On April 13th, I dropped off my Craftsman model weedeater to have the trigger replaced. It took me almost 10 minutes before anyone even came over to help me, which should have been my first sign to run out the door. Once someone finally came to help me I told them what was wrong with the weedeater and the work I wanted done. They could not find my name in the system until they looked me up at an old address (from 3 years ago) and did not update my new information. I was told I would have to pay a $30 service charge because the unit was no longer under warranty but that the $30 would be applied to any services. I asked the associate if he knew how much it would cost to replace the trigger and he told me they had no way of knowing but that I could set a limit on how much the service would cost so they couldn't do work without my authorization. I told him I wanted a $30 limit since I had already paid $30. He again said they would call me to get authorization and I asked him to make sure they call my new number so he put a note in the system. He told me the weedeater would be ready on 4/28/08 and they would call me when it was ready to pick up.
4/28/08 came by and I heard nothing from Sears. I called the Customer service number to check on the status of the repair and an Indian woman who I could barely understand could not find my information in the system. I finally gave her my phone number from 3 years and she was able to pull it up but she said it was still not in and could give me no explanation why.
On 5/1/08 I had to go to the Mall for another reason so I stopped into the store and asked about the status of my repair. The associate told me that it was still being worked on and would not be ready until 5/4/08. I again verified that they had my correct phone number in the system and talked to the manager to see if they could update the info since the lady on the phone had been unable to find me in the system. She said there was no way they could do that while the work order was open but assured me that they would call me at my current number and explained the weedeater was out because they had had to order the trigger. She told me it looked like it would be back to the store on 5/4/08 and gave me the number of the store to call to speak to someone who could tell me the status of my weedeater.
I still had not heard from Sears by 5/6/08 so I called the store to see if it was back. They associate who answered the phone said it was there and had been there since Sunday. I asked her why I had not been called and she said she didn't know. I told her I would be in that evening to pick it up.
When I arrived at the store an associate came out and told me I had a balance to pay before I could get my weedeater. I asked him how much and he told me $60!!! I asked him how it could be so much, it was a broken trigger that should have cost, max, $40. I expressed my frustration that I had NEVER been called to authorize them to fix the weedeater at that price. He apologized and said he wasn't sure if they could do anything. My boyfriend and I told him we wanted to speak to the manager and he said he would get her. We waited for about 5 minutes and the associate came back and said the manager had told him that we had no choice, we could either pay the $60 and get our weedeater back or be out our $30 deposit and they would keep it. I again said I wanted to speak to the Manager as both choices were unacceptable and he said he would have her come over. When she came over we asked if she had remembered us from last time and she said she did. We explained how poor our customer service had been throughout the service period and the fact that no one had called us to authorize the repairs. All she would say is that we had the two above choices and there was nothing we could do about it. She kept telling us that either way we were out the $30, which we said we understood, but I kept trying to explain to her that I didn't think I should have to pay the $60 since it had not been authorized by me. She kept interrupting and saying either she couldn't do anything about it or that either way we were out the $30. I explained to her that I could get a brand new weedeater for $90, which is the same price as what I would be paying for my old one for the so-called service. I asked what had cost so much and she would not explain the charges, she would only say that the service was $60/hour. My boyfriend asked her if that was the standard rate and she said it was. I asked why I had not been told that when I had dropped it off, as I had asked the associate, and she said she didn't know why. I told her I was extremely unhappy and that I would never be a customer at sears again. She shrugged her shoulders at me! I asked for phone numbers of her manager so I could talk to them and she gave me a number so I could complain to the service but would not give me any numbers for Sears. My boyfriend suggested to her as a fellow retail employee that she should have her employees tell people the rates, especially when the know them, if they wanted to avoid these kinds of problems. She looked at him like he had a horn growing out of his head, said she there was nothing else she could do, and started to walk away. My boyfriend asked her if she would wait a minute so we could decide if we were going to pay the $60 or get a new one. She said she would and walked into the office.
After we walked over and looked at the weedeater's (and verifying that, in, fact, a new one does cost $90) I told him I had been insulted, by both the process and the manager, that I was not giving Sears one more cent of mine again. He agreed and we went over to let the manager know that we would not be taking the weedeater back but she would not come out of the office (we waited for another 5 minutes). We were so disgusted at that point that we left.
0 comments