Reader Chris writes the CEO of Sears to let him know why he’ll never step foot inside Sears ever again.
Dear Mr. Lewis,We are writing to you to document the abysmal experience we recently had with Sears following break-down of our Kenmore refrigerator/freezer.
The unit broke down on November 2nd, less than 1 year since we purchased it, and we called for repair service under the factory warranty. We were surprised to find that it would take a week before a technician could come to take a look, but we treated this as just ‘bad luck’ and resigned ourselves to throwing away 100′s of dollars of frozen and refrigerated groceries.
The technician came out on November 10th and replaced what he thought was the problem part and left. Within hours the unit was no colder and so we immediately called Sears again and were dumbfounded to be told that it would take another week for someone to come out again!
This was not acceptable to us and so we emailed you to request assistance and as a result were contacted by Carla in Sears Executive Office. When we spoke to her it transpired that she was unable to get our local Service department to respond to her. She said that she would call us back if and when they got in contact. As we did not hear back from her we can only assume they did not respond. If the Executive Office cannot get in contact with the Service Department, we as customers surely stand no chance!
At this point we waited until November 17th until the technician came out again. This time he diagnosed that the compressor was broken and that he’d have to order a new one. The earliest appointment we could get to install it was quoted as November 26th . This would mean that we would have been without a fridge & freezer for some 3 ½ weeks and our big family Thanksgiving Dinner plans would be ruined.
We decided to approach the Sears store that we purchased all our appliances from to see if they could help. The floor manager on duty was extremely unhelpful :
* She said that she couldn’t help us as, in her opinion, this was purely a Service issue and the Service department “is a separate organization”. Clearly your employees do not feel that they represent Sears Holdings as a single entity.
* She said that Kenmore appliances were very reliable but that we should have paid extra for the Extended Service Agreement to get timely repairs. It is extremely annoying to be told this when we already have a broken appliance and are trying to it repaired UNDER WARRANTY.
* She said that if we wanted to buy a new refrigerator she could give us a 10% discount. You can perhaps imagine how angry we were to have it suggested that spending another $1100 on a fridge was a good solution to Sears not being able to repair our existing one in less than a month.
* Understanding that her powers appeared to be limited, we tried to be flexible in accommodating any reasonable alternative approaches to addressing the situation, but even when pressed she could not suggest how we could escalate the issue other than calling the 1-800 number again
We can only hope that this is not how Sears would wish to be represented.
We contacted the Store Manager, who is our one positive experience with Sears in all this. He was very apologetic, and really made an effort to listen to the problem and try to find reasonable and creative ways to address it. He made some calls and we were in turn contacted by Executive Level Customer Support who modified the service date to November 21st (still a huge 19 days after the original problem occurred). Although apparently only having been an employee with Sears for a month, we really feel that the Store Manager treated the issue as his own and with respect, unlike other Sears people we had dealt with until this point.
We hope you would agree that there seem to be some serious problems with Sears Service, and the communication lines between them and the rest of the company. While the Store Manager is a good representative for your company and did his utmost to restore our faith in Sears, we see no indication that we would not encounter a similar situation with Sears Service in future. We were without refrigeration for 19 days, which is bad enough, but if we hadn’t engaged in vigorous, time-consuming and stressful chasing of this problem we may have been without this crucial appliance for nearly a month. We know from frank conversations with everyone involved in this (from Sears technicians to executive customer support) that our problems with getting timely service are not unusual exceptions, but are persistent and endemic.
Your Vision Statement says that “Sears Holdings is committed to improving the lives of our customers by providing quality services, products and solutions that earn their trust and build lifetime relationships.” For us, you have failed spectacularly on all counts.
Our entire family has purchased from Sears for many years based on your historical reputation for good customer service, but they will no longer make any purchases in your stores. We hope that by bringing our problems to your attention it will allow them to be fixed promptly and permanently for the good of other customers. We will not be buying from Sears again.
Yours faithfully,
Chris
As Meghann mentioned in a previous post, SEARS customer service is hard to crack. Each division might as well be in another dimension. In fact, their warranty repairs are, they’re in the outsourced division. Lowest bid wins! That’s why Sears corporate can’t rein in the repair guys, they’re not even on the company payroll.
(Photo: j2dread)
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@SavageATL: Lighten up Francis
Sears and Best Buy are similar. The Big box stores are only good at selling things cheap and that is it. Never expect service and never buy the warranties from either of them. It is pure profit for them and useless for you. Even if you have the warranty, you will spend more time trying to get them to honor it and when they honor it, it still won’t be fixed any better than all the reports above. Buy the cheapest item you can. When it breaks, THROW it away and get a new one. I’m sorry, but we live in a throw away consumer society and that is the way it is.
@SaraAB87:
This is the correct answer, Sara!
We started buying major appliances from a small, local independent store about 20 years ago (we’re on our third house in that time period, new appliances with each move). If there’s a problem, Joel gets it fixed. If it’s not fixable, he brings a new stove or whatever. Of course, most of the appliances are brands he recommends from personal experience, so we seldom have major problems anyway.
In many cases the small independent merchant will approximate the big-box sale prices.
I had a compressor issue with my upright freezer that I purchased at the Sears outlet. When it failed less than a year after purchase,the repairman told me that I had the option to return the unit completely, and get another one. I did.
wow-i’m purchasing a house and have to purchase several big ticket items. Guess I’m not going to Sears.
Why do I think that the only Sears employee who will be punished for this fiasco is the store manager?
Sears–a sad decline to a truly legendary and important American institution.
No problems with Sears here but I don’t know why the author didn’t take other steps to preserve the $100s of dollars of food in the fridge. I don’t know if they stocked up on Filet Mignon or lobster tails but it sure seems like a lot of $$$ for groceries. Personally, I have a second fridge because I stock up on sales and it more than compensates for the extra energy used. And if both my fridges went out at the same time, we’d have a huge party. I hate wasting food.
Now about the sub-thread regarding second language signage. Second language signage really does a disservice to those living here who do not speak English. If a non-native speaker wants to succeed in any country he would do well to learn the native language. I work at a business with many Hispanics and you do not get promoted unless you speak English. We have many Mexican-American managers but ALL speak English. They are proud of their heritage but also have chosen to live here and want to succeed.
My father-in-law, who was born in Italy, gets very frustrated with those who do not make the effort to learn English. It is themselves and their families that they are hurting. He came to the US when he was 18 and did not know English. He learned it so well that English is the main language spoken in his home and my wife, while she understand it, does not speak Italian. She does speak Espanol, however. It helps in the Desert Southwest.
Bilingual signage does not bother me. I’m happy to know if there’s a PISO MOJADO that I’m walking on but if someone lives in this country for over two years and doesn’t speak English–at least a little–they are really not trying.
For the sake of your familia, learn Inglese.
I have boycotted Sears since March 1962, when they refused to allow me to have a credit card in my own name (womens’ lib hadn’t arrived yet!). All the above leads me to believe I wasn’t wrong.
Quellman, I don’t normally shop at Sears but last Christmas I got some gifts from them and I brought them back to exchange. I was told to pick out what I wanted and just get in line with a cashier. Well, the line was incredibly loooong post Christmas, but I got moved to the front because most of the people in line were waiting for the Spanish speaking associate and ignoring the English speaking associate so I got moved up to the front of the line because I could speak English. Even I noticed I was the only non-Hispanic in line. I live in California and this has happened to me in the bank also, where I got moved to the front because everyone else was waiting for a Spanish speaker. So sometimes being in the minority in terms of speaking English is a good thing.
All I need to know about Sears quality I learned driving an 18 wheeler for a company that handled a lot of their freight. I watched a craftsman riding mower (in shipping carton) dropped about 10 feet off of a loading dock. Then it was loaded on my rig while the warehouse guys were giggling about it. When I got it (and the rest of the load) to the store it went to I mentioned it to the manager. The response: “If it doesn’t run they can file a warranty claim”. I’ll buy Craftsman tools, I have had good luck out of them. They can keep anything more complicated than that.
@ncboxer: I see your point about a required translator, ESL etc. I live in a heavily Spanish-speaking community myself. Of all the things that waste my money this one doesn’t bother me, but I understand where you’re coming from.
WELCOME TO AMERICA….YOU MUST BE NEW HERE
@gingerCE: see @Quellman:
Wow, talk about a timely post. The wife and I were considering purchasing a new refrigerator and have been hitting the Sears website and ads for a couple of weeks now. Not anymore…
How’s this for a plan:
1. Put in for repairs on the refrigerator
2. Go to Sears, take them up on their offer of 10% off a new fridge. Make sure delivery in 1-2 days is part of the deal. Pay with AMEX.
3. Install new fridge, move your perishables over.
4. Wait for repairs on the old unit.
5. Move foodstuffs back over to old, repaired unit.
6. Clean out new unit and return it to Sears.
7. If they won’t take it back, sic AMEX on them for a chargeback.
About three years ago my wife and I purchased a Kenmore range from Sears and it turned out to be a nightmare. I bake a lot from home, especially pizza, and this requires a 500 degree oven. Our old range (that came with the house when we bought it) was piss-poor but it was able to get to 500 degrees. The new oven would not. It was off by about 75 degrees to the negative. Dialing it to 500 netted a 425 degree oven.
We had FIVE service visits to fix the problem, and a different tech showed up each time and each one tried something different. When I finally tried to resolve it with the store manager, asking for a replacement or an upgrade, I was insulted and brushed aside.
I used Sears’ “90 Day Satisfaction Guaranteed” clause to return both the range and a dryer we had purchased at the same time. I asked the store manager if he was willing to lose the sale of $1,200 worth of merchandise by his refusal to work with me to solve the problem, and he said yes.
The appliances went back and I have not shopped at Sears since and will never do so again.
@badteaparty:
Seeing as English is the language of business, science & computing I don’t think we have a whole lot to worry about either. Yet. And no, I don’t mind seeing signs in other languages. I’m like, “Hey, free foreign language lesson!”
A lot of people don’t know this, but the United States does not have an official language defined anywhere. Not in the constitution, not in any of the laws. Nowhere. English is no more of an official language here than Klingon is. So next time you whine about someone speaking another language, just STFU.
The official language of Sears sales associates is “bullshit” and the official language of the service department is “lies spoken with a disdainful tone”. So I’m not sure where Spanish comes in…
@yg17: Nuqdaq yuch Dapol?
My Kenmore fridge needed multiple cheap plastic parts replaced over its one year warranty period. The last one broke again, just days outside the period and they would not replace it.
Also, found the dryer I bought at Sears selling for $70 less at Costco. Luckily Sears would price match, but I will be buying my appliances at Costco from now on. I’ll take limited selection over crappy service any day.
we had the same thing with our refridge…only this happened in july when it was hot as hell….said no one could come till 8 days…..i can understand waiting for a tv or stereo etc…but a fridge in july….unlike the story, our unit was repaired properly, but we will never buy another appliasnce from sears…we bought a new fridge from a local appliancnce dealer…i told him about the hassle with sears and asked him how ling it would take his outfit for service…he said if we called early enough he would get someone out the same day..if not the next for sure…..might pay a little more, but the peace of mind is worth it….sears is no m ore for us….
@zimorodok: I like <– his idea…
Not a lot to add to this discussion (which won’t stop me from posting!) except to note that we bought a Kenmore side by side a few years ago, and won’t buy another Kenmore appliance. The workmanship is just plain shoddy. Without abusing it, we’ve got chipped shelves, a broken ice dispenser, and a door “thingy” (that’s supposed to keep the door from opening too far) that cracked off.
Just sad.
I would have bought the biggest/best they had and returned it after the repair. I see others here had the same idea.
@Quellman: You don’t like the Spanish language signs. Because Americans don’t speak Spanish? Get real.
That said, I have had only positive experiences with Sears and have bought all our major appliances from them within the past 10 years. They have always been able to give me a “deal” – free shipping, upgraded model because the warehouse was out of the one we wanted, etc.
@Quellman: Saw your explanation of the c&p issue. Just wanted to mention it because I know sometimes explanatory posts get missed in the outrage.
My parents had a really bad experience with getting service for a washer AND a dryer purchased at Sears. Parts that took months to arrive, then were defective when they finally were installed, the whole bit. They finally bought new units somewhere else and wrote off Sears appliances for life.
Thankfully our fridge slowly died on us, so we had time to replace it before it was totally dead, that fridge lasted 25 years! Our fridge was also replaced in the summer. It is truly a disaster to lose a fridge though so I understand what everyone here is going through. We have a separate freezer so we threw mostly everything in there while transferring although some things don’t freeze well, like mayo.. yeah. There was only a few things that had to be thrown out thankfully.
As for the local places there is a reason they are still in business, the prices are competitive and service claims are handled within about 2 days if not less, sometimes they send someone right away if you are having a problem and there is someone available. If the prices were that much higher people would just go somewhere else and the place would be gone. Most local non-big box stores here have been in business for probably 50 years plus so they have obviously been able to change with the times and stay in business for a reason.
Service depends on which Sears you go to. My brother is a PM tech, and a friend does refrigeration repair for the local Sears store.
@ncboxer: I agree about the government signs/forms and such. Do them in english.
Having people take citizens oath in their native language because they haven’t learned english is th worst example of that I know of.
As for private companies, if they want to spend their $$ on signs in Swahili, that’s fine with me.
As for the service, does Sears have control over who service contractors do work for? Can the Sears people be Lowes people tomorrow?
I hope Sears is reading this…
Here’s one more customer who’ll never shop at Sears again. Whenever I hear a lot of horror stories about a company, why would I take the risk of buying from them?
Of course it doesn’t help that my parents have had problems at Sears too…
It’s nice to see people realizing buying from Sears isn’t a great idea, but I’d like to reiterate a point I’ve made a few times before.
We all know there isn’t a good reason to buy items from stores that have awful service, but why buy something from stores that have no service, such as home depot, best buy, or lowes? Buy from local appliance stores that service their own items. Generally, prices are competitive at worst, or for high ticket items, much better than a big chain store, and you get prompt service that relies only on the time it takes to get the physical part in.
My business gets refrigerator calls all the time, and they are either same day or next day service. You can live without a dishwasher for a week, but a refrigerator is needed.
The Sears I remember from my childhood and the Sears of today are VERY different, indeed. The salespeople are far less helpful, and my mom no longer drags me there to buy dress slacks (the worst torture an eight-year-old can bear)
But on the whole Spanish/English thing: I lived in South America for just over two years, in Ecuador, Peru, and for awhile in Colombia. No one made any special efforts to put up english signs for me, or to make it easier to get my visa extended. It took me about six months to learn the language, but I busted my ass so I could fit in and be a contributing member of society. I don’t see why our expectations should be any lower here.
@Pylon83:
I also am offended by Spanish AND French on packaging, signage or any other type of printed matter in stores. This is America damn it! English is the language of this land. You don’t see English on products sold in Mexico, or Europe. If you want to live in that Country, learn the language or go away.
@vildechaia:
I have boycotted Sears since March 1962, when they refused to allow me to have a credit card in my own name (womens’ lib hadn’t arrived yet!). All the above leads me to believe I wasn’t wrong.
I thought I was the queen of “I’m never going back there & I mean it”. but I bow before you. That is all kinds of awesome. Thank you for sharing & I would have done the exact same thing.
@TexasScout:
I also am offended by Spanish AND French on packaging, signage or any other type of printed matter in stores. This is America damn it! English is the language of this land.
So, can we all assume that you’ll be the one walking door-to-door to collect names to change the name of the country. It’s named after an Italian, dammit! Amerigo Vespucci.
So, yeah. English only, dude.
@marsneedsrabbits:
NO dipstick, the CONTINENT was named after him, this contry is the UNITED STATES of AMERICA.
Funny that I’ve had almost the complete opposite experience at Sears. I’ll actually never buy anywhere else. Home Depot and Lowe’s have all been crap for service and Sears was much better at pricing than the local dealers. I’ve bought 2 refrigerators and a set of washer/dryers from them in the last 6 years all with their extended service plan. In all cases I was able to get their pricing down less than other stores, including the warranty and free shipping. Installation has always been on the day I asked for and the crew was friendly and moved everything right where asked, hooked it up perfectly, checked it was working and moved older appliances when needed.
I had a few problems on our original Maytag fridge and the server folks came out quick (within a day) and fixed it right away. When they didn’t have parts (on one occassion) they were back the next day. No problems what so ever.
I’ve also purchased a Dyson from them and my wife was able to get it exchanged without problem after a few months of use from the store directly after it cracked, no questions asked and a price break on it. I guess it all depends on your particular store or who you get.
OK, so Sears sucks. But where should we go then?
I agree with an earlier poster who said that it sounds like A&E Factory service is the repair company. A&E is owned by Sears Holding. I recently spent 7 MONTHS trying to have a dishwasher repaired by A&E. After 7 service calls, several missed appointments and installing over $1000 in parts (for a $500 dishwasher) and refusing to install parts that the original technician ordered that I had in my possesion, they “fixed” it with a strip of duct tape. After countless phone calls and letters to the manufacturer I was able to get a new diswasher which a technician installed, and nearly started a fire in my kitchen in the process when they forgot to install a wire-nuts on the bare wires.
A&E is the preferred “Authorized” repair service for Kenmore, Whirlpool, Maytag, Jen-Air, Amanna and I believe that they were negotiating w/ GE. Anyone in Consumerist land have Executive contacts for A&E? The only way that I was able to get a response was to file BBB complaints against Sears Holdings as the parent company (That did not want their reputation tarnished).
In 1977 I bought a refrigerator from Sears to replace a refrigerator that died, having been on its last legs for months. I had just bought my house when the fridge died, so was broke. Normally I would have, could have bought the new fridge for cash, but had to buy it on credit. Sears insisted that I get the “major purchase” account. I had asked for a standard revolving credit account.
I dutifully made payments for a few months. I got a bonus from my employer and decided to pay off the fridge. I was horrified to discover that the “major purchase” account calculated interest according to the “Rule of 78″ (or something like that). In any case, that form of interest calculation is illegal now. In effect, I paid it anyway, paying almost twice the sticker price of the fridge to get out from under the debt.
At the time I told Sears that I’d never buy anything from them again. I’m proud to say that since the summer of 1977 I have never bought a single thing from Sears. It might be another 30 years before I consider doing it too.
Assholes!
@TexasScout:
And the word is Italian, so if you want to get rid of languages-other-than English, start there, potty mouth.
The letter was a waste of time. The OP should have attached a monetary value to each offense and demanded compensation from Sears.
After the first failed repair attempt, an independant repairman should have been called in. Again, send Sears the bill and demand compensation.
I skimmed through the 90 comments so far — non seem to address the issue. Why not hire a local repair service? It’s wasting time and food $ to be dealing with Sears.
@Hossofcourse:
I can answer your question on why not deal with a local repair service. It seems that A&E/Sears repair have such a bad reputation that the GOOD local repair centers “Will not touch an appliance ‘repaired’ by A&E/Sears with a 20 foot pole” (Exact words used by a local service center when I tried to get my diswasher repaired after I was forced to use A&E/Sears)…the reason, they do nat want to tarnish their reputation as they do not know what sort of hidden damage the Sears techs have done when attempting repairs. This puts consumers in a tough situation once they have started down the path of dealing with “Sears Authorized Technicians”…either give up and purchase a new appliance, or hope that Sears will some day, get around to repairing your appliance. For those who are in need of repairs, go with a local repair service if at all possible.
Kenmore stuff is pure junk. 20 years ago, stuff was decently built no matter what name went on it. A lot of middle/lower end Kenmore fridges for example are made by Fridgidaire, who was never known for real high quality products. I had a Kenmore dryer burn out after only 9 years, and a Kenmore washer which quit around the same time, after being repaired numerous times.
So when I bought replacements, I went to a local appliance store, and bought a commercial-quality Speed Queen washer and dryer (after doing heavy research). Kenmore stuff is just plasticky junk now a days. It pays to spend a few hundred dollars more at a local store and know that you are buying something that will last for many many years.
@TexasScout:
“You don’t see English on products sold in Mexico, or Europe”
Yeah, I guess they don’t speak English in England. The language is named after the country, but that doesn’t mean anything, does it?
And when I was in Mexico, many products did have both English and Spanish, and several of the people there did speak a decent amount of English.
Idiot.
I’ll never use Sears Automotive Dept. after an incident I had several years ago at their Lindale Mall location in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At the time I owned a ’93 Chevy Lumina Z-34 and needed a battery for it. I called them and told them exactly which year, model, engine size etc. I was asked to confirm the info 2 more times and I finally got a price for the battery and told him I’d be there in about 20 minutes. I drove there and went to the counter and told the guy at the counter that I’d just spoke to someone on the phone about about a battttery and I was here to have it installed. He asked for my vehicle info (again) and I told him the same info I’d told the person on the phone, a 1993 Chevy Lumina Z-34 with a 3.4L engine. Sure enough they had the battery but now they wanted to charge me another $15 to install it since it was more difficult to install than a regular Lumina. I asked him why I wasn’t told this on the phone when I’d given them every bit of info they needed to determine price. He told me he didn’t know. I asked to speak with a manager and a few minutes later the automotive dept. manager appeared. I explained to him how I’d told the person on the phone the relevant information about my car 3 times on the phone and then once I got to the store there was going to be an additional $10 charge for installing it. He said he didn’t know why but there was nothing he could do about it. He asked me if I still wanted the battery and I said “Sure, if it’s for the price I was quoted on the phone.” He still said no. He told me he could install the battery for the proce I was quoted plus the additional $15 fee. I then asked him if I should drop my pants and bend over too and I was then told to leave the store immediately.
Sorry for the typo’s above. The additional fee was $15, not $10 like I typed in the middle of my above response.