Fast forward to early last week. The item had not yet arrived, and I got in contact with Sears. Imagine my surprise when they told me that the item had been ordered through their third party marketplace and they weren't responsible. I went back and repeated my steps, and at no point did it suggest that there was a third party marketplace at Sears.com. I had no clue. When I finally found where it was mentioned, it was on the product page in teeny tiny letters that my middle aged eyes couldn't see. I even asked my equally middle aged husband if he could see it. He couldn't. And all it said was "sold by Ventures by the Sea." That was the only indication throughout the entire transaction that showed I wasn't doing business with Sears, and I missed it. Yeah - I get it. That is entirely my fault, but Sears does its best to hide the fact that you are about to do business with a third party vendor through their site.

As I researched further, I found that Daily Ventures by the Sea has a bogus phone number and a yahoo.com email address. They also have only poor feedback. They gave a bogus shipping tracking ID to Sears. Clearly, they have stolen from me and Sears helped them do it. Sears says it isn't their problem, it is mine. They will not help me and they will not refund my money even though it is Sears Holding Corporation to whom my payment went. All they do is apologize, tell me its up to me to work out, tell me they value me as a customer, and suggest I continue to shop at Sears. Which is never, ever going to happen again.

The way I see it, Sears needs to take several actions:

1. Give me my darn money back. I paid them - not a third-party vendor.

2. Better inform their customers that they are about to do business with a third-party vendor.

3. Screen their vendors better, since they are allowing them to sell through Sears' system.

4. Get rid of this clearly crooked vendor.