Really bad customer service.

[Bernie Brewer]

But then someone else made it better (maybe).

Let me explain.......

I get a call from my mother this morning. She's 76 years old, diabetic, and hard of hearing. She told me that her furnace went out on Thursday night. She has a service agreement with Sears, so she called them on Friday morning to have someone come and fix it. They said they couldn't get there until Monday afternoon. That's right. They were going to let an elderly lady sit in a house without heat, in Wisconsin, in March, for four days. I was just ready to blow my top when she told me this. I tried calling the Customer No-Service number that my mom gave me but got nothing but phone-prompt purgatory. Then I called our local Sears and got the same thing.

So I went to the local Sears, really fuming now, and asked to see the manager. Here is where it got a little better. I explained what was going on. I also explained that if Sears wasn't going to fix the furnace TODAY, I was going to call a local contractor and Sears going to get a bill for a furnace repair. From the weekend, when the rates are double. We went back to her office, and she got on the phone. After about an hour or so of being on hold and being routed from one Sears department to another, they took my phone number and said they would call me back within the hour, as they were just waiting for approval for the service agreement department to approve an invoice from an outside contractor. I got a call on the way to my car- they were coming to fix it today. Now we'll see if they actually show up.

So shame on Sears for initially trying to make an old lady freeze to death, but kudos to the store manager that was willing to make some phone calls for me.

 

[kjung]

Sears sucks. Plain and simple. SWMBO & I bought a new refrig last summer (guess who then got a dedicated brew-fridge ! ), and got nothing but run-around from their customer DISservice trying to get it delivered.
When we paid for it, we were given a delivery date. The night before the delivery, we get the call giving us the delivery window. An HOUR before the start of the window, with me taking the day off from work, we get a call telling us that they didn't have that model in stock !
We set up another date. The night before, we get the "window" call. AGAIN, an hour before the window opens, we get a call, this time telling us that the ONLY unit that they have in stock of that model, is damaged and can't be delivered.
After that, hours of phone calls ensued trying to get my money back.
I then went to Home Depot, found the exact same model, $50 cheaper, and got it delivered two days later.

SCREW SEARS !!!

 

[RICLARK]

I had a problem with sears as well, My 84 yr old grandma had a brake line replaced on her car there. She had a warranty of some sort on it for the work they did on it. For some reason they didn't replace the whole line and used a compression fitting on it to link the old line to the replacement line. Well after about week that fitting started leaking. She called them and they told her to bring it in. Well she did and they fixed it but charged her 150.00 because they replaced the whole line which they should of done to begin with. Well that had me steaming so I took her car down to there wannabe repair shop and told them they needed to refund her money because they didn't fix it right to begin with. Well this little pimply faced college kid proceeded to tell me they would not refund the money because they had to replace the whole line and the warranty she had only covered the work that they had done and not replacing the whole line. Well after screaming at this guy and telling him I was going to the BBB and report them the store manager came out. She took me in her office and was very nice I explained that my grandma lives off Social Security and she had already dropped 150 in the car and it should have been fixed right the first time. So in the end the refunded her money.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

So shame on Sears for initially trying to make an old lady freeze to death, but kudos to the store manager that was willing to make some phone calls for me.

If they follow thru & do things right, you might consider sending the guy who made it happen a thank you, and/or writing a letter to the company explaining the situation & how this guy handled it & made things right for you. You don't find people who will go out of their way to help like that much anymore. That's my 2 cents worth, and yes, I've had a couple go 'rounds with Sears, none of which turned out well. Regards, GF.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Update: Mom's got her heat back on. She called me about an hour ago. She said I must have lit a fire under somebody's ass because she got three phone calls after I went to the store to complain. So I'm very happy with the way the store manager helped me, but I'd also like to find the *****epaddle that originally handled the repair order and rip him a new one.

 

[caspio]

I had a set of tires from sears on my truck that wore down to dangerously low tread levels with still over 75% of the warranty period left. Sears refused to replace them because I'd missed an appointment to get the tires rotated at some point. Never mind the fact that all four tires were evenly worn.

 

[Short Drive]

Bernie you left out one detail. There was a large snow storm on the way. So Sears double sucks.

 

[Domminigan]

We've had situations like that before with sears. All of them taken care of with our little trick.
Back in the 80's, my dad bought a table saw from them. He went in to pick it up three times after receiving confirmation that the item was ready for pickup, all three times it was "out of stock". We didn't live in town at the time so the trips in to town were costing us a bit. He got upset and found the magic button. Turns out if you stand in the middle of either the tool department or the appliance department and complain in increasing volume, you get upgraded. He walked out with the top of the line model for no extra charge because "It's the only one we have in stock". This happened several years after this with a sewing machine that my mom tried picking up a few times, and then less than two years ago, we used the magic button again when we bought two identical tool cabinets after being told that they were in stock. Only one was and it had a huge dent in the side. We got upgraded to ball bearing chests.
On another thought, every time we have had to get something brought from the back, it has been the wrong thing. I mean EVERY TIME. They usually have the right thing, but are too lazy to grab the proper thing the first time around.