and accounts in multiple states, all untrue.

Now after 0ver 20 years of staying away I gave them another chance last year. I needed to special order a tongue and groove cutter for my table saw and the order got screwed up and shipped to another store 40 miles away from mine. I had to go pick it up because they couldn't get it sent to my store for another week. It is the last time I will ever set foot in a Sears store.

[chopper]

I'll never buy anything from Sears ever again. We made the mistake of buying our appliances there and ... just .... never again.

[JoeH]

Well, Sears no longer owns the Sears Card business. That was sold to Citibank back in 2003. In the process, many records were screwed up. Especially the records for additional card holders, often they got tagged as being joint account holders. That got some late payments by my ex onto my credit reports again, I had been listed as an additional card holder years before while we were still together. It repeated a problem that Sears Card had been under a consent decree to clear up back in the late '90's over the same thing for many customers.

As for Sears itself, the management really messed up the stores and the brands they sold during the decade of the '90's. I have not seen any sign that the purchase by the group that took over Kmart and brought it out of bankruptcy has turned that around at all. What used to stand for a known level of quality up until 15-20 years ago, no longer does. Still can find some good merchandise there, but it takes careful shopping.

[Black]

JoeH wrote:
As for Sears itself, the management really messed up the stores and the brands they sold during the decade of the '90's. I have not seen any sign that the purchase by the group that took over Kmart and brought it out of bankruptcy has turned that around at all. What used to stand for a known level of quality up until 15-20 years ago, no longer does. Still can find some good merchandise there, but it takes careful shopping.

I read an interesting article around the time of the takeover to the effect that the K-Mart folks were more interested in the real estate that the stores were on (K-Mart generally owned the malls it anchored) than the performance of the stores; they were more than happy to close an underperforming store since the profit from sales was not seen as the key part of the equation. Now that the land is worth so much less I wonder how long the death watch will last?
I agree with the assessment that there is still good merchandise to be found affordably with careful shopping, but you definitely have to approach the place as sort of an 'outlet' and not think you're going to get in and out with what you need with a trip to the store.

[Buzz]

we pretty much gave up on the Sears credit card thing when it started morphing for the worse... keep the Craftsman Club card to keep tabs on the "guy stuff", but always use cash, or another card when buying anything; except when they have an extra % off deal for using the Sears card, then put it on the card, and make an equal payment for the transaction immediately before leaving the store.

[Lux Interior]

I bought my first Mac at Sears (a Performa 200) back in the early 90s.

[testcase]

Lux Interior wrote:
I bought my first Mac at Sears (a Performa 200) back in the early 90s.

Same here. My first mac was a Performa 6200 .