Some of you all believe the root cause of sears' downfall is from moving production to china... and while that surely did not help ( I don't buy 'china' craftsman stuff ever) their whole marketing and service is absolutely horrible... the craftsman website *****, and sears.com is quite bad too. In fact, it is one of the WORST large online stores I have ever seen. I consider myself pretty computer savvy and I get so frustrated when looking for an item, I simply close the web-page and decide to either just look in the store or not buy anything at all. Not everyone has a catalog with part numbers handy. Duh.
In the store they are annoying as well. You can't even browse in peace without someone asking you if you need help every 5 minutes. NO. I don't need help. If I did I would ask. When I am shopping around in a retail store I don't like to be bothered, just make sure you have employees around so I can easily find them when you need them. It's the same thing when I go out to eat at a restaurant. A good server will check in once in a while and just be vigilant to see if the customer 'needs' anything. It's not good to bother someone, interrupting conversation every few minutes asking them if they are ready to leave or it they want anything else when they are CLEARLY doing fine and still eating. It's annoying. Yes I want service but I also want to relax - not everyone is in a hurry to get the f*** out. There is a fine line and they need to learn it at sears.
I remember last week when I was in there another shopper got asked like 5 times in what seemed like under 30 minutes. He finally just said 'STOP asking me if I need help - every few minutes someone keeps asking me and I just want to browse in peace'. It's like they are so desperate for your sales they harass you right out of the store. It makes me feel like I am 14 or 15 again and the employees are just bothering me because they think I am trying to steal something - which of course I was not.
I am reminded of a merchant in a crowded Chinese market who is pressuring you and bothering you, ignorant to your body language which clearly indicates displeasure as they attempt to coax you in to purchasing all their 'goods' - and I use that word loosely. If you want to ask me ONCE when I first enter the store if I need any help or if I just want to browse - fine. However, enough is enough.
The funny thing is, when you actually WANT service... you know, like your order to actually be shipped in a timely fashion, undamaged, and to be... you know, what you actually ordered... there is a decent chance it won't be. This is surely not the first time I have heard crazy stories like that and is one reason I don't order from sears. The entire top level management at sears should be fired and replaced with people who actually know something about marketing and how to run a successful business. They could learn a LOT from amazon.com's shipping service, and why not set up their online store like newegg.com for example. Newegg sells a **** load of technical products and I have never had trouble finding what I needed or getting my order on-time and in undamaged condition. I have ordered over 100 items from those sites if I had to take a guess and I have never had a problem. Quite the contrary in fact my orders usually arrive ahead of schedule. Don't even let me get started or the POOR quality of the navigation on the craftsman website which I know they paid some reject tons of money for... it *****. It's like they say up north...
"maaeeeh, it's f***in' gae-baege"
