     Christine Baker (Admin) | Monday, October 09, 2000 - 11:59 am 
Since Discover refused to approve me in the early 90s because our home phone was not in MY name, I really didn't want anything to do with Sears.
But when Sears sent me a pre-approved $3,000 card in 96, I accepted it because the store was only 5 minutes from my house.
In recent years, I rarely used it, the interest rates were outrageous and since I've been on the road fulltime I didn't want to have to deal with another bill.
The only advantage to the Sears card is that sometimes you get an extra 10% off when you use their card and occasionally I got a bonus cash back. Is it 1%?
I wanted to see whether the Sears card worked in Calgary in mid August and I bought a spare tire there.
On August 25, once in Fairbanks, I realized that I hadn't changed the Sears billing to PayTrust yet, and I immediately did so.
On October 3, I hadn't received a bill yet, so I called Sears to make a phone payment. I was advised that they only accept phone payments once you are 60 days delinquent.
I was also told that there was NO grace period at all and finance charges would apply immediately if the payment wasn't received by the due date.
I explained that I had been traveling, just got back, had changed the address but didn't get a bill.
I was advised to pay at a store, but didn't feel like making a 120 mile roundtrip.
So I requested that the account be closed, she said "one moment, please" and 15 seconds later my account was closed. Talk about a lack of customer appreciation.
I mailed a payment for the full amount, but I'm sure it was late.
Today I got this E-mail from PayTrust:
"As you requested, Paytrust sent a change of address notice to Sears on August 25, 2000. To date, we have not received any bills from this payee."
If Sears really has the nerve to bill finance charges, I'm going to dispute those, even if it's only 50 cents. |
| Kristi Feathers (Kfeath) | Monday, October 09, 2000 - 12:18 pm
Sears is the worst... I use to manage their legal department and let me tell you, those extended warranties were a ripoff. They suckered everyone into them even really old people and sued anyone who dared not pay. We went to court over everything even a small tool set. it was embarassing. |
| Mieko (Mieko) | Monday, October 09, 2000 - 12:29 pm
Does anyone know if discover is still linked directly to sears or if they are two separate companies now? I know that you can still make your discover card payment at any sears store. |
| Amy Duncan (Amydd) | Monday, October 09, 2000 - 04:16 pm
I discharged my Sears account several years ago. I had planned to reaffirm many items however they never contacted me. My lawyer said Sears always shows up at hearing, but they never did. I called them several times and each time they said they had no record of my b/k, even though they had been served and I had verbally told them countless times. I still have never heard from them however on my credit report it says something like my account is in dispute and this information will not show on my credit report until it is resolved (mind you, I have never disputed it). I've often wondered if I should do anything about it or just leave well enough alone. Also, this was during the time they lost the class action lawsuit about the way they do reaffirmations. |
| Daniel Tretola (Dant) | Monday, October 09, 2000 - 09:04 pm
Interesting thing about Sears. I moved over a year ago. Having never used my Sears card, I forgot to tell them my new address. A few months later, I bought a pair of shorts at Sears, and used my Sears charge card. I think it was for 10% off if I used the card or something. Well, I forgot I ever used the card, and they didn't have my new address. Guess what? I ended up being something like 6 months overdue on this measly $20. Somehow they got a phone number of my parents, and asked for me. Well, my parents told me Sears had called. Wondering what it was, I called them. I vaguely remembered buying the pair of shorts, and felt badly about the deliquency. Yup, you have it! I had a HUGE late on my credit report. Oh well, honest mistake. Sears agreed to reverse that item on my credit report. Very nice of them. I did have to re-check it every month, only to find it was never reversed though. So every month I recalled Sears. Eventually they got rid of it though. An interesting item to note though, recently I noticed Sears put a regular inquiry on my credit report. I called them to tell the credit agencies to take it off. Guess what? They have NO record of doing it. (I can't dispute an inquiry with the credit reporting agency), and therefore Sears won't tell the agency anything. Is it worth my trouble to keep on them? (I only have about 4 inquiries in the past 2 yrs, and 3 in the past year)
-Dan |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Monday, October 09, 2000 - 10:06 pm
I can't tell you if it's worth it, not knowing how much it impacts, what your Score is with and without the inquiry, what the magic score requirement will be for whatever you'll apply, what the impact will be WHEN you apply ... I could go on.
It's NOT right that you can't dispute inquiries with the bureaus. The company that inquired should have to provide the consumer's authorization, and if they don't, the CRAs should have to remove the inquiries.
*I* would request the Sears statement that they did NOT inquire in writing, then send that to the CRAs. |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Wednesday, December 13, 2000 - 05:22 pm
Reviewing a client's credit report got me in the mood to finally call Sears. They HAD billed me $28.09 for the late fee and finance charges.
I told the nice lady something like this:
"I'd like you to credit back the finance charges and late fees. If you don't, I'll go file a Small Claims suit as I did last Monday. I found out that it's under $20 and it looks like I'll be doing this quite regularly now."
She replied "One moment, please" and it really only took a moment until she informed me that my account balance was now 0.
It was amazing. Maybe she realized that I wasn't kidding.
I sued VoiceStream Wireless on Monday, but that's a different subject. |
| Anonymous1 (Anonymous1) | Thursday, December 14, 2000 - 06:30 am
Discover is a separate company called Novus. Sears divested themselves of it in the early 90s. |
