Sears Reverses "Sneaky" Up Sales Policy.: MSNBC

[Stuart G]

http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/02/9169923-sears-reverses-sneaky-up-sell-policy


By Herb Weisbaum, The ConsumerMan

Edgar Dworsky, a nationally-respected consumer advocate and founder of the website ConsumerWorld.org, made that claim Thursday. Sears said on Friday that it will change the way its website operates.

Dworsky says he went on the site on Black Friday weekend looking for a refrigerator. He found a model he liked, put it in his cart and noticed that a five-year service contract for $469 had been added without his consent.

"I'm really upset and I think it's a very sneaky practice,” Dworsky tells me. “A consumer should not have to opt-out of buying something they never asked for to start with.”

Dworsky points out that the charge for the service plan is easily removed from the cart if the customer spots it. If not, they could overpay from $110 to $550.

"How many shoppers have in their mind, 'Oh, I'd better check the cart just to make sure they haven't slipped something in there that I didn't order?' "

Dworsky shopped for various appliances on Sears.com and he says the same thing happened every time: an expensive five-year extended warranty turned up in the shopping cart.

[hlthe2b]

1. Not defending the practice, but one would think the price alone...

would have people checking... When I see a price dramatically different than I think I am getting the refrig for, I would absolutely go through every charge with a fine tooth comb. Surely most people would as well. But, still not defending the practice.

[Atman]

2. Agreed. Who doesn't notice a $440 extra charge?

I notice when an online retailer "suggests" the faster, more expensive shipping method. Why wouldn't someone check the amount actually be charged before clicking the final button? Whatever happened to buyer beware? Or buyer, at least pay attention!

[rfranklin]

3. The first crime was that the retailer added something you didn't ask for...

That's an intentional deception.

[Demit]

4. I think the man's point is, why is a large respectable retailer trying to cheat the customer?

Your reaction seems to say, if the customer doesn't catch it, serves him right!

[RC]

5. If you scratch the surface, Sears isn't really that respectable.

They do have good quality merchandise, but they treat their employees... sorry, associates poorly.
The service contracts are almost pure profit.

[Demit]

6. Lol! I've hated Sear's ever since they refused my husb & me a credit card in 1972.

But they are a long-standing institution, and as such should care about their image, was my point :)

[bhikkhu]

23. They didn't care much about their image in 1988 when I worked there...

in Seattle as a mechanic starting out - at that time, the main retail business was struggling and they were leaning pretty heavily on the auto shops for cash flow. They'd do things like decide that selling and installing new springs had the best profit margin, so they set a quota for spring sales that all salespeople had to meet or risk termination (really - I saw the notices that went out).

So every car that came to the shop for anything had to have its ride height measured and documented, and the line was "your vehicle is unsafe to drive" if it was more than 1/2 inch off...needless to say, that was only one way they were squeezing money out of customers and sales out of employees, it was miserable to work there, and I quit after a few months. They got hit by class-action lawsuits on both coasts shortly afterwards and about 75% their auto-shop business disappeared, permanently.

Boneheaded company still...

[hlthe2b]

7. To be fair, Sears was the rare corporation to pay their Nat. Guardsmen

the difference in salary when called to Iraq or Afghanistan. I worked for Sears many many many years ago... To my knowledge they have not--at all--fallen to the level of so many crooked corporations in terms of how they treat employees, but I am not in the loop.

[Chan790]

18. No, their employee treatment has fallen.

I worked there for 18 months. It was easily the worst I've ever been treated by an employer.

They would look for excuses to deny us commissions.
They underpaid us. (I mean they shorted our paychecks. Of course, they were not paying us enough to sell tractors in Brooklyn.)
They forced us to open Sears store-credit and required it be used to obtain employee-discount.
The head-of-security one day threatened to strip-search me over a ~$5 "missing" item that had not actually existed.
They made us come to work to stock shelves inside the area-under-repair after the store was closed until repaired for fire-code violations when the fire inspector found broken-down asbestos.
They made up an excuse to fire one of our reservists the day before he was being shipped-out after a call-up so they would have to keep paying him.

We cheered our department manager when he got caught stealing treadmills...G was a hero for that. When you treat your employees so badly that they openly root for you to suffer losses and theft, you're doing something wrong.

[cloudbase]

9. They're the same people

who can't tell the difference between the white Coke cans and the silver Diet Coke cans.

[liberal N proud]

8. Retailers prey on the ignorance of consumers

Those who are not aware and do not check their total bill get caught in these situations. It is not isolated to on-line sales only.

[russspeakeasy]

17. That, in a nutshell, says it all.

[Jefferson23]

10. Consumers should not have to opt out, Sears needs to cut the sleaze out of their website. n/t

[Atman]

12. I agree, consumers shouldn't have to opt out, but...

While the monetary difference is significant, there isn't much difference from any other online retailer pre-loading your shopping cart with the more expensive shipping option. My point is, you count your change at a brick and mortar, you check your bill at a restaurant, I can't fathom you wouldn't check what you're purchasing before you click the button to authorize a charge to your card. It's not like it's hidden...the numbers are right in front of your face, and inch away from the "submit" button.

BTW, Amazon did this to me once, but it was way sleazier...I think they got sued for it, even. One page before checkout would explain its $79 Amazon Prime shipping program. But it didn't place a cart button for it, nor did it explain that you had to opt out using a tiny button in the fine-print footer of the page. Further, since you didn't get charged for the service until 30 days lapsed, it didn't even show up in your shopping cart. People (like me) who ignored the ad-looking sales pitch didn't even know they'd spent the $79 until it showed up on our credit card bills. At that point, Amazon said you weren't entitled to a refund because the contract they tricked you into signing had passed the 30-day mark. I reported it as fraud to both my card company and our state AG, and finally Amazon reversed the charge. IMO, this was a way sleazier tactic than putting warranty in your cart where you can see it and remove it. But yes, sleazy is sleazy.

[Jefferson23]

15. THAT is unethical, highly crafted sleaze, I agree. I have no interest

whether consumers can catch the tricks or not..meaning, even if only 2% of their online purchases result in
people being scammed..that is too many.

Yep, sleaze comes in many forms, some more subtle than others.

Good on you for reporting it as fraud too.

[madmom]

11. My hubby used to ALWAYS by craftsman tools, because they were guaranteed for

life. Several years ago he took one back for replacement, was told by an associate "oh we don't do that anymore" They lost a big time customer there.

[Chan790]

19. They never stopped but there were items it never applied to.

No power tools, pneumatic tools, compressors, table-saws, or parts designed to wear-out such as router bits and drill-bits.

[madmom]

20. If I remember correctly this was a simple wrench.

[Chan790]

21. See that should have been covered...

at least it was when I quit in late 2009.

[saras]

22. Nope. Their tools are no longer good enough to guarantee like that.

I went there this year to replace a couple of lost things. One was a pair of Craftsman diagonal cutters that I had used for some fifteen years. I cut the points off of thousands of drywall screws with them, with no damage to the blades - I used them for electronics as well, and after fifteen years of drywall screws, they were still sharp enough to strip 30 gauge wire.

I went for a new pair, and took a drywall screw with me for a test. They only had one kind of cutter anywhere near the right size (6"), and one cut left a divot in the blades the size of the drywall screw, with no effect at all on the screw. Didn't even damage the threads. So obviously I didn't buy them. I need to find out who still makes good tools, and order something.

It's perfectly obvious that they're not going to give a lifetime guarantee on THAT pair of cutters.

[knitter4democracy]

13. Sears is run by crooks.

I ran into a problem with them a few years back, and it was a royal mess. I signed up for a store card to get a huge discount on school clothes only to never get the card. Stupid me, I forgot about it when nothing came in the mail, and I caught it months later in going over my credit report. It took me half a day on the phone from this person to that person to get that darn thing erased--they'd charged three times as much in fees and interest as the original amount when they didn't have my address right, I never got a card, and they couldn't prove that I'd ever actually received anything.

I will never shop there again. Lands End, sure, but if one wrong step, and I'll take my business elsewhere, too, as they're run by the same crooks.

[MH1]

14. Who DOESN'T check the cart?

Sure the alleged practice is sleazy, but c'mon, outside of (maybe)the very wealthy, who's going to checkout of an online site without checking that what they're buying is what they intended to buy?

It's nice for him to warn people about this but instead of suggesting that normal people might not check their cart before paying, he might just gently remind people that it would be frickin' stupid to do that.

[Stuart G]

16. Sears Cheats People..Nothing New...Here is a story:

I used to teach Consumer Education in the Chicago Public High Schools. I collected articles about the subject, and used
them for the students. I remember vividly clipping and copying a story about Sears using "bait and switch" sales tricks in the
late 70s.
At the time, this was and (still is) illegal, so Sears had to sign some kind of consent decree with the ICC or
one of the agencies. It was company policy to switch the buyer from an advertised item, to the more expensive one. But, I was
surpried that a so called reputable national company, with a very good reputation at that time, would stoop to this. but they did,
and most important......30 years later, they still treat people this way..

Needless to say.. I don't go there