Exercise R Us

Question:

Sears MA’s: Service or Scam? I would like to know what you all think about Sears Maintenance Agreements.  I work for Sears in appliances, and I like to sell its products.  But I hate how they focus so much on their MA’s.  We have quotas on how much MA’s we have to sell.  Once a week, we even have an MA meeting, and it’s like a pep rally or something.  Sometimes it feels cultish as well like! If you don’t know what an MA is, it is Sears version of an extended warranty, except that Sears itself will NEVER ever say that it is anything like an extended warranty and they try to stay away from that term as much as possible because of the bad wrap given extended warranties.  Instead, they call it a Maintenance Agreement.  It’s a 3 year service agreement that covers repairs and replacements due to normal wear and tear (not abuse) and includes an annual preventive maintenance check. Personally, I feel guilty for pushing the MA on customers all the time, because I know it’s a ripoff.  For a vacuum, the MA costs about $30.  For a range, it costs about $100.  It’s like I’m scamming them out of an extra hundred dollars when they’re buying a range.  And that kind of gets on my conscience.  You see, I know that obviously Sears makes more money on it’s MA’s than it pays in cost, so obviously not everyone is using their MA’s fully.  What this means is that for most people who buy MA’s, it ends up being a waste of money, because they either don’t use it, or forget to use it (after all who has time to remember to call Sears for an annual maintenance check?)  Therefore, Sears knows that most people probably don’t use it.  Someone told me MA’s were pure profit for Sears. However, Sears claims that MA’s are for the purpose of maintaining the cost of keeping Sears’ reputation for service in this country.  They also maintain that 70% of people who buy MA’s are happy with them and renew them!  I don’t buy that!  Statistics can be used to prove anything.  They probably only took 70% of those who had something break on their appliance, and not the total number of people who bought MA’s. Anyway, that’s my experience with Sears and its MA’s so far.  What do you all think?  Do any of you know about Sears MA’s?  If so, what are your comments on it and on what I’ve said so far? Thanks, Winston

Response:

Nearly everything Sears does is a scam.  I’ve just about given up with anything I can’t carry away from the store (generally limitted to clothing and some hand tools). I bought a Proform treadmill from Sears a few years back. Sears service (real sears employees this time) was a nightmare. I had to call the central customer service people to lodge a complaint before I got a service dude to come out.  When he finally did show, he was incompetent. My wife for a laugh called Sears to get a quote on replacement windows (not my idea) since we already had quotes from various people from Pella to the local mom and pop remodelling contractors we thought this would be amusing.  The Sears contractor (not Sears themselves, but a local group that gets fat off unspsecting people) came in 3 times the price of any other option for an inferior product.

Response:

>Nearly everything Sears does is a scam.  

Really, what else besides MA’s does Sears scam people on? I’ve just about – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->given up with anything I can’t carry away from the store >(generally limitted to clothing and some hand tools). >I bought a Proform treadmill from Sears a few years back. >Sears service (real sears employees this time) was a nightmare. >I had to call the central customer service people to lodge >a complaint before I got a service dude to come out.  When >he finally did show, he was incompetent. >My wife for a laugh called Sears to get a quote on replacement >windows (not my idea) since we already had quotes from various >people from Pella to the local mom and pop remodelling contractors >we thought this would be amusing.  The Sears contractor (not >Sears themselves, but a local group that gets fat off unspsecting >people) came in 3 times the price of any other option for an >inferior product.

I know that’s weird!  Have you ever bought an MA?  Was it offered to you?  If so, what did you think of it?

Response:

> I would like to know what you all think about Sears Maintenance Agreements.  I > work for Sears in appliances, and I like to sell its products.  But I hate how > they focus so much on their MA’s.  We have quotas on how much MA’s we have to > sell.  Once a week, we even have an MA meeting, and it’s like a pep rally or > something.  Sometimes it feels cultish as well like! > If you don’t know what an MA is, it is Sears version of an extended warranty, > except that Sears itself will NEVER ever say that it is anything like an > extended warranty and they try to stay away from that term as much as possible > because of the bad wrap given extended warranties.  Instead, they call it a > Maintenance Agreement.  It’s a 3 year service agreement that covers repairs and > replacements due to normal wear and tear (not abuse) and includes an annual > preventive maintenance check.

We commonly buy from Sears and discriminate: e.g. major appliances:  the MAs seem not worth while.  (We have had 5 appliances for roughly 25 years, of which a couple have worn out and been replaced, and none would have benefited from a MA.) The only Sears item for which we bought an MA was a lawn mower (mower approx. $440, MA $100 for 3 years.)  This both insures against damage even by misuse they say (e.g. we lost an earlier mower with a bent crankshaft) and provides an annual service including free parts (e.g. sparkplug) and sharpening.  Such service would routinely cost at least $30/year:  so the additional cost is $10 for insurance, affordable and reasonable for us. — |  Donald Phillipson, 4180 Boundary Road, Carlsbad Springs,  | |        Ontario, Canada, K0A 1K0, tel. 613 822 0734         |

Response: