Does Sears Trick Customers Into Purchasing Expensive Warranty for Plasma TV?
How would you respond to that question? Did you purchase a Plasma TV or LCD TV lately? From Sears? Did you turn down that $300/3 years protection plan?
Well Anthony did, and a few days later a Sears representative tried to convince him that his Plasma will need a recharge after 5 years and that he should have purchased that protection plan. Well, while Anthony didn’t know if this was a lie or not, he turned the warranty down as in 5 years he wouldn’t have been covered anyway. Later he did discover the truth, which is that Plasmas won’t need a plasma recharge. Here’s the story in his own words:
I just bought a Plasma TV from Sears. I declined to buy the $300/3 yr protection plan because of the price. Sears called me at home a few days later. The sales lady asked my why I chose a Plasma TV instead of an LCD. I thought this odd, but just answered the truth - there was a deal on this TV. She then told me a personal anecdote about her friend who repairs Plasma TVs who told her that Plasma TV’s needed to be recharged every 5 years for a cost of $500 or so. She then tried to sell me the protection plan that would cover this service (the same one I declined before, which would expire before the 5 year recharging date anyway). I declined, ended our call, then got on the internet and discovered rather quickly that this is a myth about plasma tvs that lots of salespeople are propagating.
I am certain that there are people buying these protection plans to cover their plasma tv’s future “recharging” which they will discover never happens.
I bet some people will be really angry at Sears with all this bad publicity!
via Consumerist
January 29th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
As a Sears electronics salesman, this is rather sad. The protection sales person on the phone obviously does not know about tvs and is trying to make a buck. My sales floor team all get together with various research about what we sell and crush rumors that are bogus, like the recharging of plasma (we here it from customers all the time). I am sorry for Anthony having a sorry uneducated sales person, but their ideas are not endorsed by the company (complain about misleading information to Sears so the person will be set straight). Protection agreements are for peace of mind in the case of repair or replacement of electronics or any other appliance for that matter. Thats all.
January 29th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Hi thx for clearing this up i know that sears is one of my favourite places to shop and 99% of the salesman are honest guys.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
My experience with a recent Plasma TV purchase. The salesman told me the manufactures 1yr warranty did not cover parts or labor after 90days! What? Exactly, after laughing in his face I declined the extened warranty, after I got home I called Sears online and ask about the same product # warranty…..was told the same basic thing, so a phone call was made to Samsung. The warranty department assured me that during the 1year parts and labor we paid by Samsung and zero cost to me for a problem! What the heck is wrong with Sears? such a scam trying to use a scare tactic to sell a warranty!
April 8th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Sears barely pays those poor sales men any money to begin with. All they make money off of is PA’s which was the case with this and credit apps! They are cut throat about it because they make little to no commission off of anything they sell! 1% off of a tv is what they get! I would be trying to get you to buy that PA as well!!
April 13th, 2009 at 5:23 am
I work for Sears Electronics and it is true we make good commission off of PA’s. However is is true that _some_ manufacturers do only have terms such as 3 months full coverage, the rest of the year just parts, or other examples like that. The PAs are expensive, but the LCD/Plasma/LED backlit TVs are not exactly simple machines. When they fail, they cost big bucks to fix. Good chance is, it costs more than the PA that you bought, too.
July 27th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Yes, it is true Samsung has 1 year parts and labor but what they don’t tell you is that they will not honor that warranty. Just google the terms “samsung” “honor” and “warranty” and you’ll see. You’re better off buying the Sears warranty. Yes, it is expensive. Yes, they may take a month to fix it, but I think it’s better than spending 3 months on the phone with Samsung and not get anything in the end