After WCVB in Boston did an investigation into Sears’ awful, awful customer service record when it comes to installation and repair of appliances (a category in which they used to excel), Sears has now apologized to its Boston customers.
We see absolutely no evidence that Sears’ horrific customer service is in any way limited to the Boston area. In fact, we don’t see any evidence that the problem is limited to this country. The most recent complaint we published was from Canada.
Sears’ CEO should apologize to all of their customers in North America, not just the ones who are embarrassing them on television. Here’s Sears’ statement (emphasis ours):
“Through a combination of the efforts of our associates, along with the additional capacity we’ve added in the Boston market, Sears is starting to see improved response times for our warranty and service contract customers and we continue to aggressively work through our backlog of open orders.
We want our customers to know that we take their satisfaction very seriously and will continue to focus on improving service levels in that area.
In addition, beginning this week, any customer after Sept. 1 who had a cycle time (from first call to completed service) longer than 14 days will receive a letter from our CEO, along with an extension of the term of their product warranty or service contract.”
As a reminder, here are the steps we’ve been taking to improve our service levels:
# The current workforce is scheduled for 6 day weeks.
# We have temporarily reassigned technicians from southern New Hampshire, Boston’s North and South Shore areas and from Rochester, NY to the western suburban Boston areas to increase capacity.
# We will be using authorized outside contractors where available and appropriate.
# We are prescreening scheduled service calls for parts that need to be ordered & shipped to avoid unnecessary trips and to decrease cycle times.
# We’ve hired additional service techs over the past six weeks who have started running service calls this month, and intend to continue to recruit additional techs into that market until our service response time returns to an acceptable level.
“Chris Brathwaite | DVP – Corp. Public Relations Sears Holdings
If you would like an apology from Sears, please tell us why at tips@consumerist.com. Put “Sears Apology” in the subject.
Sears CEO Apologizes To Boston-Area Customers [WCVB] (Thanks, John!)
(Photo:OctopusHat)
PREVIOUS SEARS COMPLAINTS: Four Months Later, The Fridge You Paid Sears To Remove Is Still Sitting There
Sears Takes 2 Months And 4 Appointments To Fix Improperly Installed Washer
Sears Front-Loading Washer Leaves Clothes Stinky
Sears Unable To Fulfill Black Friday Online Orders, How About Something Crappier Instead?
Why I’m Never Shopping At Sears Again
Sears Hangs Up On You Because They Forgot To Mail The Replacement Part
Need A $34.95 Warranty Covered Part? That’ll be $65 For The Useless Service Call
Sears Left Me Without A Refrigerator For 18 Days
UPDATE: Sears.com Repeatedly Delivers Wrong Dryer, Doesn’t Correct Website
Sears Tells You Your Order Is In Stock, Even If It’s Not
Sears Home Repair Is Confused By Your Fridge
Insane Sears Repair Guy Pours Olive Oil and Super Glue Everywhere
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Sounds like more lip service. I especially like the “apply online” part.
That’s nice.
Unfortunately, I take my dislike of Sears very seriously as well and it works seven days a week.
Wow, talk about low-hanging fruit in terms of finding a company to do a documentary on!
Too little, too late. Sears has messed up enough in my eyes – enough for me to stay the hell away from them, whatever the cost may be.
Ha Ha! Sears loves me! The rest of you can go suck it!
So they’re overworking the people they’ve got, removing staff form some areas to service areas where they got embarrassed, and are extending warranties further which, while nice, will come back and bite them if they don’t really fix things and even more people call for warranty repairs?
Rock on. Sounds like a HVAC company I used to work for that tanked.
My mom last went to Sears in 1972, when she tried to buy a washing machine and had a pretty bad customer experience.
Why do we constantly whine over this stuff vs. just shopping elsewhere? My mom hasn’t had a single problem with Sears in over 35 years, as she’s never stepped back inside one.
The fact that we all complain, but the continue to shop there is some form of Darwinism.
@gamehendge2000: It’s only Darwinism if they die.
@Jaysyn:
Ok, maybe not Darwinism, but certainly masochism
sears and k-mart…..what a happy family. lets hope they don’t have a bunch of bastard children.
I’d like Sears to apologize for buying Kmart. Plain and simple.
You get a letter from the CEO, no doubt telling you how seriously they are. Suitable for framing, dart boards, or target practice.
What, are they in cahoots with Fisher-Price, which only gives a damn about you if you live 5 miles to the east of where I work?
Okay, wait…if you’ve been waiting longer than 2 weeks, you get a friggin’ letter from the CEO, & an extension on a service contract where IT TAKES 2 WEEKS TO GET A TECHNICIAN OUT??? It’s just some absurd cycle. Why would people be satisfied with an extension on a warranty or contract if they weren’t originally satisfied with it? I would imagine they would promise some form of monetary compensation or anything else BUT that.
Translation: Since our service sucks and we don’t want to fix it, we’ll give you more official sounding words on paper, delivered right to your door. Have a great day!
“The current workforce is scheduled for 6 day weeks”
Oh yea that is going to work wonders. Minimal wage employees working harder, more hours. Yep, what a way to improve service.
I want an apology from Sears. I arranged to stay home from work in the afternoon to receive my new stove, and the bastards showed up early and tried to deliver it in the morning instead.
Well, that’s nice for Boston. What about the folks in the areas where Sears is stealing workers from?
I didn’t have a working washing machine for a month this summer. Sears said they didn’t have anyone who could come out to fix it. I got a letter of apology, but no extension of warranty coverage. I live in the Boston area.