In August, Google announced the creation of Google Helpouts, a live chat service that lets semi-vetted, self-declared experts in any number of fields make themselves available for help, guidance, and tutorials for a price. The service is finally live, and in some categories, there are plenty of people willing to give their advice away for free, along with a number of retailers hoping you’ll come to them for help. [More]
sears
Kmart To Open At 6 A.M. On Thanksgiving For Shoppers Who Hate Their Families
By 11.4.13
Just in case you hate your family so much that you can’t wait until 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving to pretend that shopping at Macy’s, JCPenney, or Sears is more important than spending the holidays with your “loved ones,” Kmart — the store you used to buy socks at before the Walmart opened in your area — has decided to open at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving to give you shelter from nagging questions about your job, love life, hair, friends, and why you never call. [More]
Sears Even More Doomed Than Usual, Considers Spinning Off Auto Centers And Lands’ End
By 10.30.13
As anyone who has read Consumerist or casually browsed any business section knows, Sears is not doing well. Our ongoing joke for years has been that Sears is a vast anti-capitalist prank, since no business that’s actually out to make money could stay so institutionally awful for so long. Today, the company announced that two of its most viable divisions may get kicked out of the nest: Lands’ End and its auto centers. [More]
18 Photos That Prove The Impending Demise Of Sears
By 10.21.13
As we’ve often discussed on this site, Sears doesn’t seem to want to sell merchandise to customers anymore. They’re apparently more interested in selling the real estate that their stores sit on. We know many talented and dedicated Sears employees, but the big picture remains grim. Want concrete proof that will make you sad? You could visit your local store, or just look at these pictures. [More]
Man Holds Protest Vigil Outside Of Sears Over Radiator Warranty
By 9.30.13
The nice thing about being retired is that it gives you lots of time to pursue old or new hobbies. You could plant an expansive garden, take up woodworking, do volunteer work, or play bingo. Then there’s what a 70-year-old Idaho man is doing: spending 6-8 hours a day picketing a Sears store in Virginia. [More]
Sears Settles With New York Over Deceptive Refunds
By 9.12.13
For more than two years, Sears offered “Come Back Cash” promotions that rewarded customers with Sears gift cards for purchases over certain qualifying thresholds. But if a customer returned an item, they would have the proportionate value of that gift card deducted from the refund, even if the total value of the purchase was still above the threshold for meriting a gift card. [More]
Sorry: Sears Won’t Be Giving Members $6,000 In Points For Purchasing $45 Worth Of Stuff
By 8.22.13
Typos can be quite harmless at best (No, this is not he best post over, it’s the best post ever, etc), and disastrous at the worst. Right in the middle there’s just plain embarrassing, an area Sears is inhabiting today after sending an email to its Shop Your Way rewards members touting an offer of $6,000 worth of points just for purchasing $45 worth of kids’ products. The deal is a lot less exciting than all that. [More]
Sears Lost Even More Money This Quarter Than Experts Expected
By 8.22.13
No one with any sense of how capitalism works would expect the profit and loss numbers out of Sears Holdings Corporation this week to be good. It turns out, though, that the company lost even more money in the second quarter of 2013 than experts had anticipated, and needs serious help to get out of its downward slide. [More]
Amazon Dominates Sears’ Prices In The Bondage Accessories Market
By 8.9.13 — Updated: 8.16.13
Full disclosure: I know nothing about the bondage accessories market — what’s good, what’s bad, what’s very, very bad — but I do know how to spot a low price. And while it’s admirable that Sears is branching out to third-party vendors outside of the tools and home goods sections, if you’re gonna sell a customer a harness, at least try to compete with Amazon’s prices. [More]
Sears Sells Cabinets Full Of Sensitive Employee Info At Office Liquidation Sale, Tells Buyer To Leave Files On Loading Dock
By 8.1.13
For some of us who buy used furniture, there’s always the hope that you’ll uncover a copy of the Colonel’s Secret Recipe, the original Coca-Cola formula, or maybe a print of the director’s cut of Highlander 2: The Quickening. One Chicago man recently purchased some old file cabinets from Sears and discovered something not quite exotic, but very sensitive, when he discovered hundreds of employee records inside. Complicating matters, no one at Sears seemed to care. [More]
Would You Buy A $33,000 Rolex Watch From Sears?
By 7.24.13
When you shop at Sears, what are you looking for, usually? Some kind of appliance, a set of tools, perhaps a lingering sense of dissatisfaction for the whole retail experience, that kind of thing. As for designer handbags and flashy watches that cost more than the annual salary of many Sears shoppers? That’s not the usual fare. Not anymore: Bring on the $33,000 Rolex watches and the $4,000 designer purses, says Sears CEO Eddie Lampert, issuing instructions from his Florida bastion. [More]
Buy A Plan From Sears Home Services, Get Even Less Service Than Before
By 7.22.13
Doug was working from a false assumption. He thought that the entity called “Sears Home Services” actually had the ability to diagnose and repair home appliances. Maybe someone around the office does, but none of the technicians who came out to work on his Kenmore washer and dryer seemed to know how to fix it. They were happy to sell him a service plan to cover the expense of those fruitless visits, though. [More]
Sears Re-Announces Recall Of Dehumidifiers Because No One Prefers Fires Over Humidity
By 7.17.13
Would you rather have a humid living environment, or one that’s on fire? Ding ding — we’re pretty sure the owners of 800,000 dehumidifiers sold by Sears would agree with you. The retailer is again reminding consumers of a recall for a product line that had issues last summer, again, over fires linked to using the Kenmore dehumidifiers. Now might be a good time to check on your dehumidifier. [More]
10 Things We Learned This Week About Why Sears Is So Terrible
By 7.12.13 — Updated: 5.19.14
In our posts about Sears, we often observe that the company seems like an anti-capitalist prank, a retail giant that thrashes around aimlessly until the real estate market picks up. It turns out that we were kind of half right. Manifesto-writing Sears Holdings chairman Eddie Lampert has organized the company into battling units that compete with each other for a dwindling pile of money. [More]
Where Is The Item I Sent Back To Sears? Don’t Ask Sears Or UPS, They Don’t Know
By 7.11.13
What ring? Victoria ordered a ring from Sears, but wasn’t happy with it and sent it back. That’s the whole point of the return process, right? Only the point isn’t supposed to be that the item disappears into the ether and the retailer shrugs. At least we’d like to think so. [More]
Is Back-To-School Creep A Thing?
By 7.5.13
Holiday Creep is the retail phenomenon where retailers market holidays earlier and earlier in order to maximize their sales of Christmas trees or chocolate eggs. We all know Christmas Creep and Easter Creep, but is back-to-school creep a thing? How early is too early to start getting ready for the next school year? [More]
Soleus Air And Kenmore Dehumidifiers May Catch Fire, Pulled From Stores
By 7.2.13
Our venerable sibling publication Consumer Reports gave a dehumidifier from Soleus Air their “Best Buy” rating. Now it’s off the list and off store shelves after the manufacturer sent a stop-sale notice to retailers. There’s no consumer recall yet, but Amazon did reach out to customers and let them know about the issue. [More]
Warranty On My Sears Air-Conditioning Might Be Voided Because Sears Won’t Call Me Back
By 5.20.13
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]
