August
27,1999
Arthur Martinez
Sears
& Roebuck
3333
Beverly Road
Hoffman
Estates, IL 60179
Dear
Arthur,
I
hope you are comfortable, because do I have a story for you!
It is a tragic and probably all too common tale of abhorrent
customer service. The main
characters are three young women who share an apartment in a Boston suburb, and
one huge, sprawling, uncommunicative mass that you probably think of simply as
Sears.
The
tale begins the first week of July when our lovely heroines discover that their
refrigerator doesn’t seem to get any colder than 55 degrees, despite being
turned to the lowest possible setting. Because
of the warm temperature, the women, let us call them Lia, Bess and Angela, have
had quite a bit of food and juice go rancid.
A quick call to their landlord and they have been given the number of the
trusty and reliable folks at Sears repair.
“Never fear,” they think, “we’ll just call Sears and they will
come and fix it!” (Ah, now how I
laugh at their girlish naďveté!)
A
call to 1.800.4.Repair results in a time being set up for the repairman to come.
Lia leaves work early to meet him at the house, but he
does not show. Another call
sets up another time. Again,
no one shows. When Lia,
beginning to frazzle, calls to set up a third time, she is informed that a
repairman did show, but that no one answered the door.
After much confusion it is revealed that the clever repairman didn’t
know which of the three buzzers went to apartment number three, so he pressed
one of them and when no one answered at that one, he gave up.
(That is what I love about Sears… that commitment to see things all of
the way through! That ability to troubleshoot and problem solve on the fly!)
At
this point, the otherwise sweet and accommodating Lia is annoyed.
Twice in the previous week and a half, she has left work early to meet a
repairman who never showed. She
expresses her dissatisfaction and is assured that someone will surely show up if
she would just reschedule again. Believing
the trusty and polite customer service rep, Lia sets up a third visit.
This
time Angela leaves work early to be home in time for the repairman.
Much to her surprise, he actually shows up!
He putters around and cleans out under the fridge and informs her that
the problem was that the control was set too low.
This was causing some sort of freezing blockage which prevented the
fridge from properly cooling. He
turned the dial to the halfway point and leaves Angela with these parting words:
“Don’t ever turn it past the half-way point.”
He also tells her that it will take 24 hours for the fridge temp to
reflect the repairs and temp change.
Breathing
a sigh of relief, Angela authorizes the $108 bill and tells Lia of the
diagnosis. Unfortunately for our
heroines, Angela neglects to tell Bess the details of the repair.
After
several days, the three ladies came to a consensus: the fridge was still not working correctly.
This resulted in several more attempts to get a repairman back to the
apartment, all of which failed. At this point
Lia was pretty much resigned to never again have the luxury of cold food and
drink, but Bess, still new to the world of dealing with Sears customer service,
gamely jumped in for round two. Even
with the fresh reinforcements, it still took more
than 10 days to get repairman #2 to the house.
On
Wednesday, August 11, Tony showed up. (At
this point the women of 275 Summer Street starting taking names and remembering
dates.) He walked in, opened the
door of the fridge, saw the temperature gauge set at only half way, and boldly
cranked it the whole way down and proclaimed “You just didn’t have it set to
a cold enough temperature.” Bess
was, of course, mortified, because
she did not know that the first repairman had decreed that was exactly what
should not be done!
Angela
hears this news and gets a bit irritated.
This is a huge, multi-million dollar corporation and they cannot even get
the repairmen on the same page? Although
she is skeptical, she decides to wait 24 hours to see if the temperature
changes. It doesn’t.
Rolling
up her sleeves for round three, Angela prepared to take the field for her team.
(It should be noted that she was the big-gun, the one with the temper,
and the one who would take names and accept no excuses.
Go ahead, ask your CS reps, I am sure they all know her name by now...).
Angela also kept impeccable track of everyone she dealt with because,
when later asked to replay “What was so bad about the service?” she wanted
to be able to recreate for the listener the agony
of dealing with some of the worst
customer service in the history of capitalism.
Perhaps
this is the moment when you should pause to get yourself a fresh cup of coffee,
and if you were not sitting down, I suggest you do so now.
What you are about to read is for mature audiences only.
Friday,
August 13, 8:00AM- Angela places a call to Sears Repair services at
1.800.4.Repair. She speaks with
Patty Berry, a CS rep. Patty is shocked
at what our heroines have had to go through, and is exceedingly polite to a
rather bitchy Angela. Angela
requests that someone come and fix the fridge “TODAY!”
Patty takes Angela’s work number and assures her that someone will call
her that very day to set-up a time.
1:30PM-
Having not yet heard from Sears, Angela calls back and ask specifically for
Patty. Patty transfers her to
Diana, the customer service manager. (I
think it is worth noting that Diana stands out as the only CS rep that Angela
dealt with who was actually rude.)
Diana informs Angela that she could have someone over to fix the fridge
“next week sometime.” Now Angela passes from being mildly irritated to being
somewhat angry and once again
requests that someone come to fix the fridge tonight.
Diana finally acquiesces and puts in an emergency order, which will have
someone at 275 Summer Street between 6 and 8 PM, that very night. Then, and this might be my favorite part, DIANA HANGS UP ON ANGELA WHILE ANGELA IS STILL SPEAKING.
5PM-
Angela leaves work an hour early to be home by 6.
6:10PM-
A highpoint for Sears customer service when a lovely and exceeding polite woman
called Sarah calls to say that “The repairman is in your neighborhood and he
will call when he is on his way.” Foolishly,
Angela believes her, and actually feels a bit of warmth for the
evil empire.
8:30PM-
Let down once again by the fine folks at Sears, Angela calls and asks where her
repairman is. Melody, another
exceedingly polite CS rep, is not sure, but she can put in a work order for
someone to come "sometime next week,” to look at the fridge.
Now Angela is close to losing her cool, she is angry,
VERY angry, and communicates that there was an emergency order put on for
that night, someone was on the way that night, and by-golly, someone was going
to fix it that night. (I should
note that in her anger, Angela used words somewhat stronger than
‘by-golly.’) In a panic over
this irate customer, Melody says “I’ll transfer you...” and in a wink she
is gone.
She
is replaced by Fabian who says that he “understands how frustrating this must
be,” but that, not unlike the previous three people Angela had spoken with
THAT DAY ALONE, all he can do is “put it in the computer.” Angela asks him to find the missing repairman.
Fabian cannot because the Boston office closes at 8PM and he is in Texas,
so all he can do is “put it in the computer.”
I am sure you can feel poor Angela’s frustration,
she had, after all, called at 8AM that morning to request the fridge be fixed.
She had also spoken with four
different CS reps that day in an effort to get the fridge fixed, and while
each of them, save for the bitter and angry Diana, were the picture of
politeness, and while each of them claimed to “understand how frustrating this
must be,” Angela was still left with a broken fridge!
All of this understanding was not getting Angela any closer to having
cold beer.
“I’m
sorry,” Angela says, “But Fabian, it’s not good enough for you to put it
in your computer. We will stay on
this phone together, you apologizing to me and me swearing at you, until a
repairman rings my bell.” Fabian
promises that someone will be there within the hour and that he, Fabian, will
personally call back to make sure that the fridge is fixed.
10PM-
The doorbell rings and it is Paul, the repairman. He checks out the fridge and declares that a new compressor
is needed, but he doesn’t have one, and it is an expensive repair, so someone
will have to come back once the landlord decides if he is willing to pay for the
parts and labor. Fabian calls back
while Paul is working, and this is as good as the service got.
(That is right, someone actually keeping his word and calling was the
highlight of this whole experience.) The
most interesting part of this is that neither of the first two repairmen even mentioned
the word compressor.
Tuesday,
August 17- The decision is made to replace the compressor and Sears is notified.
The landlord tells Sears to call his tenants to set up a time.
He
never calls back.
Friday,
August 20, midmorning- Irritated
tremendously that no one has called, Bess calls Sears and ‘confirms’ that
someone will be over that night between 7-9PM.
Angela cancels her dinner plans with friends and races home from work and
at 7:10PM (GASP!!! Someone is
on-time!) the doorbell rings. She
opens the door and is greeted with what is my new favorite part of the story,
repairman Bob, who asks “Do you have the compressor?” Angela, absolutely dumbfounded by this question, says
“No.” That is right, Bob showed
up to replace a compressor, BUT DID NOT BRING ONE WITH HIM!
Go ahead take a minute to stop laughing... I’ll wait.
Bob
calls Jeff at 781.871.0717 (the Norwell, MA office of Sears).
Jeff tells Angela he can get someone over on “Monday or Tuesday of next
week.” This is where Angela
crosses from very angry to hysterically
angry. Even though this was in Jeff’s computer and on Bob’s work
order as a ‘must-fix,’ Jeff was proposing that it be put off until next
week! “Apparently,” Jeff
continued, “there has been a mix-up and your compressor is in Norwood.” “Fine,” Angela says, “put it in a car and drive it
here.” Jeff says, while he
“understands how frustrating this is, I can’t drive it there.
What I can do is put you in to have your fridge fixed tomorrow.”
“No,” says Angela, “You will fix it tonight.”
They both repeat themselves for a good ten minutes until Jeff, realizing
he cannot win, transfers Angela to Lino Lemos, another exceedingly polite CS
rep. Lino promises that the fridge
will be fixed first thing Saturday morning.
Of course our jaded heroine does not believe him, and besides, she has
plans tomorrow, and does Lino expect her to sit around, YET
AGAIN, and wait for the Sears repairman? (While this conversation is
happening, Bob tries to sneak out. After
a brief moment where she considers tackling him and holding him hostage, Angela
lets him go.)
Saturday,
August 21, 8:10AM- A knock on the door. It
is Paul, who you may remember from Repairman visit #3, and lo and behold, he has
a compressor with him! A couple of
short hours later, our battle-scarred heroines FINALLY have a working refrigerator. And thanks to much pain and suffering, they even get the
repair done for free. I am writing
to you Arthur, because free isn’t good
enough, after all, it was the landlord who was paying for it, and he
didn’t suffer at all during this ordeal.
To
sum up:
·
Estimated
total number of calls placed to Sears:
20-25
·
Total
number of repair visits:
5
·
Total
number of repairmen:
4
·
Total
number of times repairmen failed to show:
6
·
Total
hours spent calling Sears, waiting for Sears repairmen, and writing this letter:
Incalculable
·
Total
days spent without a working fridge:
53
I
am serious Art, when I say this is the
worst customer service I have ever received. I am 26 years old. Someday
I will own a house and I will need to fill that house.
I have a lifetime of major purchasing to do.
Refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, lawnmowers, dining room tables,
blenders, pots and pans, televisions, VCRs, stereos, beds, bedspreads,
carburetors, tires, batteries… Guess what?
I will not be buying any of it at Sears.
I
have seen the softer side of Sears. It
sucks.
The
very unhappy,
Cc:
Mike Clifford, Sears & Roebuck, Norwell, MA
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