Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!sb1!mb2c!arl From: arl@mb2c.UUCP (Arlan R. Levitan) Newsgroups: net.consumers Subject: Re: Sears, Radio Shack, Junk Calls Message-ID: <231@mb2c.UUCP> Date: Sat, 10-Mar-84 08:39:20 EST Article-I.D.: mb2c.231 Posted: Sat Mar 10 08:39:20 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 11-Mar-84 06:51:15 EST References: ut-ngp.347 Lines: 28 Sears is certainly not unique in its inability to staff its credit department with personnel that have had brains installed, but I certainly wont deal with them anymore. Three years ago my fiance' and I sojourned to the local Sears store to purchase appliances for the new house we had just acquired. We both had Sears credit cards under our own names. The total appliance tab came to about $2600 and each of us had a $1200 limit on our accounts. Since we were 200 bucks short our salesman went over to the credit office to have the sale approved. Not only did the credit office turn down the sale, they informed me that because I had not used my card in two years (although I had an account for over ten years) they were suspending my account until I furnished them with an updated credit application. The idiots in the local credit office could have been cloned from Richard Nixon...they just stonewalled on the subject as I pointed out that my income had increased fivefold since the last job they had me at with the US Snail. They blithly ignored my Amex Gold Card, Bell Management Co. ID, and any other evidence of solid citizenship I proferred. I finally blew up at them and demanded to speak to someone who was capable of logical thought. Thirty minutes and five phone calls later I was talking to someone out of Chicago headquarters who actually apologized for the local dunderheads and OK'd the sale. I got the bill a month later and returned payment in full along with a finely diced and saute'ed Sears credit card. When I do make the rare purchase there these days (after all, Craftsmen tools aren't bad) I pay cash and give them "John Q. Public, Anytown USA" as a name and address if questioned. Keeps the junk mail down. Some folks have asked why Sears is so hot on credit customers. The simple fact is that they make more yearly on interest charged than on actual profit realized from merchandise sold.