Was out finishing up my Christmas shopping at Sears earlier today, buying jeans for my husband. A friend drove me out as he had some shopping to do, too. It’s across town.
Got home and settled in to do some gift wrapping, before he gets home. I discovered the heavy, two piece plastic security tag had not been removed. I just set them aside thinking I’d get out a screwdriver and get the thing off.
But when I took a closer look, and read the printing on the big red button side of the thing it said. “Tampering will cause ink to release and could cause injury”:eek:
I don’t really want to go all the way across town again just to have it removed.
Of course, I don’t really want to ruin the jeans with red ink, or get injured either.
Anyone know a safe way to remove the thing? (I have a receipt, I did pay for them, I swear!)
Thanks, I thought it was worth a shot, but I’m coming to the same conclusion.
I phoned them, just now, and they said all I can do it take it back!
I don’t drive and it’s across town, grrrr !
(note to Sears customer service: it costs you nothing to say, “Gee, I’m so sorry this happened to you!” Before you say, “Yeah, you gotta bring it back, it’s the only way.”)
This is consistent with Sears spiraling ever closer to the drain. A few years ago I wanted to buy an air compressor from them. Called, they said it was in stock. My friend and I made a special trip on my lunch break (1 hour round trip), and when we got there, it turned out that they didn’t actually have one in stock. They were suprised, but disappointingly unapologetic about having wasted my time.
I had the same thing happen to me - it was attached to a shirt I needed to wear that night.
I found that two magnets on either side unlocked it. It took a bit of fiddling until it worked.
I used strong magnets from a disk drive.
Mistakes do happen. Especially this busy time of year. It is how a retailer deals with these mistakes that often times differentiates between a repeat customer and someone who will never set foot in your store again.
Word of mouth comments, positive and negative, can have a profound affect on any retail business. A good manager knows this and strives to turn a negative experience into a positive one that will be followed with positive word of mouth comments.
As a manager/ owner I would of contacted you directly, not just an associate. I would of sincerely apologized while offering no excuses. I would then offer a $25 gift card to my store for your inconvenience. A $25 gift card to you does not cost me $25, and hopefully the money will be returned many times in a repeat customer who also gives positive feedback.
The world of retail is extremely competitive. Almost all of my products can be bought at many other places, including on-line. What I have to offer in this competitive market is superb customer service. Companies like Sears make it way to easy to steal customers at times.
Perhaps. But the OP isn’t a shoplifter and likely has a receipt with verifiable info on it like the time of the transaction and the name or id number of the cashier. If I was trying to avoid a cross-town drive for which I’d need to take a bus or bum a ride, a simple phone call would be worth a shot, even if it’s a long one. I really don’t see what’s so confusing. If I were the OP I’d get hubby some jeans from somewhere else and then just return the tagged pair when it’s convenient.
Failure to divulge is not the part we’re calling rude and poor customer service. It’s the failure to say “Gee, I’m so sorry this happened to you!” that qualifies as rude and poor service.
I managed to secure a ride back to the Sears. Not only did they dutifully and swiftly remove the tag but the cashier actually did say, “I’m so sorry!”, which was nice of her.
Then she said, “It happens quite often.” How sad is that?
What a security system. It didn’t set off anything when I walked out with it. It must have cost them something to purchase the technology. Which walked right out the door! Then they piss off someone who just gave them a sale, inconvenience them. Then deal with an annoyed person.
Not seeing the win. How’s it effectively preventing shoplifting if it does sound any alarm?
Those tags are both a deterrent and a detection method. The average person will be scared off at the prospect of being injured or having the garmet ruined if they try to remove the tag.
I’ve seen some stores where the whole thing is “security theater” - they have prominent but inactive detectors at the entrance and some dummy security cameras. Just enough to discourage the thrill-seekers may be enough to be worthwhile.
Magic wand over the telephone?