Carita sent a message to Edward Lampert – Chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings – Email Address that said:
Dear Mr. Lambert,
You might or might not be aware of what your Customers face when calling Sears for a Service issue, but I think someone should call your attention to it.
Here it goes: In July, I scheduled a service call for my wall oven which was under Master Service Agreement since I bought it at the local Sears. The oven could not be fixed. Per the agreement, Sears agreed to replace it. I will not go into the details of that particular debacle, but, as of today, I am still waiting for the replacement, which was scheduled for next Monday and is now postponed, pending yet another call from the installer. What I am really furious about is the handling of my calls to Sears. Every time I have called, it has been a few hours' project. Why? Because no matter which number I call, I am told to call yet another number, then another number and so on... Until I end up spending hours on the phone before I get anywhere. And then.... I am still told that I would get a call back. Why? Why can't any of your employees answer a simple call? Not to mention that almost every time, they seem to have the wrong item. Today, I call for the wall oven and I am being told that I am calling about a dryer. I get a call, I get provided with a number to call back, and when I call it, I am being told that I am calling the wrong number and I need to call yet another number. And on and on.... Mr. Lambert, do you by any chance need a General Customer Service Manager? I am close to retirement, but hey! I will put retirement on hold and see what I can do to fix your horrendous Customer Service. What the heck! I managed Operations for a major Financial Service Application Provider Company for years and I would never have tolerated such shabby response to any customer. If a call came to Operations and it really should have gone to Development, I did not give the Customer a number to call, I owned the call and interacted with the other departments on behalf of the Customer until the issue was resolved. I had a common database, the Customer did not have to repeat the same litany over and over again, all there was to know about the Customer was there to be seen no matter what Department they called. Do I make sense to you? I know my Customers where happy. I am not happy with Sears. I would like to hear what you think about this issue, because, frankly, when seeing Sears name on my caller ID used to be a pleasure, now that simple fact is enough to make my blood boil because I know that I am about to spend hours on a merry go around of 800 numbers. No good. Can you call me and discuss this with me, please? I have been a Sears customer for years and would like to continue to be one, but frankly, I would have better service if you had outsourced your Call Centers. I thank you for having Americans answer my calls, but can they be trained to do better? When I think of how they respond to the calls (with one exception, which I would be happy to provide), I can think of one word only: Unacceptable.
Respectfully,
Carita
