More Bad Customer Service – Sears Seriously Sucks

UPDATE: It just gets better and better. I used the number for the Sears headquarters published on Consumerist and asked for their CEO Mr. Lewis who is evidently "no longer with the company" Well, that makes sense. I asked for the new CEO and was informed that he DOES NOT HAVE EMAIL OR VOICEMAIL! Yeah right, okay. I asked for the number of Executive Customer Service 1-800-549-4505 – which turned out to be the best place to call, but only after some prodding. When I tried to explain the issue to the woman on the line she immediately wanted to send me to Sears.com customer service, which I've already talked to over and over again and they have told me there is nothing they can do. I explained the entire story to her and waited on the line while she tried to get the store on the line. She keep coming back and saying that no one was picking up the line (exactly!) but after about 20 minutes of trying every number they have she was able to get a hold of the manager of the store Jim. She transferred me to him and he asked for the order number and some time to research the issue. I asked for Jim's direct number in case I didn't hear back and again was told he has no direct number. Yeah right, okay again.

Surprisingly I got a call back from the assistant manager Zee a couple of minutes later. I explained the entire issue to him and he asked to call back in a few minutes once he talked to Sears.com. He called back about 10 minutes later and put me on the line with a rep from Sears.com who explained to me that we couldn't return a damaged item unless it was an appliance. Huh? I explained to her we didn't have the item, that we refused the delivery and she said, "Oh okay, then this has nothing to do with me" and dropped off the line. Zee asked for some more time and called back another 15 minutes later with some extremely bafflingly news. Our refusal of the shipment and request for re-delivery was already processed, even though they never told us, and the item is set to be redelivered next week. Um, okay?

Who wants to make a bet that they just deliver the same damaged cabinet to us? I can't imagine they can get their heads out of their asses long enough to actual make this work.

Thanks to Consumerist.com, I found the email address of the CEO of Sears and just sent this to him. Let's see if we get any traction:

Mr. Lewis,

I am writing to you to explain the issues I take with an order placed through Sears.com that has been extremely mismanaged. I have published this story on my website and sent it to Consumerist.com as well and will be filing with the BBB shortly. Your swift attention is appreciated.

Order #33465863 was placed on May 27^th via sears.com for two Craftsman garage storage cabinets Sears item# 00959125000. When I placed the order I was asked to enter my zip code (I live in Brooklyn) to determine if I was in Sear's delivery area—when I did I was told I was indeed within the delivery area and finalized the order. We got an email stating that our delivery was scheduled for Tuesday June 3^rd and to call the Home Delivery line if we needed to change the date. That Tuesday did not work for us so we repeated tried to call the delivery number to change the date but were told over and over again that our order number did not exist and that our phone number (how Sears tracks their orders) was not coming up in their system. After calling fruitless for days Tuesday June 3^rd came and went with no cabinets and I finally got a representative on the line at Sears.com who told me that the delivery date we got via email was simply an estimate and that the retail store in the Newport Mall in New Jersey was coordinating our delivery and we should contact them directly. I tried repeated to get a hold of someone at the store but was transferred and hung up on again and again. I called Sears.com again and spoke to a manager named Wendy who was very understanding and tried every single number at the store before getting in touch with a woman who works in the Newport Mall Sear's jewelry department. This woman was able to speak with someone at Lawn and Garden Department (the department handling our order) and explained the source of our confusion. Evidently, or so she says, the items were shipped to the store with no indication of where they were supposed to go, so they needed to be rung up with our order information and could then be processed for delivery. I could not fathom the backwards nature of this type of system but at least it appeared that our items were coming. This was Friday June 3^rd and we set a delivery for Thursday June 12^th.

Thursday June 12^th came around and our order arrived on time—as the two large boxes were brought into the house I opened them up to inspect them before the delivery men left. Much to my chagrin, both cabinets were damaged, one of them in a fairly minor way that we were able to fix but the other looked like it had been run over by a truck—it was so badly damaged that you could not even open the cabinet doors. More telling was that the box that it shipped in was not damaged at all, so the item was packed into the box in this horrific condition. When I mentioned this to the delivery man he looked at his order and said it indicated to him that I had ordered the floor model, which means I would have known about the damage. I told him the item was ordered online so there was no way for me to order a floor model or see the damage and he agreed that this was strange. We accepted one of the cabinets but insisted he take the other one back. He understood completely, called the store while we were there to explain the issue and said we would be contacted shortly to arrange re-delivery of a new item.

I did not hear from anyone so on Friday June 13^th I called the store again numerous time, but either there was no answer or I was immediately hung up on. So I called Sears.com again and spoke to a manager named Jen. Jen asked me what she could help me with. I told her my first choice was to get the cabinet redelivered in good condition. Failing that I wanted a refund.

Jen told me she could not coordinate the delivery or issue a credit for the cabinet since it was being handled by the store now. She advised that I go to the store in person and speak with the manager. I explained to her that the store is in New Jersey and I am in Brooklyn (there are two Sears store that are closer than the one in New Jersey) and that is an extremely long way for us to go. Getting to the store would take a very long time, not to mention the fact that I ORDERED THE PRODUCT ONLINE SO I WOULDN'T HAVE TO GO TO A STORE. Jen was extremely sympathetic and told me to hold while she called the store. She tried every number and told me there was either no answer or she was hung up, so she understood my pain. She told me she would be working until 10 pm EST and would keep trying to get through and get a resolution for me. She never called back.

On Monday June 16^th I again tried the store over and over again with the same poor results. I called Sears.com again and spoke to a woman named Brenda to whom I explained the story again and was again told I needed to talk to the store. When I asked her to call the store and try to get through to someone they had the same results I did, she was not able to get through to anyone. She advised me to call their Retail Hotline to register a complaint. I did and spoke to a woman named Melanie who transferred me back to a manager at Sears.com named Kelly. Kelly also tried to call the store to no avail and told me once again that I needed to go to the store. When I politely voiced the same complaint to Kelly, that the order was placed online and I shouldn't have to go to a store to get it straightened out, she said she would transfer me up to another supervisor. I waited on hold for over 20 minutes before giving up.

After spending approximately 17 hours on the phone dealing with this issue, all I want another storage cabinet delivered to my home with no damage. Failing that, I would like a refund of the money paid for the cabinet, plus the delivery fee charged. And I would like this without having to cross two bridges and go to another state to "nearest" Sears store. I appreciate your time and attention to this matter.

     

Thank you,

Comments

[modernemama]

You might find this useful: Sears CEO ousted

[modernemama]

or this: http://blogs.marketwatch.com/greenberg/2008/01/sears-ceo-was-only-a-matter-of-time/

[Jeff Smythe]

I contracted for a kitchen remodeling job with Sears Home Improvement, 1024 Florida Central Parkway Longwood FL 32750 and had cracked and defective cabinets installed. My wife discovered the cracks when she was cleaning them and the putty came out of the cracks of two cabinets. I called and complained to Pat Moyer, the salesman, but an obvious deception has been perpetrated here by concealing defects with putty. I want to email you pictures of this to SHOW THE WORLD. SEARS of all places! They are only 7 months old and already falling apart! My cost $13,000 WTF!!!!!!!!!

[dana]

Update on this issue--Sears has given us the run around for weeks at this point. They schedule a delivery date with us 2 weeks ago but called the day of (after I ensured I was home all day) with an automated message telling us our item wasn't being delivered because it was out of stock. Then we had to call them and go through the whole home deliver/store delivery/online ordering confusion again until we were routed back to the store where the manager we spoke to Zee no longer works! I had to explain the situation to a whole new manager and they are now supposedly coming this Tuesday with the cabinet. I'm really just at my wits end with them and will never, ever order anything from Sears ever again. Fuck em.