Sears Appliances: How to Buy Them and Get the Best Deal!

An American icon, Sears has been serving the American public since 1886. Although, the Sears of today looks nothing like the original Sears of 1886. However, Sears is still a major retailer in the United States. The things that Sears are most know for at it's brands Kenmore, Craftsman, and Diehard.

Sears is still one of the largest sellers of appliances in the world. The Kenmore brand has been synonymous with quality, and Sears, for years. As you begin your search for new appliances, you must start at Sears. Why should you buy your appliances from Sears? Maybe you have had a bad experience as a customer of Sears. Maybe you had a good experience but maybe you had a defective appliance. This can happen to anyone. Or maybe you just aren't a savvy shopper when it comes to appliances. Let me give you a few pointers that can help you out in your quest to obtain to new household appliances.

Find a salesperson you can work with. Best Buy has recently begun to advertise that their staff is well trained and ready to serve. But really, how motivated are these guys at $8 an hour? You usually have an untrained high school kid or college student who was given some literature to read about the products. At Sears, if you want to sell appliances you are going to go through hours of on-line training before you even get to step foot on the sales floor. This is not to mention the continuing education that must be completed each month. Appliance employees must not only take the training they must be tested on it as well. If you are shopping at Sears and you encounter a salesperson who doesn't seem to know the product ask for someone else to help you. If you are not comfortable with doing that, leave and come back later. Ask the person helping you when they work and make sure you come back when they are not on duty. Sears does currently pay their appliance staff commission. This actually works to your advantage. The salesperson wants your business as much as you need a new appliance. They will try their best to meet your needs.

Ask questions about your appliance. Learn about the appliance ahead of time and then go in and ask questions. There are often features the salesperson can show you that you may not know about. You may have found a model you like on the Internet but wanted to experience it hands on before purchasing. Go in, take a look, and ask questions. Ask if there have been problems with the ice maker, or if this model has problems with clothes getting tangled during the spin cycle. Ask if there are many returns on the model. Take advantage of the knowledge the salesperson has.

Ask about the price. No, I don't mean to try and bargain the price down at this point. For the most part, Sears will not lower the price of an appliance. What I mean is ask when the appliance might be at a better price in the near future. Each Sears appliance associate is given a month product promotion book. This tells the upcoming sales events for the month. It doesn't tell them exactly what the price will be, but an experienced associate will be able to tell you the best time to buy your appliance based on the information you have provided during your conversation. For example, if you are a customer building a new home or remodeling and you want to buy several new appliances ask if there is a sale or rebate coming up that includes a discount for multiple appliances. There usually is and the associate can give you the dates. Be careful at this point. Some of the Sears promotion events require a Sears credit card to get the best price. Steer clear of these unless you specifically want to purchase using your Sears card. If you want to pay by cash, check, Visa, etc., then ask for the best time to buy not using the Sears card.

Buy the Floor Model. Often, you can buy the floor model from Sears. This is true if the appliance is no longer readily available from the distribution center, or if Sears needs to make space on the floor for a newer model. You can get at least a 10% discount off of the displayed price for a floor model. Ask for a larger discount. If the salesperson says that it's not available ask them to check with their manager. Many times you can get an extra 5% off. Please be aware that when you buy a floor model you are buying it as is. So any scratches or dents are yours and they will not be fixed. Also keep in mind that the floor model has had it's door open and closed hundreds if not thousands of times during that period. So be sure and check the latch and/or seal before finalizing the purchase.

Shop the night before the new Ad Comes Out. What? The appliance department signs are changed as needed when a new advertisement is coming out in the local newspaper. So, if you get newspaper on Wednesday and there is a Sears ad in it, check the effective date of the advertisement. If the advertisement starts on Thursday the signs will be changed Wednesday night. Depending on how busy the store is, it will probably be done by 8pm for a store that closes at 9pm. Go into the store and find the appliance you are looking for. Check the price. Look at the bottom of the ad ticket to see the effective date of the price. Is it tomorrows date? Is it lower than today's price? Guess what, it doesn't matter. In this case you will get the lowest price whether it is today's price or tomorrow's price. So what? Well it gets better. When Sears runs certain types of advertisements they take the appliance off sale. Or you could say they mark it up. This usually happens when they are running a large rebate or a discount off at the register. Let's say the next ad is ALL APPLIANCES ON SALE. This pricing is done on the sign that is posted on the appliance rather than mailing in a rebate. Using this information let's look at an example.

I want to buy a Kenmore Elite refrigerator. Currently the promotion is BUY MORE SAVE MORE. You get a 10 - 20% rebate depending on how many appliances you buy. With this ad the item price is going to be higher. You must mail in the rebate to get your savings. The new advertisement starts tomorrow. It is ALL APPLIANCES ON SALE. This price is going to be lower and will be reflected on the price of the item. Armed with the information from this article I'm going to go shopping tonight about 8pm. I find my refrigerator and I check the advertisement date. It has tomorrow;s date at the bottom. The price is $1899.99. The regular price, which is what it was right before the new price went up was $2299.99. I'm now ready to buy my refrigerator. When you go to the register the salesperson must sell it to you for the lower price. In addition, you will qualify for the 10% rebate that is still in effect that day. You will mail it in and get a check back for $189.99 making the net price excluding tax and delivery $1710. You just got a great deal!

Did my refrigerator go on sale after I bought it? If you appliance goes on sale at Sears in the 30 days after you purchase it you can come into the store and ask for a price adjustment to your sales check. The sales person may not want to do it, but that is Sears policy.

Protection Agreement or No Protection Agreement? This really depends upon your comfort level. Protection agreements are pushed at Sears because they are profitable. There are many instances where customers purchase these and never use them. On the other hand, there are customers who purchase them and swear they will never own another appliance with out one. My recommendation would be if you buy a front load washer or an appliance that cost over $1000 you should consider getting one. I wouldn't buy one on the dryer because they have fewer problems than any other appliance. Again, this is your call and you should follow your own judgment regarding protection agreements.