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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 12,664
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 12,664 |
Many folks around here swore by Kenmore appliances. Sears screwed over customers with a money saving way of business that cost customers time. When it takes 5 weeks to get something repaired because the service techs because the techs were over booked on calls every day pissed many folks off to the point they won't buy anything from Sears.
The Karma bus always has an empty seat when it comes around.- High Brass
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
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Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,553
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,553 |
Evidently you have me mixed up with some other old plugger.
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 23,319
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 23,319 |
J.C. Higgins: 1908-1964
![[Linked Image]](http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/R4sAAOSwY45UPw5o/$_57.JPG) Many people ask if there was a real "J.C. Higgins" who worked for Sears. There certainly was. John Higgins began working for Sears in 1898 as the manager of the headquarters' office bookkeepers and retired as company comptroller in 1930. "John Higgins" the employee became "J.C. Higgins" the brand name during a discussion in 1908 among Sears' executives of possible names for a new line of sporting goods. At this point, the story gets a bit murky, but Higgins' name was suggested and John Higgins consented to Sears use his name. Since he did not have a middle initial, Sears added the "C." In 1908, the Western Sporting Goods Company in Chicago began putting J.C. Higgins on baseballs and baseball gloves sold in Sears catalogs. By 1910, the J.C. Higgins trademark was extended to cover footballs and basketballs. Later, the popularity of the Higgins brand�combined with the wider participation of American youth in sports�led Sears to place tennis equipment, soccer balls, volleyballs, boxing equipment and baseball uniforms in the J.C. Higgins line. ![[Linked Image]](http://www.searsarchives.com/brands/images/1961_JC5JCHGolf_96.jpg) Caption: Catalog advertisement, J.C. Higgins golf clubs, 1961.By the 1940s, J.C. Higgins represented all Sears fishing, boating and camping equipment. After the Second World War, Sears consolidated all sporting goods under the J.C. Higgins brand name and added it to a line of luggage. The J.C. Higgins brand disappeared shortly after Sears introduced the Ted Williams brand of sporting and recreation goods in 1961. ![[Linked Image]](http://www.searsarchives.com/brands/images/1957_JC4JCHFootb_96.jpg) Caption: Paul Hornung of the Green Bay Packers (right) signs a J.C. Higgins football for a
young Sears customer in Green Bay, Wis., store, 1957.
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth." – Robert E. Lee
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 16,000
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 16,000 |
I think the nail in their coffin was the automotive dept scandal in the 90's. Even in Phx you could see cars stacked up on Sat for service. When it broke that Sears was paying incentives to auto techs to charge for repairs not needed that destroyed the bond of trust between lifelong consumers and an American institution. They became a battery store after that.
A new generation of women buyers were turned off to a clothing line that was mid-50's to early 60's with a whiff of 70's sewn in. Their clothing buyers were still entrenched in WW II designs that made the company flourish.
And don't forget all the speciality booths in many Sears stores.....Allstate Ins.....Caldwell Banker.....Dean Winter (sp?) Investments.....all gone....a marketing idea that collapsed.
When i came home from the service in '72 the local Sears had already removed the entire line of sporting goods.
But i believe it was the automotive scandal that drove people away for good. I was working for Dean Witter at the time, and was forced a couple of times a week into a Sears store in the ghetto. A perfect place to look for high end net worth clients. Good thing there was a chicken place right across the mall, and a 1000page book killed the day for me. I hated it when sears bought Dean Witter, that socks and stocks attitude never worked.
THE BIRTH PLACE OF GERONIMO
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 16,000
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 16,000 |
one of the better things to have is a gun parts inc. catelogue which cross references the rifles/shotguns sears sold, against who actually made them.
They sold some very good rifles under their brand name such as belgian FN mausers.
I have a number of sears labeled firearms.
THE BIRTH PLACE OF GERONIMO
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 783
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 783 |
Sears used to sell the Henry J car (built by Kaiser-Frazier). You know anybody that ever bought one? My dad had a used Henry J for his work car. He worked for Sears for 25 yrs. My dogs were named Coldspot and Silvertone!
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,743
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,743 |
and here I thought J.C Higgins was the guy from Magnum P.I. 
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,867
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,867 |
We have a Sears Home Town Store, that sells, lawn equipment, appliances and tools. And they have been great, very competitive, with great customer service. In Missoula is a big sears store that is a corporate store and the hate and contempt I feel when I go there keeps me away. If our little Sears doesn't have it in stock they get it in a week.
�The constitution of the United States asserts that all power is inherent in the people, that they may exercise it by themselves, that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed!� � Thomas Jefferson
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 23,533
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 23,533 |
I will say I like the Sears Parts online
I've ordered multiple things from them for various appliances and small engine whatever's.
have you paid your dues, can you moan the blues, can you bend them guitar strings
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 11,496
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 11,496 |
I bought a J.C. Higgins bolt action shotgun, 20 gauge, for $29.95 in 1958. It had a 5-shot tubular magazine under the barrel but you could put one in the chamber and one on the loading ramp and make it into a seven-shooter. That gun worked great. I hunted ducks, pheasants, and crows with it. I wish I still had it. I still have some 20 gauge rifled slugs in a J.C. Higgins box.
I buy a major appliance from Sears every so often, when an old one dies. I think they work much better than GE.
Don't blame me. I voted for Trump.
Democrats would burn this country to the ground, if they could rule over the ashes.
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 16,000
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 16,000 |
I bought a J.C. Higgins bolt action shotgun, 20 gauge, for $29.95 in 1958. It had a 5-shot tubular magazine under the barrel but you could put one in the chamber and one on the loading ramp and make it into a seven-shooter. That gun worked great. I hunted ducks, pheasants, and crows with it. I wish I still had it. I still have some 20 gauge rifled slugs in a J.C. Higgins box.
I buy a major appliance from Sears every so often, when an old one dies. I think they work much better than GE. i would have to go look, but i have a bolt action 12 guage that i think was sold under the sears label. And it is unsafe, in that there was a recall that they would give you X amount of dollars in exchange for the bolt, trigger mechanism. I thought that was interesting enough the gun sits as it was made, although i would never use it.
THE BIRTH PLACE OF GERONIMO
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 19,170
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 19,170 |
my beef with Sears was 20 years ago...My wife opened a Sears Charge Account to buy a Washing Machine... she had worked for Sears in High School, as a dispatcher in their appliance repair center, so she had a loyalty to them...
She got behind in her payments and was getting a nasty letter from collection agencies over it...so I ended up finding out what the balance was on it... told the collection agencies they could eat Schitt, as I wasn't going to pay them a darn nickle as I hate those sleaze balls....Told Sears to pull the account in house and I'd pay it off in full...
they did so, and I did what I said...and then told them to close the account....
Then here is where it goes haywire, and this is why my wife "got behind" on her payments....
After supposedly paying it off in full and closing the account, we still keep getting monthly bills.. I returned them monthly in an envelope with the bill unopened, with account closed written on it...
Finally I get calls from collection agencies telling me I owe Sears over $500....and I tell them that the account was paid in full and closed 2 years ago...
They tell me the account was never closed...so I tell them then they are dealing with a fraud case because we haven't used it to buy anything in 2 years...and demand a copy of the activity to where they got this $500 figure from...
and here is what the people at Sears did....
When I paid the amount due in full, they let the payment sit in Que until after the monthly due date.. and then charged the account a $25 late payment...this is what they had been doing to my wife the entire time...
so each month when I was returning their bill unopened with account closed, they just charged the account another $25 late fee... over and over and over...
Contacted them, about the account being paid in full and it was sent in way before the due date. They tell me then that it is NOT from the date received at the payment center, it is by the date they process the payment.. and it can take TWO TO THREE WEEKS TO PROCESS After it has been received.....
I told them to take me to court over it.....
With those sleazy tactics, I won't do business with them... even if it is buying a pair of socks and paying cash...
My wife ended up paying for her damned washing machine 3 times over... I got caught up in the same billing issue. When I paid off the bill I never used my Sears card again and it was several years before I walked in the store. I was going to buy a tool box from them but the shipping costs were 25% of the cost of the tool box to have it shipped to their store. Since a truck came in several times a week I didn't think the shipping cost was close to fair. Needless to say I did not buy the box. If you buy from the Walmart store it's free to ship it to the store but Sears wanted 25% of the cost of the box. They killed themselves with greed and ignorance. kwg
For liberals and anarchists, power and control is opium, selling envy is the fastest and easiest way to get it. TRR. American conservative. Never trust a white liberal. Malcom X Current NRA member.
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Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 102
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 102 |
We just bought a Kenmore refrigator that cost 989.00 and was on sale for 589.00. They screwed up the delivery for three staight Saturdays and my wife took off half a day and they screwed that up too. Everytime I called them I asked for a gift card and they sent me a 100.00 dollar gift card. I ended up with 500.00 dollars in gift cards. So they frig only cost 89.00 and we love the refrigator. It did cost me 3 Saturdays of my life and wife ready to kill Sears. With the gift cards we have got a vacuum, and a Shop Vac free and we still have 200.00 left. They screwed everything up but they sure did throw money at me. LOL.
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 459
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 459 |
I quit buying from them in the 1980's when they would only sell me a Craftsman tool chest if I paid with either a Sears card or Discover card.
Bought my tool chest somewhere else and never went back.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 12,192
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 12,192 |
I quit them for good when they started playing games to get late charges. My bills would show up two days before the deadline.
When they stuck me for a $25 late fee on a balance of less than $100, I went to the store, paid them off and told them to shove their credit card
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