stevevt

UPDATED: SEE POST #12 BELOW

I ordered an air mattress online from Sears.com about a month ago. It arrived in around a week, but it was damaged and did not work. No big deal. Stuff happens. I called Sears customer service; the CSR agreed to have a replacement shipped to my local Sears. When the item arrived at the store, I'd get an email and do the exchange at the store. Shipping was going to take around 7 to 10 days.

Well, it's been a couple weeks, and no replacement air mattress or email from Sears has happened. I called again today, and it turns out they did not order a replacement at all when I called 2 weeks ago. The notes on the order indicated that I was going to ship back the original air mattress for a refund, then Sears would ship me a replacement.

I basically told them they need to send me this item so I could receive it by the end of the week -- in time for me to be able to use the thing for the purpose for which I ordered it originally. A month ago. The CSR put me on hold. When he came back, he stated that the expedited shipping would be $61, and they would "try" to see if it could be waived. When I pressed him on what that meant, he said that it would take 3 to 5 days just to get an answer on whether they could waive the shipping.

I told him to forget the replacement and that I'd just return the item to my local Sears, which I'll do tonight, and that I would never do business with Sears again as a result of this experience.

Obviously, Sears problems are well documented. Now that I've experienced more than a small taste of them first-hand, I really can't figure out how they're still in business. Amazon is cheaper, has better selection, and gets me orders (all the way up here in Vermont) in 2 days. The only reason I made this order at Sears was to use a gift certificate. I can't believe having a reasonable experience at Sears is so difficult.

I have no hope that Sears will ever read this. Just add me to the list of people who no longer has any use for Sears. Once I get rid of this gift certificate balance, I guess.

ernestrp

I know how you feel. I am going through about the same thing with IKEA. I bought a shelf thing at IKEA that is 82 (164 miles round trip) miles from where I live. Started to put it together and realized it was missing a very important part of it and could not be put together without it. Contacted them and was told they would send it by mail and it would take 7-10 B-days for delivery. Waited a week and never heard anything so I sent an email and nothing has been done about it. After reading online about their customer support, I doubt, I will ever be sent anything. Not sure what to do about it. If I return it in person it will cost me 20.00 in gas. I guess I could try a charge dispute with AMEX but that will take time and I would rather get over it. I figure I will wait until the end of this week to decide. I do know as of now, I will never buy anything from IKEA again and will encourage others not to buy from IKEA.

DVD Josh

Your car gets the worst gas mileage ever.

Robertwoj

How do you figure his car has the worst gas mileage ever?

Let's assume gas is $3.50/gallon. Then his mpg = 164 miles * ($3.50/gallon) / ($20 spent) = 28.7 mpg. Sounds pretty good to me.

Shannon Nutt

Well, in the case of Sears, 'forever' may only be a year or two anyway. The last time I dealt with them was a positive experience - but it was about 7 years ago...they price matched/refunded me on a TV I bought from them that went on sale cheaper at a different store about a week after my purchase. But that was my last major buy from a Sears store - as you said, it's just easier/cheaper online these days with places like Amazon.

ernestrp

You are very close.

davidh777

7-10 B-days is longer than a week.

auto

Jesus Christ. Give the guy a break.

movieguru

We bought one of the Billy bookshelves from them a few years back. We living a good 200+ miles from Ikea. When we tried to put it together, the one long side was broken in half.

when we called Ikea, they said they couldn't ship out a replacement piece because it was too large. They said we could exchange the piece in the store. We told them we wouldn't be back up there for 4-5 months, so they made some notation in their computer system so we could return if after the expiration date on the receipt.

4-5 months later when we were going back up that way, we exchanged the piece with Ikea. They reimbursed us the cost of milage with a gift card. We ended up with a $125 gift card for a $79 book shelf; so it was like getting a free bookshelf plus a little extra. All you have to do is ask sometimes.

Josh-da-man

Yep. Sears is a big mess.

Gizmo

Sears is still around?

stevevt

Update:
Sears is not the worst.

I used Twitter to direct a message to @searscares yesterday, pointing to this thread. Sears executive CS has been in touch via (ineffective, still not quite understanding the problem) email and then a phone call this morning. The man I talked to, who probably deals with this kind of thing -- and far worse -- all day every day, made sure he understood the problem. In fact, he did a great job listening in general. Big thumbs up there.

Based on our conversation, here's where we're at:
I'm going to return the item to my local Sears tonight. If they have anything suitable in the store, I'll buy it. The CSR is going to call me tomorrow morning, and at that point he'll see what kind of percentage credit reimbursement he'll be able to give me. If they don't have anything suitable in the store, I'll order the same item online with super fast shipping. When we talk tomorrow, the CSR will see what kind of shipping credit reimbursement he'll be able to give me.

So, this whole situation has at least a chance of working out OK.

Important to note, I think, is that at no point did Sears ask me to delete or modify this post. They most definitely did read it, however.

Lord Zarak

That's great, but what did he say about ernestrp's IKEA experience?

Shannon Nutt

Yeah, it's at the mall right next to JCPenney and Radio Shack.

ernestrp

There was a large cardboard package (soaking wet) on my front porch this morning. It contained the missing piece from Ikea. I guess it would have been nice if they would have informed me that it was sent especially after my second email to them.

Deftones

it is a good thing you are a lawyer and not a math teacher...

DirkUSA

I don't understand what you are complaining about. You got the replacement within the time frame they gave you. You were impatient and it wasn't IKEA who put the box out in the rain.

Ropes Pierre

seriously.

you should be thanking Obama for that.

boc4ever

I've pretty much decided I won't be ordering from Sears anytime soon. I ordered a product online and received a confirmation email saying my order had arrived at the store for pickup. It was a ship to store item. I had already received notice my first order had arrived. I live in Pennsylvania and I had the order delivered to DE since it is 30 mins from my work, but generally a 45 min ride altogether. When I arrived, they said, no sorry the 2nd order isn't here. I explained how I got the confirmation email and they were certain it wasn't there. I drove home and called to complain and find out what happened. The woman told me, well I can't tell you exactly how it will be handled but I have registered your complaint. I got the confirmation email again about a day or two later. When I returned to pick up the item, they handed me two $5 certificates saying "oops sorry" please accept this. I sat on those for a while and then realized they were going to expire. I went to a different Sears, this time in Exton, and I was looking for something worthwhile to use the certificate on. I started reading the list of exclusions, and I am pretty sure there is nothing in that store it applies to. I ended up buying a gift and using my rewards points toward the purchase. When I got home I started to think, with all these restrictions, how can they consider that to be an apology voucher? So I called them to see if they would be able to reinstate my points in my reward account in lieu of the voucher or extend the voucher so I could have more time to search for items that would apply. I was told no in both cases. I see those coupons all the time with thousands of restrictions and that is a different story in my eyes. In this case, it was supposed to be as a token of good faith to continue doing business with them. Just thought I would throw in my two cents!

Ranger

Twitter is really great for contacting companies.