How a major corporation kills its business by trying to avoid costs
Tuesday February 02nd 2016, 11:24 pm
Filed under: Life,Non-Knitting

So there it is

.  Thank you Davies Appliance. We made lemon sponge cake to try it out: even and perfect. But they have to come back tomorrow to rewire the circuit breaker so that cleaning both ovens at once (not that we intend to do that) doesn’t cause problems. They also had to cut the lower cabinet drawer to fit it in and–it didn’t come cheap but they do it right.

The installer looked at the dishwasher a moment for us and said whoever had brought it had bashed in the top, which had sprung back, but it was why we’d never been able to pull out the third rack at the top. It wasn’t that we’d been doing anything wrong.

I knew exactly where the sales receipt for it should be (and the one for the oven now is). It wasn’t there. Well no real problem, I went online to my account–where Sears had no record whatsoever that we’d bought that dishwasher from them. Huh. I knew they didn’t do extended warranties, but making it so they don’t have to be hassled over the original manufacturer’s one either? That’s pretty…broken, however it happened. I tried their chat. Nope, no record. He recommended calling the store.

We only have two months left on that warranty. The guy at the store on the phone told me that for him to mail me a new copy meant its having to go through headquarters and there was no knowing how long it would take. He said that part again for emphasis–the implication being, they’ll string it out till your warranty’s over. It doesn’t matter to them.

There was nothing for it but to go there, twenty-one miles each way across Bay Area traffic, for a new copy of the receipt in person. Which he was glad to give me. They’ve got a good guy working there who does right by his customers.

It wasn’t till I got home that I found that nowhere on those two pages that printed out does it say the actual word SEARS. Wow. If I have to drive back down there again to get an amended copy, I do, but, hopefully this will do. But wow. I will never, ever buy a major appliance from them again. Which is a shame, because the people who work the floors that I’ve encountered have all been people whose jobs I want to support.

Glad I bought the oven from the local family-owned-since-1935 company.

(Afterthought: the sales person who said Sears charges $100 less if you order online rather than in the store? Can you just imagine if I’d done that?)


4 Comments so far
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Wow, such a difference in service is just amazing! I used to do business with a local appliance company too, and found that they did much beer by us than the big chain nearby. I’m sure that’s why they’re still in business after all these years.

Yay for the new oven! It’s so pretty!

Comment by Pegi 02.03.16 @ 3:28 am

That should be “better”, not “beer”!

Comment by Pegi 02.03.16 @ 3:29 am

It’s no comfort, but I very much doubt Sears will be around long enough for you to buy another appliance from them. Their decades of actively anti-customer policies are slowly paying off. We bought a refrigerator from them a few years ago, and after that experience I swore I’d never buy another appliance from them either. 🙁

But your new oven looks great!

Comment by Virginia 02.03.16 @ 9:54 am

I already told you our Sears lack of interest. And yes the floor people are trying to make it work. Is this the symptomatic situation of corporate America?

Comment by Helen 02.03.16 @ 11:58 am



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