1. It’s not practical; not many people would want to haul stuff around like that.
2. Colder’s would just resell it all and make more profit.

We certainly appreciate your thinking, though!

Thanks for writing.

Let me kindly say that again: You and a few others who have decided to post on this forum have had bad dealings with Colder’s. Pesonally, I would never step foot into American TV. They hae wronged me more than once. But I would not go out of my way to create a web forum about why one should not go to American TV (There are already plenty of forums about that) This is the only forum I can find on why not to go to Colder’s.

I have referred many friends and famiy to Colder’s Grafton and they have ALL had a great purchasing expirence.

I understand your frustration with the company, but you and I both know that it seems to be your personal vendetta to try and bring down the Colder’s name via this forum. I respect your right to do that, I just think that if thats your purpose (which it clearly seems to be) It’s just not going to happen. Colder’s has built up a client base that spans over 60 years. Colder’s reputation in Milwaukee was firmly planted years ago, before I was born. I called Colder’s and asked them just how long there pricing structure has been in place. They said they first introduced it in February of 2008.

If the pricing system was not working, I think they would have stopped it. As you noted Alex, a business does not stay in business for over 60 years if promotions do not work. I think they would have dropped it if it stopped working. Just my 2 cents.

-David

We’ve mentioned multiple times that deals may exist if the ‘perfect storm’ of circumstances presents itself, and you’re willing to take your chances with terrible post-sale customer service should something go wrong. It sounds like you’ve had positive experiences with Colder’s thus far, and we’re happy about that for you. Based on our own experiences, and feedback we’ve read and received from other Colder’s shoppers in the area, though, we hope you never have problems with any of your purchases.

You’re correct: sixty years is indeed a long time for any company to be in business. Companies don’t stay in business for sixty years by doing nothing right. We don’t think Colder’s sales practices of late are what brought them sixty years of business success, however. Terrible customer service–before, during and after the sale–and the flippant, arrogant, even combative attitudes of store and corporate management to customer issues and consumer complaints… are not what keep businesses standing in good stead for decades. So we agree, Colder’s probably didn’t get this far for this long by ripping people off over the last sixty years. But we believe they’re either directly or effectively doing exactly that now. And if they continue, they certainly won’t–and shouldn’t–last another sixty.

As for the million-dollar salesperson at Colder’s Grafton, that is impressive. If he did so himself, good for him; it’s even more impressive that it allegedly happened in what normally seems to be a pretty dead store. Maybe that’s a whole-store sales total, though–who really knows? We’d like to believe it’s true… but we’ve been told a lot of things by salespeople there that were just part of the pitch, that we later found weren’t true at all. If salespeople are engaging in the kinds of practices that we’ve experienced, of course, it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to bank a lot of money for the store and the company. Particularly, again, when store and corporate management ignore customers who have been ripped off by being told one thing one time and another thing entirely the next.

The most telltale thing of all as far as Colder’s commitment to good business and customer satisfaction is how easy it would be for them to fix our own situation. We only want what we were told we would receive at our initial purchase. Colder’s, though, to date, has still not done anything at all to ensure we will get the deal we were told we would get when we purchased from them last year during a Half-Back promotion. We were misled, and they have chosen to threaten us, lie to us, and are ultimately refusing to stand by their word and honor their agreement with us. They’ve contradicted themselves, muddled facts, and seem to have no interest in making any of it right. The corporate head of “customer service”, Sue Lewicki, has blown us off pretty much entirely. It seems Ms. Lewicki and Colder’s have turned “customer service” into “protection of the bottom line, no matter what.”

And again, we’re not the only ones with ongoing, unresolved problems. Colder’s apparently refuses to fix even the most minor customer issues to anyone’s satisfaction but their own. And it’s not just one salesperson or manager. It’s multiple people at all levels, from the sales floor to store management to Colder’s corporate offices.

So maybe it’s a minority of Colder’s customers who are affected. Technically. Increasingly, though, we believe the problem to be much larger than most people realize simply because they’ve not yet had occasion to experience it. We consider them incredibly lucky. And in fact, we’ve not seen a single report of someone having a post-sale issue with Colder’s where it was resolved to the customer’s complete satisfaction. And sure, it’s easier and more common for people to report the bad than the good, but Colder’s should have some positive customer-service-related news/comments out there somewhere…

As for the empty Grafton store parking lot, it was interesting to see someone else point this out before us. We drive past the Grafton Colder’s on I-43 multiple times a day most days. It’s usually pretty empty regardless of the day/time. And unless people are shopping in the store for hours and hours on end, day after day, some employees appear to be parking out in front of the store. Trying to make the store look busier than it is? Who knows. The same cars there in the morning or midday are still there in the evenings. Do other Colder’s stores do this, too? Based on our own observations, the Grafton store, relatively speaking, is not a very busy store. Given the location, the dearth of similar competition nearby, and the draw of all the other shopping in the immediate area, one would reasonably expect–in our view–a bit more consumer traffic than they seem to get.

Caveat emptor.

Thanks again, David.