A man in New Jersey had the wacky idea that buying a dishwasher meant that he would end up with a working dishwasher. Instead, he ended up with one that he says broke in the same way four times in four years. Sears offered him a 30% refund on a replacement appliance, if he purchased from Sears. Naturally, Sears forgot about this offer once he actually brought the dishwasher.

Fortunately, he knew to contact fab consumer reporter Karin Price-Mueller over at the Newark Star-Ledger, whose amazing powers of persuasion made Sears suddenly remember that they had offered the customer, Doug, a 30% refund. Maybe. Or their media relations team arranged to cut him a check in order to make the story go away.

His refund saga began when he posted about his issue on Sears’ Facebook page. He was told to contact someone named Candice, who played a lengthy game of phone tag with Doug before ultimately referring him to her supervisors. They eventually offered a 30% discount on a new dishwasher, but it was to be paid as a refund after his purchase. Then the supervisor just didn’t put the refund on his card, even after Doug left monthly voice mails.

In a turn of events that is not at all surprising, Sears suddenly remembered the offer once the local newspaper came calling. They promised to write him a check for 30% of the total of his purchase. Hurray! Yet there’s a lesson here, too: if the customer hadn’t seen that there was a consumer column in the local paper and realized that it could help him, he planned to just let the discount go and enjoy having month after month of clean dishes. Sears would have preferred if he did that, rather than pursuing the discount that he had already been promised. After all, Sears can use every penny that it can hold on to at this point.

Bamboozled: Customer feels washed up after Sears – at first – doesn’t honor promised discount [Star-Ledger]

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