Sears/ShopYourWay

I recently got offered to re-subscribe to ShopYourWayMax for $1 for a year.  Never bought anything significant from Sears and not a big fan of their stores.  Usually pick up Craftsman tools and stuff I usually don't need but the points make it to cheap to pass up.  So came across this on slickdeals:
http://slickdeals.net/f/6367174-ch3apsk8-s-down-dirty-faq-for-shop-your-way-rewards

So the best few weeks I've been "rolling" my SYW points and getting some stuff cheap:  nakamichi wireless headphones for $0.01, nakamichi bluetooth portable speakers for $0.01, BEM bluetooth speakers, etc.  Yes don't need it, but able to pay for the product with points and get back the same amount of points = no charge out of my pocket.  And the Nakamichi products are pretty decent especially when it's free.  You do have to put in an initial investment of around ~$50 to get the points.  But if you shop carefully, you can 'roll' those points with each purchase and get a bunch of stuff for pretty much free. 

Sears website leaves a lot to be desired, buggy and slow.  Pretty much the opposite of Amazon.  Their CSR is the worst as well.  But their cluelessness can be an advantage:  I recently got a CSR to do a price adjustment which pretty much made it so they end up paying me to buy from them.  So an initial hard start as you get use to Sears but as you do more and more points 'roll', you get use to it and then the rewards come. 

Here's an example:



So we have a Nakamichi bluetooth speaker for $59.99.  It ships free due to my Shop Your Way Max membership (kinda like Amazon Prime but not as good).  I also had a coupon I found on slickdeals that give a discount.  I have enough points to pay for the entire order, but I only use enough points so that it leaves a $0.01 charge.  The reason is if you have a $0 total, you will not get any additional points.  So you see I will be getting 40,000 points or $40 back in points.  Now not all deals are like this where you end up with less points then when you start, some deals they give you enough points to break even and rarely some deals you actually come out on top.  Shop Your Way will give you surprise points once in a while which help keeps the boat a float as you 'roll' your points.  Another way to replenish your points is to check your orders 7 days after you place them, if the price changes (and they frequently do), they'll credit you back the difference in points.  Recently I got a $50 price adjustment just by chatting with a CSR online. 

Not a big fan of Sears right now...the merger with Kmart has shown Kmart to have the stronger, more dominant genes.  I used to be a proud Made in USA Craftsman tool guy.  I probably have a half dozen sets and they're still my best tools, as I don't have a Snap On budget.  But the Craftsman tools are being offshored.  It's hard to find any sets not made in China.  And I'm OK with Chinese tools, but if I'm going to buy them, I'm going to pay Harbor Freight prices, not Craftsman prices.  Sears has been steadily losing its way since the '90s, and this was the last straw for me. 

Just riding the downward spiral of Sears.  They are either too dumb (or smart?) to allow people to get away with this points rolling crap. 

At times I take a "glance" at Sears.

Had 16k in points taken from my account for no reason.  Called 800-991-8708 and complained.  CSR didn't put up a fight, stated some sort of computer error, should be getting the points back soon.  Really shady in my opinion, so will I  be getting my points back if I hadn't noticed?  I bet I'm in the minority here.

Found out I can use coupons emailed to my 'other' shop your way account:

So net cost = $0.06
Got 4 wireless bluetooth Nakamichi Headphones, 2 nakamichi splash proof bluetooth speakers, and a ps3 controller.  Gonna donate the wireless headphones to my kids school since they just got some iPads.  Thank you Sears.

I'm not surprised

Spinning back kick?  Peoples elbow?

Seems like too much of a hassle to shop and manage points.

Can I just hire you to do this for me? I can pay you in points.

It's not that bad if you accept the Sears system is not perfect.  You'll lose points for no reason (call and they'll give it back) and get points for no reason (don't call, duh).  Their website is one of the worst I've seen.  Points total is always displayed wrong and requires logout/login to see it corrected.  Some times you need to delete cookies if its not working.  But is all this hassle worth it?  I now have enough headphones to have a ps9 Silent Disco:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2a0cAyXJ9g

Enough bluetooth speakers for every single room in the house (including bathrooms).  I also got a KitchenAid mixer:
http://www.sears.com/kitchenaid-4.5-qt-classic-plus-stand-mixer/p-00869284000P

For around $120 with pickup at the local sears.  It was a decent deal for a mixer and I got most of the points back (so if I want to buy another mixer I can at the same price). 

You'll probably do ok on this IHO, I'll help you if you got any questions.  At least sign up for a SYW account, its free and you can give me all the coupons they send you

Here's a site to generate coupons to use:
http://shc.cpn2c.co/RecomService/web/zd

Make sure you launch in incognito window on your browser and just click guest and keep hitting next till you get  coupons.

Glad I saw this.
I had a bunch of points since I bought washer/dryer a few years ago.
Then logged and saw i had zero points and thought they had just expired.
I'll call and complain.

Although I'm with IHO-- seems like too much work for some off-brand speakers.
Maybe I'll give it a shot and see if I can get something to donate too.