Sears has had its Shop Your Way Rewards program in place for a few years now, and has simultaneously continued to offer their KidVantage club for kids’ clothes. But changes are coming, according to an email sent to Shop Your Way Rewards members yesterday.
They say that “a whole new KidVantage is on the way,” and as part of these changes, they will be discontinuing their Wear-Out Guarantee as of June 1. (They’ll continue to honor it on previous purchases but not going forward.)
KidVantage gives parents a 15% off coupon via register printout every time they’ve accumulated $100 or more in purchases of kids’ clothes and shoes. The Wear-Out Guarantee promised to replace for free any any kids’ shoes or clothes item worn out before they were grown out of, with an identical or similar item.
ShopYourWay Rewards is a free rewards program offered jointly by Sears and Kmart that awards points per dollar spent online or in-store, redeemable for store credit. Their standard rate is 10 points per dollar, with 1,000 points = $1. (In other words, a 1% reward.) Occasional promotions offer a higher rate on specific categories of goods.
ShopYourWay Rewards benefits are paid on top of any online or credit-card based cashback shopping rewards.
Parents, “upcoming program changes” is usually a catchphrase that means, “they’re about to change for the worse.” If you had some shopping to do for the kids and were planning to do it at Sears, I’d definitely get it done before June 1st.
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After working for Sears for 20 years, seeing it bought by Kmart – well I just don’t feel the same about that American institution for a variety of reasons. This is yet one more way to fine tune their bottom line but in the process, may long time customers will likely shop elsewhere since the advantage to shopping there will disappear. Bad move in my opinion. They should have changed out light bulbs or found another way to trim the fat.
I think this is so sad. It’s the only reason I shop at SEARS and the only reason I got a credit card for SEARS. I plan to write them an email. I think everyone should. If enough of us wrote a letter to them they might reconsider. I hope. Otherwise, I will stop shopping there. I have no other reason to shop there except for the fact that they replace jeans while worn knees (that is huge for us parents…especially in this economy). So sad. Please write them and voice your opinion!
very true i guess ill be going back to shopping at sears or discounted stores.
since i never was informed that the kids vantage club was being discontinued and we were never informed,i will start shopping at macys for they dont try to put one over on their customers. since sears was bought out by this joker ,he will stop at nothing to put extra bucks in his own pocket at his customers expence. next he will break up a good store with out regard for the people who shopped there. my bucks will start filling macys pocket before i give him any =more bus.
I am very upset about this!!! I won’t be shopping here anymore. We loved the kid vantage and we were never notified about the changes. I’m tempted to take what I bought back and go somewhere else!!! Bad choice Sears!!!
I want to just add how upset I am about this whole mess. The email I received simply said anything purchased before June 1, 2012 would be replaced with receipt showing that it was purchased before June 1, 2012. Tonight I went into Sears to exchange my kids’ pants and was told that the exchange period for clothes purchased before June 1, 2012 only lasted for a few months after June and it was past that and so I could not exchange the clothes. I asked them to show me where it said that and they could not produce it for me, also they have sign sitting at the register that states anything purchased before June 1 could be exchanged. The manager said that she would do some research and send me the email. Well I have located the email I was sent, I searched all over the internet and no where can I find where Sears has stated that exchange for purchases prior to June 1 could only be exchanged for a certain period. I am so disgusted with Sears right now!!!!! This will be the 3rd time this year they have screwed me and my husband over, frankly I’m at the point that I just wont shop there anymore!!!
Sears customers are the reason kid advantage is no longer available.. you need to realize there are lots of scam artist in the world trying to beat the system and get something free! I seen several times where customers would do a kidvantage exchange. And then return the new items later for bigger sizes. And that is wrong! Or purchase a sears brand at a yard sale or second hand store and come exchange it.. it people werent so crazy lots of things in this world would be different! I dont blame sears at all for putting an end to the program.. when people abuse things they eventually disappear! Im digusted by some of your comments! Retailers are open to make money and provide you with a place to shop for merchandise.. if they didn’t have to pay for it im sure they wouldnt mind giving it away for free! But remember companys still have to buy there merchandise and make a profit after there bills are paid!! A 10 million dollar store generally make about 500k in profit after the bills are paid.. thats if the can detour shop lifters from taking that!
I worked at sears for 4 years and I can count the number of times the kidvantage exchanges were used on my ten fingers…this is not a customer problem this is a corporate problem.
Former sears employee and yes there are many sneaky people out there up to no good making it difficult for companies to keep certain deals or programs, but that is the companies job and not the paying customers. If the company is stating that it will do a certain thing for its paying customers than in order to maintain loyalty from its customers then the company must keep its word no matter what obstacles.
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