Sears Sucks.
I will give this in timeline form…
July 2, 2011: Sears home services comes to our house to clean our carpet.
July 4, 2011: Despite looking fine immediately following the cleaning, the carpet has dried with orange stripes through the middle and around the edges.
July 5, 2011: Call Sears to complain, they schedule a technician to take a look.
July 6, 2011: Technician returns and looks at the carpet. He says it’s because there is too much soap left over from the cleaning. Rinses the carpet. It looks okay.
July 8, 2011: Orange stains reappear.
July 9, 2011: Complain about the issue on Twitter, am contacted by @SearsCares who asked me to DM my name and email and someone would get back to me. (Still have not heard back.)
July 15, 2011: Call Sears to complain. I speak with Travis (I think) who tells me he’s written up a ticket and I will be contacted by the manager, Latoya, within 24 hours. She is not in the office right now. I confirm with him that 24 hours means 24 hours from RIGHT THEN, not 24 hours from when Latoya decides to come in. I ask for his name and extension so I can call him back if I don’t hear from her.
July 17, 2011: 48 hours have passed without hearing from Latoya. I call again. I try to reach Travis with the extension he gave me. It goes to someone named “Bruno.” I leave a message with Bruno. Skeptical, I call another customer service number. This time, I’m told that Sears will send a Quality Control Manager to our house the following day (Monday) between 3pm and 5pm.
July 18, 2011: Cleaning technician shows up at 9am. I tell him I didn’t call for a technician. I call Sears back and confirm that a Quality Control Manager will actually be there between 3pm and 5pm, as originally scheduled. He confirms. At 6:30pm, the technician (NOT a QC Manager) shows up. He says he’s going to take pictures of the carpet. Takes out his CAMERA PHONE. He takes a few (2 or 3) pictures of the carpet and leaves, telling me he’ll TEXT THE PICTURES TO HIS BOSS.
July 19, 2011: Go to SearsHomeServices.com and submit a complaint via the “contact us” page. (Have not heard back.)
July 21, 2011: Call to follow up on the texted pictures. Go through many long phone transfers and automated menus. One woman tells me to write a letter. I am finally able to reach someone and ask to be connected with a manager. I speak with “Cody” who claims to be an assistant manager but said there was nothing he could do and that I would have to talk to his manager who, conveniently, was not there. He says he’ll leave her a message and I asked what her name is…guess what…it’s LATOYA. I tell him that I’ve already left a message with Latoya and have not been contacted. He says she’ll call me back. I ask if there is anyone senior to Latoya who I can speak with. He says no. He says the texted pictures were probably sent to her.
July 22, 2011: (2:00pm) I call another customer service number to try and find Latoya. I speak with someone at a Sears store, then customer service, then someone who tells me that Latoya is on the other line and will call me back. I tell him that Latoya has already been given messages and I’ll wait on the line. I FINALLY talk to the mythical Latoya who takes some more information and tells me she will have someone from the Baltimore office come out. She says she’ll call back in 15 minutes with their schedule so I can make an appointment.
July 25, 2011: (9:45am) Still have not been contacted by either Latoya OR the Baltimore field office, which I sort of doubt exists because otherwise, why would I have been dealing with technicians from Alexandria, VA? At this point, I should also mention that we had the carpets cleaned in the first place because we are in the process of selling our house. We are having an open house in 6 days.
(10:15am): Posted a tweet to @searscares about their poor service. Pointed @searscares to this blog. The following Twitter exchange:
Received the following email at 12:45pm:
Dear Ms. Anna,
My name is Roy and I am a Senior Case Manager with Social Media Support and I have been assigned to your case. I am sorry to hear about the problems with the carpet cleaning and I would like to look into resolving this issue for you. Please reply to this email (smsupport@searshc.com) with the phone number your account is under with your case number [deleted] so I can research this. I will call you at your convenience or you can contact me at 1-800-573-8431 ext. 10600 Monday thru Friday from 9:00am to 6:00pm.
Roy G.
Social Media Support - Senior Case Manager
July 25, 2011: (1:19pm) I replied to Roy’s email immediately with the requested information. Was not emailed or called back.
July 27, 2011: (9:30am) Having not heard from Roy, I call the number he provided. He’s very nice and willing to help, he takes me information and asks for my work order numbers which I do not have with me. I tell him I will call back or email him with the numbers the next day.
July 28, 2011: (2:00pm): I call Roy back to give him the invoice numbers. He is at lunch. I leave a message.
July 29, 2011: (11:30am): Having not heard from Roy, I call again. This time, I’m able to reach him and he takes my invoice numbers. He says the case may not be processed until Monday, but when he gets it, he’ll call me immediately and let me know what Sears plans to do to remedy the situation.
I really don’t care what Sears plans to do. I want either (or all): a) a new carpet, b) a full refund, c) something more valuable than a or b. I also want an apology…if I don’t hear back on Monday, this will be a full month of trying to navigate Sears’ poor excuse for a customer service organization and that’s just not right. And now, we have to do the open house with a fucked up carpet. Maybe Sears will buy our house?
August 1, 2011: (8:00am) Remember Latoya? She was supposed to call me back in 15 minutes on July 22? Latoya calls and leaves a message. She sounds irritated.
(12:00pm) I return Latoya’s call and tell her I’m already dealing with Roy from Corporate. She’s says that’s fine because Roy’s report ultimately comes back to her office and they make the determination about rectifying the situation. This is not fine: their office is clearly incompetent. She asks if I want Sears to come back and clean the rug. I tell her that Sears is NOT touching the rug again and that I want a new one. She says if that’s the case, she’ll have to get a supervisor to take pictures of our carpet. SURPRISE! The camera phone pictures weren’t sufficient! I mean, I’m assuming they aren’t sufficient…I’m also assuming they were deleted off the camera the second the guy got back in his van and were never seen again. Latoya sets up an appointment for a “supervisor” to come to the house on Friday to look at the rug. Despite receiving an email confirmation, I fully expect this not to happen. In other news, nobody came to the open house anyway. Still hoping I can convince Sears to buy our house. That’s clearly the least they can do, right?
