How Sears lost an easy $1200

John and I knew, when we bought this house, that we'd have to replace the kitchen appliances. And yesterday, we decided to replace the refrigerator and the dishwasher. The dishwasher is so loud ("how loud is it?") that you can't have a conversation in the kitchen while it's running. In any case, we went to Sears yesterday evening, determined to come home with an order for these two appliances. We walked into the kitchen department at Sears and then he struck. "How can we help you folks navigate this forest of dishwashers?" The determined salesman. John gave him the standard 'leave us alone' line: "Oh, we're just looking." But this one-- 85-year-old Carl-- was not easily rebuffed. Instead of being put off, he forged ahead. "Well, clearly, you're going to want to look at these dishwashers here." And he proceeded to lead us on a fifteen-minute tour of The Most Expensive Dishwashers Ever Made. We kept interjecting, but Carl was nonplussed. He even insisted on giving us prices based on what it would cost to pay with a Sears card (which we repeatedly told him we weren't getting). Finally I took John's hand and said, very determinedly, "well, it sounds like we've got a lot to think about! Why don't we go home and talk it over?" At which point Carl gave us a guilt trip about what it's like to work on commission and asked us to come back before his shift was up... in 30 minutes. We booked it out of Sears so fast we didn't even stop to look at the refrigerators. And what kills me is, Carl would have had a nice $1200 sale on his hands! Instead, he left his shift at 6 probably thinking that we were cheap. Ah, well. You can't win 'em all.