I used to think Sears was the company to go with because they stand behind all they do 100% with great customer service. No longer do I think this.

First Im basing my timeline mostly on the timestamps from the email chains that have been going on between myself and the Sears Customer Service and Sears Price Match representatives.  The actual times are probably slightly before the email timestamp but the few minutes should not make much of a difference.

 Second Im going to do my best to remember the exact words spoken to me by the Sears Customer Service representatives while I was on the phone with them.  As I did not record our calls I may be slightly off.

Third and finely for any Sears representatives out there who may stumble upon this. Please realize that in this age where the consumer has an abundance of shopping options just a mouse click away you must alter your business practices to gain and keep your customers. You are no longer the only game in town nor are you even the easiest and you are certainly not the cheapest. People like me chose to shop with you because of your strong reputation for great customer service. People like me are walking away from you because you are failing to meet those expectations. You are not immune to the repercussions of these hard economic times.

The story from the beginning. On Sunday afternoon I decided to purchase an item from Sears costing $495 plus $56.95 in shipping and handling charges. At 2:57pm that order was completed.  Shortly after that I was looking for another item I needed on a competitors site. Probably due to the ever growing ability of internet sites to track what you have been looking at and searching for, that site showed me in the sidebar the same Item I had just bought from Sears. The competitor’s site had the item listed for $389.54 and offered free shipping. So we are talking about a substantial difference of $168.94.

At 3:30pm I contacted Sears customer service via the phone and requested the order I just placed be canceled. The customer service representative stated that if I filed a “Sears Price Match” request on line that I will be guaranteed to get the difference, including the free shipping plus 10% back.(Sears Customer Service Lie #1)  I specifically asked at that time that if my request was rejected for any reason would I still be able to cancel the order. I was told in no uncertain terms that I can cancel the order at any time before its shipped. (Sears Customer Service Lie #2)

I then went on line to Sears and filed the Sears Price Match Request, providing all the relevant information. Sunday at 3:55 pm I received the email confirmation for that request. So just to be clear from the time the order was placed to the time I began the process was a documented 1 hour.

On Monday at 1:16 pm I received a reply to my Sears Price Match request stating it was granted but only for the amount of $107.20. This, by their numbers, represented the “difference of $97.45 and an additional credit of $9.75 to reflect 10% of the difference.” Monday at 1:29pm I asked about the shipping and handling charges and why they were not being credited as the Sears Customer Service representative stated they would be. On Monday at 2:31 I was told that because the competitor was a membership club they did not offer price match on their shipping and handling charges. Fine, I accepted that explanation and on Monday at 2:51 pm I had canceled my order with a Sears Customer Service representative via the phone.  At this time I was told that the item would be canceled and I would be refunded the full amount. (Sears Customer Service Lie #3)

I was assured that this would not be a problem so at that time I placed the order for the item on the competitors site, knowing that the charges from Sears would soon be reversed. Therefore having a large amount of money coming out of my account would not be too much of an issue because $582.70 would be returned shortly. (Don’t scream about the math not adding up remember tax is added to that total.) Lets also take a moment to note that when I confirmed the cancelation the Sears Customer Service representative confirmed all of my contact information including both my home and mobile phone numbers.

On Monday at 11:15 pm I received the shipping confirmation with tracking numbers for UPS. I of course was asleep at this time and could do nothing. On Monday at 11:31 pm I received a notification from the Sears Customer Service representative that my order could not be canceled because it had already been shipped.  Now when I contacted Sears Customer service about this I was told that I did not cancel the order soon enough. Am I to believe that Sears shipping and handling department is so disorganized that it takes a full 8 hours for them to report that they have shipped the item to you? Well maybe I am to believe that.

Anyhow I am at that time told by the Sears Customer Service representative that the only recourse I have at this point is to refuse delivery of the shipment when it arrives. The Sears Customer Service representative assured me in no unequivocal terms that I would not be charged for anything. I asked specifically “Will I be charged any type of Restocking Fee?” the Sears Customer Service representative stated “No I would not.” I asked specifically “Will I be charged for any shipping or return shipping?” the Sears Customer Service representative stated “No I would not.” I asked “Will I be reimbursed for the missed day of work while I waited around for the UPS delivery so I could refuse it? ” the Sears Customer Service representative stated “ No I would not.” OK so that is probably not a reasonable expectation but, heck, I might as well ask. Lastly I asked why no one ever tried to contact me via the phone to tell me that my cancelation had failed. I was told by the Sears Customer Service representative that they did not have my contact number.  (Im not calling that a lie. They really may not have had access to mt numbers during that part of the process. Just because they confirmed it in the previous part of the process does not mean they actually had it later. I will let you be the judge of lie or no lie.) Moving on.

As it turned out there was no need to stay home from work as my wife was able to be there to deal with it. However when the UPS guy showed up he informed us that there were not one but two of the items on his truck for us.  He thanked us for the large print note on the door that saved him from bringing both the heavy items to the door only to be told to take them back.

So here we are on Wednesday at noon, assured by the Sears Customer Service representative that “I would not be charged for anything.” I will await the final outcome but don’t hold out too much hope that this is really over yet.

One final note to the Sears corporate office or stockholders or whoever might actually care what happens to the Sears business.

I am in the process of remodeling my home because the housing market has changed and it looks like I will be staying here longer than originally anticipated. I just bought several high end Kitchen appliances from Sears. You have my money and I have the appliances. More importantly at that point I was very happy with Sears and had already begun tagging items from Sears for purchase in the near future. This was one of those items. But there are many more including a large capacity front loading Washer and Dryer for the laundry room and to be honest everything else for the laundry room because at the moment it is unfinished and lacking any cabinetry or shelving. I had intended to buy everything I could from Sears simply because of the initial experience. This one very bad experience has not only ended my plans to use Sears for my future remodeling needs but from any future purchases including the very tools I will need to build out the finished laundry room. I in fact canceled my Sears Credit Card mere moments after my last conversation with the Sears Customer Service representative. Lowes, Home Depot and Sam’s Club will be the benefactors of Sears’ failure to take proper care of their customer.

We live in a new age where you can no longer rest on your laurels. You can no longer assume that the customer has no choices available to them. You can no longer opt for the cheapest route to customer service. And most of all we live in times where large corporations that no one thought would ever go out of business are failing and vanishing because they failed to keep up with the times and take full care of their customers. You have lost me but I would hate to see another Corporate American Icon fall to the times. More importantly I would hate to see all those Americans who rely on you for their bread and butter finding themselves without a job in these very hard times.