Gregg wants us to know that Sears has just hung up on one of the last people in America who hasn’t totally given up on them. He’s spent quite a lot of time lately trying to give them $1500 for a lawn tractor, but they just couldn’t figure out how to complete the transaction. Yes, Sears has finally gotten to the point that they can’t take your money even if you want to give it to them.
My recent problems with Sears have driven me so crazy I checked to see if you had EECB contact info. When I saw all the stuff you had on Sears, I thought you’d love this story. I’ll try to be short.
As background, I have an irrational loyalty to Sears. In the last 5 years I have spent probably over $20,000 on appliances, mattresses, and power tools there. I drive by 3 Home Depots to get to Sears; I want them to succeed for some bizarre reason. I don’t even get it, haven’t really even had great experiences, but nonetheless keep on going back. In May I tried to buy a lawn tractor, which is where the problem began.
ROUND ONE: The day after ordering the tractor online, I went back to check the order status and saw nothing. So I called Sears and they said the order had been declined by AMEX. I asked, “Was anyone going to call and tell me?” and she said, “No, we don’t do that.” So I called AMEX, told them to take the charge (which they denied declining), and called back to place the order live. She then told me that it would take 3 WEEKS for delivery. (Do you know how much it costs to pay someone to mow 3 acres?) Reluctantly, and accepting the situation in good humor, I agreed.
ROUND TWO: 3 WEEKS later: nothing. No call, no delivery, nothing. I call Sears, and they again blame AMEX. I explained that AMEX cannot possibly be the problem since I spoke to them live. I also noted that in the intervening three weeks, I charged a $15,500 set of airline tickets and $18,100 for a new roof, both of which zipped through without a problem. Nonetheless, I told him I’d replace the order if they didn’t make me wait 3 more weeks. He put me on hold for an eternity and then agreed. I had bought the tractor on sale so I actually think he was doing some work to recreate the original terms of the sale. I told him I would not hang up until he confirmed that the charge went through so there would be no more opportunity to blame AMEX. He laughed and agreed, and we hung up friends. I suggested that they call customers when a sale doesn’t go through, because that’s a way to GET MORE MONEY, and he said he’d pass that along. Which he clearly didn’t.
ROUND THREE: My tractor, now ordered twice, was scheduled for delivery today, so I called last night to confirm. What a shocker, same story. Now, normally I would just say screw it and order somewhere else, but (1) it takes a long time to research tractors, and I didn’t want to go through that process again, and (2) I had gotten a really good price or $1299 for a $1799 tractor and I wanted them to honor the price. ALso, the sales for tractors all happened around fathers day and now I would be stuck at full price somewhere else. I should also note that one bizarre thing about Sears tractors is they have identical models where one model is on sale and one isn’t. I don’t get it, but the picture on the site does show them in different colors, but when you click “compare,” they are exactly the same – every word, every spec. So when the woman said, I’m sorry, it’s out of stock, I laughed (as did she) and suggested that they give me one of the identical ones at the sale price. She said that a supervisor could do that and told me to call back today.
ROUND FOUR: So I called this morning, asked to go to a supervisor. I explained what happened, that I’ve been waiting 6 weeks now for a tractor, and can’t belevee that no one at Sears actually seems to want to take my $1500.
Me: I just want to know, can you get me the same or similar tractor at the same price, delivered this week. (She put me on hold and in the meantime I went to sears.com, found an identical tractor at the same SALE price, in case she was too incompetent to do so).
Manager: That’s not possible, I can give you the same tractor for $1800.
Me: Why would I pay more for the same tractor? Can’t you honor the same sale price you originally gave me?
Manager: Because it’s not our fault the card was declined.
Me: But it is your fault, because the customer service guy told me it was not declined, and promised me the sale went through. We went through a big exercise to make sure it wouldn’t be declined.
Manager: I can let you talk to someone else.
Me: No, just do what the last guy (who wasn’t a supervisor) did, and give me the original sales price. You have a record of that transaction, right?
Manager: I’m not going to do that. I can let you talk to someone else.
Me: NO, LET”S JUST ORDER THIS OTHER ONE (the identical one I found on sears.com), fully ready to put myself through another round of wholesale incompetence…..sound of silence….the bitch hung up on me!I got transferred to some other customer service line, and the first thing the woman said to me was, We don’t do Sears.com problems. I asked who I could talk to, and she said, there’s an email on sears.com. I asked if she wanted my $1500 or wanted to lose a loyal customer, and she said, you’ll need to go to sears.com.
Please note, and I swear on this — I have always been polite, never rude, just insistent and clear in what I want. And I’ve asked each person why a company which loses a sale due to an (alleged) credit card decline doesn’t call the customer to let them know about it, and they all say, We just don’t do that. I’ve had $10 orders not go through other companies for one reason or another, and the company at least emails me to let me know. It’s like Sears doesn’t want to succeed or make the sale, or secretly delights in knowing that I’m sitting around waiting for my non-existent delivery to show up.
And to hang up on one of the last people in America who haven’t totally given up on this piece of shit company? Is just plain stupid. Whatever, I guess I’ll have to go to Lowes.
Really, Gregg. We’d love to tell you to write an EECB or something to Sears, but let’s be honest with ourselves. They just don’t care.
(Photo: So Cal Metro )
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The timing on this story is perfect: I just purchased a new lawn mower, on-line, Sunday morning. About 15 minutes later, I received a phone call from the store. Although their on-line store said they have them in stock, they said they did not. She told me they would order one and call me back.
About 1 minute after she hung up with me, I received an e-mail saying that my lawnmower is ready for pickup. I called Sears’ toll-free customer service line, who explained that even though the e-mail originated from the store, it was true that they’re out of stock.
While I was on the phone with customer service, the store called back and said my lawn mower would be ready for pick-up on Thursday, but that they’ll have to cancel the on-line order to do this.
It’s Tuesday, so stay tuned… I printed the original on-line order information (including the sale price), so we’ll see if they honor it.
And they wonder why they’re doing so horribly.
I thought I’d share my Sears experience.
My wife placed an order via their website about a month before Christmas. Everything went smoothly and the order shipped out right away.
Upon receipt, the contents of the parcel were wholy incorrect. Inside was the receipt for someone else. Clearly the wrong shipping label had been stuck on this box.
I called Sears and explained the situation. They asked me to drop off the parcel at the local Sears and call back afterwards. My order couldn’t be reshipped until they had verified that I delivered the parcel to the store. Nevermind that we ordered online in order to avoid the store.
Went down to the store and discovered a HUGE lineup at the customer service desk. Not wanting to wait when I’m doing them a favor, I walk past the line to the counter and tell one of the employees, very briefly, the situation of receiving someone else’s parcel and that I was to drop it off with them. Snotty Sears employee informs me the lineup starts over there (points to lineup). I tell her I’m not waiting in line to return someone else’s parcel and leave her with the parcel.
I return home and call Sears the next day and am told they have no record of me returning the parcel. I explain the lineup situation and I’m told I’ll have to go back down to the store and sort things out down there. Annoyed, I tell them to just cancel my order, but I’m told that’s not possible because my parcel has been delivered.
So I go back down to the store, stand in line and after nearly an hour I get to speak to someone. I’m told the return was processed, however I had returned someone else’s order, not my own, so they had refunded the customer who’s order I had received. The employee gets on the phone with Sears website and tells them I had returned the parcel and the contents were someone else’s order. She tells me my order will be resent.
I go back home and the next day I again call Sears. Again, I’m told I didn’t return my order. After rexplaining the whole situation, the employee confirms that the other customer’s order does show it was returned by me. I ask for my order to just be canceled. I’m told it can’t be cancelled until it is returned by the other customer. I protest to no avail.
Finally, I ask to speak with a manager. The manager is sympathetic and assures me my order will be cancelled. Also, I’m offered a $100 gift card for the trouble incurred which I of course accept.
A week later, still no sign of a refund, although now my order has disappeared from the Sears website. I call Sears and there’s no record of anything. Nobody knows what I’m talking about, nor do they know of any manager with the name I wrote down. The phone support person says they’ll call my local Sears to verify my story.
An hour later, the local Sears calls and asks me to come down in order to receive my refund. They need my card to process it and will handle it themselves. I go down there, the refund is processed and I think this is all behind me finally.
No such luck. The refund that shows up on my card does not equal that of the original order. I’m shorted about $28.
Finally on the edge of a nervous breakdown I call Capital One (my credit card) and explain the situation. The agent tells me he’s heard of this before with Sears and says he’ll credit my account $28.
In the end, I never received the $100 gift card from Sears, never received the full refund and only received some satisfaction from my credit card company who hopefully charged the $28 back to Sears with excessive interests and penalties.
Moral of the story, don’t shop at Sears unless you find your life a little too dull.
After 1 hour on the phone with Sears reps from every corner of the world, I still can’t get my defective stove fixed. I have told them and I will tell everyone else…I WILL NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM SEARS AGAIN!!!!! Every appliance I own came from Sears but as soon as possible I will replace them from somewhere else. I gave up on Lands End when the quality went way down after Sears bought them, poor KMart has very little anyway, I will never buy from Sears again.
Dixie chopper OMG what a machine could one not turn the neighbors green with envy with one of those out in the driveway. Sears here in Canada are the only ones you can count on to do service on any appliances if you live outside of a city no one else will drive 1 hour. Purchased a Maytag washer from a appliance store one time took them a month to come and service it.
Two years ago my wife and I purchased a refrigerator, washer and dryer & 61″ Samsung dlp TV. We purchased the extended warranty for the TV. 2 years later & the picture went dark. I called Sears. The person I stumbled on was most helpful. She asked me if certain lights were blinking & I said yes. She said I needed a new bulb. I since then have read the owners manual and indeed that is what those lights are all about. This was on a Wednesday. She put me on hold and called their parts dept. and ordered me a bulb and said it would be here by Tuesday at the latest. The 4th of July fell on a Friday of that week and that was the best she could do. I said I understood, and I said goodbye. The next day I started feeling stupid as I was never given an order # or anything. I proceeded to call the same # I had called the day before in hopes of getting a tracking number. I was told that there was no order for me, and after 45 minutes of being passed around and hung up on, not on purpose. I told my wife I was going to go down to Sears and see if I could get some actual help. The nice lady I talked to called someone and 45 min. later we were at the same place that I had been when I got in the car and came to the store. Finally she got through to someone who told her that a tech would have to come to my house and see what was wrong with the TV. I then was given the phone and continued the conversation. I told her that it had already been decided what was wrong with the TV and I did not need a tech. She said they could not order the part until a tech made that assessment. She then told me the soonest a tech could come to my house would be the 17th of July, more then 2 weeks away. At this point I lost control of myself and used a word I am not proud of using. Finally she said I should call this 800 number called one touch and they would be able to move things along quicker then she was able to. I said I was sorry and thanked her. I called one touch and they told me to call rapid response. I did and they ordered the part.
I have been trying to get a tracking number for this part since Monday. Today is Wednesday 1 week later and today I was told yes it was ordered yesterday and should ship sometime this week. Needless to say this is the worst customer service I have ever received. I will never do business with Sears again in my life and I highly recommend you dear reader take the same action.
I tried major purchases from Sears – I walked in with purchase orders from my school district amounting to $3,500 for new tools and an air compressor for our High School Ag Ed Shop. The supervisor said they could not order something that big.
I tried to work with them for several months, but nothing. Finally I said, “Screw this” and went to a local machine shop and bought a much better unit with more features for a better price.
The company has a death wish.
As a current employee of Sears, I am not surprised to read about this. Personally, I try to serve the customer as best as I can and to the best of my knowledge. Unfortunately, Sears has many problems that are really out of my control. First of all, the training is practically useless. I have obtained most of my knowledge for my position through trial and error [involving in many unsatisfied customers, but never once did I use the "not my problem" excuse] and asking A LOT of questions of my superiors.
Second, there is so much that is needed to know about operating the register, it is easy to make a serious error. For home delivery for example, there are about 4 different ways to do it, not one simple way. What the item is depends on how it should be rung up in the machine. This is one of the biggest problems for employees. The training that is provided to them when they are hired is horrifically outdated and covers the bare minimum.
Third, Sears REALLY pushes the importance of “Credit Apps” and “extended warranties” on its employees. Product knowledge and customer service come second to these things. In fact, the employee who signs customers up with the most credit cards is considered to give the best customer service. Now I have seen customers get VERY frustrated with pushy employees, and the employees being congratulated by their superiors. I will occasionally ask the customer if they’d like to sign up because it is my job, but I NEVER push the customer. The extended warranties can be a good idea because they do protect the customer if the product needs to be repaired or replaced. BUT, employee knowledge of the manufacturer’s warranty and the extended warranty is usually lacking. I am not even 100% sure of our return policy because I have been told about a million different variations of it, not to mention that it changes often and has a million tiny little details. With the focus on the extremities, it is easy for one to loose focus on the real goal: good customer service. It is usually the old-timers who have worked there for 10 years who give the best service. I try to associate myself with them.
Forth, there are many stocking issues. I have learned to never rely on the computer, I ALWAYS check in the warehouse to see if something is in stock and most customers are grateful for that. Certain things can be ordered in and it gives us an estimated date that the item will be delivered to the DISTRIBUTION CENTER. It will then be delivered to the store USUALLY that week. Unfortunately we have not control over this, and have had cases where the delivery date kept changing, although not often.
I want to say that most transactions I have with customers are good and my store generally runs things fairly. I have heard the stories from the old-timers and definitely agree that Sears is on a decline. Most of the employees I have worked with did their best to give true customer service, even with the apparent graying of the definition of “customer service.”