I seriously cannot think of a more frustrating customer experience than what I’m having now with Sears.
Quick re-cap. This house came with a new microwave from Sears. A cleaning lady messed up the front glass so the builder replaced it with a new one a couple of months after we moved in.
A few weeks later, it stopped working. I called Sears for repair since it’s got another 11 months under warranty. I sat at home from 8-1 (when they said they would be here) and the repair man never showed. I called again and they rescheduled me for the next week. That week, the repair man called in sick so I had to wait another few days. They finally came out to look at it, then said they had to order parts. Another week goes by and they came back and fixed it.
Two weeks later, it broke down again. Same thing on the repair. Waited a week, then another week and then another week before a repair man came out. This one couldn’t fix it.
It’s still sitting above my stove. The turning plate wouldn’t stop turning until it apparently burned out the motor. The light won’t go off now. The repair man was supposed to be here yesterday but they called to reschedule it for today between 8-1. They called at 10 to say they have to reschedule it for Thursday.
My calls to the customer service center are a waste of time. Sears’ automated phone system has to be the worst outside of Beijing. I sat on hold for 7 minutes only to have the call disconnected, so I had to call back and go through the same dance of “press 1” “say yes or no” and “did you say microwave?”. I sat for 6 minutes on hold that time to have the call disconnected again.
This morning, I had the guy transfer me to the customer service desk who complained to me that he transferred my call to her. She then told me there was nothing she could do about someone calling in sick and that I should take the microwave back to the store where I bought it.
SHE NEVER LISTENED TO ME. She cut me off everytime I tried to explain something. She complained that I was complaining. When I said their phone system needed some work she complained about the BellSouth automated system.
For the past 3 months we’ve gone without a microwave more than we’ve had one working. No Lean Cuisine. No “heat up this cup of coffee for a few seconds”. No thawing out hamburger meat.
Sears doesn’t care about it’s customers. This is one customer they’ll never have to deal with ever again. At least when I can finally eat a bag of popcorn.
We’ve had similar problems with Sears, but ours were with the automotive department. No employee accountability or interest in satisfying the customer. It didn’t help to go to the manager, either.
On the microwave issue, I suggest purchasing a cheapie backup, counter unit. It’s well worth the price. When our first “big” microwave broke down years ago, it was in the repair shop for a week (under warranty). We realized after two days how much we depended on it, mainly for defrosting things. So we bought a $10 microwave at a garage sale to keep on hand as an emergency backup. It’s not a beautiful stainless steel model, but it does the job. Most of the time, it sits in the attic, but when your regular microwave goes out, the backup is a real lifesaver.