I remember when I first started with Sears as a CE associate, one of my very first Sears card applications that I had processed on my own had been approved. While this lady filled it out she kept saying over and over that her credit was in bad shape and would be surprised if she was approved for $500, or approved at all. Her friends or groupies that she was with (all shady looking) were saying, yeah, you're not gonna get anything! Well, the register spit out an approval for $5500.00! Their reaction was as if they won the lottery. Immediately after they had gotten approved they were picking out three TV's, a surround sound home theater system, a stereo system, a sound bar, TV stands, bluray players, accessories. No rhyme or reason. They wanted five year PAs on everything. I didn't even have to ask, they just said they wanted the warranty and the whole shebang.
I literally did not have to talk to them about anything, they were just randomly buying things left and right. It just didn't seem right. The only effort on my part was running to the stockroom to double check the stock and to key it all in to the register. It was my easiest sale ever. One thing that really raised a red flag is that they wanted to take home everything that day and they were looking at TV's like "it's big, it's expensive, I don't care." They didn't want to wait for delivery. One of the TV's they had picked out was not in stock and had to be ordered. I lied and said that I would run back to the stockroom to double check the stock again when I really went off to tell a manager.
So I told the manager the whole deal and he said something like, "well, it's not like we would lose money if they didn't intend to pay the credit card bill. They're getting PA's and attachments and you are going to have a really good commission". True, the commissions and spiffs turned out to be well over $800 after it was all said and done but I just felt awkward about the whole thing.
I think the reason why they wanted everything IMMEDIATELY was because they thought that the credit card company would second guess their application or approval and cancel the order (I'm not sure if that actually happens). I think they cashed out at about $5200 with me and then they headed over to softlines probably to max out the $300 left over. I'm very and positively sure that their intention was to max out that card and ditch the bill.