I know some of my friends are very mindful when shopping specially this time of year. They talk about holiday price gouging and mis-marked sale items that ring up wrong and a slew of other issues. Most of my friends though don’t even look into items they are buying and often get the short end of the stick. It is easy to let this happen when in a store, online though we have a bit more time to research.
One of the plastic toys we are happy to have in our home “as proper geek parents” are Legos. Our oldest daughter wants a large set and I have been looking to hunt one down for her. We have a few sears gift cards and I thought to look there and this is what I found:
Sears is selling this item for 197.98 plus 17.75 shipping. WHAT? That can’t be right, so I talked to the sears live help person while using google to track down this very item other places. These are the current prices in other places.
Amazon: 99.97 Free Shipping
Target: 89.99 Free Shipping
Walmart: 99.97 Free shipping to store.
Retail is 99.99 for this this lego set. So what did customer service have to say about this? In short, that it is not their problem, they are selling with a merchant. The merchant in question has no reviews yet, and near all items are price gouged by a lot. What would Sears do about? Nothing. Are they even selling this set themselves? Course not.
I thought I could trust sears to carry quality, back up what they sell, have good customer service, and while the sales are not great, at least not allow gouging like this. I was wrong. It happens. I can however tell you the store I will not be shopping at anymore!
In closing, do your research! You work hard for your money and in this economy we have to specially watch what we spend and where we spend it. I don’t like shopping big box stores over all but for things like Legos that is normally where you will find me.
Wishing you peaceful shopping so you can spend more happy time with what really matters, family and friends.
Don’t forget to share this post with friends and family, it might save them a lot of money!
Thanks for the warning. I can’t believe that they would mark it up that much! I believe in being honest in reviews too—I would hate for someone to get a bad deal based on what I said.
You know, I have wanted to do lego but I know they will be all over the house. I have boys. :/ Thanks for your honest review. It is definitely appreciated by consumers. Now I can’t speak for the company though. lol Great blog girl. I’m stopping over from MBC. 🙂
Thank you for the honest review, it’s good to be honest. I prefer shopping at Amazon, I always get great deals on things. I just got a best seller book for my brother for Christmas, I got it a lot cheaper than what I would get it for at Barnes and Nobles. I don’t know if Sears is doing as well as they use to, because of the Economy, so they have to jack up their prices which is why they lose customers. It use to be a great store and had good quality stuff, but not so much anymore. Anyway, I’m Sarah, I am a new follower, I found you through Super Stalker Sunday. I own a blog-magazine called Skylar. I would love for you to stop by and follow back. Thanks and Happy Holidays!
Wow!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
I’m returning the follow and stopping by from the Super Stalker Hop! Thanks for linking up with us!! Hope to see you again next weekend!
Have a great week!
Merry Christmas from
Kortney @ Kortney’s Krazy Life!
That is a large price difference! New follower from MBC, look forward to your future posts! You can find me at
http://wvfrugal-wvsaver.blogspot.com/
Stop by when you get the chance 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and I am following you also.
Cher Sunray Gardens
I got your message.. im a follower! here’s mine!
bottlebootcamp.blogspot.com
I’ve noticed the Sears online will say “Sold By:” and it isn’t even Sears. It’s weird, in my opinion. I usually am an advocate for shopping at Sears because of their outstanding support of the troops (military wife), but this is super disappointing! It wasn’t even a few dollars more expensive, it was a hundred! Holy cow.
~Brittnee http://www.getuptothetable.blogspot.com
I too used to rave about Sears but then they would not even talk to the merchant they where selling the item for…. I have lost faith in them.
Thanks for the review – honesty is always appreciated! I’m visiting from Sunday Social and am your newest follower!
Jenny
http://www.simcoestreet.blogspot.com
PS> Come by if you would like — and I’d love for you to enter my current giveaway!
Glad you stopped by the Sunday Social at The Kurtz Corner! Following you! 🙂
Audra
We learned when we were in the Sears gift card program a few years ago that they raise their prices, have bad customer service, cancel orders for no reason… It took us 6 months or more to spend the last of the gift cards because of all the difficulty we had with Sears!
Also, I just discovered an app you can get on your phone called RedLaser where you can scan the barcode of an item and see prices at other retailers and online. I think it is relatively new, as it didn’t have the dolls we got Annie listed, but it had prices for another toy I had still in the package. Not sure how up to date the prices are, but it seems like it has to potential to be a really handy app. I usually use my smart phone to check prices online while in store, lol!
It’s so true. Today I say a board game at a local retailer for$19.99 and then saw it a couple hours later at Kohl’s for 40% off plus another 15% off. What a difference!
Sears.com is gouging international customers as well. Prices for Canadian customers are increased approximately 20% over what US customers pay. And this is not exchange rate, taxes or duty, this is pure thievery.