Current mood:	aggravated
Entry tags:	rant, sales, service

Service... not really.
Okay, a rant instead of art today.

Do not buy online from Sears. Maybe not even in person.

Two weeks ago our washing machine croaked after 12 years of service. Got our money's worth, to be sure. So I do the price comparison and all that, finally settling on a machine from Sears. I pay online. They say 8 days. Okay, not great, but the others had long delivery windows too. Sears is just up the street so I figure it is the best situation possible. This was also after one of the small local companies didn't even return my call. (I thought this was an economy where they really need our business?)

Monday, I get an automated call. Everything on schedule. You'll get it Thursday. We'll call again to narrow the delivery time window. Seemed excellent.

Day of delivery, no new call. I call them just in case I missed something. My order has been canceled. No machines in stock within driving distance. We've no idea why you didn't get a call or email about this. So sorry.

And yet the website STILL shows it in stock. I say so. I am then told that their online stock system is not a live one. What...?

So they're giving this illusion of stock control which they don't have, then when that falls through... nothing. No call. No email. Zip. Yes, I work from home, but imagine if I were someone who had to take a vacation day to be here? I expect there's some office working people out there who're even more pissed than I am.

They are all so sorry it happened. Over and over. But there's no fix, and no indication from them that they're going to change their system. Complaint noted and I will have to wait 2-7 days for my money refund so I can start again. With some other company.

What's a shame is Sears used to be such a good company. I'm aware lately that a lot of consumer complaints have focused around their system of store credit and credit cards, but I avoided that and paid by debit. Sadly I found another area of their business that they've really screwed up.