The deep discounts some retailers offered on Black Friday are biting them in the ass – they were too popular and can’t fulfill all the orders. Some are trying to scramble to offer alternative deals, but since they can’t compare, they smell like bait and switch… and now that it’s been almost a week, bait left over from last Friday sure don’t smell too pretty. Here’s what reader Ian has to say about Sears failure to sell him a TV at advertised price…
I bought a 46″ Sharp LCD TV online at Sears.com for $999.99 on Thursday night (11/22) because I saw the offer advertised for the Black Friday Sale. I figured they’ll probably offer the same deal online, and I don’t have to wake up early to fight the crowd. I can order it in the comfort of my own home. I placed the order, which went through and the website indicated to me that this item was in stock and ready for delivery (otherwise the order would not go through, right?). After finalizing the order, it indicated that the TV would be delivered on the following Sunday (11/25). Well, it’s now Thursday and I don’t see a new TV in my living room. In fact, I have been on the phone doing battle with their famous customer service reps trying to track down my TV.
After having made several calls to them, the conclusion was that they’re out of this particular TV, and it looks like they won’t be able to deliver the same TV any time soon. So instead they’re offering a 10% discount on any other TV. After doing some research on their website as well as other stores that carry flat screen TVs, I can’t find a deal that even comes close to the initial offer. $1000 for a 46″ LCD TV made by a reputable manufacturer is just unheard of, and Sears won’t be able to honor it. Now they’re forcing customers who have made similar purchases to buy a more expensive TV. Do the terms “breach of contract” and “bait and switch” mean anything to Sears? My Brother-In-Law made the same purchase as well and he’s getting the same runaround treatment.
So for any of you who are considering buying anything from Sears…DON’T. Sears is the epitome of what is wrong with Corporate America. Their primary concern is profit and have a blatant disregard for ethical business practices and preserving a brand image. I was a lifetime Sears shopper until this last purchase. Never again.
Sincerely,
Ian Y,
California
(Photo: lisa scheer)
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@StevieD: i don’t mean to discount your assessment…that may be the way thing used to be (or even are at certain merchants), but the current state of e-commerce is capable of far more. ticketmaster sells thousands of tickets to hundreds of venues online, over the phone & in person real-time without selling the same seat twice. ups can track a package at any leg in its journey – i even played around with a transport program utilizing satellite beacon technology that could pinpoint any shipment anywhere along its route within 6 meters. hell, even radioshack has almost real-time inventory tracking & they use a 20-yr old dos-based inventory tracker at the store level.
credit authorizations don’t need to be batched to save money – only the clearing does. typically, a merchant will authorize at checkout & clear at a later time. this should have zero affect on inventory. an authorization can be associated with the appropriate inventory rather easily – clearings can still be batched to save money.
this is simply a case of a fragmented supply chain. it is easily fixed – it requires some investment in technology, but a decent SCM division (or subcontracted consultant) could probably streamline & overhaul their entire chain in less than a year top to bottom.
i believe their last realignment of the warehouse division took place in the mid-90′s, which could explain why their inventory management seems so antiquated. e-commerce didn’t really take-off for another five or so years & they probably laid off anybody who knew anything about SCM.
@krunk4ever: It’s a fine line, though. A lawyer could argue persuasively that allowing someone to put through a complete order for something online constitutes a claim that the merchandise is still available at the time of the order, based on the assumption that a company like Sears would have inventory management that could cut off the sale if the merchandise were no longer available.
In the case of a store, if you go to the loss-leader aisle and find an empty shelf, it’s obvious that there are no more. Online, you have to rely on what the website tells you — and if it doesn’t tell you that something is sold out, I think it’s reasonable to expect that it isn’t.
I too had this same issue with Sears. I ordered the Sharp 46″ LCD on 11/23 at 2am. Which I never received. Sears has clearly broken the law and I have confirmed this through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). We are considering legal action and anyone interested if anyone is interested in a class action suite please contact me…Jennifer.dillon@gmail.com
This also happened to me. I bought a LG 42 Inch Plasma and waited a week and a half to get confirmation of delivery “to the store”. Last week I got an email saying they could not fulfill my order and would give me 10% off a diff. tv. I logged onto Best Buy and found the same tv…with shipping to my house for around the same price sears was offering and they delivered it in 5 days! I know where I’m shopping next for my electronic wants/needs! It does seem like a scam that Sears is trying to pull…sadly disappointed in them!
I work in the stockroom at Sears, and we’ve been told just like Justin has said, to accept all online orders. Recently we have had to change that, of course, because of the whole bait and switch method. Online orders have been the absolute worst though for customer service. People call in asking if their online item has been received in yet, and when we tell them that it is not in our bins they freak. I can understand where they are coming from, because most of the time these people have been waiting for months. I have called Sears online before, on behalf of my customers to ask why their orders aren’t in on the promise date. They gave me this response, “The promise date is the expected date for it to arrive.” I told them they should probably reword that then; I’ve been yelled at to many times by customers for the mistakes that Sears online makes.
Things haven’t changed. I just purchased and paid for a tv, yesterday frm Sears. I received the confirmation that the item was ready for pick up (quite a ways away). Because we were traveling to the store I made 13 calls to get someone to verify they actually had it in stock, but no one answered and each call was disconnected. My husband went to pick it up and they did not have the item in stock. They tried to get my husband to take a tv with a lesser feature, which we declined. They really could have cared less about our inconvenience and although I requested to be contacted by the store manager, I never received a call. To make matters worse, the service rep on the phone said it would be 7-10 days for a credit, which likely means I will have to pay this on my card next month. Funny, how their purchases don’t take that long. The same store still shows another tv as in stock that they have verified is not and are aware needs to be changed. I think they are trying to get rid of inventory and luring people in on a fraudulent basis.
i bought a craftsman table saw at 630 am on black friday. i never got confirmation til late in the afternoon. repeated phone calls and emails yielding nothing. they charged me for it, even though online stock check said 0 (it was 3 at 630am). a day later it was cancelled. i received several phone calls from a sears robot telling me my order was ready for pickup. it was officially cancelled 12/1. they cited the usual 3-5 days to do nothing, and another 7-10 for more BS. today marks 29 days with no refund in sight. f**k sears, i hope they close down