Sears Not Interested in Helping Customer -- Just Wants to Make a Sale

Last week I posted Sears Horror Story of the Week: Dryer Dies After Two Years (And an Update on My Elliptical) and had the following comment from a reader:

This one is going back several years, but it illustrates the point anyway. I got a flier in the mail for Sears siding for my house. Although I wasn't completely convinced that I wanted siding, I was going to have my clapboard repainted anyway, so it was the right time to consider it. I made an appointment for their guy to come by and give me an estimate. I took the afternoon off from work to meet with him and waited for hours. He never showed up and never called.

I called the 800 number I'd been given to ask what had happened. I was asked if I wanted to reschedule. I told them that I wasn't interested in rescheduling until I had an answer for why I had been stood up. I told them to have the guy who was supposed to come out to give the estimate call me. After a couple of days he hadn't, so I called again.

Once again, I was asked if I wanted to reschedule. At that time, I said that I wanted several things before I'd consider rescheduling. The first was a written apology from the guy who stood me up. The second was another written apology from his manager. The third was a discount for my trouble. Until then, I wasn't even going to consider rescheduling.

I actually called back several more times to demand the same concessions. I'm a real pest when someone has treated me badly and wasted my time. It appears that Sears never wants to do business with me again. And they want me to tell everyone who will listen that they don't stand behind commitments they've made.

I'm not sure how common this problem is, but I know that the customer service is certainly less than stellar at Sears. After all, I've had to endure it personally and this attitude of "who cares about you, it's about us" is certainly one I've felt as well. Guess they've been poor at it for years.

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