I'm driving Sears into Bankruptcy

The BBQ Pit
1

Yesterday as I was driving home, NPR mentioned that Sears Robuck was having some financial troubles. Their store sales are doing well, but their credit-card division is suffering, due to a high number of delinquencies.

And I realized I’m to blame. I’m helping drive Sears out of business.

Flashback to June.

So there I was, shopping for new clothes. I hate clothes-shopping, since I’m a wee little fellow and end up having to go to the boy’s section and try on the Husky-size clothes, and it makes me feel like I’m about thirteen. But Sears has clothes that fit me and that are reasonably priced, and while I ended up with a few pairs of Husky Boy’s pants, I could get all my shirts in the Grownups’ department, which made me feel manly.

I ended up with about $150 worth of clothes, and at the register, I pulled out my Visa to pay. The cashier offered to knock $10 off the price if I signed up for a Sears credit card, though, so I shrugged and filled out the application. Hey presto, and five minutes later I’d put $140 on my spanking new Sears card.

I don’t want a Sears card, of course: too many credit cards is the Way to Ruin, so I hear. It’s like drinking a bottle of tequila Friday night while watching '80s comedies about white guys who put on blackface in order to get into college, or like sneaking a hit off your roommate’s bong before breakfast.

But $10 off is $10 off. I figured I’d pay off the card in full as soon as they sent me my bill and then cut it in half and throw it out.

End Flashback

That’s still my plan. It’s been almost long enough for a fetus to come to term, but they’ve still not sent me a bill. They have my address: in the eight weeks after getting the card, I got enough offers to buy unemployment insurance for my credit card to build a life-size papier-mache moose. (I don’t have any plaster of Paris, unfortunately, so my house is sadly moose-free).

After eight weeks, I called them with two demands:

  1. Stop sending me offers for unemployment insurance for my credit card; and
  2. Send me a fucking bill.

The unemployment insurance offers have stopped. Yay! But I’ve still not received a bill. Every couple of weeks, I’ll be thinking about my finances, and I’ll remember my outstanding debt of $140 to Sears. But mostly, now that I’ve specifically called them and asked them to send me a bill, it’s off my radar.

Until yesterday, when I hear on NPR that the Sears credit card division is having troubles. Well, sure it is, I think. If you’ve got poo-flinging orangutans running your credit card division, who refuse to bill a customer who calls them and asks for a bill, no wonder you’ve got delinquent customers!

I thought of putting this in MPIMS, or even Great Debates, because I have a question: sans bill, do I owe them anything? Do I have a moral obligation to keep calling them and asking for a bill? Or am I hunky-dory just waiting until they get off their orange-furred buttocks and send me that little piece of paper telling how much I owe?

And has anyone else had this experience? At work, I’ve had a tiny local company forget to bill us for services for three years (even after we ask them for a bill), but this is a multinational corporation. Is this really why Sears is having trouble with its credit card division?

Daniel

2

I was a Seras cardholder for almost 30 years. I always made my payments on time and usually kept a zero or very low balance. Maybe at christmas time I would charge the balance up but always paid on time.
I gave up my card and charging privelages because of the extremely high rates they charge their customers. Did the same with JC Penny.
When they loose their good paying customers, they will surely end up with a disproportionate number of " not so good payers".
Why don’t merchants like this reward their proven good credit risk customers with sensible rates instead of loosing them.
No tears here for Sears.

3

Oh, those bastards better not be charging me a high rate. Better not be charging me any rate at all.

I’m a little worried that I’ll get a bill from them in two years, a bill for $500 dollars or something, based on my never having paid off the bills that they never sent to me.

Daniel

4

You need to get your attempts to receive a bill documented, if only to protect yourself against outrageous late fees, service charges and interest. In fact, I’d bet that if you call up their credit department right now, and get them to plug your credit card number into their computer, you’d find that their computer thinks you owe Sears a lot more than $140.

5

Unnnnnhhhhhhhhh…

I’m biting firmly on my tongue right now, because I’d love to rant away about some things, but I’d probably be violating confidentiality docs that I signed, so I have to keep this high level…

Sears converted its charge cards to a 16-digit account number over the summer. The conversion had some, ah… uhm… issues, and I’ll bet your new account is floating in the netherworld of error logs and re-run batch jobs.

Additionally, the Sears credit department has been thrown into a bit of chaos due to some of the top folks being fired due to the underreporting of bad debt forecasts.

Did you get a card (or at least an account number) when you signed up? If so, go to Sears.com and click on the “Sears Card” link to register to see your account online. That might give you some info on whether the system is even aware of your account.

Good luck

6

I offer the following as a simple anecdote, and not legal or prophetic advice, so take it as you will:

Someone I know (and that’s as specific as I’m gettin’) bought a snowblower, up in a northern, snowy state, from Sears. Charged it to the Sears card, for some dicount or other, with the intention of paying the whole whack when the bill came, avoiding the interest. Sounds familiar, yeah? This was 1994ish.

To date, they tried calling the billing department many times(though not in, oh, 6 years, or so) for a while. They got much use out of the thing. They eventually cancelled thier Sears card, a couple years later. Still no charge on the multi-hundred $ toy. They then sold it, and headed southwards.

They arrived here, in the land of the swinging chad (thanks Monstre) told me this story, and it gave me a giggle.

Point is, hang on to that original receipt, just to be safe. But don’t sweat it much. I’ve heard more than one story of a purchase from Sears, on a Sears card, that was never actually charged. Obviously, I’ve got no cites for ya, as these were strictly anecdotal stories, but I heard 'em from folks I feel safe enough trusting.

And if all else fails, stock up on bananas, before they go the way of the Dodo. You can buy off a lotta Orangs with some extinct fruit, I’d reckon.

7

Interesting, Skeezix and Pipper. I’m nowhere near organized enough to still have my receipt from that purchase, unfortunately. And I’m torn between pursuing this and leaving it up to Sears.

On the one hand, I figure I’ve done my duty. Hell, when I called them to ask them to send me a bill, I did more than my duty. The deal is, they send me a bill, I send them money. And if they don’t want to (or are too incompetent to) hold up their end of the deal, it’s not my job to go out of my way to help them.

On the other hand, I don’t want them coming after me with a huge bill – or worse yet, falsely ruining my credit over this. My plan so far has been to refuse to pay any interest dating back to before the first bill I receive, but I don’t know how difficult that will be to prove.

Sigh. Maybe tonight I’ll fish the card out of the drawer it lives in and give Sears another call. The bastards.

Daniel

8

Coincidentally, I’m driving Amazon into bankruptcy. I ordered a pasta gift set from them, marked down 60% or so, for $12.99. Free shipping because it was part of a larger order. Weighs about 5 pounds. They shipped it to me broken, I shipped it back on their dime. They shipped it to me again broken, actually shattered this time. I’m shipping it back again. They’re now going to refund me the money. I figure this non-transaction cost them 2 bowls and 4 cross-country shipping charges. Go Amazon!

9

In the name of whatever deity you may/may not claim, DanielWithrow, get some kind of documentation on this. While Sears is knowing for making fuck-ups along the line of Skeezix’s anecdote, they are also notorious for sending people to collections on what appears to be whims.

10

Dan, can you do me a favor and try to do the same thing to Radio Shack?

11

No way in hell am I getting a Radio Shack credit card.

Granny Satan, that’s a scary thing to hear, and what I was afraid of. While I kinda want to fight them on principle, it’s not a particularly strong principle, and it’s not really worth it to me. I’ll go ahead and call them and insist on a bill tonight, I guess.

Daniel

12

The interest on Sears cards are pretty hellish - start writing down names and dates that you talk to these people. If you DONT get a bill in the next month write a letter to management if you can. Otherwise you may end up in a bit of a muckity pickle. What’s your limit on that thing right now? :slight_smile:

13

I have no idea what my limit on the card is – I filled out the application, got my clothes, and didn’t really look at the card again.

It’s pretty unlikely that I’ll pay them any interest on this card, one way or another: it’s their fault that I’ve not received a bill, and working office-administrator jobs has gotten me pretty good and bullying company reps into not screwing me over. But I’d rather not have to get into a pissing match with them over it.

Daniel

14

Well, if they do that, then you can get plenty of advice from this thread. :slight_smile:

15

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Well, according to my utility companies, failure to receive a bill does not relieve the customer of the obligation to pay his/her bill.

Of course that doesn’t mean they’re right, or if they are that that also applies to credit card debt, but that is what I’ve been told.

16

Ohhh be careful…
I did the same at an Express store…
Went to buy a business suit ( yeah at Express… such a fancy gal I am), the whole thing finally cost me around 200 bucks. They offered me 15% off if I took the card. I did it, applied right there and then, and didn’t drop a dime.
I kept waiting for the bill… and the card itself too actually! I never had one letter/bill not even the damn card itself!
I figured I was OK, and got a free suit out of this.
2 YEARS later… one letter finally reached me, and it was a threatning, take-you-to-court-if-you-don’t-pay letter. Figure they “couldn’t find” me for anything but that letter made it. The supposely big deal was that I was at my (at that time) boyfriend’s parents and the last names didn’t match the address…
Well I had to fight for 3 months to get my credit report cleaned out (because of course it was there) and of course ended up paying…
Watch out!

17

Sears was very flexible with me when I called them, some five years ago, and explained that I had not received a bill.

They reset my account to the exact amount I’d charged (no interest) and sent a bill that day.

YMMV

18

Sears interest rate is usually somewhere between 18-24% I think. Hardly worth the 10% off they give you one time. I loathe being asked if I would like to “apply for a card & get 10% off of today’s purchase” at so many stores these days. The last time I was asked that was for a $12.00 lipstick purchase (that I paid for in cash).

My Sears card will be paid off (and cancelled) in the next few weeks.

Good Luck Daniel.

19

Sears’ credit card department apparently has been FUBAR for many years. My mother used to carry one in the 70s (back when that was the only card they took) and she used to regale me with stories of phantom charges, items taking 3 months to show up on the account, payments not being applied properly etc. etc. etc.

My best friend’s neighbor works in the mortgage business, and he was telling us that they basically ignore any Sears info on a borrower’s credit report, because the data is unreliable at best, and flat out wrong at worst.

Another thing about Sears accounts: they maintain a security interest in what you purchase. So, if you BK on their ass, technically they can come after whatever it is you bought. In practice, this is impossible. There was a class-action suit about how they treated their debtors which Bk proceedings were happening. I should know, I was part of the settlement class and got a nice check for about $600 after the case was settled.

(jingle) “Come see the crappy side of Sears”

Phouchg
Lovable Rogue

20

Credit card division?!

The division that once tried to put me on a rotating payment schedule so I wouldn’t know when the grace period ended?

The division that only recently turned my department store card into a mastercard?

They should be rolling in illicit funds. I’ll never wear toughskins again, I tell you.