Reader Nick’s mother bought a coat that was on clearance at Sears. A week later she saw that the coat had been marked down even further, so she brought it back and asked if she could return it and then buy it again for the cheaper price.
That’s where it got a little weird. Rather than just saying “no,” the Sears employee processed the return, then told Nick’s mother she couldn’t have the coat back. Nick’s mom then asked her to call the whole thing off, void the return and give her the coat. Sears refused.
Nick writes:
My mother has always been a Sears customer. She regularly shops there at least once a week. Recently she purchased a beautiful winter coat on clearance, at a price of $35, marked down from $150. She was so excited to have found the perfect coat to wear next winter.
A week later she goes in to see the same coat, different size at $15. So my mother naturally wanted to get some kind of reimbursement. She brings in the never worn coat and the original receipt. She explained to the associate that she wanted to return and repurchase it. After the return is completed, the associate explains that my mother “could not repurchase the coat because of store policies.”
That obviously made no sense to my mother because somebody else was going to buy it at the same lower price. My mother explained her story once more, then asked for the manager. The manager also said my mother couldn’t repurchase it. My mother was not angry, just confused. She watched as another associate took the coat away from the counter and bring it into the back.
My mother then asked to just cancel the return, so she could just keep the coat, all she wanted was a coat for next winter. Working in retail, I know how simple the “post void” would have been. The manager explained the coat had to go to the “return processing center,” which made no sense to my mother who saw a dress on the floor she returned the day before. My mother at that point was mad. She just wanted the coat!
She approached several associates on the floor asking them where the “return processing center” was, nobody knew.
Finally she asked where the returns go, the answer from several associates, “right back to the floor.”
Do sears employees find pleasure in torturing customer?
The Sears employee should have just told your mother that Sears doesn’t have a price guarantee on clearance items and left it at that. Refusing to void the transaction and hiding the coat is just mean, not to mention bad for Sears. Stores don’t put things on clearance because they don’t want to sell them.
If we were you, we’d try to kick this complaint upstairs to the bigwigs, although we have to warn you that Sears rarely responds. Here’s some contact information you might want to try.
(Photo:nelsonminar)
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@DeeJayQueue:
Because “a few extra bucks” can make a big difference over time.
You’d be amazed.
Some stores are not allowed to turn around and sell items that have been returned. Returns are boxed up and shipped back to a central return processing location that determines whether the item can still be sold as “new” or even “as-is”. Where I worked it was a *corporate* policy, and not the sort of thing an employee (or even a manager) had discretion over.
Lesson: don’t be such a miser.
Most companies won’t allow price protection or even returns on clearance items. Though it was kind of shady for Sears not to explain this before processing your return.
Price match: [www.sears.com]
Return: [www.sears.com]
Sears has a 90 day return policy on clothes. The price match period is 30 days. (Links are from Sears.com but most all sears.com stuff can be returned in store and the return policy is the same.)
I don’t think they do price matching on clearance goods, but if an item went from regular status to clearance in 30 days, you probably could get a manager to do it. Then again my local sears is notorious for rolling over if a customer complains to a manager long enough.
@ben1711
You example is ridiculous…there wouldn’t be a contract because no body would believe they would agree to that…that defies any common sense. However asking to somebody to refund and resell a coat…that is not ridiculous on the face of it. *If* and and I say *if* the clerk took the coat after the mother said both conditions, I want to refund the coat on condition of getting for a lower price, then the cashier refunded only, she broke an implied contract. You cannot accept certain terms and ignore others of a person’s offer. This like Contracts 101 literally. You give a ridiculous example that no reasonable person one would think, using common sense as being serious. The alleged proposition by the mother is much more realistic.
I worked at Sears 10 years ago and back then there was a 30-day price guarantee. If anything went on sale or if the customer found it for less at another store, we were allowed to make a price adjustment- even the register had commands programmed in it so that it knew that a price adjustment was happening.
Has Sears since dropped this practice?
Just two years ago I purchased a clearanced coat from Sears. Though it was clearanced the cashier went above and beyond by calling other local stores to find the color and size I wanted. Calling other stores for clearanced items wasn’t something I was allowed to do when I was an employee.
Sounds to me like those particular employees were being spiteful and that Sears owes you an apology.
this is why you DO NOT BRING THE PRODUCT IN WITH YOU
when doing price protections or return/resells.
It has no reason to be there -everything they need is on the receipt – and they can’t screw you by only doing it halfway.
Understand something. Ive been working at Sears Holdings for 3 years. Every store runs itself in its own fasion. I have never heard of such a center. Normally if this ever happened, the customer would get a price adjustment (with 10% lower price included).