Tracy needed a new lawn mower, and ordered one online from Sears. Later that day, an email arrived announcing that the lawnmower was ready for pickup. For whatever reason, Tracy wasn’t able to make the 17-mile trip out to the store until more than a week later. The mower was….well, nobody quite knows what happened to the mower.

I went into the empty store and presented my order number to the three employees. After about 10 minutes one of them walked out of the back and said “there is no mower here”. The employees then fumbled around a bit and brought out a sheet of paper with a list of names, and said “see your name is not on it”, “maybe it was already picked up”.

I immediately realized that this must be a common occurrence (and having read through the Sears comments here I know it is) and in truth didn’t really care, because by the time I went to pick it up, I wasn’t sure it was such a great purchase after all. Funny thing was, they made no attempt to see if they had another mower, offer me a refund, nothing. It was almost as if I walked into a shoot for one of the Night of the Living Dead movies. I assume that this Sears hardware store had no lawn mowers whatsoever, other than those on display.

Anyway this should be a caution to anyone making a purchase through Sears. Not only did they charge my credit-card on the 13th, but as of today, the money still has not been refunded and the online status shows the mower is still waiting pickup. Also yesterday I emailed the several contacts I could find, and have yet to hear back from anyone.

A+ for initiative to the Sears employees who didn’t think to themselves, “hey, maybe we can sell this person a different lawn mower, seeing as we are a retail establishment that sells lawn mowers.”

Tracy reported to us that today, 6 days after the non-pickup of the lawnmower, a Sears manager called to say that her credit card had been refunded. Let’s hope that it actually is.

(Photo: Atwater Village Newbie

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.