Complaint Review: Sears - Newington Connecticut

I, too, am an ex-employee of a Sears Outlet, although in Shrewsbury, Ma. rather than in Newington, Ct. I, too, have seen, and been shocked by, the sheer volume of used appliances coming into that store, the vast majority of them mislabelled from their point of origin-which, incidentally, is in many cases the Newington, Ct. store and distribution center- as new, which they most assuredly are not. Nothing marked new is ever tested-company policy-even though, as previously stated, most of these items are definitely not new. Occasionally a refrigerator will make its way onto the sales floor without a power cord or a compressor. Often, a gas dryer will be mislabelled as electric, and vice versa. Many of the allegedly new refrigerators and freezers are quite dirty inside, sometimes even to the extent that they are infested with noxious insects. It goes almost without saying that if a person is naive enough to purchase one of these APWs(appliances with problems) and does not buy one of the ridiculously overpriced service warranties the salesperson is expected to pressure them into buying, they will have an extremely difficult time obtaining the service they stand an excellent chance of needing, and, furthermore, if the customer has neglected to purchase said warranty on a refrigerator or freezer, and that procuct fails, causing food loss, the chances are excellent that the customer will not receive any compensation for the ruined food. That, too, is company policy-along with Sears Service's policy of making it as difficult, time-consuming, and generally aggravating for the customer to receive service they have actually paid for in advance through the purchase of the extended service agreement. Let me mention that if one does fall into the category of the customer who has purchased an appliance at one of these outlet stores, commonly referred to within the service system as a junk store, and has also purchased an extended warranty on this piece of junk, chances are quite good that when service is needed, by the time the tech finally arrives, said tech will quite possibly condemn the appliance in question on the spot, and then authorize the poor customer to return to the junk store to purchase-you guessed it-another piece of junk-one which may very well have been picked up at some other customer's home, returned to Newington, and then shipped right back to Shrewsbury to be resold again-sometimes two or three times, even though it doesn't work, never has, and never will-and sometimes even has a red dot or the words JUNK or CONDEMNED written on the back by a conscientious technician. To understand why this has been allowed to continue, one needs to know a couple of things.First, these stores are all about volume. The more product they move, the higher the store's profits. The higher its profits, the bigger the store manager's end-of-year bonus will be. The satisfaction, or lack thereof, of the customer, is of no consequence to Sears.

I, too, am an ex-employee of a Sears Outlet, although in Shrewsbury, Ma. rather than in Newington, Ct. I, too, have seen, and been shocked by, the sheer volume of used appliances coming into that store, the vast majority of them mislabelled from their point of origin-which, incidentally, is in many cases the Newington, Ct. store and distribution center- as new, which they most assuredly are not. Nothing marked new is ever tested-company policy-even though, as previously stated, most of these items are definitely not new. Occasionally a refrigerator will make its way onto the sales floor without a power cord or a compressor. Often, a gas dryer will be mislabelled as electric, and vice versa. Many of the allegedly new refrigerators and freezers are quite dirty inside, sometimes even to the extent that they are infested with noxious insects. It goes almost without saying that if a person is naive enough to purchase one of these APWs(appliances with problems) and does not buy one of the ridiculously overpriced service warranties the salesperson is expected to pressure them into buying, they will have an extremely difficult time obtaining the service they stand an excellent chance of needing, and, furthermore, if the customer has neglected to purchase said warranty on a refrigerator or freezer, and that procuct fails, causing food loss, the chances are excellent that the customer will not receive any compensation for the ruined food. That, too, is company policy-along with Sears Service's policy of making it as difficult, time-consuming, and generally aggravating for the customer to receive service they have actually paid for in advance through the purchase of the extended service agreement. Let me mention that if one does fall into the category of the customer who has purchased an appliance at one of these outlet stores, commonly referred to within the service system as a junk store, and has also purchased an extended warranty on this piece of junk, chances are quite good that when service is needed, by the time the tech finally arrives, said tech will quite possibly condemn the appliance in question on the spot, and then authorize the poor customer to return to the junk store to purchase-you guessed it-another piece of junk-one which may very well have been picked up at some other customer's home, returned to Newington, and then shipped right back to Shrewsbury to be resold again-sometimes two or three times, even though it doesn't work, never has, and never will-and sometimes even has a red dot or the words JUNK or CONDEMNED written on the back by a conscientious technician. To understand why this has been allowed to continue, one needs to know a couple of things.First, these stores are all about volume. The more product they move, the higher the store's profits. The higher its profits, the bigger the store manager's end-of-year bonus will be. The satisfaction, or lack thereof, of the customer, is of no consequence to Sears.

I, too, am an ex-employee of a Sears Outlet, although in Shrewsbury, Ma. rather than in Newington, Ct. I, too, have seen, and been shocked by, the sheer volume of used appliances coming into that store, the vast majority of them mislabelled from their point of origin-which, incidentally, is in many cases the Newington, Ct. store and distribution center- as new, which they most assuredly are not. Nothing marked new is ever tested-company policy-even though, as previously stated, most of these items are definitely not new. Occasionally a refrigerator will make its way onto the sales floor without a power cord or a compressor. Often, a gas dryer will be mislabelled as electric, and vice versa. Many of the allegedly new refrigerators and freezers are quite dirty inside, sometimes even to the extent that they are infested with noxious insects. It goes almost without saying that if a person is naive enough to purchase one of these APWs(appliances with problems) and does not buy one of the ridiculously overpriced service warranties the salesperson is expected to pressure them into buying, they will have an extremely difficult time obtaining the service they stand an excellent chance of needing, and, furthermore, if the customer has neglected to purchase said warranty on a refrigerator or freezer, and that procuct fails, causing food loss, the chances are excellent that the customer will not receive any compensation for the ruined food. That, too, is company policy-along with Sears Service's policy of making it as difficult, time-consuming, and generally aggravating for the customer to receive service they have actually paid for in advance through the purchase of the extended service agreement. Let me mention that if one does fall into the category of the customer who has purchased an appliance at one of these outlet stores, commonly referred to within the service system as a junk store, and has also purchased an extended warranty on this piece of junk, chances are quite good that when service is needed, by the time the tech finally arrives, said tech will quite possibly condemn the appliance in question on the spot, and then authorize the poor customer to return to the junk store to purchase-you guessed it-another piece of junk-one which may very well have been picked up at some other customer's home, returned to Newington, and then shipped right back to Shrewsbury to be resold again-sometimes two or three times, even though it doesn't work, never has, and never will-and sometimes even has a red dot or the words JUNK or CONDEMNED written on the back by a conscientious technician. To understand why this has been allowed to continue, one needs to know a couple of things.First, these stores are all about volume. The more product they move, the higher the store's profits. The higher its profits, the bigger the store manager's end-of-year bonus will be. The satisfaction, or lack thereof, of the customer, is of no consequence to Sears.

I, too, am an ex-employee of a Sears Outlet, although in Shrewsbury, Ma. rather than in Newington, Ct. I, too, have seen, and been shocked by, the sheer volume of used appliances coming into that store, the vast majority of them mislabelled from their point of origin-which, incidentally, is in many cases the Newington, Ct. store and distribution center- as new, which they most assuredly are not. Nothing marked new is ever tested-company policy-even though, as previously stated, most of these items are definitely not new. Occasionally a refrigerator will make its way onto the sales floor without a power cord or a compressor. Often, a gas dryer will be mislabelled as electric, and vice versa. Many of the allegedly new refrigerators and freezers are quite dirty inside, sometimes even to the extent that they are infested with noxious insects. It goes almost without saying that if a person is naive enough to purchase one of these APWs(appliances with problems) and does not buy one of the ridiculously overpriced service warranties the salesperson is expected to pressure them into buying, they will have an extremely difficult time obtaining the service they stand an excellent chance of needing, and, furthermore, if the customer has neglected to purchase said warranty on a refrigerator or freezer, and that procuct fails, causing food loss, the chances are excellent that the customer will not receive any compensation for the ruined food. That, too, is company policy-along with Sears Service's policy of making it as difficult, time-consuming, and generally aggravating for the customer to receive service they have actually paid for in advance through the purchase of the extended service agreement. Let me mention that if one does fall into the category of the customer who has purchased an appliance at one of these outlet stores, commonly referred to within the service system as a junk store, and has also purchased an extended warranty on this piece of junk, chances are quite good that when service is needed, by the time the tech finally arrives, said tech will quite possibly condemn the appliance in question on the spot, and then authorize the poor customer to return to the junk store to purchase-you guessed it-another piece of junk-one which may very well have been picked up at some other customer's home, returned to Newington, and then shipped right back to Shrewsbury to be resold again-sometimes two or three times, even though it doesn't work, never has, and never will-and sometimes even has a red dot or the words JUNK or CONDEMNED written on the back by a conscientious technician. To understand why this has been allowed to continue, one needs to know a couple of things.First, these stores are all about volume. The more product they move, the higher the store's profits. The higher its profits, the bigger the store manager's end-of-year bonus will be. The satisfaction, or lack thereof, of the customer, is of no consequence to Sears.