On December 14th, I ordered online, 2 Sony 32" flat screen TV's for our game room for Christmas for $1,497.98 including tax on our Sears card. It said the TV's would arrive within 3-5 days.

I went down to the store the next day to view the set, and started talking with one of the salesmen about my purchase. He looked up my order and told me that there was no way I would receive those 2 TV's before Christmas.

I went home and began searching the internet again for comparable TV's, and eventually found a pair of Panasonic 32" sets at a different Sears. I drove down there (40 minutes farther away), and picked up the TV's.

I then called to cancel my original purchase of the 2 Sony's, and was told it would be done. This was December 16th.

On December 22nd I got an automated call from Sears saying that my 2 Sony TV's were in, and ready for pick-up. I again called Sears and told them that I had cancelled that order and already purchased 2 different 32" sets from another Sears store......and asked again that the order be cancelled as I didn't want (or need) the Sony's anymore.

The charge for the Sony TV's appeared on my January Sears Card statement, whereupon I called and again explained that these TV's were ordered, and subsequently cancelled....and never picked up at the store. My card and statement was (temporarily) credited the next month.

I then received a letter from Sears Card asking for proof of my returning the Sony TV's so that my "dispute" could be taken care of. Well, since I never picked the TV's up, I didn't have any proof of returning them! I explained this to the CS rep from Sears/CitiBank, and she again credited my account for the full amount for February.

My March statement arrived with the charge back on the account. I received a seperate letter stating that since I never provided proof that I returned the Sony televisions, I was being charged for them.

I promptly called Sears Card and was elevated to a supervisor....to whom I explained for about the 5th time that I had cancelled this order, and never picked up the 2 Sony TV's that I was being charged for. She contacted the store for me, called me back the next day and said that the store manager would be calling me within a day to rectify this situation and get the charge off my card for good.

He never called.

I tried calling the store manager several times over the next few days, and wasn't able to contact him (the phone rang and rang). I called Sears Card back for the 6th time, explained my situation again (each call was a minimum of 30 minutes) and was told by "Desiree" to hold: she promptly transferred me to the "Fraud Dept." They transferred me back to "Aaron," who after 15 minutes....suddenly disconnected our call.

I called back and told my entire story again to "Cateesha," who after 20 minutes put me on hold. She never came back to the phone (it got picked up, and hung up after another 20 minutes).

On March 22, after trying several more times I finally contacted a Sears store manger. "Steve" is now working to get this charge off my card. He was supossed to call me after a week, but never did. I called him again April 7th after not hearing from him for 2 weeks, and he told me he's "still working on it....he hasn't forgotten me, it takes time."

It's been 4 months since this charge has been bounced around on my Sears Card for TV's that I ordered, cancelled...and never picked up, and they cannot seem to get it right and take the charge OFF my card. I've spent hours on then phone, and now I'm waiting for "Steve (local store manager, Clearwater Florida store)" to get this thing taken care of. It's ridiculous: how can they charge me for something I never picked up? And if they come back at me and tell me they don't have a record of my cancellation, I can't prove that I never did.

Thus far, Steve has been sympathetic....but I don't understand why its taking over 3 more weeks to figure this out. It's ridiculous. In the mean time, I'm now getting Sear Card statements with finance charges starting to add up.

rickg57

Pixelantes Anonymous

bsw65

Serve it on a VP or the CEO.

They get to do one of the following:

1)Pay the judgment.

2)Show up at court and explain to the judge where the company assets all are.

3)Get dragged into court in chains on a bench warrant.

Most CEOs and company VPs pick option number 1.

kbarrett

high001

exec721

exec721

Consumer007

Hosalabad

And small claims court (queue the smart ass commenter with his successful and easy small claims story) is not exactly a cake walk either. It will chew up several hours of your time, so I guess a decision to not use AMEX is a combination of diminished personal time valuation and willingness to risk a) a pain in the ass chargeback or b) an even bigger pain in the ass small claims proceeding instead of a $50 annual AMEX Card fee.

jordy777

It's right above your post...

Seth_Went_to_the_Bank

newfenoix

newfenoix

Used to work for Sears Credit before it was sold and even then Sears had a changeback policy.

bhall03

rellog

rellog

That is total BS.

President Beeblebrox

But if they're going to screw Sears card customers this way, I'll have to think twice about shopping there.

Snakeophelia

dragonfire81

nikalseyn

Jevia

tomok97

friendlynerd

I've read this site for a while now, and I'm convinced that you can't buy anything, from anywhere.

My only question is why, after they hadn't delivered the original item, the OP went back to Sears and bought another item from them?

I'm so sick of people blaming the OP on this site. Sears stole $1,000 from this person, and all we can say is, "Well, shouldn't have bought it from Sears!" So, we forgive Sears for fraud just because the OP "should have known better?"

JMB

Also, to the poster that asked why I used a Sears card it was because they roped me in with no interest/no payments until 2010. I'm sucker for interest free loans.

tomok97

It's just a charge on his Sears credit card. He hasn't actually paid it yet nor did he say that he's past due on the balance yet, so he can't sue for any financial damage.

Pixelantes Anonymous

So imagine my surprise when I received a letter on Friday, April 11 stating that Sears Card had rejected my dispute.

Dobernala

jjeeff

Mr. Gunn

BikeRanger

Dobernala

ThunderRoad

vastrightwing

Buran

Buran

differcult

searedcard

Sarge1985

Sears is attempting to collect money from you for merchandise that was never provided. You can make it a criminal matter not a civil one.

JerseyJarhead

TPK

PrestonBerryworth

File in small claims court. Serve the papers AT YOUR LOCAL SEARS store. It is likely that whatever $9/hour manager you serve the papers to will do nothing, and Sears won't show up in court. The judge will listen sympathetically, will examine all your documentation, and then grant what I think they call a default judgment in your favor, for the full amount, plus late fees and interest. And if you can document how much time you've wasted on this, they'll even grant you some reasonable compensation for your time (like maybe $15/hour).

You don't need a lawyer (in a lot of small claims courts you're not allowed to bring one).

Now that you have the judgment, hope that they're stupid and don't settle.

Why? Because after 30 days, you can get a writ of execution from the court, with which you can create all manner of merriment involving the seizure of their assets.

Example: Some states allow a "till tap," which means that you and the Sheriff march down to Sears and simply seize cash from the register to satisfy the judgment.

Google "collecting on a small claims judgment" for more fun ideas.

Hawkins

I only do chargebacks when I'm being defrauded, but I'd rather not have to worry about it.

Fortunately, I've got three credit cards (all paid off monthly, before anyone gets after me for that!) and if I do need to shop at such a place, I can use someone else's card...

Anyway, thanks!

Buran

i've been screwed by sears before. i typically follow this method:
1. BBB Complaint
2. Letter by certified mail
3. EECB
4. Small claims filing (if 1-3 don't work).

They screwed me on a $12000 home improvement, as well as refusing to honor an advertised price. Both times, I was able to get the situation fixed before filing a claim.

dmolavi

filing in small claims is easier than you think!

benh57

Buran

Can the OP go back to Chesterfield and complain in person? You're harder to ignore when you're standing right there.

Buran

W. Bruce Johnson

Sears Holding Corporation
3333 Beverly Rd
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179

Phone: (847) 286-2500

Seth_Went_to_the_Bank

This still works wonders, especially when the company is clearly and 100 percent wrong.

Seth_Went_to_the_Bank

BlondeGrlz

Beerad

I work for Sears, it is unreal to see how business is conducted by such a large corporation.

Sideonecincy

There is no communication between any level of Sears anymore. People on the floor can't get to people in the back. People in the back can't ever get anyone on the floor. The whole 'MOD' (Manager on Duty) system is ridiculusly flawed and the hardware they relied on was hopelessly out dated so you can't get a hold of a manger, ever.

Thats just within the store. You try and talk to some one at another store and they're doing everything so differently that its like pulling teeth to ever get the answer you want.

Don't even think about trying to get to one of the outside 'services', credit, repair, distribution, etc. Once the merge they sold all of that off and now the store staff has just as much pull, if not less, then the customer does when dealing with those places.

At one point they were trying to streamline our stock with K-Mart so that if we were out of something we could send them there but that ended up just being a way to get the customer to waste gas because, again, the communication at K-Mart was so bad that no one ever knew what was going on so they'd come back to Sears and yell and we'd call K-Mart, get everything set up, send the customer back, and he'd still end up back in our store because they'd still screw it up.

The customers know that Sears is circling the drain, they tell the associates every day how bad its gotten.

tande

Sears Cards are through Citibank... perhaps try direct Citibank customer service?

acknight

laserjobs

b612markt

theora55

acknight

r081984

edrebber

after all of the complaints as of late about Sears, this one takes the cake, and based on the info provided, seems legit. that was the final straw for me... time to boycott and ensure their days on their last leg don't last long.

oakie

APFPilot

IphtashuFitz