Sears Exercise Equipment

My wife Stacie and I made a store purchase of an elliptical trainer on January 20, 2012. Your customer service department later phoned Stacie to schedule delivery for January 26th between 11:30AM and 2:30 PM. Like most people it was an inconvenience to take off work that afternoon. On the 26th, I was at home awaiting delivery as I had promised. At 2:00 PM, I had not heard from the delivery service, so I called the delivery representative. The delivery representative told me that the elliptical machine had not been in the store that morning, so they would be unable to deliver it as promised. I asked why I had not been notified earlier in the day about the delivery status. I was told it is not the responsibility of the delivery department to make such notifications.

While I was upset about not receiving my product, I was angrier that I had wasted my entire afternoon waiting for an item that your company knew was not going to be delivered. I phoned the local store with whom I had been working on this order and spoke to the department manager. Not only did he not apologize for my inconvenience, he told me he was not responsible for the errors of the delivery service. I immediately asked to speak with the store manager. He was slightly more willing to offer some assistance. He agreed to forgive the $70 delivery fee if I was willing to reschedule delivery. I rescheduled for January 28th, and was promised delivery in the early afternoon. On the 27th, the delivery department called to confirm delivery between noon and 2PM.

On the 29th, Stacie received confirmation for delivery on the 30th, between noon and 2PM. The item was finally delivered about 2:30PM. This will be my last purchase from Sears.

I ordered a rowing machine from Sears.com on November 28, 2011. I received two emails confirming my order and my credit card was charged. Anticipated delivery to the local Sears store for pickup was Dec. 9, 2011. I called the store on the 11th to see if the item was in. It wasn't. I was told that getting items shipped up here to Alaska can take a week longer. So I waited another week. I called the store and still no item. I wait another week and still no item. I wait another week and checked with the store and still no item. I called Sears.com customer representative on January 9th. They aren't sure what is going on and I'm told they will elevate it and I should hear something in 48 hours.

I wait 48 hours and hear nothing. I enter into a chat on Sears.com website, expressing concern and asking about cancelling the order as it appears to me the item has not even been shipped and if there was any intention to do so. I'm told I can't cancel the order just yet and to give them 5-7 days to resolve the issue (I think everything with Sears is to tell the customer 7 days). I press this person that if the item does not arrive in the 7 days can I cancel the order. I'm told that yes and he has to authority to cancel the order and refund my money. In 2 days I receive an email that my item has been delivered to my store for pickup complete with delivery company name and tracking number. I called my local store--no, no item is in. I am told that may mean it is in shipping still, so I wait another 7 days. I again called my local store and they searched and cannot find the item. I then called Sears.com customer service.

While on hold I do a search for the delivery company and am able to enter the tracking number and find that a delivery under that tracking number was made. I have no idea if my item was actually in the delivery because the tracking number says the delivery was made to the state of Michigan! How can someone confuse Alaska with Michigan? I am doubtful this shipment had anything to do with my order but was rather a shut the guy up. I tell the customer representative I am done waiting and want the order cancelled and my money refunded. I am told they will cancel the order and it will take 5-7 days. I again received an email that my item has been delivered (a duplicate email to the first one) 2 days later, so I am concerned that they didn't cancel the order. Again I called Sears.com customer representative. I'm told that yes the order is being cancelled.

Here I am today January 27th; I checked my bank account and no refund. So I called Sears.com customer representative again and tell them I am done waiting. I have waited and waited per their timeline. I am told the cancel takes 7 days and it was put in on January 23rd. I corrected them and let them know the order to cancel was on the 20th and their 7 days are up. I believe this company is intentionally defrauding customers and hanging onto their money. Most companies do not charge you until the item you ordered ships. No where did Sears.com indicate the item was not available to be shipped and at this time I do not believe the item ever was shipped. As the credit card I used was a Visa I am going to pursue having a charge back done to get my money returned. I have always thought Sears was a reputable place to do business but never again.

I had spent a couple of months looking at and saving for a good quality elliptical exersize machine. I finally decided to buy one at our local Sears store. When the sales associate was waiting on me she seemed knowlegeable, knew all the key words and heath benefits and risks of the products she was sellling. I noticed a banner across the ceiling stating that you could take an additional 20% off sale price and asked if that applied to the equipment; she stated it did not but that she would take 10% off as a courtesy.

That seemed fair enough to me so I inquired about the cost of having a machine professionally assembled so I did not have to worry about injury from an improperly assembled machine. She stated that she would assemble it free of charge and that she did this all the time. We agreed and she stated that it would possibly be the afternoon or even Monday before it was ready and we agreed to that. I knew that she would be off on Sunday however since she stated that it would possibly be ready I called and checked and they said that there was no machine in my name there. I looked at my receipt and it showed a Monday pickup date so I decided to wait until then to contact the store again.

I called the store around 11:30-12:00 to see if the machine would be ready and what time it could be picked up and they stated she was not working that day, I explained it to the person on the phone and they didn't know how they could help me. So, I waited and called the next day at around the same time only to find out she wouldn't even be coming to work until 2:00 pm so I asked to speak to a manager and was transferred to an assistant manager for that department. She assured me that my machine would be assembled and ready for pick up by evening. At about 3:00 the sales associate called me and told me it was ready for pickup. My son went to the store and picked it up.

When I arrived home it was obvious that the machine was only haphazardly assembled, then I noticed wear marks, dust, etc on the unit and it was obvious that they had sent the floor model. I went into Sears to see what could be done, I was only offered a larger discount on the shabby piece of equipment. I told them I didn't want the used equipment, they didn't offer to give me a new one so I told them they needed to come and pick it up and give me my money back. A different manager told me that they would have to charge me $30.00 to pick it up. I told them that I was not giving them an additional $30 for something that was their mistake and that I would figure out how to get it to them.

A couple of hours later the same manager called and stated he had thought about it and that they would come pick it up. He stated I could come at that moment and get my refund and they would pick up the unit the next day at my convenience. I went to the store and waited while he processed the return only to be finally told he could not return my money until they had the unit ... so we made arrangements to have it picked up the next day. After the pick-up (the delivery men were nice) I went to the store only to talk to a different assistant manager; I kept being told that the General Manager was unavailable, I went over the story and explained to her that I really liked the machine but did not want to pay $400.00 for a used floor model. Again no offer was made to give me a new machine.