Once upon a time, way back in November, a St. Louis MBA student named Cheri was the one of the first inside her local Sears store on Black Friday morning. She rushed to get the best deal they were offering — a washer and dryer for $599. To her dismay, she found out that the heavily advertised deal was not available — customers were being asked to pay now and get the washer and dryer in 30 days. Even with this disappointment, the deal was too good to pass up, so she agreed. Months later there was no sign of her washer and dryer, so she took Sears to court. And won.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cheri isn’t the only Sears customer to end up without her purchases. In fact, it turns out that the washer and dryer sets haven’t even been manufactured yet, four months after Black Friday.

“I don’t know how Sears can sell something that hasn’t been manufactured – that doesn’t even exist,” Cheri told the paper.

Cheri won a judgment of $1,649.98, enough to buy a comparable washer/dryer set. Sears, of course, is fighting the judgment. Sold separately, the washer and dryer would have cost over $1300, and a spokesman from Sears told the paper that the company will refund the money to anyone who no longer wishes to wait. Clearly, they’d rather issue refunds than compensate customers for the true cost of the item.

If you’re still waiting for your Sears Black Friday deal, why not report the issue to the Illinois Attorney General? (Sears is based in Illinois).

Four months later, Sears customers await delivery on Black Friday deal for washer-dryer [Post Dispatch] (Thanks, Ed!)
(Photo:Octopus Hat)

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