Sears

Went to Sears to find some nice evening dresses. I must say I am not a dress person and needed help. I think Lin was her name, from the customer service went through the whole store to look for the dress I liked in my size and little bolero jacket. She helped me even though she had a lot of costumers:-)
I found 2 nice dresses I bought. This was short before Black Friday.
4* only because the last couple of days a lot of the clothes were laying on the floor from costumers that through them down. Went there later on to find a ballet set for my daughter and the stuff was still laying on the floor. We felt overwhelmed with the chaos due to resorting spring clothes that we left.

Was down there to visit my dad and stepmom, stayed at a hotel right on the mall premises. I was there (yesterday and today) for Black Friday sales. I checked the local ads, Best Buy had noted that tickets would be handed out for sale items, I think Walmart had the same type of thing, a bit different: be there between 10 and 11 pm and they had a guarantee. Well, no such thing was listed on the Sears ad. I waited in line, of course, like everyone else. When the doors opened, I was there, near the front at the TV’s shortly after the doors were opened. A man yells out: «if you are here for the $ 97 TV, they are all sold out, we are out of tickets, you had to have a ticket to get one of these TV’s.» ??? There was no mention of tickets on the ad and no-​one that I could see was being handed any TV’s or even being brought aside to get one. No further explanation was given. Everyone was looking around at each wondering WHO, exactly, got one of these TV’s?
I called corporate today. Sears is not the much classier store that it used to be 30 years ago. Calling their «executive department» got me hung up on 4 times after asking for management. They said they «are» management, which I knew was a farce. I finally got to talk to a lady who dictated to me Sear’s terms. All good and fine, I responded, but your ad says nothing about tickets, if it had, I wouldn’t have gone. She replied she knew nothing about tickets, either. As the conversation digressed, she came back and began arguing that yes, indeed, there «is» a statement about tickets in the ad. No, I replied, there is not. I further stated that Best Buy had it clearly spelled out, so did Walmart. She became rude and condescending. I asked to speak to her manager, which she would not do and hung up on me. Upon calling again, I gave my information — for the 4^th time and was promised a higher level of management.
That individual called me back not too long afterwards. A nice person, I guess, but nice doesn’t really cut it. He finally came back and told me that the statement about «vouchers» was on another page that you had to click on, entitled: «see more details». I informed him that that was deceptive advertising. Especially considering other big box stores had it clearly spelled out on the main page. I was not going to be given a TV for $ 97, I was informed and that was that. After all the rhetoric and the repeated statements over and over and never seeing a single person with a ticket or being escorted anywhere to get a TV, I then made the only logical conclusion without any further facts (and since I am not likely to get them, there is not much other conclusion TO come to): There WERE no $ 97 TV’s at that store. But, granting that there might have been 1 or 2 of them available, it became obvious that deception was being used to get customers to come into the store, find that what they wanted is not available, not-​with-​standing the customer was there right when the store opened it’s doors and that the ploy was to get customers to buy something higher priced with higher GP and profit margins attached to the sale of such.
I was appalled at the treatment their «executive» center gave over the phone. These were not high level managers, just another in-​coming call center with associates who could care less whether you are a happy customer or not. I figured that once K-​Mart bought out Sears, the level and quality of service would degrade, now, at least with this anecdotal evidence, I am moving more to that conclusion. It’s just not the company it used to be and it’s no wonder they are having financial difficulties.