A year ago, Sears installed a new air-conditioning system for Consumerist reader Donna. The system also includes a warranty that requires someone come out once a year to do a maintenance check, but after two months of trying to get someone out to her house, Donna was looking that the possibility of her warranty being voided because no one would return her calls. [More]
Warranty On My Sears Air-Conditioning Might Be Voided Because Sears Won’t Call Me Back
By May 20, 2013
McDonald’s Drive-Thru Worker Spots Own Stolen Car Pulling Up To Window
By May 16, 2013
A McDonald’s employee may have left her car unlocked outside of her apartment complex overnight–she doesn’t remember. That didn’t mean that she deserved to have it stolen, though. She woke up to discover that her car was missing, then spotted the culprit…in the drive-thru lane at her workplace. [More]
Sears Heard That Rent-To-Own Is Ridiculously Profitable, Decides To Try It Out
By May 10, 2013
The rent-to-own business is an extremely profitable one: who wouldn’t want to collect more than three times the list price of, say, a computer? So it’s interesting but not surprising that troubled retailer Sears is now entering the lease-to-own market in a partnership with the existing rent-to-own company WhyNotLeaseIt. [More]
Hope You Didn’t Want Any Of Those Mother’s Day Deals Sears Offered, Then Took Away
By May 9, 2013
Easy come, easy go is especially easy in the times we live in where an email can be sent with a click and just as easily, hastily retracted. Sears apparently sent out a bunch of emails to its Shop Your Way rewards members with an “extra special” VIP Mother’s Day set of deals, and shortly after, sent another saying some people weren’t ever supposed to get that email, or those deals. [More]
Hey Best Buy, If You Want Us To Shop There, Try Selling People Stuff
By May 7, 2013
Michael is buying his mother a new computer for Mother’s Day, because he’s a good son and she’s moving away soon. As long as he was buying a computer, he wanted to get some reward points from Best Buy on his credit card. Only he couldn’t. While the product page bragged of “free shipping,” Best Buy was not willing to ship the item. At all. [More]
Sears Sales Associate Vents About All The Problems He Has With Store
By April 29, 2013
As regular readers of Consumerist know, we get a lot of complaints about Sears, covering everything from delivery and installation issues, to service and maintenance, to its rewards programs. Today, we hear from a Sears sales associate who details all the many ways in which he thinks the once-great retailer is going wrong. [More]
14 Months After Delivery, Sears Still Won’t Actually Install Dishwasher
By April 18, 2013
Lots of people happily hand-wash their dishes because they don’t want a dishwasher. That’s not the case for one California man, who has washed his dishes by hand for more than a year even though he wants and can totally afford a dishwasher. In fact, he, um, had a dishwasher the whole time. It’s just that when he bought it from Sears, they sort of half-installed it and wandered off, and he couldn’t get anyone at Sears to help him. [More]
Lowe’s Assumes Everyone Owns Pickup Trucks, Still Pre-Assembling Most Grills
By April 15, 2013
Daryl left his grill behind the last time he moved, which was very sad. Now he’s a homeowner and wanted a new one as the grilling season kicks off in the Northeast, where he lives. Still in the box. To assemble himself. If you’re a longtime Consumerist reader, you see where this is going. [More]
JCPenney Ends Ron Johnson Experiment, Sends CEO Packing
By April 8, 2013
When Ron Johnson took over as CEO of JCPenney a little more than a year ago, he promised sweeping changes. A new image, an end to sales, everyday low prices, iPad-toting staffers, Genius Bar-like customer service. He tried all that, but the retailer still couldn’t shake its reputation as the place your mom dragged you to buy clothes you hated in 1984, and now Ron Johnson, he’s gone. [More]
The Smartphone Killed The Department Store Portrait: Photo Company Closing All Locations
By April 5, 2013
Your mother would yell at you to pull a comb through your tangled hair, tuck in your brother’s shirt for the third time and your dad would awkwardly stand behind everyone with his hand on your mom’s shoulder. It was family portrait time, and for many Americans, it happened inside a department store. But one company that operates thousands of locations in mostly Sears and Walmart stores announced it’s shuttering its shutters for good. [More]
Worst Company In America Quarterfinals: Bank Of America Vs. Walmart
April 3, 2013
We’re getting so close to handing out the Golden Poo you can almost taste it. Wait… that doesn’t sound right. [More]
These 8 Remaining Worst Company In America Contenders Sure Are Elite
April 2, 2013
The madness of March, when 32 bad businesses began pummeling each other mercilessly in an orgy of blood and denied extended warranties, has been refined and honed into the brutal fiery fury of April, as only eight names cling tenuously to their claim to be the Worst Company In America. [More]
You Really Don’t Need To Pay $70 For LPG Conversion Kit Delivery From Sears (Or Anyone)
By April 2, 2013
Matthew bought a gas dryer, but needed one that runs on liquid propane. He only discovered this after installation. No big deal: you can get a little tiny converter, which fits in a small padded envelope. Or would, if Sears were willing to mail it. Which they are not. [More]
Sears Outlet Not Used To Having Actual Customers, Locks Them Inside Store
By April 1, 2013
A Michigan couple were shopping at Sears Outlet with their infant last week when they realized that they had been trapped inside the store. Police responding to a tripped alarm last Monday night discovered the would-be customers inside, claiming that employees had closed up and left them inside. [More]
This Guitar Center Coupon Is Great, Unless You Actually Want To Buy Anything
By March 28, 2013
Guitar Center is having an “Easter Savings Event” offering up to $150 off purchases of $750 or more. Which might sound like a good deal to anyone looking to buy a new instrument or some gear, except for the fact that the deal excludes just about everything in the store. [More]
Worst Company In America Round 2: Walmart Vs. Sears
March 28, 2013
Let the next round begin! Now that these two retailers have a taste for blood, it’s time to sic them against each other in WCIA Ball Pit of Doom and Generalized Anxiety, But Mostly Doom! [More]
Walmart To Test In-Store Lockers For Pick-Up Of Online Orders
By March 27, 2013
Since Amazon doesn’t have bricks-and-mortar stores, it has been rolling out a network of lockers at places like 7-Eleven and Staples, allowing customers to pick up their orders from safe, secure locations, instead of having to chase down FedEx, UPS, or the Postal Service. Now comes news that Walmart is getting into the locker game for its own online orders. [More]
Worst Company In America Round 1: Sears Vs. JCPenney
March 22, 2013
To mark the halfway point in the first round of WCIA, we bring you this fight between two department stores that are wildly adored… in an alternate universe where it’s still 1985. [More]
