By JB
Here’s an interesting way to try and boost profits:
My wife purchased some appliances on her Sears card for about $800. It was a do-not-pay for 3 or 6 months. Credit limit was $1000. Sears sends her a monthly statement noting that her credit limit was reduced to $500, therefore she was over-limit and a $25 charge appeared. She called Sears and the first person there argued that the $25 over-limit fee would NOT be reversed! And next month another $25 fee would be charged. She finally did get it reversed, we paid off the the DNP, and are now canceling the account. We won’t deal with Sears ever.
Sally888 says...
This doesn’t make sense. They dont just decrease the limit without informing you first.
jona says...
actually Sally888 this is a common practice and not limited to sears. I had purchase a 58 inch plasma tv from the Bay with no payments/no interest for 24 months. Half way through they decreased my credit limit to $10.00 because of inactivity on the card… No notice or anything!
When I contacted them regarding this, they would gladly increase my limit again but would have to do a credit check! I was pissed not only did they cause me to take a hit on my credit score because of the reduced credit limit they wanted to ding my credit score again to return the credit limit to its original amount. I paid off the tv ( i had the money just letting it earn money in a high interest account) and told them to stick their credit card and I cancelled the card once the payment cleared.
To the OP, glad you were able to get the charges reversed, just chalk it up to a good learning experience.
spider878 says...
Sears reduces credit limits without informing the customer about this. This happened to me as well. They don’t bother to contact you - they just do it. Specifically if you have not used your card in a while - it can be quiet the surprise! I would also recommend staying away from Sears because of this and other reasons.
morganmom2 says...
they did the same to us! no notice. they said because of the deline in the economy???? whatever that means. they refused to reverse any charges.we cancelled our card as well and i will never deal with them again!
Ciel says...
Last week, it was reported that Sears had a loss in their third quarter. http://www.thestar.com/business/earnings/article/892756–sears-holdings-reports-wider-q3-loss
The credit card service is run through JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (”Chase”).
Now, since the appliance offer was do not pay and your wife believed to have met the terms within her then credit limit, see if your provincial consumer act says anything about advertising claims–you might be able to get some action that way.
As for the credit limit reduction, the way that was sprung was poorly handled by the company. But given the various postings about things are done by management at Sears, it must be about building shareholder value for divident returns.
Wish that Sears could see how its purchasing choices could be an issue-if the customers don’t like the merchandise (too tight, short, poor quality), the store could decide whether they want people to buy stuff that fits them and ditch their price points or go for cheapest quality that hits prices points. I’ve noticed a lot of catalogue only clothing tends to be at the higher price points (most of spring 2010 was not stocked in stores) and is not in stores. Fit can still be hit and miss as manufacturers each have their own sizing standards.
Ciel says...
dividend, not divident-sorry about the typo!