Screw the little guy

[Gunslinger]

UPDATE:

after spending 3 hours on the phone this morning I nearly blew a blood vessle when I was told that "your refund request was cancled"

Seriously I saw red and heard the action music from the kill bill movie.  

It took me 5 more phone calls and 3 more call center managers to get the action restarted and they told me they'd be printing a check for me this week.

Not good enough....

I've decided to play dirty.  An investigator from my bank FINALLY called me today to inquire what's going on.  I didn't get to talk to her because we played phone tag.  But, she refunded my overdraft fees ($150) wich was awsome, now my geico payment wont bounce.  Tomorrow I'm going to call her and ask that the original check be returned to sears for fraud.  This will return the funds to my account almost instantly.  

When sears calls to find out when they get their check back that they mailed me my reply will be simple:  "7 to 10 business days"

[dfl8rms]

Guns,

You may want to make a friendly inquire to you state's attorney generals office and file a formal complaint against both Sears and the servicing company (if it is not sears).  This gives you a documented statement and may give your state tax money some use for you.

Second, I would call the Sears corporate office and ask to speak to either the EVP of Marketing or better yet, the CEO.  You will not get either of these people, but you should get to their administrative assistances (who are actually the power brokers).  Inform them of your problem and indicate that you will be calling back frequently until your problem is resolved to your satisfaction.  The CEO and his admin don't want to deal with these items.  They will delegate it to their underlings, but instead of you working up through the call center and that management chain, you will start at the top.  The poeple who report to the CEO will make sure this "problem" (you) go away from their bosses attention quickly.

If your account is not serviced directly by Sears, but by a co-brand or partnership issuer, you have more pull with Sears as this is a black eye to them and they will address it for you with the issuer.  I would also call the corp. HQ of the issuer and bug their CEO.  

When dealing with both organizations, be clear on what you expect and when you expect it from these organizations.  Be willing to fax them the complaint you've filed with your attornery generals office.  Also be clear that any negative impact to your credit history should be immediately corrected by Sears and  the card issuer.  A letter from the card issuer should be sought that clears you of any misdeeds that you can fax to the 3 credit bereaus (spelling) to have added to your history.

This should both assist you with clearing up your current problem and help repair any damages that may have been done to your credit history.  It sounds like you've been working hard to improve your credit rating and cleanup your use of credit.  I commend you on those efforts and pray that everything will be worked out.

[rpm]

Hello, Action 5 News? Local editor, please.

[Gunslinger]

Thanks for the advice but....

Second, I would call the Sears corporate office and ask to speak to either the EVP of Marketing or better yet

Do a google  on sears or sears corporate and let me know who their staff is.  I was looking for about 30 minutes today and could not find it at all.  I found Sears Canada but not 1 piece of info on who runs it in the US.

This company is largly compartmentalized.  Not too many divisions of it talk to eachother and most of the time they do not allow customer communication to anyone but customer service.

DAM! I'm still thinking like a Marine.  Here I am planning an attack and gathering intell on my enemy  

OK back to reality.  They have call centers all over the US but they very by time zone and location as per wich one you get.  They, however are a no go.  Most of their supervisory staff is well trained in not letting the customer any further than them.  YET, they have absolutly no power to accomplish anything as they can only communicate outside their call centers via email and to other call centers vai bad phone listings.

Definatly not the worst company to deal with but definatly one of the more defensive.  Good luck getting a phone number other than 800-917-7700.  If you do get another number its to a specific call center and that's only after talking to a call center manager with massive common sense wich is in vact not a common virtue here.

Not exactly a SALUTE report but definatly good intel on my enemy so far.  I think I will put on some cammi paint and go stalk the neighbors

[Siaf__csf]

Looks to me they're emptying client accounts on purpose and then use defensive approach to delay the payback as long as possible.

Do this to 10 000 clients around the country and you have an interest free $90 000 000 at your disposal. Call it an involuntary lawyer-in rebate.

[DieAz]

but not 1 piece of info on who runs it in the US.

find someone who owns even one share of stock. or if you own 1 share, you can find out everything you want to know.

[capt. apathy]

when I start to realize a company is going to be a PITA to deal with, the first thing I do is start taking notes on every call.  especially get the name of every person you talk to, what they said and even notes about their attitude twards you.
 
if you want to take this to some sort of legal action, having the run-around mapped out will go farther than just saying you called them a bunch of times and got no help.

it's also handy because your ability to give them some of the aggravation they give you increases.  you can ask to talk to he same people you talked to before, so every person you talk to doesn't act like this is the first time you tried to fix this.  plus calling the same person back.
   the person who told you you were going to get a refund could get a call asking why your refund was canceled.  who canceled it or was it really ever made?  when talking about what was said on other calls use the name of who you talked to instead of 'the guy in this department' it lets them know that when you end up talking to a supervisor, that their name will be brought up when the service you receive is discussed.
 
also if this ends up costing them penalties they would probably like to know who in their company cost them the time, money, and crappy customer relations.  having a list of who-said-what will help make sure that the guy who caused your problem gets full credit for it.

also I've found that when you ask them to repeat their name when they answer the phone or how to spell it (to give them the hint that you are writing this down) they become much more helpful.

a lot of times I don't think it's so much company policy, but just lazy or rude people who hide in the anonymity of a big company.  knowing you won't be able to pick them out of the herd to account for their actions.  but with a record of the time and number you called, when you were transfered to another employee and even just their first name  they become a lot more ID-able and cooperative

[rpm]

I'm tellin ya Guns, call one of the TV stations that covers SoCal. They eat this stuff up. I can see the headline now..."It's The Corps versus The Store! What happens when one of the countries top retailers declares war with a Marine? Consumer reporter Tashi Kawasaki has the inside story tonight on Action News 5."

[DieAz]

Originally posted by Gunslinger
UPDATE:

"your refund request was cancled"

 

ooooh I missed this. who said it was a refund?
I see it as getting your money back that they stole (or embezzled) from you.

If it was me. I'd let them know, in no uncertain terms, that is how I see it.

[john9001]

sears is being bought by k-mart.

this is the same k-mart that went bankrupt and made all k-mart stock shares worthless, they now have the money to buy sears.

[dfl8rms]

Guns,

Any publicly traded company has to list corporate headquarters and contact information.  Went to finance.yahoo.com and determined Sears's stock ticker was "s".  I then did a company profile on stock symbol "s" and got

Sears, Roebuck and Co
3333 Beverly Road
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179
Phone: (847) 286-2500
Fax: (847) 286-7829
Email: invrel@sears.com

Wether or not this is the CEO's HQ, this number has to have a receptionist that is not a call center person and should at a minimum have the accounting deptment or executives.  It would be a great number to start at.

I also looked at the EDGAR filings to get some executives name and found:

 SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO.

By:  
   
Michael J. Graham
Vice President and Controller

With a bit more digging (look at the annual report on the SEC website) I could get you the names of the CEO, president, top executives and board of directors.  Its just where you look.

[genozaur]

Originally posted by Siaf__csf
Looks to me they're emptying client accounts on purpose and then use defensive approach to delay the payback as long as possible.

Do this to 10 000 clients around the country and you have an interest free $90 000 000 at your disposal. Call it an involuntary lawyer-in rebate.

Even worse than that.
Just yesterday got a letter from the goons at "Cavalry Portfolio Services, LLC".
As it appeares they bought from SPRINT my former account with "outstanding balance $351.76."
The above account was closed by me with some delay after I lost my $399.99 cell phone on the 11th of September 2001 when at about 11 P.M. I finally arrived to the gates of my Seagate community (the very tip of Coney Island) from Midtown Manhattan where I worked on that terrible day. It looked as if I lost that phone in the place where it couldn't be recovered by anybody else, so in the aftermath of 9/11 I did not immediately closed my cell phone account (just wanted to by a new cell phone) until I got
the SPRINT cell phone bill with out-of-the-blue charges. Apparently, some jerk or jerkress found my cell phone and were using it.
So I cancelled my account and settled (as I thought) this matter with SPRINT : it took some time and paper for me to even make the SPRINT representatives believe in the possibility of my story with the loss of the cell phone on 9/11.
Now, after three and a half years since the terrorist attacks on America, look who's trying to get the goods out of whole situation. It is SPRINT company that has sold my 9/11 "outstanding balance" to the goons from CAVALRY who threaten me to "notify the credit bureaus."

If anybody of you, guys, is going to contact TV or press on the issues like mine (secondary debt market and immoral greed of big companies not even disturbed by people's loss or grief), just let me know, and I will allow you to use for it my self-coined headline.

But do not recommend me to file for a class action together with other people who lost their valuables on 9/11.
 
 

[Gunslinger]

UPDATE:

So apperantly my check has "been in the mail" since the 24th of this of march.

That's the story I've gotten all week long. (and I HAVE called every single day)

Today Sears sends me a BILL......YES.....A BILL!

I owe them 1680.86 with a minimum payment of 38.00 due on the 22nd of April.  

I call again today to inquire as to WHY i have a balance at all and WHY it only takes me 3 days to get mail from Ohio but it's been 7 days since  "the checks in the mail" and they have the gall to actually bill me.

I guess they cut me two checks.  This is change 3 to change 4 because this is the first time I've heard this from these idiots.

So now I have a BILL saying I owe them money but no check as of yet.  In order to calm myself down I'm sitting here thinking of ways to screw sears once they send me my checks.  I was thinking maybe of mailing it back to them in $10 increments and yes 160 checks and then charge them for printing fees and postage.

but either way I don't beleive a word they say that the check is "in the mail".  It does not take me 7 days to recieve mail from almost anywere in the US.  The call center manager couldnt even tell me were the check was mailed from.

OH I talked to wellsfargo again.  This time a lovely manager in their research department told me that this wasnt a fraud claim because we had a "draft" with sears and that it was an error...not fraud.  Should couldnt return the check or refund me the money because the federal reserve doesn't allow it when the amount is greater than $1000.00.

Feal my phuggin pain  

[ASTAC]

I just hope that this gets cleared up before it hit's your credit report....Having worked for sears (As a tire and brake installer) I do feel your pain....and offer any assistance for retaliation that you may be planning:D

[Gunslinger]

Ok so I have decided.  I am the better person here and I'm not going to do anything stupid.  BUT, I am going to cover my bellybutton when it comes to them.

When/IF the extra check gets here I am not mailing it back to them untill my account balance is ZERO.  then I will put it in an envelope and mail it off to them but not any sooner.

I will not pay them one penny either until this happens.  I may be making my last stand here and they may send me to collections BUT I will fight them in court with there check in my hand more than willing to give it to them (in 7 to 10 business days of course) when my account balance reflects what it should wich is $0.00.

Yup I'm standing up for the little guy that get's screwed everywere.

This is my....(dang I cant think of one famous last stand were the outcome was good for the home team)