Beware Sears Refund Policy A Costly Holiday Fail To Consumer

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday approaching, many shoppers are flocking to online retail stores. With the holiday shopping in full swing, we must all be aware of the scams that are circulating online. Many shoppers feel very safe when shopping online at major retailers’ websites such as Walmart, Macy’s and Sears. No one would think that a retailer such as Sears goes against their return policy and makes it difficult and costly to cancel an online order and request a refund.

Here is how Sears handled an order I had just placed online:

I had a $25 gift card from Sears. On Black Friday I figured it was the perfect opportunity to make use of my gift card.  I had found a heating mattress pad for my bed . It was reasonably priced at 62.99 and included free shipping (next day it was down to $56 that’s another story) . I filled out all the required information such as name, email address, telephone number and shipping address. Before I added my credit card information, I added my gift card information.

I found it strange the $25 gift card amount was not applied when I clicked submit. At the bottom of the submit button it read “Available funds will be applied once your order is placed”. This meant I could not see the discount until I entered my credit card information and paid for my purchase. This is where the problem began. Unfortunately for me, they never deducted the $25. What happened next blew my mind.

I called their customer service number at 1-800-349-4358. A customer representative answered the phone and I explained what happened. I asked her if she could apply the $25 to my order which I had just placed. Her reply was, “There is no way we can make that happen” I then asked to cancel the order I placed minutes before. Her answer, “sorry we cannot do that either”. At first I though, ha ha very funny joke right? Wow, was I wrong. After going back and forth with her, I asked to speak with a supervisor. I waited a total of one hour and thirty five minutes for a supervisor.

Here is where it got really really bad.

The supervisors name was Heather. Her employee number was 400597. I explained my ordeal to her and she pretty much gave me the same answer. She told me that I would have to wait for the shipment to arrive and then ship it back to them at my cost. Once they received it, they would then issue a refund. Let me understand this again.

If an order is placed online and 2 minutes later you call to cancel the order that has yet to leave the warehouse, you must then wait until it is delivered. You will then have to go through the process of shipping it back at your cost plus a restocking fee.

This did not make any sense for many reasons.

• Why would Sears spend money shipping the item I do not want?
• Doesn’t it cost the company money to ship it out?
• Wouldn’t they save more money if the simply gave me a refund?
• How long before I get a refund?
• Can you imagine how much money they would save if they would save if they made this simple change?

Their manager had no control over anything. Heather could not even answer the simplest questions. It was as if she was reading from a manual. She did not want to hear what I had to say and hung up the phone on me. That is a major no-no!!

I went to their Twitter page and voiced my anger. Right on their Twitter page it says, “The Official Sears Twitter Page. Questions, comments, issues? What do you like about Sears? Jared & team, at your service.” I did not hear back from them at all. So much for Jared & team!!. So not only was their customer service and refund policy terrible, their social media response and support services was a perfect example of how to fail in the social media world. I cannot make this up!!

I went on to the Better Business Bureau website and found that even though they had over 17746 complaints against them and still had an A- rating. Hmnnnn, that makes no sense at all. Shame on you BBB.

So maybe it is just me being angry. Maybe I am wrong and it makes more sense if they spend the money shipping me a product I do not need and then I ship it back to them to receive my refund….Duhhh, it still does not make sense. OK corporate at Sears give me some answers. I am a firm believer that when you have an excellent customer service team and give the customer what they want (within reason), you will have a much bigger customer base. Your profits will rise as a result. However, with bad customer service and policies that make no sense, then you have angry customers spreading a very bad virus via social media and other platforms.

What do you all think about this policy? Have you had a similar experience? Let us know.