Customer Disservice: Sears Stinks

Like a lot of urban dwellers and city renters, I never had to do much work around the yard.  When we moved here to rural Connecticut this past fall, I knew it wouldn't be long before I would become the owner of gasoline powered yard equipment.  Having next to no experience with lawn mowers, tractors, chain saws, or snow blowers, I was both excited and leery about the process of acquiring them.

There's a local power equipment supply store a few miles up the road and I stopped in one crisp autumn day to talk to the owner about snow blowers.  They carry the Husqvarna brand, a Swedish company, I'm told. There were several sizes of shiny orange plated blowers, with intimidating augers and powerful looking motors. I asked how much they cost.  Naive as I was, I thought $400 to $600 dollars would be the neighborhood.  When I heard $1200, I tried not to blanche, but excused myself shortly thereafter.  Though I knew snow would come and that shoveling our driveways (yes, two) would be back breaking work, I tabled the purchased.  Frankly, I needed time to come to terms with spending that much money on something other than air travel or a vacation (frugality being the better part of valor in my book).

Fall became winter and winter brought snow.  A lot of snow.  At first we shoveled, but when the snow kept coming and our backs revolted we enlisted a friendly plowman to help.  But $38 a snowfall with nothing to show for it at the end of the winter didn't seem like money well invested.  I committed myself to buying a snowblower.  I solicited input from friends and family.  I read copious reviews, paid for a consumerreports.com membership, and narrowed the wide field of choices.  I was told not to skimp and buy one with a motor too small for those heavy, wet snows.  Make sure to get a two stage model, said Consumer Reports.  After carefully weighing our needs and our budget, I finally settled upon a Craftsman model from Sears.  Sears!  I am not sure why, but electing to buy from Sears made filled with with some pride.  Sears was an American success story.  Having begun in the late 1800s,  its roots in serving rural farmers with their catalog, it later grew into one of our country's greatest department stores.  There was a certain gratification I felt in continuing an American tradition.

One morning after running some errands I ventured into my local Sears and wandered over to the snow blowers.  There was a sale and several models displayed on the show floor but, alas, not the one that I'd pre-identified.  I lingered in the outdoor equipment area for more than 20 minutes.  Not a single salesperson manned the area.  Not a soul asked me if I needed help.  I left with my money in my pocket (or at least my debit card in my wallet, unswiped).

A few days later, December 22nd to be exact, I found some time to make my purchase online.  In spite of myself, I'd actually worked up some excitement about spending several hundred dollars on a power tool.  I wasn't buying a slick home theater system or a sexy iMac - it was a motorized outdoor tool for clearing the driveway.  I located the model number I wanted, filled in the information on sears.com, scheduled my delivery date (Monday, January 4th), and received my confirmation email.  I don't have a pick-up truck, and though I could have borrowed one, it just seemed easier to pay the fee for delivery service.  The total, all in, was $811 (that reflected the $150 discounted price).  And though we had to shovel two more times after placing the order and before the schedule delivery date I took it in stride, knowing that soon I'd have a powerful snow removal tool at the ready in our garage.

On Saturday the 2nd of January, I got an automated call from Sears confirming that I'd be receiving the snow blower the coming Monday and that I'd get another call Sunday to confirm the delivery time window.  Sure enough on Sunday, I received a call telling me that I could expect my snow blower between 11:30am and 1:30pm on Monday.  I had a couple of other appointments that day, but made sure I could be home during that time frame.  But on Monday morning, I got a call from the Sears delivery department telling me that there'd been some problem and the unit wasn't going to be on the truck as expected.  I was told I could expect the delivery on Wednesday instead.  As you might surmise, I was disappointed.  Questions like, "Why would they have told me Sunday that my snow blower was coming between 1130 and 1:30 if there was no snow blower on the truck for me?" arose.  But I am not entirely unreasonable.  I chalked it up to some kind of snafu - after all 'these things happen.'

On Tuesday, I got a call from the Sears delivery department telling me that the snow blower actually wasn't going to be delivered on Wednesday, but rather on Thursday.  There was some confusing explanation offered, a back order, a miscommunication.  I was beginning to get slightly irked at the apparent lack of Sears ability to understand and communicate their own supply chain.  Hadn't I ordered the machine several weeks ago?  Hadn't they allocated a in-stock unit to me?  Hadn't they ascertained where that unit was and when it could be transported from wherever to Pomfret, Connecticut?  Apparently not.  Having been on the other side of the conversation with disenchanted customers, I did my best to not take out my frustrations on the messenger.  Certainly the person calling me wasn't responsible for getting the blower on the truck.  That said, their job is to listen and pass along a customer's concerns.  I hoped they would.

About an hour later, I got another call from Sears. What now?!  They were calling to regret to inform me that the snow blower that I'd carefully researched and committed our scarce funds to was actually not on back order; in fact, that snow blower was no longer available at all!  They recommended that I select another model all together.  In short, they 1) happily took my money 2) promised me a delivery date 3) confirmed that delivery date 4) postponed that delivery date 5) twice! 6) then told me that they weren't going to deliver any snow blower at all.  I was upset, but surely Sears - trusted and honorable Sears - would rise to the occasion and make me glad that despite their error, I'd be glad I'd chosen them over their many competitors.

I spoke on the phone with a customer sales represented, a friendly woman with a folksy accent, who tried to help me find a comparable model.  I politely inquired if, given the many oversights and mistakes Sears had made during the course of this transaction - the first substantial one of this kind I'd made from Sears - they were prepared to sell me a comparable model for the same price.  "No.  I am not authorized to do that," was the reply.  I reminded them that I had a choice where to spend my dollars and that this experience would do much to influence any future purchases.   I'll spare you the back and forth and my efforts to escalate my case to a supervisor.  They didn't so much as offer me a penny off of the other model.  I wasn't asking for them to give away the ranch.  The listed price of the other model - that was nearly identical to the one I'd selected - was all of $100 more.

I am not unreasonable.  I would have gladly met them part way.  All I was really looking for was something more than a "We're sorry for the inconvenience." and "We do appreciate my business."  Sears flat out refused to make any effort to right their wrong and appease their customer.  Here's the kicker.  When I told them that I'd like to cancel my order and take my business elsewhere they told me that I could expect to be credited my purchase amount in 7 to 10 business days!  Let me get this straight?  When I make the purchase, the money is debited that same day from my bank account, but when I want my money back, they tell me it will take nearly two weeks? To save themselves a measly $100, Sears - a company with a market capitalization of 11.46 billion dollars - lost potentially thousands of dollars from me - to say nothing, I hope, of the hundreds of people I might influence to not shop at Sears.  I don't know anything about any of the men in Sears Holdings Senior Management Team, but I am guessing if any one of them knew what transpired here, they wouldn't be so proud to be the legacy of Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck.