This is definitely a "Buyer Beware" thing.


For x-mas we bought my Dad a Sony combination DVD/VCR. When I hooked it up it would play DVDs just fine but just wouldn't play a vhs tape at all. The tape would begin to play and suddenly stop and shut down the machine.
We returned it to sears and explained the problem and was told by the salesman they would send it out to be fixed. They gave us our money back so I didn't think another thing about it.
With the refund we bought a Samsung combination player that actually had a better rating than the Sony.
I hooked that up last night and since we use a cable box descrambler in our area the VCR needed to be set on channel 4. To set the channel it was necessary to surf through the menus and set the RF Output channel to 4 and everything wopuld play fine. Once the DVD/VCR was shut off however it would return to channel 3 which is the default setting. So to watch a video or record a tv show it was necessary to manually change the RF output channel every time the DVD/VCR was turned on. Back to Sears it went.

This time we explain the problem to another salesman and he refunds our money and tells us it will be sent out to be fixed. However, I notice he put a Clearance sticker on the box. I go looking in the pile of clearance items and notice the Sony DVD/VCR we returned the day before sitting there with a clearance sticker on it also.

As far as I know clearance items are non-returnable. They are selling electronic items they know to be defective!

Thats the last time I buy anything electronic from Sears!

Sears does that regularly, but it is returnable if it breaks. Normally they do test to make sure that the item still works, as it should, and basicly it is sold at a discount as an open box item. I actually look for the clearance items, I have saved $thousands over the years, over the brand new in box. ie: in the last year, we bought a $999 JVC TV for $499, a $1599 Maytag frig for $799, and a $599 JVC Home Theater System for $275. Just to name a few.

Still you have to check out what you buy, and make sure they will take it back if it has a problem.

Same here... We got a $800 Yamaha home theater receiver/amp for $430, and a 42" Hitachi TV (regular, non-HDTV) for $299 (regular $699). It pays to haggle with the sales rep a little. Sears pays their department sales reps with commission, so there's some bargaining room.