I had to call my ex today at her place of work. She is a large appliance commission salesperson for the local Sears (washers, dryers, refrigerators etc.) and even with 15 years + of sales experience (and she is an excellent appliance salesperson) is just barely scraping for the last few years.
So I call the store and the usual voicemail choices for depts appear, and then after I have selected appliances it asks me if I have a specific product that I wish to buy. I’m only half listening so I choose “yes” thinking it will direct me to the sales floor. I ask the responding salesperson for my ex and he states he is not in the local store, and that I have been directed to to a national inbound call center where they take sales calls.
So… if I’m a local resident reading the Sunday ad flyer and I call the local Sears to buy a washer I see in the ad, the local floor salesperson doesn’t even get a crack at me. The sale is deliberately taken from them by the call menu options.
When I finally got my ex I asked her about this, and she said this was SOP and Sears would screw the floor salesperson any way they could to take sales from them. I was stunned. The level of corporate chiseling and meanness involved in intercepting LOCAL sales calls from salespeople struggling to keep their head above water is just beyond my ken.
How many people go to the salesperson who answered the call? I make it a point to, but I have the feeling I’m one of the few. I wouldn’t at Sears, though, because I had no idea they still had anything as archaic as commissioned salepersons. That’s not a value judgment on your ex; commissioned salespersons doing minimum wage work seems so old-fashioned in this internet age, where people know (or should know!) what they want before they ever approach a salesperson.
Having called similar stores and waited for 10 or 15 minutes for a floor sales person to become available to answer my question, I honestly would welcome having my call going to a call center where there are people dedicated to answering the phone. Of course, that only works if they have a way to accurately answer local questions (like “do you have X in stock?”).
That said, I hate just about everything about Sears. I also think that retailers who screw over or otherwise piss off their sales people are making a huge mistake. The sales people are the face of the company to the average customer, and if they’re not happy, they’re not likely to provide a good customer experience.
I don’t know why you’re shocked. Companies will generally do ANYTHING legal (and sometimes illegal) in order to keep as much money in their own pockets as possible. Most companies do not look upon their workers as assets, but liabilities.
Haven’t you read about how many companies have downsized and outsourced their labor? Companies pride themselves in doing this to improve their bottom line. They don’t look at long term consequences.
It appears to me that Sears is a pretty unethical company, especially when it comes to their financing/credit card division. A financial counselor told me a couple of years ago that they like to increase credit lines to customers who run out their other credit lines, figuring those customers will be forced to shop at Sears, and won’t be able to do anything when Sears bumps up their interest rate.
A few months ago, Sears started calling me about late payments, despite the fact that my payments were on autopay from my bank account, and were on time. It turned out they had changed my account number, for no reason! I think it was one of the ways they try to bump up interest rates and increase their profits.
My friends filed for bankruptcy on their own a few years ago, and the only company that sent out a representative to try and get more money from the judge was Sears. However, when the judge called their case, the Sears guy was outside having a smoke, came back in too late and was not allowed to speak on Sears’ behalf. Oh, well.
Sears is obligated to all their employees to make the most efficient sales and improve margins. If sales increase, and margins increase and it makes Sears a more viable company by reducing it’s more expensive sales force, then that is the responsible thing to do.
Running a more expensive operation is irresponsible and works to the detriment of all of Sears’ employees. If the Sales force can be reduced and costs can be reduced, then it should be, especially if sales increase or remain stable, or overall margin increases.
We don’t need elevator operators, and some stores don’t even need check out people. And if a company has to cut costs to stay viable, then they are responsible to the ENTIRE workforce to do so.
With the single exceptional case of the OP, Sears is doing everything just fine. If you want to order a specific product by phone, there’s no need for a local salesman. A trained monkey in Podunk can handle your order. There’s not even any need for a brick and mortar Sears store, everything can be shipped from the warehouse. This saves money for Sears and (if we lived in happy la la land) they pass on some of those sales to customers.
If only someone could find a way of using teh interwebs to go shopping, it might be even more convenient for us non Dodos.
I am amazed that Sears even exists any more. I went into one a few months ago, and it was so dowdy it was depressing even to be there. But at the same time, the company could be doing so much better. Its brand names (Craftsman, Die Hard, Kenmore) are still well-known. If they could manage to capture some of the hipness of Target, they could do a lot better.
Me too. Went shopping for clothes at the local mall. Their selection was …sad. And I could have set myself on fire in the middle of store and no one would have noticed till the sprinklers went off.
This is all correct, if you substitute “stockholders” for “employees”. (Since the employees don’t share in profits, none of the above arguments apply to them.)
I wonder if their buying out Kmart had anything to do with it. I will not step foot in a Kmart. Target is my first choice, followed by Wal-Mart. Kmart is just gross.
A friend of mine is a Sears major appliance salesman and he would agree that it has been getting worse and worse for years. It’s a mystery to all of us why he stays there.
Sears totally sucks anyway. I went to buy something there and I found it like 20% cheaper online even factoring in that I had to pay high shipping fees at the online store. Sears wouldn’t match the price so I literally went across the street to a local appliance chain who did match the price. I can’t believe that they’re still in business.
No. Employees lose their jobs when the company fails, be it in pieces or all at once. Carrying dead weight is irresponsible and puts everyone’s job at risk.
e.g., GM is going down the tubes, and the labor-related costs are a factor. The stockholders already had their asses handed to them, and the fight now is over a hundred thousand jobs (at least).
Sears needs to manage all it’s costs, run a responsible operation, lest it risk it’s very existence.