The
Truth Exposed About Sears Maintenance Agreements
and other Extended Warranties
By a former Sears Brand Central Salesman
(Note: The following applies to my experience as a
Sears Brand Central Salesman back in 1998)
·
Introduction
·
What a
Maintenance Agreement is
·
Is the MA really any different from an
extended warranty?
·
Sears’
claims vs. unbiased studies
·
Sears' vain attempt to distance themselves
from Consumer Reports' reviews
·
How Sears
pressures us to sell the MA
·
Pressure
on sales associates leads to pressure on customers
·
Sears
considers MA objectors to be “Uneducated”!
·
The steps
we are taught to take to overcome objections to the MA
·
I was commanded
to “brainwash” the customer!
·
5 Tell-tale signs that the MA lacks inherent
worthiness
·
Why the
MA's are profitable to Sears, but NOT to You!
·
Understanding
the "science" behind the MA in terms of the bathtub curve
·
What you're betting on when you buy the MA
·
Do MA's really give you "peace of
mind"?
·
Negative
public opinion is a bad tell-tale sign
·
The
consumers' right to be informed
·
Some exceptions
·
What I'm
not saying here
·
Sears’
dire state – from a former employee
·
Conclusion
and recommendations
·
Reader Responses
·
Addendum
A: The Truth About The Sears Credit Protection Plan
·
Addendum
B: From a Sears Salesperson
Introduction
Next time you're in Sears or another store buying appliances or electronics,
watch out when you hear:
"This product is also eligible for our 3 year Maintenance Agreement
program which covers repairs and replacements for any damages due to wear and
tear, and includes an annual preventive maintenance check all of which will
save you the expensive cost of repairs and give you peace of mind....."
This is a statement you will often now hear during a sales presentation from an
associate at Sears Brand Central and other stores that sell appliances and
electronics. Maintenance Agreements and other types of extended
warranties are big business these days. Companies that sell them are
making huge profits from them, and because of that, they are pushing an
aggressive marketing program to promote them through their salespeople.
Obviously the revenue generated from an extended warranty far exceeds the
cost of them, and that's why they are continually offered and pushed. The
sleaze in all this is that companies such as Sears want you to think
that their MA's and extended warranties are benefiting YOU, when in reality they
are benefiting THEM! Therefore they are profitable to the companies that
sell them, but not to the consumers who are pushed into buying them. Well
I think their tactics are wrong and misleading and that consumers should be
educated about the tactics behind MA's and extended warranties so that they
don't get scammed into paying extra money for something they don't need.
And that's why I'm writing this report to tell you the truth so that
you'll know what MA's and extended warranties are really all about. I
believe that the American people have a right to know about all this. I
used to work for Sears in Brand Central and sold MA's myself,
so I can tell you the inside story as well on MA's and the tactics we were
taught to push them. The bottom line here and the thesis of this report is: Maintenance Agreements and extended warranties
are profitable to the companies that push them, NOT to you! In
addition to understanding MA's, you'll also learn in this report about the
inside mechanics behind high pressure sales in general, whether it be from
insurance salesmen, door-to-door salesmen, car salesmen, telemarketers, health
club recruiters, etc. It is my hope that with this deeper understanding,
you the consumer will be better informed and able to see through all the
quota-driven sales pitches you're exposed to all the time.
What a Maintenance Agreement is
First of all, if you don't know what a Maintenance Agreement is, it is Sears'
version of an extended warranty, which is a contract which when purchased
will obligate Sears to cover the product for repairs or replacements due to
wear and tear throughout the duration of the MA, which is only about 3 years.
However, Sears itself will NEVER ever say that it is anything like an
extended warranty because 1) most Americans have a negative view of extended
warranties from both common sense and word of mouth, 2) Sears wants to distance
themselves from the media's criticism of extended warranties, and 3) Sears
wants people to see it as something special that only Sears offers.
Instead, they call it a Maintenance Agreement. Other stores
that sell electronics and appliances like Circuit City, Radio Shack and Best
Buy all have their own version of extended warranties too along with their own
"pet names" for them as well. According to Sears, what their 3
year MA covers are parts and labor for repairs and replacements due to normal
wear and tear (not abuse), unlimited service calls, unlimited instructional
calls, and an annual preventive maintenance check.
Is the MA really any different from an extended warranty?
Sears claims that their MA is very different from an extended warranty.
The only thing they have to support this claim is that the MA includes an
annual preventive maintenance check which an extended warranty does not.
However the pm check isn't really necessary for a product that's still
basically new in those 3 years, so it really doesn't accomplish anything and is
not really necessary. So all the MA offers beyond an extended warranty is
just another thing that you don't really need for the period it covers.
Therefore, the MA is not much different from an extended warranty,
although Sears wants people to think that it is so it will look like something
special so they can sell more of them.
Sears' claims vs. unbiased studies
Sears claims that 70 percent of the people who buy MA's are so satisfied that
they end up renewing it. Now that's hard to believe since most people
don't even use it, but coming from Sears, it should be no surprise of course.
After all, we all know how easy it is to take a few surveys here and
there and skew the findings any way you want to. In other words,
statistics can be used to prove anything. In fact, from my research I
find almost the exact opposite to be true. From all the dozens of message
board and newsgroups postings I've read on the internet, it seems that about 70
percent of those who have bought MA's were actually dissatisfied with them
because 1) they never had to use it and thought it was a waste or 2) they didn't
like the service because they often had to wait 3 or 4 weeks to get something
repaired because the service tech kept having to order certain parts and
reschedule visits! On the other hand, I've found that there are
exceptions. Those who said they were satisfied with the MA tended to have
them on products such as big screen TV's, computers, lawnmowers and snowblowers, whereas those who've had them on appliances
and electronics tended to say that it wasn't worth it because they never needed
to use it. This makes sense because products with fragile parts would be
more prone to failure than products such as appliances which have very durable
parts. Anyhow, Sears' 70 percent renewal figure obviously doesn't come
from an unbiased study. In almost every unbiased study you can find,
ABC's 20/20, Consumer Reports, etc., they've concluded that extended warranties
are not generally worth the money.
Sears' vain attempt to distance themselves from Consumer Reports' reviews
Sears tries vainly to distance themselves from Consumer Reports' negative
reviews of extended warranties. When customers bring up those reviews,
Sears salespeople are taught to respond that CR's
review wasn't about Sears MA's because MA's are not extended warranties.
This is obviously just a vain attempt to try to protect themselves. Where in Consumer Reports' review of
extended warranties does it say that their review does not apply to Sears'
extended warranties? lol Nowhere obviously, and that's why Sears has ZERO
evidence to back up their vain attempt. The fact is, if CR had anything
good to say about Sears MA's, they would have said it, and Sears would be
quoting them all the time on it, but they don't of course because CR has
nothing good to say about Sears MA's.
How Sears pressures us to sell the MA
Now since I worked for Sears in appliances, I'm going to give you an idea of
what it's like and how we were pressued to sell MA's.
Believe it or not, Sears Brand Central salespeople are primarily judged
on how well they can sell MA's above all else. When I first worked there,
I was shocked to find this out. I thought "Now I applied here
because I wanted to sell appliances and give people what they want and need.
So why then am I primarily judged on whether I can sell something that
most people don't want and didn't even come into the store to buy in the
first place?" This confused me, and at that point, I smelled
corruption in the air.
At Sears they are very religious about their MA's almost to the brink of being
cultish about them. It seems like the MA is to Sears what Jesus Christ is
to the Church. There is almost a religious fervor about it. It's
weird that they treat it like a religion when all it is is
a scam to make profits! lol Every week we are required to attend an MA meeting
that was like a pep rally to motivate you to sell more MA's. Just like in
church when people share testimonies of how they converted others to accept
Christ, at Sears MA meetings salespeople share testimonies of how they overcame
customers' objections to the MA. If you missed an MA meeting, you would
be written up on that, and they would threaten to fire you if you missed it
again. At the meeting, hand outs are passed out which show everyone’s MA
percentages for the month and year out in the open for all to see. (I
guess Sears doesn't care about people's privacy lol)
Those with high MA standards are praised while those with lower MA
standards feel embarrassed and ashamed because they are considered to be poor
performers.
Each division in Brand Central and Hardware has a different MA standard to
maintain which is calculated percentage-wise by taking MA sales dollars divided
by product sales dollars. For example, the MA standard in my division was
5.75 percent. So say my total product sales for the day are $1000 and my
MA sales are $100. Then my MA percentage would be 10 percent (100/1000).
Now suppose I sell a $1000 refrigerator and I fail to convince the
customer to get an MA on it. Then my MA percentage would plummet to 5
percent because 100/2000 = 5%. Just that one sale would have cut my MA
percentage in half! Now if I kept making sales without MA's a few more
times, then my MA percentage could get close to being zero percent!
That's when you really get in trouble! So you see, with every sale
the pressure is on. If your percentage plummets then Sears will look down
on you even though it was the customer who declined the MA. But of
course, Sears can't blame the customer for not wanting the MA, so they have to
take it out on the salespeople. Pretty sleazy huh?
If you've ever wondered why high pressure salesmen can't take no for an
answer, well now you have a good idea.
This percentage system is in a way worse than a quota system. With a
quota system, you only have to sell a certain amount and then the pressure is
off. But under this percentage system, no matter how many MA's you sell,
the next sale without an MA will drop your percentage, so the pressure never
ends. So I have to maintain an MA percent of 5.75 or else I'm not "performing."
The funny thing is, sometimes if I start the day with a 20 percent MA on
my first sale, then I'm afraid to sell anything else the rest of the day
because my MA percentage could plummet if I do!!! lol
The prices for the 3 year MA as of now (1999) are as follows:
$29.99 for a microwave, $34.99 for an upright vacuum, $59.99 for a
canister vacuum, $99.99 for a dishwasher, $109.99 for a range, $109.99 for a
refrigerator, etc.
In addition, we are given incentive to sell MA's because the commission rates
for them are the highest, ranging between 10 and 15 percent. So if I sell
a $99.99 MA, then I would make between $10 and $15 dollars from it. If
someone's MA percentage is continually below standard, then they would be
subject to termination. So even if someone's MA percentage is low because
their customers didn't want the MA, management would take it out on the
associate and judge him/her to be a poor performer and might get rid of
him/her. Talk about scapegoating!
Pressure on sales associates leads to pressure on customers
The pressure of maintaining this standard makes us put
pressure on the customer to buy the MA even if they don't want it! So you
see, even if you say that you don't want or need the MA, then
they still have NO CHOICE but to try to psychologically manipulate you into
buying it! Of course, Sears doesn't tell their salespeople to
"psychologically manipulate the customers" in exact words.
Instead, they butter up the idea by using a more convenient term such as
"convince them of the value of the MA" but you get the idea.
This is why when you go to Sears their salespeople will be so pushy and
insistent on you buying their MA's. It's NOT because they really
think that you need it. It's because 1) they live in fear of being
considered poor MA performers by management and being subject to termination,
2) they don't want their score sheets at the next MA meeting to reflect low
MA's in front of all their fellow associates and managers, and 3) they're
motivated by the 10-15 percent commission on them! So when the
salesperson tells you that you "need the MA" what they really
mean is that they need to sell the MA in order to avoid falling below
standard in their MA percentages and risk getting terminated!
Of course, the Sears managers who are pressuring the salespeople are also under
pressure from the corporate level as well. When their store gets audited
by corporate Sears, the store's MA sales better be at a certain level, or else
the managers of the store will be in danger of being terminated and replaced.
So you see, the pressure starts at the top from the corporate level to
the store managers, then to the salespeople, and finally onto YOU the customer!
Sears considers MA objectors to be "Uneducated"!
In our training video on selling MA's, it said something like "Objections
to the Sears Maintenance Agreement can sometimes arise simply because the
customer is uneducated about them. You can overcome these objections by
simply educating customers about the benefits of the MA." So
according to Sears, if you object to buying the MA then you're
"uneducated" about them. (More like "unbrainwashed"
about them to me! lol) They actually assume
that "educating" you will convince you that the MA is worth your
money, when the reverse is actually true. In fact, the more people become
educated about what MA's really are (from reports like this), the less they
want them. So even if you genuinely understand the MA and still think you
don't need it, Sears still considers you "uneducated" until you are
convinced to buy the MA! Now again how's that for respecting your
intelligence? What Sears actually means in not so direct words is that if
you don't want the MA, then you've got to be "brainwashed" into
wanting it! But any critical thinker can tell that their
"brainwashing" claims have no real validity when analyzed.
Sears' claims about the MA objector being "uneducated" is based
on a false assumption that the MA has intrinsic inherent worth that needs to be
discovered, when in fact the more you dissect the MA, the more you see its
uselessness.
The steps we are taught to take to overcome objections to the MA
Now let me share with you the steps we are taught to
try to overcome a customer's objection to the MA. The steps are as
follows:
1. Clarify the objection - meaning that you restate the objection in your
own words to show that you understand the customer.
2. Cushion the objection - meaning that you soften the power of the objection.
3. Answer the objection - meaning that you explain it away by solving it.
4. Seek agreement - meaning that you try to get the customer to agree with your
answer to their objection.
So for example, say that the customer's objection is "$99 for an MA?
Now that's kind of expensive!" So I would clarify the
objection by saying "So you're doubtful as to the value of the MA
right?" and then cushioning it by saying "Well I
understand, no one should have to pay an extra cost for something without
knowing why." and answering it with "However, the high
cost of repairs these days can run into the hundreds of dollars and become a
huge inconvenience. The Sears Maintenance Agreement would spare you from
all that, and give you peace of mind as well. Furthermore, our annual
preventive maintenance check will keep your product running smoothly and help
extend the life of it." and finally I would seek agreement by
saying "Now don't you agree Mr. and Mrs. Jones that the value of saving
time, money and inconvenience as well as extending the life of your product are
well worth the small price of the Maintenance Agreement?" You
see how that works now? Now, if I get another objection after that, then
I am to start the 4 step process all over again and to take up to 3
"No's" before giving up! Of course, most associates know better
than to have to take 3 "No's" but that is Sears' official policy on
overcoming objections to MA's. We even have a video at the MA meetings
that we periodically watch about overcoming objections to the MA. What do
you all think of that? Is that a sign that Sears respects your judgment
and intelligence? Is that even consistent with Sears' philosophy that
"The customer is always right"?
I was commanded to "brainwash" the customer!
Even my Brand Central Manager in not so many words commanded me to "brainwash"
my customers into needing the MA!!! One time I wasn't getting any $30
MA's on any $100 to $150 microwaves, and when the manager came up to me about
that I said,
"Yeah well I'm trying to sell the MA's on these microwaves, but the
customers keep telling me that they just don’t think that it's worth it to buy
a $30 MA on something they can easily replace if broken."
This got him mad and he replied,
"No you can't think like that! It's your job to convince
them to see the value of getting the MA. You're doing them a great
disservice to them by not giving them the MA. Who do you think they're
going to blame when that microwave breaks in a few weeks?"
Can you believe that?! He tried to use guilt to pressure me on top of
everything else! What he was saying in not so many words is that "I
don't care what the customer thinks they want! If they don't think they
need the MA, they've got to be made to think they need the
MA!" What a jerk! If I were the boss I'd fire him for that!
Who does he think he is? What gives him the right to decide what
the customer thinks they want?! Is he even allowing me to respect what
you, the customer, thinks? Gee whiz! And
this was the same guy who told me during the job interview that it is wrong to
sell the customer something they don't need! What a hypocrite! I
wanted to blast him with logic and rationality, but I couldn't do anything like
that cause he was my boss. Up until then I had
thought that he was a nice reasonable guy, but at that point I lost all respect
for him right there. Now, I can accept being told what to do by my boss,
but being told how to think? That's where I draw the line!
Wouldn't you agree?
At that point I became confused. What I didn’t understand was why I
couldn’t just let customers use their own common sense to decide what they need
and don’t need? I thought the customer was always right and our job was
to please the customer? Why do I have to decide for them just to fill my
MA goal and please Sears? It didn’t make sense to me, and I couldn’t
believe my manager actually said that. It's obvious that he was using
fear tactics on me to sell the MA's by trying to put the fear in me that the
customer would blame me for not selling them the MA if their microwave broke in
a few days or weeks! In actuality though, even if the microwave did break
in a few weeks, it would be covered by the manufacturer's warranty anyway.
Personally, I hated trying to sell the MA's because most customers just
didn't want them. I felt that if the customer didn't think they needed
the MA, then we should respect their intelligence and judgment on that.
But that kind of thinking is unacceptable to Sears, according to my Brand
Central Manager!
5 Tell-tale signs that the MA lacks inherent worthiness
These 5 tell-tale signs should tell you something.
1) The MA can't sell itself. The fact that the MA can't
sell itself, but instead has to be sold with brainwashing, persistency and
instilling fears and worries into the customer testifies right there that it
lacks inherent worthiness. It also says that the motives for selling it
are not entirely honest to the customers.
2) The public has a negative opinion of MA's and extended warranties.
This is why Sears has to push so hard to sell the MA. As a rule of
thumb, if most people think negatively about something, then there is a very
good reason for that kind of public perception. After all, if the MA had
any real inherent value, would the majority of the American people be against
it? If MA's were really as good as Sears says, they would have gained a
good reputation by word of mouth already, but they haven't.
3) The sales associates have to instill fears and worries into the
customer to sell the MA. They do this by describing the worst
possible scenario to the customer about what an appliance failure could do to
their lives by resulting in expensive repair costs and huge inconveniences.
If we were to always assume the worst about all their appliances'
reliability, then why should we even buy any of their appliances at all? lol
4) The more people know, the less they buy MA's. Sears
would rather hide their profit motives and claim that the purpose of selling
MA's are to help customers and pay the cost of their national service centers.
The problem for Sears is, the more people learn about the MA, the less
people want it. As a result, Sears has to continually push it even harder
in order to keep selling them. As people learn about the MA from
experience, they eventually discover that it's just a way for Sears and other
companies who sell them to profit off of people.
5) Sears tries too hard to sell MA's. The fact that Sears
tries too hard to sell MA's with persistent fear tactics and by holding weekly
mandatory MA meetings to sell more MA's is another tell-tale sign that it's all
about profits for the top. In fact, if you buy an appliance or
electronics product without an MA, a few weeks later the Sears MA office will
call you to try to sell it to you again! Some have even said that they've
even been called twice! Obviously Sears is trying hard! lol Now
do you think they're trying that hard to benefit you, or them? lol
Why MA's are profitable to Sears, but NOT to You!
The main reason why MA's and other extended warranties are a profit
to Sears but not beneficial to you is because most brand new appliances don't
usually break during the 3 year period of the MA. Quality
appliances usually last without any problems up to 10 or 15 years or more.
That's why most people who have the MA will not need to use it, and Sears
knows that, which is why the revenue generated from the MA far exceeds the cost
of it. It's the same principle that insurance companies use. That's
the KEY to understanding the profitability of MA's and other extended
warranties. Of course, if everyone's product actually broke during the 3
year period of the MA, then Sears' costs would belly up and they'd no longer be
able to afford to offer the MA! lol
Understanding the "science" behind the MA in terms of the bathtub
curve
There is a term in the product reliability field called the bathtub curve.
It reveals that during a product's infancy, a spike of errors has a
chance of occurring if you remember to often run the product continuously for a
few days at a time to test it out. Any defects should come out during
this stage if you do that, and would be covered by the basic warranty.
After this infancy stage comes the long period of the product's main life
cycle where the product works with very little failures. Then as the
product reaches near the end of its useful life cycle, failures begin to
increase. When the probability of product failure is graphed out
according to these stages of the life cycle, it looks like the shape of a
bathtub. The lowest chance of problems occurring with the product is
during the long period between the infancy stage and near the end of the
product life cycle. This long period where very few problems occur is
what the MA's and extended warranties try to cover. They are
essentially overpriced for the amount of risk.
Sears and other companies have calculated all this out, and that's why they
know the majority of people will not need to use the MA during its 3 year term.
THAT'S why it's so profitable for them.
What you're betting on when you buy the MA
When you buy the MA, what you're essentially doing is betting that the product
will break during the first 3 years of its life, and that you'll save money in
repair costs. When the store sells the MA to you, it's betting that it won't
break during those first 3 years (otherwise they'd lose a lot of money!)
Obviously the odds will be in favor of the house.
Do MA's really give you "peace of mind"?
Sears claims that their MA's give customers "peace of mind".
But do they? Sure. In fact anything can give you peace of
mind if you're convinced that you'd be in trouble without it. That's why Sears associates are taught to instill fear and worry into
customers so that they will feel like they need to have peace of mind by buying
the MA. The fact is that customers who walk into the store ALREADY have
peace of mind with regard to appliances because they expect that the brand new
quality appliance they're going to buy will work without problems. So why
give them something they already have? It is Sears who tries to
make their customers to not have peace of mind, not the customers. Now if
we're talking about peace of mind in general, well that has to do with many
factors such as one's inner qualities, perceptions, attitudes, ability to
handle obstacles and challenges, ability to control desires and emotions,
character, brain disposition, etc. not on some silly MA! lol
The consumers' right to be informed
Now some who are reading this may say "So what? Everyone has a right
to try to make a profit. What's wrong with that?" I'll respond
to them by saying that yes everyone does have a right to make a profit,
including those behind get-rich-quick schemes, multi-level marketing companies,
infomercials, etc. However, we the consumers also have a right to educate
ourselves about misleading claims that companies make and the fear tactics they
use to get our money.
Some will also say "So what? Sears has a right to offer the
MA!" and I'll say "Of course they do. I also have a right to
offer a pencil to you for $200 as well. But do I have a right to attempt
to psychologically manipulate you into paying $200 for a pencil and make you
think that you can't live without it?" You've got to understand that
Sears doesn't just simply offer it, they actually
teach their salespeople that the customer is WRONG if they don't want the MA,
and therefore have to be convinced to change their mind. Who do you think
is right here, Sears or the American people?
Some exceptions
In spite of the general unworthiness of MA's and other extended warranties,
from what I've heard there are exceptions for a few products that might be
worth getting an MA on. Some examples are lawnmowers, snowblowers,
digital cameras, laptops and big screen TV's. With lawnmowers, necessary
annual tune-ups may be expensive and if your MA covers three annual tune-ups,
then it may well pay for itself as well as give you insurance against product
failure. Certain high tech electronic products such as digital cameras,
laptops and big screen TV's may also benefit from an MA or extended warranty
due to their fragile components, which if broken could cost more to fix than
replacing the product whole. Nevertheless, despite these exceptions MA's
and other extended warranties have still proven to not be worth the money in
general terms.
What I'm not saying here
Now let me clarify something here. I'm not
saying here that the MA is never beneficial to the consumer, or that it will
never come in handy to anyone. I'm not saying either that 100% of the
time you buy an MA it will be a ripoff. Yes,
there are always a minority of cases where a brand new product will just
suddenly fail during the first 3 years. Yes, there will be a minority of
people for whom the MA will save them expensive repair costs. I do
acknowledge that. However, most of these sudden failures would be covered
by the manufacturer's warranty as demonstrated in the bathtub curve concept
mentioned earlier. So what I'm saying here is that in the MAJORITY of
cases, the MA will be a waste of money because it will not be needed.
This MAJORITY that never uses the MA is why the MA is so profitable to
Sears. Therefore, if you buy an MA, the ODDS are heavily against it being
needed during the 3 year period. And since the odds are against the MA
being needed, it's a bad investment to make.
Sears’ dire state – from a former
employee
One reader wrote me:
”Anyway,
I have worked at Sears for right at a year and I totally agree with you on the
whole ma thing. If sear's
made their products right in the first place, they would not need to sell any mra/mpas. The whole
meeting thing that sears does is also ridiculous. Just like you said, every week or even twice
a week we each attend a mpa
training meeting, in which we are always asked to take out our discovery guides
and discus the last customer we talked to that was interested in a ma eligible
product. If we did not sell the ma to
the customer, we had to go through the entire sell and answer the the store manager and to the department manager why we were
unable to sell the ma. When I first
began working for sears I genuinly
thought that Craftsman prodcuts were among the best
on the market. Now, after seeing the
numerous problems customers have with so many craftsman products, I seriously
question the quality of craftsman products.
Another
thing ma's that makes me angry is how I have to worry so much about selling
them, that sometimes I pass up an opportunity to sell a big item just so my
percentage will not be hurt. With this
much pressure on the associates to sell ma's, anyone
inside the company can see that it is a scam.
Another interesting thing about ma's is that after our commision is taken out, which is now 3% (for hardware
associates), the remainder of the commision comes
back to the store managers (the vast majority anyway). This is why the push so freaking hard to sell
ma's (I know a pretty good chunk also goes back to the regional and district
managers).
The
final complaint i have about ma's
is just simply the fact that our service is absolutely horrible. It frequently takes a product four to six
weeks to return from the repair center, when the repair center says that it
should only take arounf 7-10 days.
Anyway,
that is my rant...I guess I am preaching to the choir since you know exactly
what I am going through...One thing I have realized though is how bad of a
company Sears is now...I, along with many of my fellow associates, fully expect
sears to go out of business within five years because of the many luducris policies the company has...And one final thing,
when a former Sears store General Manager will not buy a ma because he says to
your face they are a rip-off, that should be the final nail in the coffin.
Well,
thanks for your time and I am glad that you put together the website.”
Conclusion and recommendations
Now that I've told you the truth and given you a behind the scenes look at MA's
and extended warranties, you should now be able to see through it all and be
better equipped to make a qualified decision on whether or not you need the MA.
Also, by understanding the tactics used to sell the MA, you've also
gained a better understanding of how high pressure sales tactics work in
general, so that you'll be able to shield your mind against quota-driven sales
pitches.
The choice is yours. You can choose to believe Sears, whose motives are
both to profit off you and protect themselves as well.
Or you can choose to believe me, whose motive is to tell you his honest
experience, observation and judgment so that you'll get the big picture.
Now I'm betting that most of you won't want MA's and extended warranties
after what I've shown you about them. So for those of you who wish to
retaliate against the brainwashing fear tactics of the MA and other extended
warranties, what I would recommend to everyone is this. If you've already
bought an MA, then do one of the following. 1) Start using your MA by
getting the most value from it. Start making service calls for any little
defect you find, and remember to get your annual preventive maintenance check
and demand that they do a very thorough check of it. If everyone with
MA's used their MA's fully, then it would send a message to Sears that they
can't get away with taking extra money from people for nothing anymore. Or,
2) first make sure your product is in good working condition and then simply
cancel your MA and get the unused portion for the remaining time period
refunded back to you. You can call Sears for either of these two things
at 1-800-4-MY-HOME. For those of you who don't have an MA, next time you
go into Sears to buy an appliance or electronic product and the salesman brings
up the MA, I suggest that you simply say "Well if you think I'll need an
MA on it, then I don't want it! Who wants an unreliable product?"
That will confuse the heck out of them! lol It will also send
them the message that they can’t scam you out of extra money without it coming
back to them. In any case, now that you know the truth behind MA's and
extended warranties, you'll know exactly what you're being offered the next
time a salesman offers them to you.
Thank you for your time in reading my report, and choose wisely.
(Feel free to send any comments or feedback to me at WWu777us@yahoo.com)
Addendum A: The Truth About The Sears Credit Protection Plan
I just learned this
recently myself. If you apply for a
Sears Card, don’t ever get the Credit Protection Plan on it! The sales pitch on it is so tricky that even sales
associates at Sears and customer service reps at Sears Credit Central don’t
know how it actually works! All they
know is the sales pitch that they’ve been taught, which is:
"The Sears Credit
Protection Plan protects the purchases you make with your Sears Card by
replacing them if they get damaged or lost due to fire, flood, earthquake, etc.
and it only costs $0.85 for every $100 balance you have on your card. It also makes you minimum monthly payment if
you should become involuntarily unemployed or if you should pass
away."
There are several parts
of this pitch that are very misleading and give the wrong impression to both
customers and even to the sales associates who present it! To get the true facts and conditions on it,
don’t call Sears Credit Central themselves, because many of their customer
service reps don’t know all the details themselves. Instead, call the Credit Protection Plan
Office at (800) 366-2286 or (800) 776-2077 and they’ll be required to give you
the real details, such as:
1) First of all, it does NOT cover your purchases
if they get damaged by common causes of damage or loss such as rain, sun,
misuse, carelessness or even theft! It
only covers your items under conditions of extreme disaster such as fires,
floods, earthquakes, etc. Now you may be
wondering "What kind of 'protection' is that then, if it doesn't even
protect my products from common causes of damage or loss?!" Well the answer is that it's not real
protection for your products, but just a cheap way for corporate Sears to get
some extra bucks off you.
2) Second, the customer is also left with the
impression that if they pay off the balance on the card in full each month,
then they won’t get charged anything for the CPP. Most sales associates also have this misconception
as well, as I did when I presented the CPP while opening Sears
cards for people. I only found out the
truth when I called the CPP office, which told me that the $0.85 per $100
charge applies to ALL cumulative charges made for the month, no matter when you
pay off your balance! What this means is
that if I charge $100 on the card one day, paid it off the next day, and did
the same for ten days, I would have accumulated $1000 in total charges on the
card. That means the CPP fee would come
out to $8.50. Now that may not seem like
much, but from a corporate point of view, when you have millions of card
holders that amounts to millions of dollars!
3) Finally, the worst thing of all about the CPP
is that in order to collect on any claims, you can’t just call them to make the
claim and collect it just like that! NO
WAY! For example, if you were to claim
involuntary unemployment status in order for them to make your minimum monthly
payment for you on the Sears card, you would have to file through Allstate
Insurance, go register with the Unemployment Office, get a written statement
from your former employer to prove that you were involuntarily discharged from
your job, etc. I didn’t memorize all the
details, but that’s what the CPP office told me over the phone. I can’t imagine that the process for claiming
replacements for purchases damaged by fire, flood, earthquake, etc. is any
easier! So even if I bought a $15 dollar
sweater with my Sears card and it got damaged in a disaster, I would have to go
through several bureaucratic procedures in order to file that claim!
They’ve obviously made
so difficult and inconvenient to collect on any claims from the CPP that most
people wouldn’t go through it to collect on it!
And you know why of course! Sears
just wants to take your money while protecting themselves
from having to pay on any claims you make!
It’s a pure scam, nothing more, nothing less!
I’m sure Sears knows
that most sales associates and customers are misled about how the CPP really
works, but is it in their best interests to educate you on that? No, of course not. In fact, if you apply for a Sears card, get
approved, but don’t sign up for the CPP, you’ll get called twice by Sears
Credit Central to try to sign you up for it and you’ll also get an offer in the
mail to sign up for it by returning the SASE!
All they want you to do is sign up for it, no need to tell you much
about it.
Addendum B: From a Sears
Salesperson
As of 2005, a Sears salesperson related the following revealing comments to
me:
“I
have worked at Sears for right at a year and I totally agree with you on the
whole ma thing. If sear's made their products
right in the first place, they would not need to sell any mra/mpas.
The whole meeting thing that sears does is also ridiculous.
Just like you said, every week or even twice a week we each attend a mpa training meeting, in which
we are always asked to take out our discovery guides and discus the last
customer we talked to that was interested in a ma eligible product. If we
did not sell the ma to the customer, we had to go through the entire sell and
answer the store manager and to the department manager why we were unable to
sell the ma. When I first began working for sears I genuinely thought
that Craftsman products were among the best on the market. Now, after
seeing the numerous problems customers have with so many craftsman products, I
seriously question the quality of craftsman products.
Another thing ma's that makes me angry is how I have to worry so much about
selling them, that sometimes I pass up an opportunity to sell a big item just
so my percentage will not be hurt. With this much pressure on the
associates to sell ma's, anyone inside the company can
see that it is a scam. Another interesting thing about ma's is that after
our commission is taken out, which is now 3% (for hardware associates), the
remainder of the commission comes back to the store managers (the vast majority
anyway). This is why the push so freaking hard to sell ma's (I know a
pretty good chunk also goes back to the regional and district managers).
The final complaint i have about ma's
is just simply the fact that our service is absolutely horrible. It
frequently takes a product four to six weeks to return from the repair center,
when the repair center says that it should only take around 7-10 days.
Anyway, that is my rant...I guess I am preaching to the choir since you know
exactly what I am going through...One thing I have realized though is how bad
of a company Sears is now...I, along with many of my fellow associates, fully
expect sears to go out of business within five years because of the many
ludicrous policies the company has...And one final thing, when a former Sears
store General Manager will not buy a ma because he says to your face they are a
rip-off, that should be the final nail in the coffin.
Well, thanks for your time and I am glad that you put together the website.”