Syosset lawyer sues Sears on pricing policy

A trial was to begin this morning in Mineola in which a lawyer from Syosset, representing himself, is accusing Sears of refusing to honor its price-matching policy, forcing him to pay more than he believes he should have paid for a TV.

Sears denies any wrongdoing and asks in papers filed with the court that the suit by lawyer Warren Dank, 43, be dismissed.

The jury trial before State Supreme Court Justice Stephen A. Bucaria is to determine whether Sears honored its advertised policy, which states "if you find a lower price on an identical branded item with the same features currently available for sale at another local retail store, Sears will match that price plus give you 10 percent of the difference."

Dank contends in court papers that in February 2007 personnel at Sears' Hicksville and Garden City stores refused to match lower prices advertised for a large television by two retailers in Manhattan: J&R Music World and Price Mad. Dank said Sears listed the set for $3,600, J&R had it for $2,800 and Price Mad was offering it for $2,400.

Dank said he eventually paid $2,800 for the TV but was told by Sears that it wouldn't match Price Mad's figure because it was not a local retail store.

Dank's suit, filed in May 2007, accuses Sears of "false advertising," and being "intentionally deceptive and misleading" in allowing its stores to arbitrarily decide whether to adhere to its price policy -- all of which Sears denies in its own court papers.

A Sears spokeswoman said the company does not comment on pending lawsuits, but in court papers filed in February in answer to Dank's suit, Sears denies refusing to honor its price guarantee and denies that one of its employees told Dank, as he claims, that individual Sears stores have discretion in how to honor Sears' price guarantee.

Dank said he is pursuing the suit because "my real goal here is not to settle but to expose the fraud. That's why I carried this on."