Want to see all the major appliances and repair services that your friends and neighbors… (and anyone else who you can look up in the phone book) have ever purchased at Sears?
Want to know what your mom might have purchased for your birthday? Want to know which houses in your neighborhood have really nice expensive TVs?
Sears provides a website, www.ManageMyHome.com where anyone can look up anyone elses’ entire purchase history at Sears—using only their name and address. This is especially convenient because these strange men keep dropping off huge lists of names and addresses on our door every year (we think they’re called “phone books”) and we never really knew what to do with them.
Apparently, all you need to do is create an account at http://www.managemyhome.com, click “Find Sears Products” and enter a name, address and phone number.
From the CA Security Advisor Research Blog:
With their consent we have tested this technique with other individuals and have received reliable results every time. If they’d had major dealings with Sears, that information is now available to the public, from a television bought in 1978 to a stove which was purchased elsewhere but had been repaired by a Sears technician.
Says Kurt, the reader who sent this tip in: “I was able to look up my entire family’s purchases. This is a scary one.”
Is Sears evil or what?
UPDATE: Rumor has it that all you really need is someone’s name and phone number.
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This would have actually been sort of useful. I might have found out what model of Sears programmable thermostat is in my rental home.
@pepe the king prawn: So can we all now look up Herman Munster’s Sears purchases on this website? Can anyone check that out? I didn’t register just to go look.
This is either no longer happening or the whole story is viral marketing by Sears to get people to sign up at this stupid website. I registered and I see no such thing. It also sounds simply too outrageous to be true. So now the only thing I’ve gotten is a new membership to this website that I will never use.
Suspicious, isn’t it?
Wow, here’s more good stuff re: Sears…
[www.schneier.com]
Their application is full spyware.
I wonder… since Sears & Big K are the same company…does the home invader that looked up my home address know that at the top of the stairs awaits my brand new Mossberg 10Ga?
@pepe the king prawn: Sorry, but good luck getting shit done in the store if you lose your reciept.
[community.ca.com]
It’s been turned off.
After looking at it, managemyhome.com appears to be a site where you go and enter in all your information including all the appliances you own so you can look up manuals, order parts and service etc.
The information comes from you. It’s not mined from credit cards or receipts. If you didn’t sign up for it then the information isn’t there.
I love all the FUD.
Just like the spyware; Shopping sears.com doesn’t install squat on your machine. I tried it. Nothing. The Spyware thingy is buried on some page for some option (join the community) that noone has any compelling reason to go to or install.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of other reasons to not shop Sears. No reason to spin obscure technical issues to justify it.
Not quite as scary but odd . . .
Sears also cross-indexes purchases. I bought a shopvac online for my dad’s birthday, and I used my parents’ address (sadly, despite the fact that I moved out two years ago, their address is still my address for my credit card and bank cards and such). Sears send me stupid online updates all the time.
The other week, I got an email reminding me to change the filter in my fridge. Wha? I open it, and it turns out they are reminding me to change the filter in my parents’ fridge. I assume the email was b/c we live at the same address, but I still find it odd.
@point: Yesterday I was able to use the site as people are saying (to look up purchases of any household given name, address, and phone number).
It does look like it was taken down sometime later that day, although their help section still had mention of it. I don’t know about today.
I didn’t input those purchases, they were there for the viewing based on warranty data, it seems. There were a dozen appliance/electronic purchases listed for one of my family members, two for me, and a handful for my parents. Some of the purchases dated back to the mid ’90s.
It did happen, and it was a very bad idea. Good think they stopped it.
And by the way, I input several different addresses and was able to view them all.
I attempted to replicate this and failed. I created an account, and there was no “find sears product” search link or button I could find on the site. I tried the general search (I made a recent large purchase, so I used my info) and the search yielded no results. I have to question the veracity of the consumerists claims. (I have had interactions with network architects at sears, so the claims in this article don’t surprise me).
Search the site for “sears purchase history” and you will see two questions from their “expert help” that reference the now-missing feature.
Here’s the text of one of them
“How to bring up a list of my laundry appliances that I purchased at Sears?
Please list my laundry equipment purchases and explain how I can call up a list of my Sears purchases.
Expert Answer
Once you have registered and logged in. Place the cursor over MY HOME and click on Getting started. Click on VIEW MY PURCHASE HISTORY.
If you need assistance with bringing up you purchase history. Click on Contact Us at the top of the page, or email at history@contact.managemyhome.com.”
When I searched my parent’s home, it didn’t come up with anything at first. I had to put their area code from 20 years ago to get results (same home–the area code has changed twice). Of course I don’t think the feature is available anymore.
I attempted to “test” this but was unable to do so! In any case it’s still a bad idea to let a RETAIL store have access to all of your home & home furnishings inventory, contractors you’ve used, photographs of you’re stuff ect. Sears IT and greedy business teams need to go back to the “drawing room” . . .
PS their website is not secured…
Yeah, I thought it seemed pretty dumb to put up a picture of your house, etc…
I’m not going to forget what my house looks like!
I can see it now:
phone rings
Hello, this is sears, we noticed your siding could use an update. We called your contractor and he can offer you a great deal on installing our siding.