Monday, January 14, 2013

Dear Sears,


I asked the clerk at the Boise Sears a few weeks ago and was told that if I had a receipt for kids clothes dated before you ended the Kid Vantage replace worn out clothes program that they would honor it. She did not say that they would only do that until the end of 2012. All the internet messages about the program ending said you would honor receipts dated before the program end date.
Today, my husband took one pair of pants and a receipt dated before the program ended (April 2012) to the Boise Sears. He was told that the program completely ended the end of 2012 and they would not replace the pair of pants with a receipt.
Sears did a terrible job of advertising that this program was ending and telling their stores what the new rules were. I am done with shopping at Sears for any products at any time in the future. I am telling my friends and family to stop shopping at Sears too.
Sincerely,
Ewe

I now have 7 pairs of jeans that are sizes 4, 6, and 8 from Sears that have holes in them and can not be replaced. The Lambs have always worn pants from Sears once they reached size 4. All of their jeans and many of their dress pants came from Sears. Often when I was in there buying them jeans they would also get new dress shirts. When Grandma was in there buying them pants, she would also buy them new socks and underwear etc. I can understand discontinuing the program-I know our boys are hard on their clothes and we definitely got more jeans in replacements than what the jeans cost in the first place. (I never asked to have the shoes I bought there or the shirts I bought there replaced, only pants.) They should have advertised this a lot better. I couldn't find anything about the program on their website. It could be because we moved, but I never received an e-mail about the program ending. The clerks at the stores had no idea what the rules were. There should have been huge signs up in the kids department for several months before and after discontinuing the program saying what the rules were.
When we lived in MN we lived 3 hours away from Sears. We would save up their pants that needed replacing and take a few pairs when we got to a town with Sears. I was so thankful to move here and have a Sears in the same county as I live in. We bought several pairs of pants at Sears when we first moved here a year ago. Since they discontinued this program, I bought a pair of jeans for Lamb 1 at Walmart for just $4. Thankfully we have thrift stores and lots of other stores to shop at here. Goodbye, Sears. Where do you shop for your boys pants?

1 comment:

Jody S. said...

I just read a column in my hometown newspaper that reminded me of your Sears post. It is about Sears and the military. You can read about it here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp

The columnist then wrote to Sears asking if what she heard was factual, and got this reply (or at least, this is part of the reply): "Sears regards service to our country as one of the greatest sacrifices our men and women can make. This is the "least" we can do for them. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time."

They stink at some things, but they get others right :) Maybe they had to discontinue the program because (especially in this economy) they lost more money than they could afford. You could actually contact a "higher up" via letter or email to express your disappointment. Perhaps they would still honor the program; sometimes clerks and others at individual stores aren't well-informed.

BTW, we get almost all of our boys' pants at yard sales!