*********** a Retail Store

[Rickster]

When asked for a phone number I always give them the information number: (area code) 555-1212 and say, "ask for me".

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

sears has been miserable since the late sixties
always seemed more like going to the post office or the dmv than getting a nice retail experience

 

[chevy4lyf]

The simplest thing to do when asked for your phone number is to transpose 2 digits, or give a different area code. What really pisses me off, is when you have to hand over your drivers license when staying at a motel, like these people are going to be honest about having your ID?

What ***** is when your carbon-copy receipt turns into a clear white piece of paper and you go back to get a return processed and you can't remember what phone # you gave. Sears mostly uses the phone # for record of larger purchases to call when there is an issue (if it is an ordered item) or to look up the receipt.

I don't think you can even buy a deliverable appliance without using your phone #, nor would you want to - I would think.

 

[mechamunch]

What ***** is when your carbon-copy receipt turns into a clear white piece of paper and you go back to get a return processed and you can't remember what phone # you gave. Sears mostly uses the phone # for record of larger purchases to call when there is an issue (if it is an ordered item) or to look up the receipt.

I don't think you can even buy a deliverable appliance without using your phone #, nor would you want to - I would think.

I'm suspicious that receipt paper is engineered to turn all black or all white just as the 30 day return policy is up...

 

[krehmkej]

Went into Sears to get some socket rail clips. There's tag in the space where they should be saying "see asssociate for this item". So, after waiting on THREE people doing their credit applications, the associate walks over to the space and says "we don't have those anymore".
That did it for me. I have sent all my Crapman cordless tools to Goodwill and replaced them with Milwaukee.
I will go to Harbor Freight anytime for a pleasant experience compared to Sears.

 

[chevy4lyf]

I'm suspicious that receipt paper is engineered to turn all black or all white just as the 30 day return policy is up...

First - It's a 90 day return policy. 30 days is for electronics only.

Second - No, the receipt will easily last years if you keep it inside your home filed away. If you wrinkle up the receipt a lot or keep it in really hot environments, it will blank out quickly, but that is the nature of those receipts. That paper/ink is used simply for cost efficiency and simplicity at stores - the printers are generally reliable and easy to fix.

Third - Like I said, if you give them your phone number you won't necessarily need the receipt. They can scan the item and use your phone number to look up which purchase it was made on.

Fourth - If you write down the Salescheck # and the "RC" number (Return Code), that is all you need to process a return anyway. If you copy those numbers onto the paper in pen, the numbers will always be there.

Trust me that we don't sit around and think of ways to swindle you out of your money. We just want people to come shop at Sears again and in this challenging economic environment where everyone has had to scale back, it is extremely difficult. Wal Mart is shielded from many of the problems because they have a consumables and grocery business (you're not going to stop buying shampoo or food because of the recession, but you might delay your washer/dryer purchase). Sears doesn't have that shield. Kmart has consumables but not groceries (for the most part).

 

[vette-kid]

First - It's a 90 day return policy. 30 days is for electronics only.

Second - No, the receipt will easily last years if you keep it inside your home filed away. If you wrinkle up the receipt a lot or keep it in really hot environments, it will blank out quickly, but that is the nature of those receipts. That paper/ink is used simply for cost efficiency and simplicity at stores - the printers are generally reliable and easy to fix.

Third - Like I said, if you give them your phone number you won't necessarily need the receipt. They can scan the item and use your phone number to look up which purchase it was made on.

Fourth - If you write down the Salescheck # and the "RC" number (Return Code), that is all you need to process a return anyway. If you copy those numbers onto the paper in pen, the numbers will always be there.

Trust me that we don't sit around and think of ways to swindle you out of your money. We just want people to come shop at Sears again and in this challenging economic environment where everyone has had to scale back, it is extremely difficult. Wal Mart is shielded from many of the problems because they have a consumables and grocery business (you're not going to stop buying shampoo or food because of the recession, but you might delay your washer/dryer purchase). Sears doesn't have that shield. Kmart has consumables but not groceries (for the most part).

Wait...you work at Sears??? Where the h3ll is my tool box!!!???

 

[caper150]

I like Menard's. Low prices and lots of rebates. Staff is dumb as rocks though.

Look up John Menard sometime and you may rethink shopping there. Not because he is the richest man in Wisconsin, but how he got to be that way. Horror stories of how he treats employees, environmental law violations, tax trouble, etc.

Here is something I found on John Menard:

Menards, with more than 200 stores in 11 states, has $6.6 billion in annual sales. John Menard, who launched the business in Eau Claire in 1962, has an estimated net worth of $5.2 billion, making him the richest person in Wisconsin. Yet he apparently gives little to foundations or charitable organizations. A letter writer to Milwaukee Magazine told of how the store refused to even donate lumber to an employee Eagle Scout's project, to build bird houses for a local nature preserve.

John Menard can be, Nohl wrote, "cruelly demanding with employees." That's putting it mildly. Some examples:


Menards managers must sign agreements in which they consent to being personally penalized for things that go wrong. For instance, having 15 carts in the parking lot draws a $10 fine. And they must pay $100 per minute if they open late.
Managers are forbidden from building their own homes, as protection against the possibility that they may steal building materials. And private investigators have been hired to check whether employees who undertake even minor home-improvement projects are using pilfered supplies.
Eldon Helget, a Menards lumber yard manager in Burnsville, Minnesota, felt he needed to build a new home to accommodate his wheelchair-bound daughter. So he accepted a demotion with a $15,000 salary cut. When John Menard learned of this deal, he fired Helget. And then, when another lumber yard offered him a job, Helget had to go to court to get out from under a Menards contract clause that barred him from working for a competitor for a year.
Menards is aggressively anti-union. Norm Baumann, a former assistant store manager in Wausau, said he was made to attend a day-and-a-half-long seminar about fighting unions. "If a person had ever worked at a union shop, you couldn't hire them," Baumann told the magazine, adding that he once had to fire two promising management trainees because they had worked in high school as baggers at a unionized grocery store.
Dissent or disagreement of any kind is not tolerated. Steve Faber, a former store manager in Iowa, said he suddenly began getting negative reviews and was ultimately replaced (he was offered a lower-paying job but quit instead) after he questioned a new rule requiring managers to pay a $200 deductible if a delivery driver they hired was in an accident. (I'm not making this up.)
According to former store manager Scott Bropst, Menards once deducted $2,000 from the bonus of a manager in North Dakota, on top of reducing his pay, because he put in just 35 to 40 hours -- not the required 55 -- when his wife gave birth to triplets, two of whom eventually died.
Menards has a long history of being an environmental scofflaw, paying at least $3.8 million in fines since 1976 for ignoring or violating state law. In 1997, John Menard was caught using his own pickup truck to haul ash contaminated with chromium and arsenic to his home, to toss out with the regular trash.

Boy this sounds alot like Oshkosh Truck too, are all Wisconsin companies like that.