The Dumber Side of Sears
Sears has raised my ire again, with two back to back phone calls last night and one at 8:30am this morning.
This time I tried calling in and was told I would be removed in 24 hours, a far better promise than the "three months" they told me it would take to simply remove my number from their phone list last time I called.
So, just to warn anyone not in the know:
If you buy anything from Sears, do NOT give them your phone number. Not even for DELIVERY. They will violate your contact and also Do Not Call registry preferences, because apparently it is legal for a business you have done a transaction from to call and offer you "further services" for up to two years after the transaction. In Sears' case they interpret this even more loosely, given that they have been pestering us on an almost daily basis for at least four years our last (ever) purchase from them. Brad checked the "do not contact" me on the box, but had to give his phone number for the delivery, and we have been nailed. For years. With no recourse.
They call using a machine, and about 9/10th of the time you can't even talk to a human when this machine calls; you pick up and hear dead silence. They want to sell an extended warranty. Yeah, I want an extended warranty for my four+ year old appliance. (Yeah, never planning on shopping from Sears again.) You cannot get removed from their list to talking to anyone who calls from this number.
They do NOT honor the Do Not Call Registry, nor do they honor the normal Do Not Call protections where you can be removed from their list simply by asking, and their removal process is so byzantine that it's almost impossible to get removed. I'm not certain that this attempt will take, either.
If you are on their list, it shows up in Caller ID as "800 Services". They use a variety of numbers to call out including 800-927-2291.
I'm torqued off enough about the constant daily wake-up calls that I'm actually wasting precious spoons wondering how hard it would be to sue them. I'm pretty sure that unattended machine phone calls are still illegal in California, for instance. They are definitely now in violation of the Do Not Call registry as well, since we haven't done any business with them for over two years and never intend to again.
It's really sad seeing a once-reputable company go this route, but they've managed to sour themselves to me entirely.
This time I tried calling in and was told I would be removed in 24 hours, a far better promise than the "three months" they told me it would take to simply remove my number from their phone list last time I called.
So, just to warn anyone not in the know:
If you buy anything from Sears, do NOT give them your phone number. Not even for DELIVERY. They will violate your contact and also Do Not Call registry preferences, because apparently it is legal for a business you have done a transaction from to call and offer you "further services" for up to two years after the transaction. In Sears' case they interpret this even more loosely, given that they have been pestering us on an almost daily basis for at least four years our last (ever) purchase from them. Brad checked the "do not contact" me on the box, but had to give his phone number for the delivery, and we have been nailed. For years. With no recourse.
They call using a machine, and about 9/10th of the time you can't even talk to a human when this machine calls; you pick up and hear dead silence. They want to sell an extended warranty. Yeah, I want an extended warranty for my four+ year old appliance. (Yeah, never planning on shopping from Sears again.) You cannot get removed from their list to talking to anyone who calls from this number.
They do NOT honor the Do Not Call Registry, nor do they honor the normal Do Not Call protections where you can be removed from their list simply by asking, and their removal process is so byzantine that it's almost impossible to get removed. I'm not certain that this attempt will take, either.
If you are on their list, it shows up in Caller ID as "800 Services". They use a variety of numbers to call out including 800-927-2291.
I'm torqued off enough about the constant daily wake-up calls that I'm actually wasting precious spoons wondering how hard it would be to sue them. I'm pretty sure that unattended machine phone calls are still illegal in California, for instance. They are definitely now in violation of the Do Not Call registry as well, since we haven't done any business with them for over two years and never intend to again.
It's really sad seeing a once-reputable company go this route, but they've managed to sour themselves to me entirely.