SEARS Sears Roebuck sears fraud, Christopher, Kellogg, theft, unethical, privacy act, violation, consumer fraud, sears stole my money, Internet, Internet

Ordered a recumbent bike on the 27th of March 2010. On AUgust 30th received a call from the assembly company to find out when to schedule the assembly, I advised that I hadn't heard from SEARS and thus would have to call them back. On April 1st received an email from SEARS advising that my order was cancelled. So, I went online to check the bank account and found out that they charged me twice but two different amounts.

   I called SEARS to find out what was going on because I did not authorize the second charge on April 1st. According to the Supervisor that I was transferred to (to break the news) someone in their warehouse at 5am on the 30th, manually input my information to reorder the order that they canceled (and waited till the 1st to tell me by email) I did not authorize the use of my card for anything other than my first order, which was canceled.

  The supervisor agreed but said she couldn't do anything so she transferred me to corporate to speak with Christopher Kellogg, who while he wasn't rude, was a very poor listener and had a shorter attention span than my toddler. He had a difficult time grasping that my irritation wasn't over a double charge but that SEARS violated my trust and security by allowing a warehouse employee to use my debit card to "do me a favor". According to Mr Kellogg, it is SEARS policy to use your financial information, your private financial information covered under the privacy act, to at will, order things that they think you want.

They did not refund either charge until today, after I called in. According to Mr Kellogg it will take 5-7 or 7-10 days for a refund and he could not promise that one of their warehouse employees would once again, use my debit card to "do me a favor".

He also told me that I can write to the President but it will be "sent to [him] anyway, so why bother".

I don't feel secure ordering from SEARS because clearly, they can at will use AND abuse our financial information. According to their employee Christopher Kellogg at their corporate office in Illinois,  it is their policy to do so.

Rather than sue, I am first going to contact government agencies because I can't imagine any company would sanction fraud even if they have "good intentions".