I recently detailed my saga with Sears in a post titled Sears Finally Gets It Right, But Ends Up "Ok" at Best in My Book; Fine with Mrs. FMF; You Decide Who is Right and ended the piece asking whose take on the episode was right -- mine or my wife's. Here's a comment from someone who responded and has an insider's viewpoint on what happened and why:
You are right, the seller is to blame, (Sears in your case). I am in the appliance repair business so have knowledge of the other side. In my opinion this is probably what happen. The independent company (the repair company that finally came to your house) was contacted by someone at Sears without proper authority to authorize the repair. What this means to the independent is that they will not get paid or it will take a major hassle to get any $. Because the independent has made that mistake before, they will wait for the seller to get their act together and send the proper paperwork. By the way, the selling company pays less that fair market value to the independent, so your job is not at the top of the list. Repair companies get into these arrangements because the "benefit" of having customer exposure pays in the long run because customers will use the service again in the future. Ha!
Your story is exactly why my appliance repair company is very picky about which companies we agree to do contact work for. That your wife is unhappy with the repair company and not Sears means Sears successfully passed the buck.
Interesting. I thought this is what happened (Sears used an outside firm), but I wasn't aware of the inner workings that made the relationship so difficult. Good to know in coming years as I have Sears service my machine (I have a three-year service agreement).
A friend of mine who owns a construction company takes work from a large home improvement store; essentially the same situation as with your local repair company and Sears. And from what I know of their business after working there for a couple of months at one time, the delays and hassles are almost always on the side of the selling company. They don't send the estimate request in time; they don't order and provide the materials in time; and basically if there isn't a good, responsive contact on the "inside" of the selling company, things are very difficult to get done. Then at the back end, it can be a headache for the local contractor to get paid for the work that's been done, even though the customer has paid up front to the selling company. It seems like for smaller local providers, it's kind of danged-if-you-do, danged-if-you-don't.
Posted by: Sarah Leon | March 09, 2006 at 07:07 PM