Passenger Trains > Sears--"Late train"

I own a hotel and need a part for an appliance that Sears services for us. The shipment was supposed to arrive Thursday, but an email message arrived instead. Here is what it said:

Carrier Details:
Late train
Delivery rescheduled

The shipment was via UPS.

What does this have to do with passenger trains? Well, it is proof that the meltdown out there is affecting more than just passengers. UPS is being delayed as well, and that is not going to sit well if the rails cannot get this figured out by the holiday shipping rush. Perhaps Amtrak trains will be beneficiaries of the unclogging of the system.

At least I hope so.

They will probably put the UPS stuff together to make a unit train and give it priority over Amtrak.

Several years ago I took a trip to Chicago with my brother on the Kentucky Cardinal (See, I said several years ago.) On the way back to Louisville we were delayed in Indianapolis for 30 or 45 minutes due to freight movements. Then, when we were crossing the Ohio River and about to enter Louisville, we were stopped on the bridge. There was a barge tow going through the locks and we had to cross a lift bridge. We were less that a mile from our destination and we sat there for 20 minutes or more. I know, the least controllable vessel usually has the right of way. That's when my brother sort of summed it up. He said, "Poor old Amtrak. The have to wait for everyone else."

Seems like that's true. They wait for a hotshot unit train, oil train, or just about anything else on iron wheels. They also get delayed for draw bridge operations occasionally but that is mostly on the east coast and we don't really hear much about that.

John

Oh, BTW, Hope your part arrives soon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/14 09:20 by wa4umr.

I have a Sears range/oven and fridge. Neither has worked properly since the day they arrived.

On one of his trips, the repair guy mentioned his parts problem. It used to be that they carried the 50 or so most commonly replaced small appliance parts on the truck. Could do most repairs in one visit. Then they changed the rules so you had to do a second appointment and bring the parts from the facility. First trip confirmed the part, second trip did the install.

That didn't work too well because sometimes the problem was with a different part. So they needed a third trip.

In my case, they made three trips and then decided I needed a new ceramic cook top unit. Since that's no longer stored at the regional warehouse, it has to be shipped from some place in Missouri to NJ. That takes ten days. Likely the UPS trip mentioned in the original post.

Sears is broke. It can't finance inventory anymore, and won't stock parts etc on which its apparently successful appliance business is based. On its way to join K-Mart, Montgomery Ward, FW Woolworth US, etc in the dustbin of commerce. Even if Eddie Lampert hadn't tried to rescue / loot the business it would have perished anyway.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a Sears range/oven and fridge. Neither has
> worked properly since the day they arrived.
>
> On one of his trips, the repair guy mentioned his
> parts problem. It used to be that they carried the
> 50 or so most commonly replaced small appliance
> parts on the truck. Could do most repairs in one
> visit. Then they changed the rules so you had to
> do a second appointment and bring the parts from
> the facility. First trip confirmed the part,
> second trip did the install.
>
> That didn't work too well because sometimes the
> problem was with a different part. So they needed
> a third trip.
>
> In my case, they made three trips and then decided
> I needed a new ceramic cook top unit. Since that's
> no longer stored at the regional warehouse, it has
> to be shipped from some place in Missouri to NJ.
> That takes ten days. Likely the UPS trip
> mentioned in the original post.
>
> Sears is broke. It can't finance inventory
> anymore, and won't stock parts etc on which its
> apparently successful appliance business is based.
> On its way to join K-Mart, Montgomery Ward, FW
> Woolworth US, etc in the dustbin of commerce.
> Even if Eddie Lampert hadn't tried to rescue /
> loot the business it would have perished anyway.


Nobody stocks parts anymore. Per the beancounters it's an unneeded overhead expense.

PHall Wrote:


> Nobody stocks parts anymore. Per the beancounters
> it's an unneeded overhead expense.
Inventory is taxed. Bussines' don't want to pay any taxes.

Same thing when my GE Air Conditioner sprung a leak...Took 5 weeks to get parts.....Nice huh!!!!!

No one wants to pay taxes on parts inventory.....

Here in Canada, my neighbour has been waiting six weeks for parts for his Sears Craftsman lawn tractor. Latest word was maybe mid-November.

Somebody needs to put Sears out of its misery .... A once-good store, now just crap.

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

AP article in Seattle Times business section today on UPS and FedEx holiday shipping efforts.
They say they will not repeat last years meltdown, due to much order volumn.
But I wonder how they are going to get their rail shipments on time?

I owned and operated a small business for 30 years. Recently he manufacturers we dealt with started
requiring us dealers to stock parts rather then themselves ( the manufacturer of the product and parts).

The reason was taxed inventory was killing them, so they put the burden on us little guys.

This thread took an interesting turn...

:-)

wa4umr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Several years ago I took a trip to Chicago with my
> brother on the Kentucky Cardinal (See, I said
> several years ago.) On the way back to Louisville
> we were delayed in Indianapolis for 30 or 45
> minutes due to freight movements. Then, when we
> were crossing the Ohio River and about to enter
> Louisville, we were stopped on the bridge. There
> was a barge tow going through the locks and we had
> to cross a lift bridge. We were less that a mile
> from our destination and we sat there for 20
> minutes or more. I know, the least controllable
> vessel usually has the right of way. That's when
> my brother sort of summed it up. He said, "Poor
> old Amtrak. They have to wait for everyone else."

So how did Amtrak solve this problem? Why, they discontinued the KENTUCKY CARDINAL, of course!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/14 14:03 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

Recent story reported Sears was selling Canadian Divisions, to raise money for the remaining.

Chessie1963 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This thread took an interesting turn...
>
> :-)


Railroads exist in the real world.

Changes in tax policy affect them. Investing in the right of way is a decision that is based on many factors, including the expected return on investment.

They're closing a bunch of stores in PA. Fortunately my railfan friend's (RR content) store isn't one of them.

Sears/K-Mart died a decade ago.
On life support now.
They will follow Monkey Wards to the graveyard as soon as they pull the plug.

See: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sears-passed-point-no-return-160310485.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/14 22:22 by BobP.

If Sears lasts more than two more years, I'll be shocked. Eddie and his management team are in denial, though they lost a lot of money in the last six years. He's selling off brands and closing stores to stop the bleeding and raise cash. If billionaire Eddie didn't have so much of his fortune invested in the business it would have been gone already. Maybe we should call him "Special Ed" like they call another Ed on the steam board? Who in their right might would put all their eggs in one basket like that?

I bought an expensive dehumidifier from Sears a few years ago. It went back many times under warranty. It was always something different. Finally, after the warranty ran out I told them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine. But you know what? They wanted me to renew the warranty. Were they making money off me? These units are too heavy to be hauling back and forth in your car. Much of the Craftsman line is junk now too. It is my understanding there is (was) a class action suit over that.

I have a cashier friend that works at Sears and they pressure her to sell credit cards: cards with 25% APR! and if she doesn't meet quota, they call her in the office. If she does, she gets a candy bar! LOL And all the customers have to stand in line and wait while the applicant fills out the info and waits to be approved. By the time they get to the checkout, they are fuming and get nasty with her.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/14 20:08 by wabash2800.

Chessie1963 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I own a hotel and need a part for an appliance
> that Sears services for us. The shipment was
> supposed to arrive Thursday, but an email message
> arrived instead. Here is what it said:
>
> Carrier Details:
> Late train
> Delivery rescheduled
>
> The shipment was via UPS.
>
> What does this have to do with passenger trains?
> Well, it is proof that the meltdown out there is
> affecting more than just passengers. UPS is being
> delayed as well, and that is not going to sit well
> if the rails cannot get this figured out by the
> holiday shipping rush. Perhaps Amtrak trains will
> be beneficiaries of the unclogging of the system.
>
> At least I hope so.

I got a similar message on behalf of one of my clients who owns a store on the East Coast. The shipment status report said there was an "unexpected delay in enroute due to a late train carrying the shipment." Didn't involve a Sears order!

Guess my decision to stop buying "lifetime" guaranteed Craftsman tools and buy cheaper Harbor Freight tools was a good one.

I worked at the dialtone factory and as time went on, we had fewer and fewer parts available. I worked on what was called "special service" circuits... data lines, ISDN, tie lines, etc... One day I had an order for a customer that wanted 6 lines available at the airport for their client. The plug-in coordinator sent us the parts we needed but some of them were bad and the only spare in the office was defective. I had to call the supervisor at home to get someone to get the parts to us. She didn't really want to do it and ask if it was all that important? My response went something like this. "If you don't want to get the parts for us tonight I want to make sure I have your name correctly but does WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS AGENCY mean anything to you because these are for the Presidents arrival tomorrow morning?" She ask me how many I needed. In another cases we had to call out a guy to pick up a part, take it to the airport and put it on a plane and the guy needing it had to drive 150 miles roundtrip to pick up the part.... a $75 part.

It's not just Sears. Some places are just worse than others. The railroads just seem to do it with lack of passing tracks or parts to repair equipment in a timely fashion without stealing from another unit that is sitting there waiting for another part. Beside that, it's a cut throat business, no matter what business you're in.

John

That's something the Amtrak groupies never get.

If an Amtrak train gets delayed, a hundred or so people get inconvenienced.

If a train with a dozen loaded UPS trailers gets delayed, tens of thousands of people get inconvenienced.