A chat customer service representative at Sears Parts Direct advised Jan about which part she should order for her garage door opener. They advised her incorrectly, which she figured out shortly after placing the order. It was too late: the wrong order couldn’t be reversed. A second chat agent offered to order the correct part, with free shipping. Jan interpreted this to mean “we’ll refund your shipping for the first, erroneous part, too.” Not so.

I needed a replacement garage door opener. I want on “Sears Parts Direct” and chatted with an agent. She assured me that the part I then ordered was the right one; I almost immediately determined that it was NOT the right one. I went back online, and got a different Chat Agent, who confirmed that the first part was not right. He set me up with the right opener, at a discount, and offered free priority shipping (I have an order email that clearly shows “Free Shipping”).

When the wrong part came, I packed it up, made a special trip to return it, and waited for my refund. When it finally came, they had not credited my $10.99 shipping. Convinced that this was a mistake, I got Customer Service on the phone (having given up on “Chat”). The Agent, then his supervisor confirmed, that they had REALLY meant that they just weren’t going to charge me a second time for shipping – not that they would refund me the first shipping I paid for the wrong part they recommended I buy.

Free shipping on the replacement part to make up for their error isn’t any special favor: it’s how things are supposed to work. In the end, though, Jan paid shipping once and received one item. It could have been worse.

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