Tom just sent us a follow-up to yesterday’s post, and it’s good news:
Score another one for The Consumerist!
This morning I contacted Sears’ Executive Customer Service Department. They attempted to contact the store manager on my behalf. I stress “attempted” because they were hung up on too.
Nothing is more satisfying than witnessing Executive Customer Service being treated as crappy (crappily?) as the rest of the world. From what I could gather, they were forced to submit a company e-mail to the manager…you know, the manager that doesn’t have voicemail.
Just a few minutes ago I was contacted by gentleman from CitiBank (which runs Sears Card). His name was Mark Ennis. He informed me that he called the store and was blown off just like everyone else. It wasn’t until he told them that he was with the Presidential Offices for CitiBank that people started jumping through hoops.
Mark saw the story on Consumerist (he mentioned it by name). Since he saw the article on your site, he didn’t know my last name or address. So he had the store pull every TV purchase on Black Friday that was made by anyone named Tom. (This is like “Law & Order” for retail.) From there he was able to find my contact info and, more importantly, figure out what happened.
Apparently after they refunded my first TV, they immediately re-rang it. The prevailing theory is that when I called the store to complain they looked up the transaction, saw the initial refund and stopped looking thereby missing the fact that it was re-rang moments later. Once they saw the refund, they assumed everything was ok and stopped looking.
Mark also noticed that in CitiBank’s notes it showed that they had asked me to prove that I didn’t receive the TV. He seemed genuinely shocked by that because, as those of us that are NOT Tier 1 support can tell you, it’s pretty much impossible to prove a negative.
I also informed him about the fact that their Dispute Department doesn’t have a hold queue. He seemed pretty embarrassed about that fact. So, either Mark was an awesome actor or he was actually “taking this matter seriously”.
The store has contacted me and it seems that they’re actually refunding me the money this time. They were asking me questions that they hadn’t before (like my address). So I think I’m finally getting this matter rectified.
Oh, and it sounds like Juan and Tanaka might have an awkward conversation with the Presidential Offices of CitiBank in their not to distant futures.
Thanks to Mark, Sears customer service and especially The Consumerist. You guys are better than the BBB when it comes to getting stuff like this fixed.
Oh, and thanks to the Sears in Chesterfield. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you treated the big wigs at Sears and CitiBank in the same shitty manner that you’ve been treating me for the last 4 1/2 months. I was afraid that these people would think I was crackpot. But thanks to your consistent substandard job performance you quickly established my legitimacy.
Thanks again,
Tom
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I was in construction management for many years. I tool that I’ve used in the past when someone holds your money and refuses to part with it is to sue for loss of use of funds. Say I owe you $10,000, I agree that I owe you but refuse to pay you. You might have to borrow money, lose opportunities, fall behind on your own bills, suffer credit problems, etc. You must document your loses but the courts can, and often do, award you substantially more that what was owed. This tactic might be used if the amount being withheld from you is a couple of thousand or more.
Paradigm shifts galore.
1) The increasing importance and management of rep on the internets
2) The shift away from depending on the woefully inadequate BBB to resolve consumer problems to sites like The Consumerist
3) The fact that these shifts are occurring so very, very rapidly
This is a terrific site. I recommend a daily read to everyone I know.
congrats to Tom, and good job by citibank.
Best thread ever. Great job Consumerist!
@kalell: oh right, let’s bend over backwards for the stores since we can’t actually expect “customer service” to actually work and/or take calls in any helpful manner. Silly OP.
and this is why i won’t set foot at a Sears store… and i’m such a spender.
Maybe consumerist should refer to it self as:
“The Consumerist: The BETTER better business bureau.”
Also, fuck you sears. Fuck you.
@m4ximusprim3:
“Where what people say actually means something”
You deserve
29.9% Interest on your money + $150 late f ee for the first month, at which point the interest rate rises to 40% due to a default on the “borrower’s (Sears)” part. Add to that a $150 late fee for each subsequent month, and a $40 overdraft-type fee for each late fee – compounding intrest on all the fees of course.
Oh, and don’t forget to add a 10% just because fee accompanied by a pictogram trace of your middle finger.
I am compelled to add to this story in case anyone gets the wrong impression that the Citibank side of the equation is any better than Sears. I am in the middle of trying to resolve a creedit dispute which Sears has admitted was a result of an order entry error but they claimed that since Citibank has the account, I had to deal directly with them. So I contacted Citibank…….
The Citibank dispute representative, Ross (they refuse to give full names) was rude, condescending, insulting, illogical and essentially called me a liar on the phone. He refused to help at all and said the entire situation was my fault. I have since worked with another Citibank representative that was actually helpful and provided clear guidance as to what I need to do to get things resolved.
In my experience, it has been hit or miss with getting good customer service from either company. Luckily, my boyfriend is a lawyer and having him conference in on the calls to customer service was the key to getting an adequate response from anyone. Without him, I would be SOL.