The Sears Story

I have been seeing a LOT of articles online about how terrible the customer service is at BestBuy and Sears. I had an ever so small outburst about Sears' customer service in a post about purchasing from local businesses. In the comments section, Al wanted to hear more about the "Sears Incident."

Without further adieu, I give you The Sears Story.

I am going to try and condense this down as much as possible. A few years back, I decided I needed a new vacuum. Because of that need, I went to Sears and after some brief discussion with the sales person about the various models and the FAB's of each one, we settled on a Kenmore vacuum, we will call it vacuum model POS V1. This vacuum lasts about 2 years before it stopped working. Out of warranty, we figured it was just a cheap vacuum. I believe it was only about $200. Please understand that I am not using it as a shop vac or processing gravel with it. Normal household vacuuming is all it is used for. I liked the vacuum well enough and so I decided to get another one just like it. I thought a vacuum should last for more that 2 years but hey, what do I know.

So we (my wife and I) go back to Sears and purchased the same thing. 6 months into the vacuum (model POS V2), it starts shutting down after about 10 min. of vacuuming. I waited another 5.99999999 months to take it in. It was simply to low on my priority list. By the time the repair center (somewhere in BFE) actually gets the unit, it is 2 days out of warranty. (They stopped doing local repairs quite some time ago.) They said that they can't fix it under warranty and it will cost $135.00.

Hold on a minute there cowboy. I said, "When I brought it into the store it was still under warranty." Apparently THAT didn't matter. It matters when they go to make the repair. But here is the kicker. As I was talking with the manager's manager, he was reading the notes out loud on the phone to me and said that they can't get it to duplicate the problem. (Keep this in mind for later)

Come to find out that they had already put a new motor in it and were trying to sell it to me before they were going to ship it back. This was before I found out that the tech wrote a note about not being able to find the problem. After calmly talking to the service center's manager's manager it became apparent that they weren't going to do anything for me under warranty. In a fit of rage, I told them to put the old (expletive deleted) motor back in and ship the (expletive deleted) thing back to me. And in a very unkind manner I explained to them that they would never get another dime of my money again.

The next week I get an automated phone call on my answering machine saying that I have a "repaired" product ready for pickup. Repaired?!?! Oh yes, the story gets better. Not only is the vacuum NOT repaired it is in a worse state than when I sent it in. The vacuum comes back and it has another motor in it that doesn't even work. So now, I can't even use it at all. Remember before it would at least run for 10 minutes and then shut off, but now, NOTHING.

Keep in mind this was a time consuming ordeal for me that lasted about a 2 weeks. I WAS going to go back around with them, simply on a matter of principle, but I then realized that MY time is worth more than the entire Sears service department. Pick your battles, I guess.

Here's what I ended up doing. I just decided to take them BOTH (models POS V1 & V2) to the Sears vacuum department and drop them off. The manager came out and asked what the problem was and I replied, "No problem at all, here are the 2 junk vacuums (obviously in like new condition) that I bought from you and you can have them back. This has been a valuable learning experience for me. I will never buy anything from this store or your company again." I walked out with them all staring at me in silence. Not the justice that I was looking for but it made me feel good I guess. Word of warning. DO NOT buy ANYTHING from SEARS. They SUCK. Thats right, SEARS SUCKS. (linkbait)

So why didn't I go back and do a second round of battle? Because I now tell everyone I know about how Sears customer service sucks and that they should NEVER buy anything from Sears unless it is a Craftsman hand tool. AND I have this platform to spread the message.

On a side note, I don't get real excited about vacuums but I have to tell you that I AM excited about the vacuum I have now. I have a Dyson. This piece of machinery is an amazing work of technological art. I have never had nor seen a vacuum perform like the Dyson. If you have the means, I HIGHLY recommend that you pick one up.

Ok this LONG post is done. If you made it this far, thanks. Let me know about your experiences.

 

U.S. Post Office Customer Service

Here I go again with another rant that you probably won't care about. It's about our fabulous Postal System. If you are a fan the U.S. Post Office or don't like really long posts, you might want to stop reading now.

Here's a little background. For years I have lived in a town where the mailboxes are out at the curb. The type where the hard working mail person doesn't have to leave her vehicle to deliver the mail. On more occasions than I can count, I have come home after it has been raining and a package is sitting on the post, completely soaked. I have complained about this and I usually get the standard response, "your mailbox needs to be of sufficient size to accommodate your mail." I'm not going to go into this side issue but sometimes I would need a 55 gallon drum to "accommodate my mail."

I have also had to put up with the mail being delivered anywhere from 11 AM to 5 PM. I believe my mail person fancies a good garage sale. Usually the mail arrives closer to 5 PM when there are a bunch of garage sales in the neighborhood. I always know when there is a substitute delivery person. My packages are sitting at my back door and the mail comes before noon. This is another thing that I have complained about with no resolution. You need to understand something before I go on. I am not one of those chronic complainers. I usually can put up with a lot before something gets mentioned.

Anyway, back the situation that thrust this rant onto The Big Bald Blog. My mailbox got hit last week and broke the post off. I propped it up with 2 steel posts until I could get around to fixing it. It seems that the post was leaning a little too much, and my mail person, being the pleasant person she is, notified me in a very nasty handwritten note that I had to fix the post or run the risk of my mail being held. It seems that she had lean a little bit and reach a few inches further to actually get the mail in the box. Apparently this was too much work.

The problem is, I share the post with 3 other mail boxes on the opposite side of the street. I wanted to find out if I could move my mailbox to my side of the road. The others that share the post with me also wanted to have their own post by their house.

On Sunday, I knew I would have some free time. I could run to the local Home Depot and grab the supplies needed for the repair. I begin my investigation on the proper height and placement of a mailbox. Of course I started my research with the U.S. Post Office's website. You would think that the information would be readily available on the their site. After about 20 minutes of searching, do you think that I could find anything on the subject? There were several blogs that had information about it, but the information was for another state. The U.S. Post Office's website indicated that I would need to check with my local post office for the regulations.

I called Sunday, assuming they would NOT be open, hoping that they would have some information available via recorded message. Nope - It just said leave a message and listed their retail hours. Oh Yes, I forgot about their retail hours. I must digress here. Normally the term retail hours conjures up a notion of extended hours to accommodate shoppers. Not the U.S. Postal Service. 9 to 11 and 12 to 5. The USPS has retail hours that are inaccessible to those who actually work for a living.

OK, back to the picture I am trying to paint. I leave a message and decide that I truly have no hope of anyone calling me back, so I decide to go down to the post office. I get down there and fill the postal worker in on my story. The person behind the counter says, "You will need to call regional office to get that information." I thought he was kidding me. I asked, "Can't you just give me the information?" After all he was the "local" post office. He writes the number down on a Post-It and sends me on my way. I get to the office, look at the number on the official government document (the Post-It) and have no choice but to give the number a call.

A very unpleasant person answers, "Post Office"

Me- "I have a question about the regulations on mail boxes."

Post Office - "What do you need" - Yes he actually said "What do you need."

Me - "My mailbox was hit and I need to replace it, can you give me the proper dimensions for the height?"

Post Office - "The bottom of the box has to be exactly 42 inches from the street and it can not protrude into the street."

Me - "Exactly 42 inches?" (I may have to hire a survey crew to ensure proper height)

Post office - "YES!"

Me - "OK, next question"

Post Office - sighs

Me - "I would like to move my...."

Post Office - (interrupts) "You can't move your mail box!"

Me - "Why"

Post Office - "That's just the way it is and it's been there for years, what else do you need?"

Me - "Uhhh nothing I guess. Thanks for your.....(click)"

At this point I want to call his manager's manager and lay into someone. But then I figure, what good will it do. After years of experiencing a "don't care, don't help" attitude from this great division of our Government, I figured it would be an exercise in futility.

Years ago I was in the back room of the main post office and there was a banner hanging on the wall. It said something to the effect, "UPS claims that the USPS would never be able to survive in a truly free and competitive environment. Let's prove them wrong!"

Wow, I couldn't agree more. Since we have no choice on who delivers our mail, we have to put up with poor attitudes and poor customer service. This, of course, is why I will choose FedEx or UPS any day of the week over the USPS when I am going to ship something significant. I WOULD like to see the U.S. Postal service try and compete with the other carriers in a true competitive situation. If business owners provided the same terrible customer service and ran their business like the USPS, they wouldn't be in business long.

Well, that's about all I needed to say. If you read this far without bailing, I am curious to see what your opinions are? Let me know your thoughts.

 

Ford Headlights

Driving to the office today, I saw a really nice Mustang. It looked like the owner had spent a lot of time customizing it. Then I saw the headlights. DOH!

Ever notice that Fords, regardless of model, seem to have problems with moisture getting into their headlights? This has been going on for about 20 years or so and is a really irritating thing for me. About 15 years ago, I had an 88 Tempo. The moisture in the headlights got to be so bad that it actually started blowing the bulb. Eventually I figured out where the leak was coming from and sealed it up.

This defective moisture seal is a huge topic on discussion boards. I don't understand why Ford can't figure this out and design some kind of new headlight. I believe that Ford has to know about it. Chevy and Dodge don't typically have this problem.

This is a prime example of a company not knowing or not caring about a problem. Ford, like the other auto manufacturers, sends out surveys to their customers. They should be asking a different question that covered something about leaking headlights.

So where am I trying to go with all of this? I am feebly trying to make a connection between your business and what your customers think. The best way to do that is to constantly ask their opinion on how you are doing with "Customer Service Surveys" on the web or in a hard format. Without this type of feedback device in use, you have no way of finding out about the unsatisfied customer. They simply will not tell you. However, the will tell other people. A happy customer will tell someone about you, an unhappy customer will tell 10 "someones" about you. The good is nice to get but the bad is what you need to get.

Everyone you do business with gets a survey, no one gets left out. We have designed countless customer retention programs and surveys for out clients. Here is the obviously shocking part, 100% of the time our clients get "need-to-know" information that ultimately helps their business grow. Take the time to measure yourself and see where you really are.