Tag Archives: Sears

hey sears! this is what a working refrigerator looks like…thanks to gerhard’s in malvern….

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Thanks to Gerhard’s Appliances in Malvern we have a working refrigerator at last! Aesop says the moral of this story is #ShopLocal

The other day I wrote about why no one should purchase a paper clip from Sears.  As I write this their giant white, nonfunctioning, unlovely Kenmore paperweight is still sitting in the house waiting for freaking Sears to come and get it.

This all started August 31 when my husband and I ordered a new refrigerator from Sears because the old one while less than 10 years old  was dying (Samsung in case you are wondering and the parts and repairs IF you can get the parts are VERY expensive.)

On  Friday, September 14th Sears delivered the refrigerator.  Now mind you, you have to pay extra to get it into the kitchen and they unbox it, but the do not hook it up.

Within FIVE minutes of the delivery truck leaving we discovered GAME OVER. We were the proud owners of a broken yet brand new refrigerator with scratches on the front and elsewhere.  Now the scratches I could have lived with and covered up with appliance paint, but a broken brand new refrigerator? No, couldn’t live with that at all.

For the past week we have been making call after call to Sears.  Two days ago I got super irritated by the volume of ridiculous calls to the Phillipines and called the remnants of the corporate offices in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. As luck would have it I got the same man who was snarly with me on the phone last week, the one time I was able to get someone in the United States on the phone.

And yes I recorded the call. Why? Because unless you experience the vortex of hell known as Sears “customer service” you do not understand.

Yesterday (coincidentally?), after sending my little AV project around to Sears and Consumer Reports and media outlets like magic a person from the U.S. who worked for Sears called my husband.  Did we want a new refrigerator? NO Did we want the giant white Kenmore paperweight repaired? Oh come on! Are we being punked? We were already told in no uncertain terms by the Phillipines that wouldn’t happen so NO just come and pick it up. And REFUND OUR MONEY.

Well apparently, they are sending people to pick it up. I won’t hold my breath as to the speed.  But what has been SUPER ANNOYING is they took our money in under five minutes via an electronic sales transaction on their website, yet they sit ON our money and have full use of it while we have custody of their sucky broken GIANT white Kenmore paperweight.

I will further note that I had to get Lite Movers of Wayne, PA (can I rave about them for a nanosecond? They are AWESOME and we highly recommend them!) whom we had to pay to remove the dying Samsung to the curb since Sears also no longer removes dead/dying appliances to come back last Friday to move the GIANT BROKEN WHITE PAPERWEIGHT out of the kitchen!

Yeah O.K. Sears, you aren’t inconvenient, time-wasting, frustrating, or money wasting AT ALL are you?

Doesn’t seem like a fair trade does it? Doesn’t seem like Sears did anything other than waste our money, cause us to spend MORE money and gave us the lovely gift of appliance shopping PTSD did they?

I have to ask can I charge Sears rent for the space in my home the GIANT WHITE UNWORKING KENMORE PAPERWEIGHT is taking up as tomorrow is ONE WEEK since they dumped it on us? (But I digress)

Meanwhile, we needed a refrigerator.  Last Friday afternoon my husband ordered another refrigerator from AJ Madison whom I had never heard of. By Saturday morning he had an email saying oopsies they would not be able to deliver until some time in OCTOBER.

(Did I mention this has been going on since around August 31st? Actually before if you count the attempted repairs on the dying Samsung which after a couple of hundred dollars and the inability to find parts was stopped.)

I will admit I had the full housewifey meltdown at this point.  Yes, yes I did.

So we called up Gerhard’s in Malvern and Angela took tremendous care of us in about ten minutes. Ten minutes.  Delivery included.  Beat everyone else’s price AND they do installation and remove dead appliances.

Yes that set my housewifey heart all a flutter, I kid you not.

And today? They showed up when they were supposed to, their delivery guys were wonderful. They installed it, help me set it up, removed all the packaging and the dead Samsung and like Lite Movers, didn’t scratch a wall or mark a floor.

The moral of this story is Sears still sucks and  SHOP LOCAL.

Oh and this time we went Frigidaire.

If you live in Chester County, you can find Gerhard’s at 116 Lancaster Avenue, Malvern, PA and their phone number is (610) 644-6666.

why no one should shop at sears…EVER

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IMG_9575

Meet our giant white paperweight.  Sears delivered a BRAND NEW BROKEN, yes BROKEN refrigerator.  They refused to come back and pick it up even though we called within MINUTES of the truck leaving our driveway.

Today was just a day.

From hell.

Our pretty Samsung refrigerator went on life support and repairs would have been easily more than half of a new refrigerator so we opted to replace it.

We have always done the bulk of our appliance shopping over the past few years from the Sears Outlet online.  My husband liked dealing with them…I had no issues until today, either.

Let’s back up to we ordered the new refrigerator.  Nothing fancy, a Kenmore side by side with ice and water on the door.  We figured we would go with something we thought could get repaired in case of an issue.

Up until a few years ago, when you got a new appliance, they took the old appliance away. Not anymore.  So we had to hire our favorite movers (Lite Movers of Wayne, PA and they are awesome) to come move the dying fridge out of the house pending pick up from PECO who does appliance recycling (it has to run when it is plugged in still, which the old one does.)

Fast forward until today.  They came to deliver the Sears refrigerator.  What they will do now is unbox it and move it into place, the rest is on the customer. It was quite the ordeal to get everything moved and prepped and ready as ours is an older home.

The delivery guys couldn’t have been nicer.  They unboxed it and pointed out a scratch in the white door.  That was no biggie as it was nothing a little appliance touch up paint couldn’t cover.

The delivery guys plugged it in and were on their way.  Then I went to open the refrigerator door.  It would not open.  The freezer door opened fine, but the refrigerator side? BROKEN.  Son of a bitch we just paid to have a dying appliance replaced with a broken appliance.  Yes, I am cursing, it has been a very special day.

Immediately we are on the phone to Sears. Only you CANNOT get a person in the US on the phone. All people in offshore call centers reading from scripts that tell you that they “completely understand” how you are feeling.  Uhh no, you couldn’t possibly understand. Trust me.

After four frustrating calls where all I get is the Philippines and they can’t help and they want me to talk to the outlet store in Norristown, PA.  Norristown isn’t going to help me, I ordered ONLINE. Oh and they keep mispronouncing my name. Which is incredibly offensive after the 6th mispronounce in one conversation.

These helpful offshore call center employees of Sears may be fluent in English to a point, but they are not native speakers.  English is a second language and they just aren’t comprehending what is being said, and can’t go off script.  They also can’t (or maybe it’s won’t?) transfer your call BACK to the U.S. Every other cheap American company which utilizes offshore labor has the ability to transfer you BACK to a U.S. call center if that is what you want, even Comcast, which I think has some of the absolute worst customer service ever.

I go to trusty Google and Google the corporate offices of Sears. Aha! An actual address and phone number with a recognizable U.S. area code.

But no.  You dial and you get…the Philippines. So I keep dialing.  ONE time out of about two dozen calls I get someone in Illinois.  I think they were related to the Seinfeld Soup Nazi of days gone by they were so rude.  “You listen to me,” the operator says. “I am going to talk and then you can speak. You are going to listen to ME. I am not listening to you.”

(SAY WHAAAATTT?)

I try to explain to the operator I would like to speak with someone in the Executive Offices specifically having to do with serious customer service issues.  The operator told me that essentially those people would not speak with me. I can’t remember the exact phraseology but it was probably the rudest switchboard operator since they first were handling one ringy dingy. They were so bad I wished I had recorded the conversation. I ended the call and tried calling back to get someone, anyone to help me.

Yeah…. so….. no…. just more  Phillipines. (And you know why these call centers are in off shore and third world countries, right? It is so they can pay employees super duper low wages and get away with it.  Cheap labor.

So I started looking around for other people to speak with.  They say Eddie Lampert is the CEO or President or Chairman of the Board.   Only you can’t speak with him or anyone in his office, all you get is a voicemail in Illinois that never calls anyone back.  I have to wonder if anyone listens to it. There is also this chick, Leena Munjal
Senior Vice President, Customer Experience and Integrated Retail.  She is unable to come to the phone as well. Very busy important people. Me the peon should just know better, right?

who to call

So I kept Googling.  Apparently Mr. Fast Eddie Lampert is just a hedge fund guy. Yep, just another hedge fund guy picking the carcass of a business clean for their own profits, right?

Here, I looked up Eddie Lampert and found this:

 

 

New York Times : Sears and Its Hedge Fund Owner, in Slow Decline Together By James B. Stewart
March 30, 2017

Hedge funds have been failing over the last year at the fastest rate since the financial crisis in 2008. Some crashed and burned after sudden reversals. Others quietly liquidated.

Then there’s Edward S. Lampert’s ESL Investments. It hasn’t failed, but may be setting a benchmark for slow, painful declines thanks to its outsize, long-term bet on two venerable retailers, Sears and Kmart.

Last week, Sears Holdings, the parent company, said what was becoming increasingly obvious to most investors, not to mention anyone who’s been in a Sears store lately: “Substantial doubt exists related to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”….Mr. Lampert was a Wall Street wunderkind, a Goldman Sachs intern whose intellect, ingratiating personality and prodigious work ethic attracted the patronage of some of America’s most prominent and successful investors…founded ESL in 1988 with $28 million in seed money … 

Sears’ reclusive CEO explains why he rarely visits the office — and instead lives at his sprawling $38 million estate that’s 1,400 miles away
Business Insider Hayley Peterson Mar. 27, 2018, 10:55 AM

“THEY COULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENT DECISION”: INSIDE THE STRANGE ODYSSEY OF HEDGE-FUND KING EDDIE LAMPERT
In 2003, many were skeptical when Lampert married Sears to Kmart. Now, with hundreds of stores closed and thousands thrown out of work, Lampert defends his strategies in his first in-depth interview in 15 years. The author also tracks down the man who kidnapped Lampert before the Kmart deal went through.

bloomberg

VANITY FAIR BY WILLIAM D. COHAN
APRIL 2018

Aug 20, 2018, 03:23pm
Fortune: Eddie Lampert Just Can’t Stop Picking At Sears’ Carcass
Steve Dennis

There are many, many articles. I am not posting more. They are all variations of the same theme.

So I also decided to call up the ESL hedge fund so I looked them up on Bloomberg.

Yes really, I called.  So what?

Did I expect to get anyone to speak with me? No, but it has been the day from hell with Sears so what did I have to lose? I was kind of curious as to what they would say.

Years ago, I worked for a couple of years for a now-defunct hedge fund. So I knew whomever answered the phone would be snotty pants the receptionist.  She did not disappoint. She was superior to little old me in every way…on the phone.

 

Whatevs.  I admit I was unpleasant and irritating.  But in my own defense, I have a dying refrigerator outside pending pick up for disposal, and a giant white albatross paperweight of a broken yet new refrigerator in my kitchen, which I now have to pay to have moved out of my kitchen so Sears can retrieve it.  I cook, I like a neat house and everything looks like hell in a hand basket.

Apparently it is too much to ask to have a WORKING REFRIGERATOR DELIVERED BY SEARS!!!

I now know no more Sears for anything. I understand why so many Sears and Kmart stores have closed.  I understand why people said to me we should have called Queen, or D & K, or Gerhard’s  or another local appliance store…or even Lowe’s or Home Depot.

Sears sucks. I hope the hedge fund prince of an owner enjoys his lovely estates. I hope someone involves them and Sears in a giant class action lawsuit some day.  For the crappy customer service alone and the inability to talk to anyone pleasant in the U.S. they deserve no less.

Don’t buy a paperclip from Sears.

Sign me disgusted by yet another U.S. business that is being killed by a hedge fund.

domestic diva blows a gasket over sears “service”

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searsI cook.  So for me to be without an appliance to achieve said end result is a big deal.  A few months ago I was a lucky girl and got a new wall oven. And then mysteriously six months after install, the digital thermostat gives up the ghost. If we wanted things only 350 degrees or above, I was golden.

Yes, you guess it: the thermostat goes up, only up. It doesn’t come down. (As a slightly related aside read this amusing article about oven temperature on Slate.)

So anyway, my new oven which is brand name came from Sears.  Sears appliances come with these warranties and “Blue Crew” repairmen who are truthfully awesome.

Unfortunately I am learning the customer service as in when you call the toll-free numbers is not so hot. To the point of frustrating enough to make you want to toss the telephone out the window after dealing with them.

So back to the beginning.  The oven is wonky so we call the number on the warranty paperwork.  We tell them what is wrong, give them all the data off the oven door and they say they will dispatch a repairman.  A few days later, we get the repairman.  Only he could only LOOK at the oven, the part had to be ordered. And the fact that warranty repair is this multi-step process like this is not exactly explained to you by the “customer service” people.

We are told the part would arrive by last Thursday (I am not sure it even came Thursday, I think it came Friday). When the box arrives we were told to call Sears toll-free number right away.  So like good little robots we did.  We were scheduled for repair between 8 a.m. and 12 noon.stove 3

This morning begins with a robo-call from Sears at quite the uncivilized hour stating the repairman would be there at 7:30 a.m. O.k. in a civilized world unless someone is bleeding on the side of the road or it is the snow day phone tree, the phone doesn’t even ring then! At that hour in the morning what is happening with families this time of year? Oh yeah, getting people off to work and school or they are trying to enjoy vacation and might shock or shockers sleep in a few minutes extra.

The repairman arrives.  As always, the best and most competent and professional part of Sears Home Repair are the actual repairman. They are pleasant, competent, know their stuff.

So I hand my repairman the box that got shipped from Sears via the manufacturer. I had not opened the box as I did not want to invalidate any warranty if only a licensed technician was supposed to open it.

The repairman opens the box and turns to me with a pained look on his face “Is this all they shipped to you?” he asks.

I replied yes, just that box which I had not opened. Well it ends up what they shipped was not the actual digital panel part but the cover for it.

The repairman excused himself and went out to his truck to call his office or headquarters or whatever. He comes back with an even more pained look on his face.  Apparently my part is on backorder and will arrive on Monday, September 2nd…you know, Labor Day. As in national holiday?

I said to the repairman, I know it is not his fault but how come they can robo-call and call for everything except for things like to tell the customer who has been waiting for over two weeks to get to this point and will be at over three weeks if the part arrives that a part was on back order???

He gave me a card with a “resolution hotline” listed in it.  Resolution my fanny.donna reed

I called the number (888-236-1885).  They said the call center was Houston, it sounded more like the Dominican Republic or something.  The gentleman who answered the phone was very nice, but his voice was so heavily accented that I donnacould not understand him.  And I don’t speak Spanish so I couldn’t converse with him that way.  So I politely said I could not hear him and asked for a supervisor.  I was placed on hold and listened to a mind numbing repetitive fake jazz tune for about 10 minutes before he came back to the line and said he had permission to transfer me to a supervisor.

PERMISSION?????

So a woman named Patricia (still with an accented voice, though not as heavy)  comes onto the line a few minutes after being placed on hold again and forced to listen to more of the same mind numbing repetitive fake jazz tune.  I go through the whole situation with her.  She then replies to me and I could tell she was reading a script or something off a computer screen.

I listened and then I said, look, I need to know what you are going to do to try to resolve my issues, and I need more than being read to off a computer screen. So she tells me that the manufacturer (Whirlpool) is specially making my oven part – yes specially. I laughed and said I wish that was true but we all know the parts are manufactured overseas in factories and there is nothing “special” about it.built in

She tells me there is nothing she can do for me.  I asked who else I could speak to.  She replies “Customer Resolution” but won’t give me the direct number.  She transfers me.  I spent the next 50 yes 50 minutes on hold listening to SAME mind numbing repetitive fake jazz tune and then the call was picked up and DROPPED on Sears end.

I was forced to call again and start the process again. This time although I could have been in Brazil or Cuba, I was told I was calling Florida.  A happy sing songy voice wanted me to go through it all again. So I did and then she transferred me to the super secret Customer Resolution area where the phone rang and rang and rang for 20 minutes before I swear the extension was picked up and disconnected.  I did not even get to the mind numbing repetitive fake jazz tune part of being on perma-hold this time.

Now my better half is having a go at Sears.  And I decided to write about it. And Sears? Your repairman is awesome and none of this is his fault.

There's a simple way to keep your home spring-clean fresh all year through.I just want to know what happened to real customer service? What happened to valuing my time as a customer?  Is my time not valuable?  Am I just  supposed to be Donna Reed sitting on the sofa in the living room with a nice gin and tonic and am not supposed to worry my pretty head about it?

My final word is usually I try to give local businesses more of a shot. Only after lots and lots of looking we discovered no one could beat Sears prices on brand names we were interested in. However, I think next time I might weigh the pros and cons of paying a little more and knowing I will get actual customer service vs. Sears magic carpet ride.

Am I experiencing desperate housewifery?

And I would really like to use my oven……