Sears Offers ‘Buyer Protection’ for Appliances

During an economic downturn, it’s the big purchases that consumers tend to shy away from. In an effort to bolster sales and consumer confidence, Sears has announced a program that allows customers who lose their jobs the chance to keep their recently bought appliances if they were purchased with a Sears card:

Customers who spend at least $399 on appliances and related merchandise between July 6 and Aug. 1 will have one-twelfth of the purchase price credited to their account for every month they are out of work, said Larry Costello, a company spokesman. Those who are jobless for more than a year will have the full debt forgiven, he said. The offer period may be extended, he said.

Customers who lose their jobs between 60 days and one year after having made the purchase qualify for the offer, Costello said. The program also covers delivery, service and installation costs, he said.

The program’s website “http://www.searsbuyerprotection.com,” isn’t up and running as yet, but we expect it should be soon the closer they get to the launch date.

Some have compared Sears’ ‘buyer protection’ program to the payment-coverage plans offered by many automakers. But Sears officials say their program is unlike any other:

“It’s a differentiated program, and we believe that that’s going to get people to choose us over the other guys,” Kevin Brown, Sears’s chief marketing officer for home appliances, said by telephone.

“It is much different than the Hyundai-GM-Ford models that we’ve all seen out there, in that you keep the appliance,” Brown said. “We’re the only ones with a program of this kind in this industry.”

If you’re in the market for a new appliance does Sears’s new program give you the confidence you need?

Could this program turn out to be counter productive for Sears’s bottom line? If hoards of customers on shaky-unemployment ground make their way to Sears for new appliances, the U.S.’s largest appliance retailer could be forgiving far more debt then they originally intended.