This is a copy of the letter I sent to Sears customer service which explains the entire story...
I am writing about an experience I have had with sears.com which I can only describe as despicable service at best. I placed an order on sears.com for a queen box spring Jan 23rd, order #124500119. Before placing the order I called and spoke with a rep and wanted to make sure that the pricing of 75.00 was correct with the box spring. The rep told me that yes it was and she could take the order over the phone or I could place it over the internet. I explained to her I would discuss things with my wife and probably just place the order over the internet and thanked her for her time. A few minutes later I decided to order the box spring. We received an email Wednesday Feb 3rd that the box spring was ready to be picked up. I went to the store Sat Feb 6th to pick up the spring and from here everything unraveled. Shortly after scanning a upc from the email we received from Sears a sears employee from the merchandise dept walked out with part of the box spring. I asked him where the other half was and he explained to me this was all they had. He told they thought the box spring was for a bunkbed and that we would get his team lead. A team lead walked out and asked to see my order slip. I showed her the slip and she explained to me that I would have to discuss this with customer service as the order was filled and there was nothing more she could do for me. I explained to her that this put us in quite a bind as we have been sleeping on a mattress placed directly on slats on our new bed and this is why we ordered the box spring in the first place. The "team lead" recommended that I put a piece of plywood underneath the mattress and suggested the mattress store down the street may have a box spring and that there was "nothing more she could do for me". Throughout the conversation that I had with the team lead never once did she apologize for the confusion, the mistake, the inconvenience, no apology, period. After this I walked over to the customer service desk in the store where I explained the situation to the assistant. This employee was more friendly than the team lead from customer pick up, but explained to me that she couldn't actually issue a refund for the purchase because I payed for the box over the internet. She wrote down an 800 number on my pick up slip and suggested I call the 800 number and they should be able to help me. I called the 800 number while still in the store and after going through a series of menus reached a rep. She explained to me that she would have to contact a supervisor and that she would probably be able to issue a refund but it would take 7-10 business days and informed me to be sure to leave the box spring in the store. Nobody really seemed to understand or appreciate the fact that I was livid and pretty upset at this point as I have been extremely inconvenienced. I went back to the Service desk and asked the associate if I could speak with the store manager as nothing seemed to be getting resolved. About five minutes went by and store manager Aaron walked over and shook my hand and listened to what I had to say. He was quite professional and was surprised at how things had unfolded up to this point. He was surprised the the team lead in customer pick up did not apologize or try to help out more, and told me he wanted to issue an immediate refund and try to still help me get a box spring yet. He issued me a cash refund and walked me over to the bedding dept where he was looking for the bedding dept manager Rita. Rita was not in at the time and Aaron took down my name and number and said he would have Rita call me as soon as she returned and that they wanted to come up with a solution to my problem. He apologized at least 4-5 times as said he could completely understand why I was upset. About 30 minutes after leaving the store I received a call from Rita at the Sears store. She explained to me that what seems to have happened is that the website did not show a clear messege that both sides of the box spring needed to be ordered and that the rep who I originally called before I ordered this should have known and offered another apology. She explained to me that it would be wise for me to purchase both box springs but that if I purchased them at the store I would have to pay full price, but that after looking them up online they were still on sale for 75.00 a piece. I talked this over with my wife and we decided that we would order both pieces as we just wanted to get this taken care of. When going online at sears.com indeed the picture did show the sale price of 75.00 a piece, but once clicking on the picture the price went up to 150.00 a piece. I tried going in and out of the site, trying different navigation methods several times and it would not show the sale price when zooming in. I called the infamous 800 number and explained to the rep what had happened, went through the entire story in abbreviated form once again, and she apologized and said she understood how I must be frustrated, she went on to explain that she was going to talk with a supervisor and try to get the price adjusted so I could still get the "sale price". She placed me on hold a few minutes where a "case worker" then got on the phone. The case worked asked if I would explain to her what happened. Again I went on to tell the entire story to this case worker. She then went on to tell me that the box spring's price is "clearly listed" on the website and that sometimes google does not catch up with the website when sales are over with. I explained to her the price is clearly listed on sears.com and she did not address this but went on to say that "I should have read the pop up messege that has been in place for the last month on sears.com that clearly states that with a split box spring both pieces must be ordered". I explained to her that a pop up box never showed on screen. I explained to the case worker that I called and confirmed the price with a rep before even placing the order and the case worker then told me "you had to have clearly seen the pop up messege stating you need to order both pieces" I told her once again that a pop up messege never appeared on my computer and that when reading a recent review for the same box spring on sears.com another customer had the same exact thing happen to them, and received only one box spring after a rep told them ordering two was not necessary. The case worker then explained to me "sir there is nothing I can do for you when you are clearly lying to me that a pop up box did not appear on the computer screen". At this point I lost it and thought to myself "are you kidding me"??? I am the customer, I am the person who searched the internet and decided to shop with sears. Sears did not pick me. I am the person who helps pay for Sears's employee's wages. I am the person who works a full time job and decided to spend my hard earned money at Sears. I want to make it clear that this is not even my first purchase at Sears. My wife and I purchased a plasma Panasonic 50" tv less than a year ago from sears.com. After this experience I will NEVER shop at sears again. I am a rep for General Motors and work with over 170 dealerships in the Chicago and Milwaukee area. If I treated my service managers and Warranty clerks the way I have been treated by a majority of your staff I would not have a job. This kind of behavior is disgraceful and disgusting. I've never been accused of lying by a store before, and hopefully never will again by avoiding Sears and Kmart and any other associated stores all together. What happened to the customer is always right? I know customers are not always right, but this is sad customer service. On a brighter note I called a local mattress store fifteen minutes after getting off the phone with the sears "case worker" and ordered a box spring from the "Mattress Doctor" and it is to be delivered less than a week from now. Sears, never again.
Tim Langworthy,
-Former Custome
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