SEARS SALESMAN GOT ME SEARING

Looking for replacement windows, I go on the internet and although I did not choose Sears I received a call from them.  Set up a day and time for a salesman to measure the windows and give me a pricing for the 7 windows.  Email says that a Fernando Rodriquez would be coming.  Since there are many Hispanics living in this area and on my block, I wanted to make sure that communication was not an issue, so I asked if he spoke English.  They said that he did.

 

I later get an email with the name of Eli Weinberger along with his photo.  Good grief!  I already got that seeing my last name they decided to give me a man near my age and Jewish after realizing what my last name is (which is not my pen name). At that point I already concluded that he would play the “Jewish card”.  

I had asked my friend, Juan, to come over so that he could go upstairs with him since the replacement windows are for that area and I’m not really able to climb the steps.  After coming downstairs we went into my area of the house.  I asked for the pricing.  He started telling me about his father being a kosher butcher.  He first wanted me to look at some video of the history of Sears and Roebuck. I told him that I wasn’t interested.  I had the feeling that this was going to be worse that looking at timeshare and it was.

He gave an explanation of the three options.  I felt that the one with the 20 year warranty one was just fine (I’m over 65 and who knows if I’ll be alive considering that I could get killed by a car while sitting in a restaurant, accidently passing through gunfire, or having my rollator swiped while hobbling in Manhattan).  It was the least of the three.  However, he decided to talk about the middle one saying that I would be more interested in that.  The fact was that his demo windows were the middle prices and upper priced.  I don’t know what he said but then added, “That’s Jewish humor”.  It wouldn’t have bothered me as much until he later said the same thing, but to Juan.  I know Juan was holding back or he would have asked him to leave, immediately. I was quite offended already.   I just wanted to get a pricing to give me more of an idea of the cost of this project.  

At two points during this absurd presentation he showed me id working for Anderson Windows.  Why twice? He forget that he already showed me. 

He did not care.  He just kept saying, “Just give me 20 minutes of your time” and continued with everything but the pricing, comments about his growing up “poor”, and something about the Catskills.  He finally came up with a price of about $1000 per window to include the installation. Are they kidding?  We are looking at the bottom line of the three.  How much do these windows “especially made for Sears” actually cost and how much are they charging for the installation considering that he is telling me that it can be done in one day?

Now, I waited for the next thing that I expected him to say.  There was an offer of a 10% discount and….you guessed it…if I decide right now, I get an extra $400ish off.  If I decided to think about it, I would not get this discount.  I said, “You mean to tell me that I couldn’t have a day to think about it?”  I told him that I was willing to forgo this discount so I can think it over.   He left with an angry Juan (I spoke with Juan the next day).

The appointment was for 7pm and it is now almost 9pm.  I get a phone call from him later in the evening.  I am screening my calls these days and not necessarily near my phone.  His message is that his manager said that he could extend it until 11 a.m. the next day.  His manager said?  More lies. 

I did not call him back but knew that he would call me anyway….yes, he did.  I was kind and just said that I was not interested and that he wasted my time. 

I called to lodge a complaint.  Who am I complaining to?  The guy said that he’ll put it on his record but I don’t get that they really care.  No matter what phone number I called I was unable to talk with someone from the corporate office, who might have actually cared.  They may never know or perhaps with enough negative feedback they will at least find out.