A Sears electronics salesperson has generously offered to share some insider knowledge of how the game is played at Sears. Inside you’ll learn why you shouldn’t buy the extended warranty, why the salesperson keeps steering you towards one certain brand, and the pricing codes that tell you whether or not you’re buying a discontinued product. Enjoy!
1. MPA’s (Master Protection Agreements) for HDTV’s, Cameras and some Gaming Consoles
These are the biggest lie in the world! Never EVER believe what the associates tell you. The agreements cover nothing. When I started we were trained telling customers that the Master Protection Agreements would cover anything on the TV, including a single dead pixel on both LCD and Plasma TV’s. However since January, the warranty has stopped covering this, and numerous people have been returning TV’s for this very reason. If you read the fine print, all the Master Protection Agreement is an extension of the Manufacturer’s warranty. So for most companies, this covers only the defects that come from the factory and not “normal usage”. Also on TV’s, the Preventive Maintance Check is a joke. A tech will come to your house, but all they will do is turn on the TV and say it works. As for your cameras, its the same as the TV’s and if the techs even remotely think your camera was dropped, they will reject it and that would be end of your call. DO NOT BUY THESE they are useless, no matter what the salesman says.
2. Sears Credit Application
Never sign up for a new sears card. Associates are told to push credit no matter what. Even if there is a “0%” or a rebate its not worth it. If you forget about the 0%, most of the sears cards have a 25.8% Interest rate that will catch up with you. It is more than not worth it. Also, there is a high chance that unless you have stellar credit, you won’t get approved due to the Citi Bank issued cards now. Also, if you forget your Sears card and the associate says you’re not in the system MAKE SURE THEY SHOW YOU THE REGISTER SCREEN. Some stores have been so desperate to get credit that customers that have accounts and forgot their cards will look you up, your information will be there, but they will say its not and then make you apply for a new one. This is by far the worst aspect of sears and make sure that you read the whole fine print BEFORE you sign that dotted line.
3. Sears.com Returns
As an associate, I will say never buy anything off Sears.com. 99% of the time the .com orders will not include the proper documentation for a return. This then requires you to either find your email confirmation, or calling up Sears.com to get the information. Then if your lucky you’ll be able to do a return, but not first without proving who you are by State ID’s and also managers approval for the return. This whole process can take over an hour and I have had some that have lasted as long as 3. Also, the Consumerist is right when they say that orders get all screwed up, this happens so often, it makes Sears look like it’s online store is run by idiots.4. Accessories
I will tell you that the HDMI cable you buy from Sears is overpriced and if you have a computer you should buy it online. Associates are trained to push accessories more than anything else. That cable will cost you almost 75% less from an online retailer than buying it in-store. Be educated about the product you’re buying, because associates are trained to push products that you don’t even need. Keep this all in mind before you buy the accessories. I will say though, some of sales that you may find with Memory cards can be less than online retailers, but always do your homework before buying.
5. Price Matching
This is the biggest misconception of all time. No where does a Sears ad say this, but for Sears to price match another store they MUST have the PRODUCT IN STOCK. and when I say in stock I mean in the store ready for you to buy. The associate has to call and find out if in fact it is there and if it isn’t, your out of luck. Also, Sears won’t take care of past products that were bought if in the 30 days the product goes lower two times, you only get one shot — not mentioned anywhere. So you can only price match one time for your product. And if your product goes to a discontinued or clearance, you can’t match it if you bought it at that price. Finally if something is a “Great Price” you can’t price match that either….. This leads me to my next point…
6. Price Codes
There are various codes that sears uses that even the consumer can figure out and see if an Associate is snowballing them or is giving them a good deal. Here is the chart. These are all based upon the cents in the dollar.
.88 – Discontinued. This means that Sears will no longer be carrying that model and 99.9% of the time you can’t get a new one.
.97 – Clearance. This means that it has gone beyond Discontinued and is on the fast track to being thrown out. Note that this is for Electronics. The other parts of the store use .97 instead of .88 (Exception is Appliances and Tools)
.93 – Clearance – Same as .97, except these products could be much older.
.99 – Normal Price/Sale
.00 – Great Price – Items bought at this price code can’t be price matched7. Do your homework, very rarely trust the associate
Associates that work in Electronics are given an “Advanced Commission” sheet that gives them extra money for selling a certain product. Understand that they will always first show you all the TV’s or cameras that are on this list first before anything else. Know what you WANT and don’t listen to them when it comes to your electroics. However, most associates can tell you about the differences in TV’s and Cameras if you are confused, but trust consumer reports, cnet, Gizmodo etc before a sales associate.
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I will just ad to chorus of people saying Sears Sucks!
My boyfriend just got a job as a Sears electronics salesperson. (A terrible job is better than no job at all.) He starts next Tuesday. I should print this out so he can get in some early training!
The guy he is replacing is one of his close friends. This guy pulled every trick trying to sell us things we didn’t need and pushing products we didn’t want when we purchased a camera from him. He has known my boyfriend since middle school and he still acted like a slimeball and treated us like dirt!
I’m not quite sure where you get your information. How long have you worked for Sears? I’ve worked for Sears for almost three years and can invalidate most of the things you said without even doing research on it.
1. MPA’s cover much, much more than the manufacturers warranty. Maybe you have not received the proper training, which wouldn’t surprise me, but you are very, very wrong. There is much more than meets the eye to an MPA. Original Manufacturer Warranties generally cover defects only, which generally happen very quickly after you begin using the product. MPA’s literally cover almost anything aside from knocking the TV to the floor. I have never had a customer complaint about service not covering their purchase, ever.
2. This is total crap. By saying “some stores” you are saying that it isn’t your store, and if it isn’t your store, than you can’t be for sure. FLS get absolutely nothing for a non-decisionable application, ever. I don’t get my 2/4 dollars, the store gets nothing, everyone loses. Even more, a NDCA does not even effect parity or APO. No store would risk all that with something so unethical if there was no chance of gain.
3. If you can’t call the .com and get a SC and RC, process the return and if need be get an approval in less than ten minutes, you might want to consider another career path. The Burger King in my town is accepting applications.
4. Now would be a good time to let you know that I am currently an HI associate, but I’ll make this one real quick for you. You order that $14.99 HDMI cable off eBay, and compare it to your $49.99 one side-by-side. Thank you.
5. I can’t say that I’ve ever ran into this problem with the “in-stock” policy. I have never once been told to make sure something was in stock. If this is the policy, so be it, that’s what a policy is for and maybe I need to review it. I am sure there is fine print for all of this somewhere, but like I said, this is all off the cuff. By the way, you most certainly can price-match a great price item. The price point of the item has nothing to do with the price matching policy. If you find any item at a local competitor cheaper, less shipping, than we will match the price and give you 10% of the difference. This has nothing to do with great price.
6. You are not too far off on this one. Any creature with a brain can figure out the pricing codes. .98 is great price though, good try. If by chance in your market .00 is great price, then hats off to you on getting one thing right. Any associate that actually possesses some selling skill doesn’t need to try and snowball their customer. Maybe you’ve seen this personally because your department is a bunch of dimwits, but how dare you make it appear as a regular practice.
7. Once again, this is not a problem with Sears, it is a common sense and moral issue. There are two ways to approach this, the fast money way, and the long term money way. I’ll break it down for you.
A. You get your “Advanced Commission Sheets” and see that T.V. A is currently paying 5%. A customer comes in looking for something at a cheaper price point. Eventually, you pressure them into this one. Now you get two more options. You can either spend the commission you make on it, or you can leave it in the bank, because guess what? That T.V. is coming back. And their going to be so angry at you for selling something they didn’t need, their going to go over and talk to that other rookie in the department. Now, instead of a decent sale, you got greedy and in return you get no sale, nothing.
B. You actually figure out the customer’s needs, set them up with a unit right for them, and enjoy the commission because 99% of the time, you get to keep it. Does the phrase “Discovery Question” mean anything to you. How about “Customers For Life”?
In any case, I recommend choice B.
Perhaps you should hit up some CyberScholar this weekend and leave the sales floor to someone who actually understands how it works and has the ability to run it.
So before you try and run down your own employer, maybe you should sit back and reflect on your own personal selling strategies. I occasionally see things go on in my store that shouldn’t, but due to the positive energy in our store, I am talking once in a blue moon.
In the end, guess who takes home the best dollar? Thats right, the real salesmen; the ones that are not only there for themselves, but are there for the customers.
Good luck with your career if you decide to stay with Sears. I recommend you don’t, someone that goes behind the companies back to a website like this probably shouldn’t be hanging around. If you have a problem with something you see, grow a set and bring it up. If there’s one thing this company is lacking, it’s courage. Be brave, tell someone how you feel. Don’t become like the others you see act like this. Do something about it. Stand out, do the right decisions, and maybe, just maybe, you will actually make some money, and even pull off some decent metrics while you are at it.
And on that note, as an inside joke to my store, and the HI department in general, I would like to close with two simple words.
Epic Win
@Steaming Pile: oh, i dunno, if you want to refinance your home, buy a new home, buy a new car, apply for a bank loan to finance your uncle Bob’s dentures or your own dentures… either way, pretty dumb to get hard-pulled for $15…
People go to Sears?? Who are these people (mexicans and spinsters?)? and for electronics no less?!?!?
I also work for Sears (in the Electronics department, no less), and I have to confirm what nickshutts has said.
Except for the HDMI cable part. I bought a cable for $1 off of Amazon, and I actually brought it in to Sears to use it on our demo TV instead of component cables. Noone ever says anything except “That picture looks amazing”.
I also have to agree with him on the comments on #7. After upselling to a customer, it near ALWAYS returned, in which case you lose the commission. I live in fear of upselling, heh. I’d rather take a small commission than none at all.
I am also concuring with mr shutts. We train our people to be little clones of ourselves. Dont upsale. Respect the public. I would LOVE to visit your store so I could tip over a rack or two for being so negative.
Tell me something mr electronics person. How were YOUR metrics?
mine our fine
I used to work for Sears during my senior year of high school (2004) and here’s what I can say about it…I didn’t work in a commission earning position so I had nothing to gain by up selling, aside from looking good in my stats. I was arbitrarily assigned to the Tools section, yet I didn’t (and still don’t) know jackshit about tools.
The biggest scam of all was the credit cards. I think it’s done differently now, but back in my time it was ridiculously easy to get approved for a basic Sears Card (in store use only, don’t remember about Visa or anything). Of course we were trained to push these CC apps like none other, yet we only got $2 per app (contrasted to $5-10 when I worked at Macys), so I had to make up for it in sheer volume. I definitely sold my ethical principles down the river when I worked for Sears though…my goal was to fleece as many “uneducated looking” people [read- people that dressed well and spoke eloquently I didn't generally waste too much time with since they were likely educated about credit] into signing up for the Sears cards with them knowing little to nothing about it. At that time, the application process was very easy and there was no real form to fill out-just a signature saying you read the terms and conditions (miniscule print on a 8.5×14 sheet of paper). All the information was entered directly into the computer by the associate so the customer wouldn’t be “inconvenienced with paperwork.”
One of the modifications I made to the credit card process (probably illegal), was to have a stack of pre-folded terms and conditions under my register at all times, so customers wouldn’t see me pulling ou a giant legal size sheet of paper with tiny words and legalese. I had the papers folded so that only the signature area (small detachable portion at the top, maybe 3-4 inches tall) was showing, with the T&C folded under it accordion style. I only handed the detached T&C to the customer only after I had already entered everything in the computer and they had signed the form. I would also try to engage them in some bullshit small talk at this point to keep them distracted from the fact that there was a giant sheet of T&C they weren’t reading. This shady technique resulted in a significant # of application increases under my name (not a statistical survey, but just from what I noticed).
Most of the time the customers had no idea what was going on since I would rapidly enter the information into the computer and it would instantly spit out an approval or denial notice. The best line I had going for me to convince people to open an account was “you know, this purchase could be free today if you open a Sears account.” At that time, there was a $10 signup bonus for opening an account, so for all under $10 transactions I would use that line. Also, I would never say “Sears Card” because that conjures up images of credit and credit cards and nobody wants a new credit card, right? Saying “Sears Account” was much easier on the ears and the target audience [see above for my target audience] generally didn’t even realize it was a credit card.
Ethics and morality aside, I was consistently #1 or 2 in credit in my store [generally 5-10 apps each shift I worked], and blew past many of the old timers who worked there full time for many years (I would work a few hours a day a few days a week).That job was by far the most bullshit job I have ever had, and I’m glad that I went off to college and white-collar jobs after that because I would probably hate my life if I had to work in a place like that again. I’m also glad to say that Macys’ credit card process is nowhere as scummy as Sears’
Feel free to flame away….
nickshutts: To respond to your #1: have you ever read the terms and conditions pamphlet for the MPA?? Your whole argument is not based on anything factual. I dare anyone to go to there local sears and ask for a terms and conditions pamphlet and it will show that this guy is full of total complete crap.
For starters it is not an extension of the manufactures warranty! The terms are totally different sorry to say but nickshutts is not telling you the truth at all. The only things listed it won’t cover is stuff that is common sense. Such as Acts of God, Lightning fire, flood, misuse, improper hookup, vandalism ect. Other than that it covers any parts and labor other than screen burn on a plasma TV or for fewer than 3 or 4 dead pixels in a quadrent on an LCD.
For the record as far as dead pixels go I have worked for sears four years and have never had one single return for a one or two dead pixels on an LCD. Dead pixels on the screen are very very rare. More than likely the problems I see is circuit board related, and or the panel itself has gone bad causing the screen to go green or florescent colored. Most people even if they have a bad pixel will probably never notice it like I said innless they are sitting two feet from there LCD TV. Who the hell does that?
I have called service directly they will cover three or four dead pixels in a quadrant. And sorry but my wife has a dead pixel on her laptop and you can barely even see it innless your looking for it it’s not a big deal to begin with. On a tv you won’t see a dead pixel from ten feet away innless you have eyes better than god and its only remotely noticeable if you are close to it.
As far as Picture Burn In it’s really not an issue any more anyways since the new Panasonics have a new phosphor that is less powdery and very resistant to burn in the first place. You can still burn something in but you have to try very hard to do it, and to me if you do something that purposely than it’s your own fault if you leave the same static image on for fifteen or twenty hours. You can’t have a protection agreement cover something that someone can purposely break or take advantage of to receive a new product that’s just stupid as hell.
I have witnessed many replacements under the PA. I remember one guy recently got a much better 1080p with higher contrast television because the one he purchased was no longer made and it was around what he paid for his original set. So yes sometimes TV’s can’t be fixed and need replaced.
Anyways if you read the terms and conditions pamphlet it will show that they only don’t cover what’s common sense not to cover. It’s stated misuse or abuse is not covered. If they discover something new like burn in or something silly like one dead pixel they will reference that so people understand its not covered. It was never covered to begin with and I don’t lie to people and tell them that if they purposely break there tv by letting stuff burn in its covered under a service plan. If he was trained to do this than that was something to do with poor management at that particular store, where I work I’m not trained that way. I tell people what it does and does not cover.
@brosnan6: nickshutts: To respond to your #1: have you ever read the terms and conditions pamphlet for the MPA?? Your whole argument is not based on anything factual. I dare anyone to go to there local sears and ask for a terms and conditions pamphlet and it will show that this guy is full of total complete crap.
For starters it is not an extension of the manufactures warranty! The terms are totally different sorry to say but nickshutts is not telling you the truth at all. The only things listed it won’t cover is stuff that is common sense. Such as Acts of God, Lightning fire, flood, misuse, improper hookup, vandalism ect. Other than that it covers any parts and labor other than screen burn on a plasma TV or for fewer than 3 or 4 dead pixels in a quadrent on an LCD.
For the record as far as dead pixels go I have worked for sears four years and have never had one single return for a one or two dead pixels on an LCD. Dead pixels on the screen are very very rare. More than likely the problems I see is circuit board related, and or the panel itself has gone bad causing the screen to go green or florescent colored. Most people even if they have a bad pixel will probably never notice it like I said innless they are sitting two feet from there LCD TV. Who the hell does that?
I have called service directly they will cover three or four dead pixels in a quadrant. And sorry but my wife has a dead pixel on her laptop and you can barely even see it innless your looking for it it’s not a big deal to begin with. On a tv you won’t see a dead pixel from ten feet away innless you have eyes better than god and its only remotely noticeable if you are close to it.
As far as Picture Burn In it’s really not an issue any more anyways since the new Panasonics have a new phosphor that is less powdery and very resistant to burn in the first place. You can still burn something in but you have to try very hard to do it, and to me if you do something that purposely than it’s your own fault if you leave the same static image on for fifteen or twenty hours. You can’t have a protection agreement cover something that someone can purposely break or take advantage of to receive a new product that’s just stupid as hell.
I have witnessed many replacements under the PA. I remember one guy recently got a much better 1080p with higher contrast television because the one he purchased was no longer made and it was around what he paid for his original set. So yes sometimes TV’s can’t be fixed and need replaced.
Anyways if you read the terms and conditions pamphlet it will show that they only don’t cover what’s common sense not to cover. It’s stated misuse or abuse is not covered. If they discover something new like burn in or something silly like one dead pixel they will reference that so people understand its not covered. It was never covered to begin with and I don’t lie to people and tell them that if they purposely break there tv by letting stuff burn in its covered under a service plan. If he was trained to do this than that was something to do with poor management at that particular store, where I work I’m not trained that way. I tell people what it does and does not cover.
just testing this image include thing.
[consumerist.com]
@wagon1010: For starters it is not an extension of the manufactures warranty! The terms are totally different sorry to say but nickshutts is not telling you the truth at all. The only things listed it won’t cover is stuff that is common sense. Such as Acts of God, Lightning fire, flood, misuse, improper hookup, vandalism ect. Other than that it covers any parts and labor other than screen burn on a plasma TV or for fewer than 3 or 4 dead pixels in a quadrent on an LCD.
Did you even read my post? I said that it covers way more than the manufacturers warranty. And how can you say that it is not an extension. If a T.V. comes with a one year manufacturers, and the MPA is a 5 year in home, I believe that EXTENDS it by four years. Bafoon
And I also said that it covers almost anything. Then you say that it only doesn’t cover “…..”. So if you can only list a few things it doesn’t cover, which are the obvious ones that I felt I didn’t need to mention, then wouldn’t that make me correct in stating that it covers almost anything? Anything is much greater than a few.
You said “Other than that it covers any parts and labor other than screen burn on a plasma TV or for fewer than 3 or 4 dead pixels in a quadrent on an LCD.” Hmm, I think that is exactly what I said.
So before you go trying to jump on the bandwagon and go to bat for the I hate Sears team, maybe you should pick a fight you can actually win.
May I also suggest a language course, you speak horrible English. For starters, its unless, not “innless”
I don’t know who you are, but you shouldn’t be going behind the company’s back. They are paying you to uphold and help their image not tear it apart. You’re probably a bad, complaining employee.
To all out there, I am a cashier, so I know a lot about credit apps. First of all, if I do an account lookup and ask you to appy for another one, it’s because you may have a sears card, but not a sears gold mastercard, and vice versa.
It does not help me to make you apply for a duplicate account. It’s called a non-decisionable application. I don’t scam my customers into anything. When I offer the gold mastercard from the sears card, I mention that not only do they save $15, when they were going to get no additional discount, but they get a higher credit limit and then with excellent credit it could be 4-8% less then the sears card. So I’m actually doing you a favor.
Another thing, the phrase “No one shops at Sears.” Is not true, if that were true, why did I ring up $3000 dollars in sales? In softlines, no less. I have plenty of customers, young and old, white, black, and mexican. I have a little bit of every demographic.
I admit that the company has made mistakes, big ones. But have you ever made a big mistake. Have you ever disappointed someone? Would you want to be forgiven? Treat Sears the way you would want to be treated.
Another fellow Sears Electronics salesgirl here!
NickShutts hits most of the points I thought as I was reading this article, but just to prove that many of these things vary by employee and store, I figured I’d throw in my two cents:
1. MPAs do cover a lot more than the original post said. I’ve purchased them and have been satisfied with the service, but there are a few points which are worth noting.
In my store, and I’ve heard several others, we are punished (forced to morning meetings where we have to be ‘re-educated’ on MPAs and whatnot, which are some of the most pointless meetings for some people– sometimes we just have a bad week and instead we’re treated as though we’re idiots and have forgotten how to sell MPAS!) when we don’t sell enough of these. I realize that’s fairly common for retail, but it has made me push harder for some MPAs on some items that I personally think the MPAs are a waste on– really this comes down to yourself and how much you value said item. I personally wouldn’t buy one on a vacuum, but have had many customers who were very thankful they got it because they come in months later with a clogged hose or broken bit.
2. The 0% offers are worth it if you are a responsible credit user. They offer cash back options from time to time which are well worth it if you intended to pay with cash anyway– just pay the bill off that billing cycle and you’ve saved yourself even more money.
As for your dodgy ‘tricking’ people into applying for the same card again, I don’t know how you think this is possible– When you apply for a card and you already have an existing one, it will come up telling you as such, and will refuse to let you open a second! I had this happen just today for a customer who thought he closed his account years ago– we attempted to apply for a new one, and up popped the prompt saying there was an existing account.
The only thing I can think of is if they had them apply for the Sears Mastercard in addition to their Sears Store card– that is a bit shady if that’s the case, but the customer should be aware of what card they already have in my opinion.
4: While I agree there are some great quality, low price HDMI cables online, some fine points to chip in on here– Associates are not trained to push accessories more than anything else. We’re trained to push the whole package to what a customer needs. Certain associates whose numbers aren’t up in certain areas (MPAs, MRAs, Accessories, Installs, Customer Service, etc) will be told to push those areas, so maybe the original poster just sucked at selling accessories. I’ve never been told to push them but my numbers have always been over parity. You’re also stretching the truth in saying we have to push things they don’t need– We’re trained to tell them what the best whole package includes, but fit that package to their needs. You wouldn’t sell someone a HDMI cable who has nothing to hook up to their TV, and no manager in their right mind would tell you to– It’s just going to come back returned!
5. It states the policy quite clearly online, at least–
If you find a lower price on an identical branded item with the same features currently available for sale at another local competitor retail store, Sears will match that price plus, give you 10% of the difference. Just bring in the original advertisement to a sales associate at the time of, or within 30 days after, your purchase.
This does vary from store to store, however– I think because of employees who aren’t properly trained with the price match policy, really. I have known an associate (who’s been in trouble numerous times and has since been kicked to another department) who did fail to mention this little detail to customers who then came in wanting a price match on an out of stock item elsewhere who then went off on me– Again, this is not the fault of sears, this is the fault of an irresponsible employee.
7. Like everyone else said, only an idiot would sell based on the commission book (my store can’t be the only one who never updates this thing– According to my book a 52″ Samsung that’s on closeout should’ve been a 5% but naturally it wasn’t!). Your returns must be out of this orbit if that’s how you decide what to sell.
Very interesting that an item is on sale but out of stock every where you look to include online. You check stores and try to order and have a 10 to 12 days delay which puts it out of the sale date, but you can pay first and pick it up. Wait you can have it delivered in2 to 7 days. Check zip-code and there is nothing for that zip code except for the store that it takes 10 to 12 days. After reading about the tricks of the trade it is as if Sears needs wants payment before ordering so as not to sell themselve short. Thanks for the inside look
Sounds like we have an individual who just could not cut it at store that has been around for over 100 years. What is even more amazing is hearing people talk about how poorly Sears is run, even though they themselves can not run a business. Sears is owned and operated by a successful hedge fund manager, a person who has made billions, the guy is an intelligent human being. Success many of you have not nor will ever see with the attitudes that you.
To the individual who opens credit accounts to save $15. Everytime you do that an inquiry goes on your credit report also called a CBR. The more of them you have the lower your score goes. Also, every time you close a credit account on your report the new FICO algorithm looks at that in a negative fashion and your score will drop. So I am glad you pay everything with cash, because with this method you are using, your credit probably sucks.
As with anything you buy, you should ALWAYS read the fine print. The MPA’s do cover a lot, but you have to determine if what you are buying warrants you adding protection to it. For example, if you buy a $600 TV, then no it doesn’t make sense. You spend $4k, then yeah you should protect yourself.
Next up the Sears credit. As with any credit account you open it becomes your responsibility to handle your own credit. Stop blaming Sears (or anywhere else for that matter) because you do not know how to, or refuse to have the discipline to pay your bills on time. If you are poor with your finances avoid signing up for credit. Its not up to Sears or any other business to qualify you as being a responsible person, only to see if your credit qualifies you for their services.
I have never experience anything remotely as bad as what this guy describes for Sears returns. But they do have a 15% restocking fee on electronics, why? because maybe they are tired of people bringing the 55″ LCDs back after the Superbowl, World Series and Stanley Cup.