Sears Announced That It May Sell Three Of Its Iconic Brands -- Kenmore, Craftsman And Diehard

Some years back I purchased an electric clothes drier at Sears, white in color, and paid for delivery. Naturally, the power cord is extra and must be installed separately (who the heck dreamt up that one?). So, it was delivered, along with the power cord while I was away at work. No problem, as my wife indicated that the delivery men (not Sears employees) were perfect gentlemen. I get home, check the tag on the box, and it appears to be the correct machine. I open the box and find a black drier inside, not a white one. Called up Sears to speak to the salesman who sold me the drier, and he was off for a few days. Okay, I can live with that, everybody deserves a little time off.

Got hold of him when he returned a couple of days later, told him the problem and he said he would take care of it. So, the next day the truck shows up, the crew brings in the new drier and takes out the wrong one. Opened the box before they left to make sure that it was the right color. Looked good, so I set about attaching the cord, which by the way, I now have two of. Cord attachment is simple, three screws. No way to install it incorrectly. Installed it, replaced the cover plate, turned off the breaker, plugged in the drier, and turned on the breaker. I am REALLY glad I did it that way as turning on the breaker resulted in a loud BOOM. The breaker kicked right back out, and the magic smoke escaped from the drier. Everybody knows that once the magic smoke escapes, the device will no longer work. Contacted the salesman again and explained the problem to him. He insisted that I installed the cord incorrectly, causing a short. So now I have to schedule service to come out and check out the drier before they will do anything else. Called for service, they arrive a couple of days later and check the machine over, finding a bare wire touching a board inside the machine, fried board. The cord and its installation were definitely not the problem. Warranty issue, no charge for the service call. The service man calls the salesman, tells him what he found and that he needs to schedule delivery of yet one more drier.

Several days go by with no phone call from the delivery company to schedule the second exchange. Call the salesman once more. Now he's on vacation for two weeks, but because of the complexity of this sale and all of the problems, he has to handle it, nobody else will touch it. Ended up leaving him a voice mail to call me upon his return. I then drove 8 miles up the road to a local appliance sales and service store, purchased the EXACT same drier with the Whirlpool name on it for slightly LESS money. The cord was included in the deal, and it was delivered that very afternoon.

Once Sears finally came and picked up their defective machine I never looked back. I have purchased all of our appliances from our local appliance dealer and I've been much happier. The best part? When I need a part for one of my appliances, I call the local store, tell them who I am, and they pull up a list of the appliances I have purchased from them, including model and serial numbers. I tell them which part I need, and they are able to immediately look up the correct part, and set it aside for me to pick up. If they have to order the part, it is drop shipped directly to my door. Long story short, you can't beat great service, and Sears just doesn't have it.

As for replacing a failed Craftsman hand tool, don't even get me started. :mad:
 
Local appliance stores generally rock.

The cord issue is just that there are at least 4 possible types, so the manufacturer doesn't include one. In my experience it is rare for the dealer to include it either.

The warranty exchange on Craftsman hand tools varies GREATLY by store, manager, and employee. Some understand the original terms of sale and just do it. Some think it's their job to save the company the cost of that socket and if they lose you as a customer in the process then that's for the best because you're just the kind of customer who always expects "free" tools, so even more savings for the company!
 
we are all guilty of killing companies like Sears.
the American consumer wants gold for peanuts and will step over a dying relative to save $.50 on a can of unregulated Tuna.
we seriously need to take a look at our future economic well being.
by manufacturing nothing but entitlement, we have weakened the Giant.
i have great fears for our collective future.
 
kvt said:
One of the other problems is they stopped making stuff and started rebranding most of the other peoples stuff or selling other peoples stuff as theirs. Whichever way that was the decline for me, why pay extra for something I can get from the manufacture for less.
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Sears never did manufacturer their own stuff, they just had it made to their specs. Just like auto makers, and the rest of the world, Sears realized that if they make stuff too good, they will be passed down through the families generations, and sales will eventually decline. Sears answer like most other companies was to turn to planned obsolescence, and/or cutting manufacturing costs by by re-branding existing products, and dumped the existing standards. The beginning of the end of our great product names, factories, and jobs, was when trade was opened up with China, and they were designated as most favored nation trading partner.
 
I disagree only that China was the start. It was Japan before it was China. The attitude/philosophy is the problem, not the specific country that took it on. If it hadn't been China it would have been someone else. That's the problem with the way capitalism is actually practiced. If you can do something to make a larger profit then you should, period. No further reflection or consideration is needed or appropriate. That value is particularly revered in publicly traded companies where the stock market punishes those who don't take every opportunity to cut corners to make money, but it's a common problem among private organizations as well. Thus the demand would have been filled by some other country no matter what. China is not to blame for spectacularly fulfilling the demands of US corporations.
 
Ahh yes, I remember the made in japan crisis. Yes, they undercut us on a lot, but they did most of it by modernizing the manufacturing process, not by cutting out the labor costs by using slave labor. We could hold our own with Japan.
 
Frankly it is my belief that "MADE IN CHINA" is the most successful marketing campaign of all time. Every executive who wondered how his competitors were getting their prices so low had his question answered at a glance. I wonder how many of those turned around and did the same? People talk about Apple and Coca-Cola and a few others as the most valuable brands in the world. I think that "MADE IN CHINA" sticker has them all beat. Whether or not you like that (and most of us don't) you have to respect how effective it has been.
 
Quality of a product, is not a function of where it is made, rather a function of the manufacturing specifications. Cost is not as much a function of either, but how the manufacturer can manage its resources. Selling price, is mostly determined by what people will pay.
 
Right. And when manufacturer (A) sees a competitor (B) pricing a product below what (A) believes to be his hard cost to produce it (that bring laden with false assumptions for days), he will tend to look to outside solutions to help him compete, with the cost of labor being one of the biggest targets of that attention. Actually managing his resources better is seldom considered as a matter of course. "My **** doesn't stink" syndrome. My plant is running perfectly. Nothing I can do but move production to where there aren't so many greedy workers keeping my costs so high.

Another book on this subject is The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt, and its sequel, It's Not Luck.
 
blame the consumer and china all you want but the way i see it sears only has its management to blame .

i would think that transition from a brick and mortar business model to an amazon style business model would have been a natural no brainer for sears .
considering how many decades they did the largest mail order business in the world .
 
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