This is a warning to anyone considering making a Sears Transfer Purchase. So what is such a purchase? It’s when you purchase an item at one Sears location, then have it delivered by another Sears store in a different location. For the first time ever we recently made such a purchase and it was an absolute disaster!
On Monday, April 14th, on behalf of our son, Alex, we purchased a TV at our local Sears store. At the same time we paid for and made specific arrangements for it to be delivered to him on Friday, April 18th by the Sears store in Gaithersburg, which is the store closest to his residence. Alex took the day off work so the television could be delivered. Sometime after 1 p.m. he called the Gaithersburg store to check on the delivery status. They couldn’t find a record of the purchase and/or delivery in their system using his name or his phone number. He called me and I gave him the Salescheck # and other information from the receipt. When he called them back, they were able to locate the purchase in their records and advised him the television was on the truck for delivery and would be delivered that day before 6 pm. In the meantime, I called the local Sears store and was advised by customer service that the television had arrived at the Gaithersburg store on Thursday, April 17, and was scheduled for delivery that day (Friday, the 18th).
6 p.m. came and went. Alex called the Gaithersburg store again. This time they told him a manager would call him back. When the manager called shortly before 7, he told Alex we had not paid enough for the delivery fee and the television had been tagged for pick-up. Since the television was too big to fit in Alex’s car, he asked if he come come pay the additional $35 to have it delivered, and was advised he could not. The manager further told him I would have to have the entire sale returned and then rung up again with the correct delivery fee, and I would have to do it at my local store where the purchase was originally made. The problem with that was that Gershwin left town around 5 to go visit Alex for the weekend and I had sent the receipt with him.
I called the local store, talked to the electronics manager there to see if they could simply charge the additional $35 delivery fee to my credit card. He advised me the sale was no longer in their jurisdiction as it had already been transferred to Gaithersburg and, therefore, they could neither add the additional fee nor redo the purchase. He concurred with me that he didn’t understand why Alex couldn’t pay the additional fee, or the Gaithersburg Sears couldn’t charge it to my credit card over the phone. He gave me the Sears Corporate Customer Relations number and told me they were very good about getting situations like this straightened out. (If you ever need it, the number is 1-847-286-2500). I called immediately, but they were already closed.
Instead, I called the Gaithersburg store myself and asked to speak with the manager in electronics. He was gone for the day, but a salesclerk did attempt to help me. He decided to check with the delivery department and asked if he could call me back. When he did, he advised that the television had never been scheduled for delivery in the delivery system, and therefore had never been on the delivery truck that day. He further told me the reason was because the computer’s delivery system showed the television as already having been delivered! I was polite, but you can imagine what I had to say about this latest and third story told to us by different employees of the same Gaithersburg store. In fairness, of all the various Sears employees I talked with throughout this almost week-long ordeal, he’s the only one who actually called me back as promised.
Sunday was a day of rest. On Monday, I once again took up the cause, this time with the local Sears store where the purchase was actually made. Twice I talked with the saleswoman who sold us the television. Twice she checked with the electronics manager who was trying to reach, without success, the Gaithersburg electronics manager. Twice I was promised the local electronics manager would call me back. He never did, not even to tell me he was at least trying to reach the other store.
Finally, out of desperation, I called the Sears Corporate Customer Relations number (1-847-286-2500) and talked with a gentleman there. He took all the information, asked plenty of questions to verify the facts of the situation. I could hear him typing up what I presume was an incident report of some kind. When he was satisfied he had all the facts, he put me on hold and attempted to call the electronics department at the Gaithersburg store, only to return to the phone several minutes later and advise no one was answering the phones there. Duh! I did try to warn him. He told me he would send out an email to the managers at both stores and would contact me as soon as he heard something. I never heard back from him either.
But, the Sears Corporate Customer Relations agent I spoke with must have gotten the attention of someone in Gaithersburg because a female manager called Alex very late Tuesday afternoon asking if they could deliver the television the next day, Wednesday, April 23rd. He told her that’d be great, and made arrangements to take another day off work. After much anxiety on Wednesday, and a few phone calls back and forth with Alex, the television was finally delivered just before 6 pm. It must have been the last delivery of the day, but at least it finally arrived. I don’t know if Sears ever charged the additional $35 delivery fee to my credit card or not, but I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.
I don’t know if these problems are common with Sears transfer purchases, or simply the result of a poorly operated Gaithersburg store. What I do know is that I will never, ever make another transfer purchase with Sears. Even with the high gas prices, it would have been cheaper, not to mention faster, and a lot less stressful to have taken possession of the television at our local store and delivered it to Alex ourselves.
