Sears Automotive - Hickory Point Mall Deceptive practices. Attempted overcharging. Does not honor prearrangements. Forsyth Illinois

I ended up buying the same exact tires installed for $300.00 somewhere else. I have not and will not ever shop at any Sears again because of what happened. Buyer, truly beware when shopping at Sears. It is a shame. when I was growing up my parents trusted Sears and I did for decades. I'm 56 and I will never spend a cent on ANY Sears product again. Sincerely, Jeff, Decatur, Illinois

I ended up buying the same exact tires installed for $300.00 somewhere else. I have not and will not ever shop at any Sears again because of what happened. Buyer, truly beware when shopping at Sears. It is a shame. when I was growing up my parents trusted Sears and I did for decades. I'm 56 and I will never spend a cent on ANY Sears product again.

The title starts by claiming that Sears Auto would not honor the price quoted over the phone, but then the report says that the purchaser wanted to radically change the deal on site at the time of service. A couple of problems that I see as possibly overlooked could have easily been avoided simply by reading the entire offers as quoted. The price match being requested could have been for a set of four tires. If that is the case, then splitting the offer into four separate orders would mean the savings with the coupon, but no price match on tire pricing. That being the case, all four tires need to go on one order to get the better pricing for the customer. Every Sears coupon, with very little exception, has the same clause as nearly every other retailer: it cannot be used in conjunction with any other coupon or discount. I don't like that clause any better than anyone else, because after leaving Sears Auto, I started to work for Sears Retail, and am not able to use a coupon along with my employee discount. This means extra work for me when I decide to be a consumer in my store, as I have to check prices and discounts both ways to see which is more feasible for my finances. Since it is clearly in print, however, I have no choice but to learn to live with it rather than trying to raise a ruckus just because I don't like what is printed on the coupons. Read your ads, especially if you are bringing in a competitive ad for a price match. If the price is for tires, bring in both a printout of a set of four, along with a printout showing pricing for a single tire to be shipped. Chances are, ordering four tires one at a time from an online store will result in a higher price than ordering all four, so the pricing will have to be matched on a combined order- all four on one work order.

If you want Wal-Mart prices (and the kind of service that goes with that), then why don't you just shop at Wal-Mart and leave the Sears folks alone? They could probably do without your kind of business.

Seriously, if you have $5 off coupons and they say you can only use one per purchase, most stores are going to tell you to take a hike if you try and game the system.

It's customers like you that make me feel sorry for anyone in retail.

Robert,

They were charging $24.74 per tire. Thats $17.24 more per tire than Walmart would have for the same work. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

Do you work for Sears? In Illinois? At Hickory Point Mall?

An update. I talked to the Automotive District Manager a couple of days ago. All 4 $5 coupons should have been honored without hassle. Also, he didn't understand the extra charges ($8.50 mounting per tire ) and the ($3.99 valve stem charge). He is supposed to investigate and get back with me.

Its obvious to me that Sears Auto in Forsyth were doing things that they should not have been doing.

It looks like you went in there looking for trouble, and even if they did everything you wanted you probably still would have complained. They DID NOT mislead you.

First you call 3 times in 45 minutes to be "certain" that there would be no surprises. I am sure person A was really looking forward to you coming in.

Person A said they would price match the tire price - Which they did.
Person A said they honor Sears Coupons - Which they did.

You never asked Person A if they matched prices for tire charges. But you took in the print out "hoping" they would.

Most stores do not allow any additional discounts once you Price Match, so in that respect you would have been ahead with the $5 off coupon. As for trying to turn in multiple coupons, the same thing applies where they usually won't let you use more than one coupon on the same purchase. So you can't turn 4 $5 off coupons into a $20 off coupon of $200 on the same purchase.

So in the end you were "going to explode" because you were going to be charged $1 more per tire for "services" and lost out on $15 worth of coupons. Since Wal-Mart was cheaper all around, perhaps you should just go there and see if they will take all 4 Sears Coupons...