Oh my God please make it stop! Sears Part IV

Good morning this is Sears calling to scheudle a repair service.......

Well Sears calls this morning and asks if they can schedule a time to come by and put the engine in our tractor. I am happily surprised because I am to sleepy to realize it is all just a big charade and that the person calling me really has no idea what is happening. I play along out of hope and ask when the engine will arrive and am told tomorrow (Friday the 2nd of May).
ME: That is great news since when I spoke to someone yesterday they told me the engine had not shipped. So can you give me a tracking number?
THEM: No I do not have one.
ME: Then how do you know it has shipped?
THEM: Because the computer tells me it has shipped.
ME: When did the computer say it shipped?THEM: on the 23rd of April

That sound you hear is the sound of hope leaving my morning.

So, I call the Sears main customer number again and spend some quality time with various monkeys before the call drops. I call again and speak with even more monkeys prior to getting to someone who sounds as if he was hired to talk to people who are mad.

He confirms that the folks I spoke with earlier today were in fact ignorant of the story and of what is happening. He confirms that my engine has not shipped and for his kindness I give him and ear full of the story that is now only to well known. I ask him directly for a phone number that I can call to speak to someone in his immediate department tomorrow since I will be calling on a daily basis until I have a tracking number for the engine, and to my surprise he gives me the number.

So, I call the local Sears store afterward to give them an earful and I speak to the manager (someone with whom I had not yet spoken). I did this at the urging of the repair guy after yesterday’s conversations. So I chat with him and fill him in on the entire process and describe to him the many levels of frustration that I have come to know in the process of getting the warranty work done on the tractor. He listens politely and groans and then tells me he is going to call his regional manager and see what can be worked out. I am waiting on his call back.

Once this is all over I will post up a chart with the time spent talking to sears and a link to a few websites that I have found to vent my spleen.

Sears Drama part III

Does anyone know what is going on?


So, we get a call from Sears (4-30) telling us to call them regarding our scheduled repair person visit for May 1st. I cheerfully call hoping that this means that things are getting better. The phone drone asks me if the engine has arrived. I explain the entire story form the beginning to them and they tell me that yes indeed I am correct there will be no service call on the 1st of May that the engine has not yet shipped. I then ask what the next step is to correct the problem since it appears that we cannot get an engine. Well if the technician tells us we get you a new tractor. To confirm, I ask if it is the technician’s call about the tractor and they repeat that this is indeed the fact.

Well I call the technician and ask about this. He flatly denies it and goes on a short but sincere rant about how he wishes that they would not tell people such lies as he has no authority regarding any such decision.

Well that prompts another phone call to Sears. This time I have the opportunity to talk to three separate folks until such a time as I get to speak with a service guy. He tells me that the reason that the order of the 23rd did not get processed the factory lost the order. It was not that the engine was incorrect or that the engine was not the correct, it was administrative bungling of the highest order.

So, I guess I am not sure what is most aggravating, the inability of anyone to tell me what is happening, the fact that they are telling me lies, or the sheer incompetence. I guess I will call again tomorrow and see if it is any better.

After the waiting Sears Part II

I understand while some people want to kill customer service 4-29-8

Well I typed this up while waiting to finish the conversation with the nice lady who had the misfortune of answering my call today. I spent 27 minutes on the phone to find out that they have to re-order the engine for the lawn tractor again. This makes the second time they have had to re-order. The first time they found out that the tractor engine was no longer made. The second time it is because the engine they ordered does not have everything needed to fit onto the lawn tractor. The person answering the phone was bright and cheerful when they informed me

“I am so sorry sir, it will be another 7-10 business days before that part will make it out to your property….”

So we continue to pay someone to mow our acreage and hope that some day soon the part will come in and we can have our lawn tractor working again. I almost rather wish I had just skipped buying the extended warranty and had taken the thing to the local repair guy and had him do the work. At least I would know who I was speaking with and have a pretty good idea about when things were going to be done.

Gahhhh....how I hate holding for Sears

Sears extended warranty means extending the pain (4-29-8)

You buy a riding lawnmower with a good review form customers who have purchased before. The thing runs like a champ for one year of near daily use then the engine goes out (April 3rd). No big deal, it is under warranty and you have done the maintenance as the handbook outlines.

Then the fun begins.

You call the San Antonio Central Service for Sears and play the game, going through the voice prompts for 1.5 minutes each time. Sometimes you get to a person, sometimes you get put on hold and sometimes you are dropped. Oh yeah you have a person, but they do not have a brain, they cannot answer the simplest questions without an extended hold time. Then the return and still cannot answer the questions. You assumption may be you are asking the questions in a complicated manner so you re-word you question so it could be understood by a 9 year old. They still do not get it, you hold some more.

That is life while trying to get your warranty work done with Sears. The product I bought was good, and the technician who came out and will ultimately do the work is great. The customer service to try and get it all worked out is run by drunk monkeys. If you are thinking about talking to customer service at Sears, do your homework. Run you request by your toddler and see if they understand, and then maybe, just maybe you have a chance of having the drunk monkey on the phone with you understand what you are saying.

Still waiting on the service work and hoping it happens pretty soon.