More like a savior than a raider. He’s been dumping money in like mad trying to keep the boat afloat but its just too far gone. Unless I’m confusing him with someone else.
I think you are. The Sears CEO is intentionally running the company into the ground. It’s pretty obvious he intends to sell off the assets and get a quick payday.
How do figure that?
He’s spinning off every bit of the business
Anything that is valuable, he’s been selling off
But they aren’t making enough money to keep the operation going so assets need to be sold off to try and stop the bleeding. Even at that the more money needs to be dumped in to keep it going. You can keep doing that as long as there are assets to still sell but unless something changes, it won’t end well. Every day there are expenses that need to be paid and not enough money coming in.
No, it won’t end well. It could, if he’d stop focusing on parting out the company and start focusing on what made Sears a household name in the first place. Good manufacturing sources for Craftsman would be a help - I’m underimpressed with the crappy tools that now either have a 90 day instead of a lifetime warranty, or that are never in stock and therefore you can’t use the lifetime warranty.
Instead he’s driving the company into the ground while getting compensated to the tune of 3.5 million a year.
In my job, if I utterly destroy the company I get fired. He gets millions and keeps his job. Brilliant.
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Can you provide a follow up, curious what another shop found.
He isn’t destroying the company. Sears has been in trouble for many years. The board brought him in to try to figure out how to get the most value out of the dying company. That’s exactly what he’s doing. Sort of analogous to figuring out what machines to hook a dying old man up to to get a few extra days of life. Remember that he can only do what the board authorizes. They knew exactly what they were getting when they hired him.
But if the OP’s description of the service and treatment he received is accurate, this should not have happened. No matter the condition of the company.
I stopped visiting Sears Automotive about 30 years ago after receiving bad service and offered not needed “repairs”.
Since that time I discouraged anyone from doing business with them.
Wasn’t that about the era when they lost that massive class-action lawsuit for something unethical the automotive shop was doing?
No, that’s not how it went, actually.
Eddie Lampert was the CEO of K-Mart, and K-Mart actually bought Sears. (For some reason, most folks seem to think that it was the other way around!)
After the Sears purchase, Lampert was the CEO of the merged companies, and he almost immediately began disassembling the company.
You might have a big oil leak, no way to tell via the internet. How often do you need to top up the oil between changes? Do you lose , say , one quart in 500 miles? To find a leak source it’s a common thing to clean the engine off, and bring it back once a week say to the shop and they’ll take a look at where the new oil is appearing. But I’ve never hear of a shop telling the owner it is his responsibility to clean the engine himself. Usually the shop would do that on site, or would give the owner instructions where to take it for an engine cleaning.
The advice above to seek out a good independent shop for your car’s repair need is a good one. YOu want’ a shop that has all the capabilities needed to keep your car in good repair, and from your description the current shop is probably not quite up to that. Either that or there’s a communication problem somewhere.
Perhaps you should read this link.
However, it was 2013 rather than 2015. In that I was in error.
Lampert was named CEO of K-Mart in May, 2003, and he actually was able to turn that struggling company around sufficiently for K-Mart to be able to buy Sears less than 2 years later, in March, 2005. Following the merger of those two companies, he began selling-off assets and essentially disassembling the new company.
For more complete information than was contained in that Wikipedia article, please look at both…
https://sgbonline.com/kmart-exits-chapter-11-names-lampert-chairman/
AND…
Not to get into this but Kmart was part of Kmart holding, who then bought Sears and reorganized and changed their name to Sears Holding. He turned Kmart around to a profitable year “based on real estate”. That means to me 1 billion profit that year was from selling land and buildings not shoes and dresses. Penneys is next but they haven’t sold tools or auto parts around here for a long time.
I have my theories which is free, but I can’t see ordering suits and dresses from the internet. People need to see them, feel them, try them on, get alterations, look at accessories and so on. So maybe higher class clothing shops will be the result, the same as more fully featured car parts shop ate into the auto supply piece of the business of Sears, Kmart, etc.
I agree 100%
with extremely few exceptions, I don’t buy clothing online
There will always be stores to buy things; however the means of selling things has broadened over the years. I grew up in a small town and you could buy locally or order form Sears. Usually you bought locally.
My daughter buys nearly everything on line. Some clothes excepted.
Buying a car is now possible on line, but it takes some savvy to end up with the right one at the right price.
Reminds me of an issue that occurred many years ago ('60s or '70s). Before there was anything like a consumer protection bureau a local AAMCO (Sacramento) got in much publicized trouble over their business practices. Seems someone would take their car in for a transmission service and when they came to pick it up they were told their transmission needed major repair. In this particular instance, the consumer said no thanks, they wanted to get a second opinion. They went to get their car and the transmission was in pieces in the trunk. AAMCO said they had to charge them to reassemble and reinstall the transmission.
I think that is a basic component of AAMCO’s business model.
What’s that old acronym?
Wasn’t it AAMCO = All Transmissions Must Come Out?
Yep, All Automatic transmissions Must Come Out (AAMCO). My trans on my 88 Olds went out on the way to work (50 miles from home). I had had it overhauled at the Olds dealer some months before that but AAMCO offered free towing and diagnostics. So I had them tow it to them which was 20 miles closer to home. Of course they said it had to be overhauled and I said the Olds dealer would stand behind their work so I’d just have it towed the 30 more miles to them. Boy were they mad. Put the pan back on, pushed the car out, and woudn’t talk to me again while I waited for the tow from the Olds dealer. I don’t remember what it was but about $300 on something not normally replaced with an overhaul. I was pretty happy to get out of there. I guess I used the mens room while I waited among their slamming of stuff on the counter and looking at me sideways. Learned my lesson with those guys. Free towing can get pretty expensive.