When my 4-year old refrigerator stopped cooling on 8-24-11, I called Sears. I had purchased it from Sears as well as all of my other major appliances. I was given a fairly quick appointment for the following Monday, 8-29-11. I was informed that my warranty had expired but at that time, I could purchase a Protection Agreement for $251 that would cover the visit and cover me for the next year as well as cover $200 worth of my lost food. It seemed like a good idea, so I went with it.
A couple of days later, due to Hurricane Irene, my area was under a mandatory evacuation and I was ordered to leave my home. I called Sears before I left my house to let them know I needed to reschedule my appointment due to Hurricane Irene and the evacuation in my area. The person on the phone said the next available appointment was September 12th! Although I thought it was ridiculous, I took the appointment and decided to call back after the hurricane because I wasn't sure if I would even have a home to return to.
Upon my return, I called Sears to try to schedule a more reasonable repair date and to better explain my situation if it hadn't been clear, previously. I have a home daycare which requires me to have a working refrigerator to store infant formula. I also have 4 children of my own. It is imperative that I have an earlier repair appointment. I am still told there is nothing available. So I went online and tried to schedule on my own. When it got to the part where it asks "What, if any warranty do I have?", I checked "not sure" because I wasn't sure what I had was called as there were a few options to choose from.
To my surprise, it had an appointment only two days away on 9-1-11! I was quite happy. I called customer service and informed them of this appointment. The lady told me to hold on and let her get it up on her computer. She said, "unfortunately, it was no longer available" that it just hadn't been updated. While she was talking, I went ahead and clicked on the date and it was confirmed. I had to interrupt her and let her know that indeed I got the appointment and was given a confirmation number! She didn't quite know what to say. When she got her words together, she told me to make sure to go to my email and print out my service protection agreement to show the service tech on 9-1-11 because he would not expect this appointment to be covered. I repeated what she had told me back to her and she said yes. I thought all was good.
Wrong. I did remind subsequent customer service reps of the statement "this call was recorded for quality assurance purposes" and that if they wanted, they could go back and verify that their representative instructed me to do this! It is now obvious that people who do not have the warranty get priority appointments over the people that do have the warranty. Each CSR made mention of this visit not being covered by the protection agreement. Sears stands to make more money off of the non-warranty visits. Each customer service rep I spoke with tried to tell me that the visit on the 9-1-11 was not going to be covered under the warranty and I had to repeat myself numerous times that it was as per the phone conversation with rep #1 (I should have gotten her name).
What should it matter if I had the warranty or not, a repair appointment is a repair appointment, is it not? So on to the day of my 9-1-11 appointment. My window of arrival was 8:00am-12:00pm. At 12:12pm, I made my first call to Sears customer service just to touch base. I had not heard anything and thought perhaps, they were lost, running late or whatever. They didn't call me, so I was going to call them. Again, I did not get a name because I have never, ever had such a rotten, horrible experience with any other company before and did not think to do so. This rep told me that she would get a hold of the tech. She put me on hold for a few minutes, came back and told me he would call me momentarily. Okay, so I waited for another half hour. No call. So I called again, this time, I got a name. Maelan and she even gave me her ID #** (if it was real).
Customer representative Maelan put me on hold after I yet again, explained the situation. When she came back on the line, she informed me that the appointment has been canceled. Yes, canceled and I am set up for September 12th! What? She, for some reason, which to me has nothing to do with the issue at hand explained that my appointment was not covered under the warranty. I, again, reminded her to check the recorded phone call in which another rep told me to show my technician my protection agreement. I told her the 12th is not good enough, it was not going to work, that I needed something today (yesterday or tomorrow), I had been waiting long enough and that I had been told several different things.
No one called to inform me of anything. I did not cancel this appointment, who did? I asked if this was their practice to not inform a customer of canceled appointments? Do they commonly let the customer sit at home waiting and waiting for service to never show up? I told her I had heard of problems with Sears in the customer service area but had never experienced it before, and now I know what people meant. I proceeded to tell Maelon that I no longer wished to speak to her, that I wanted to speak to someone above her. She kindly stated that she would put in a "call back" request to her supervisor and that I would be getting a call back within 2 (two) hours. Yes, that is 2 hours. This was at 1:30pm. In the meantime, Maelan did find an appointment for me on 9-6-11.
When it reached 2:30, only an hour later, I decided I am going to keep on top of this. Yes, it had only been one hour later, not two, but I was going to be a thorn in their side. This time, my customer representative was "Mike". Mike was very, very nice, courteous and so sympathetic. Boy, they trained him well. He had me so calm and assured, he deserves a raise Sears! Again, I gave him my case number and explained the situation. He completely saw why I am so upset. He said this is just unacceptable. I told him that I wanted to make sure I was really going to get a call back because at this point, I just wasn't sure. He assured me, "oh, yes. You are at this point, only about 20-25 minutes away from your call back window being up. It should be any time now".
Whoa, was he wrong! Anyway, back to our conversation. Mike told me how he feels this situation is so unacceptable. That his hands are tied, but his supervisors have more power and authority to authorize earlier dates and "emergency" situations. They should be able and willing to do something for me! Oh, I had hope. I was even thinking perhaps Sears just had a few bad apples working for them. No callback, so I called again 4:08pm, 5:19pm just to let them know that after waiting at my home since 8:00am. That I needed to leave for a bit and did not want to miss my "2-hour window" for a call back. This CSR told me, that I had been misinformed! That callbacks are realistically returned within 24 hours. What? Again? Another contradiction? Don't all these reps get the same training?
Around 8:55pm my cell phone rang with a strange number. Seeing it was almost 9:00, I didn't answer it. After listening to the voicemail, it was Sears! Five minutes to 9:00? Really, you can't do any better than that? I was half asleep! Okay, the message was quick, almost spoken so quickly it was hard to understand to the point. Basically, there is nothing else I can do for you. But she did said all we have for you is still 9-6-11. I saved the voicemail. At this point, the 9-6-11 appointment would have worked for me, but I wanted it in stone that they would be here. That this wasn't going to be another no show.
So this morning, 9-2-11, I called to start my "2-hour window". I was told since it was first thing in the morning, I should get a return phone call before 5:00 today. Wow, this time I spoke with Bridget. Bridget informed me that the supervisors have no more power or authority than she does at her level. So basically, going above her will do me no good. So exactly why do they even have supervisors in the first place? I got my call back from supervisor "Will", badge #**, around 2:20pm. Will was no more helpful than the very first person I spoke with. In fact, Will did not have the attitude of a supervisor at all and not concerned with keeping the reputation, quality or integrity of the name that used to be associated with sears.
Will offered to let me buy a mini fridge from Sears to use until mine gets fixed with the promise of Sears reimbursing me for the price of the mini fridge. I refused, stating that I did not "trust" his word or any word from Sears any longer. I asked to speak to someone else above him. Will informed me that there is no one above him that will speak to customers. He was as high as I can get! Wow Sears, really? You have got to do better than that! Will was horrible! He informed me that the only appointment available for me is still 9-12-11. What? I said, "no". I was scheduled for 9-6-11. He said there is nothing available that day and we have nothing here on the computer for you. I said this is a joke. I am completely done with Sears. I asked for a refund on my protection agreement and told "Supervisor Will" to cancel my 9-12-11 appointment. I advised him to get his customer service reps some additional training! I will tell all my friends/family and acquaintances never to buy big ticket items at Sears! Thank goodness for new places like hhgregg.