I went to grab lunch and decided to stop in Sears today to get a 1/2 in. ratchet replaced (this was not my local one, it closed a few weeks back) since it was across the street from where I stopped for lunch. I figured that I'd swap it out and be back on the job in five minutes like my past experiences in dealing with a broken Sears tool. Nope, it didn't happen that way.
Man, my visit today was such a telling experience and I don't mean that in a good way.
First of all, they needed a guy like me to get up on their roof to take a look at their RTUs because it was a little too warm for comfort. Maybe ten degrees cooler than the 94 degrees it was outside.
So I walked in and I went past where the mattresses were located on my way to the tool department and there were about five employees sitting on the mattresses and talking amongst themselves, all high school or maybe college aged. I thought it was a little unprofessional. Two of them were LAYING on the mattresses, on their phones. That seemed outright tacky to me.
I get to the counter of the tool area and waited for help. After about two minutes, I wandered around and found nobody to help me. While I wandered around I had to dodge a couple of flat pushcarts abandoned in the aisles with empty boxes piled on them. Nobody seemed to be cleaning that up so that left a bad impression.
After searching for help I decided to go back to the mattress department to ask one of the employees there if I could get help in getting my ratchet replaced under the Craftsman replacement guarantee. I kind of interrupted because none of them took the initiative to acknowledge me. After politely asking, they actually bickered amongst each other on who was going to assist me. Yes, they were like "'you help him!' 'No, you help him'". I was so shocked that I said "excuse me?" because I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. I politely asked where their manager was because I wanted to speak with them.
Once I asked to speak with a manager one of the "kids" in the group reluctantly got up and asked me what I needed, even though I just said that I needed a new ratchet not even several seconds ago. He said that they didn't replace those and that they fixed them in the store. I asked him how long it would take to fix and he said that I would have to wait until Friday. I asked if I could just get it replaced and he said that they will not replace it unless it cannot be fixed.
I just walked out up and left, because I had at least two more 1/2 inch ratchets in my service van that I could use. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and didn't insist on speaking with a manager, because I had to go back to work and even if I didn't, I didn't have the confidence that whoever was running the place would take my concerns seriously if they were employing people who didn't care about the job in the first place.
I never had such poor customer service in my life. I mean it when I say it. I know Sears is experiencing some serious troubles it may never bounce back from but this is no excuse. Their employees shouldn't argue amonst themselves, especially in front of a customer, on who is going to be the one to help them. I am still shocked but finally can see a good reason why they are shutting all of these stores down.
Man, my visit today was such a telling experience and I don't mean that in a good way.
First of all, they needed a guy like me to get up on their roof to take a look at their RTUs because it was a little too warm for comfort. Maybe ten degrees cooler than the 94 degrees it was outside.
So I walked in and I went past where the mattresses were located on my way to the tool department and there were about five employees sitting on the mattresses and talking amongst themselves, all high school or maybe college aged. I thought it was a little unprofessional. Two of them were LAYING on the mattresses, on their phones. That seemed outright tacky to me.
I get to the counter of the tool area and waited for help. After about two minutes, I wandered around and found nobody to help me. While I wandered around I had to dodge a couple of flat pushcarts abandoned in the aisles with empty boxes piled on them. Nobody seemed to be cleaning that up so that left a bad impression.
After searching for help I decided to go back to the mattress department to ask one of the employees there if I could get help in getting my ratchet replaced under the Craftsman replacement guarantee. I kind of interrupted because none of them took the initiative to acknowledge me. After politely asking, they actually bickered amongst each other on who was going to assist me. Yes, they were like "'you help him!' 'No, you help him'". I was so shocked that I said "excuse me?" because I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. I politely asked where their manager was because I wanted to speak with them.
Once I asked to speak with a manager one of the "kids" in the group reluctantly got up and asked me what I needed, even though I just said that I needed a new ratchet not even several seconds ago. He said that they didn't replace those and that they fixed them in the store. I asked him how long it would take to fix and he said that I would have to wait until Friday. I asked if I could just get it replaced and he said that they will not replace it unless it cannot be fixed.
I just walked out up and left, because I had at least two more 1/2 inch ratchets in my service van that I could use. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and didn't insist on speaking with a manager, because I had to go back to work and even if I didn't, I didn't have the confidence that whoever was running the place would take my concerns seriously if they were employing people who didn't care about the job in the first place.
I never had such poor customer service in my life. I mean it when I say it. I know Sears is experiencing some serious troubles it may never bounce back from but this is no excuse. Their employees shouldn't argue amonst themselves, especially in front of a customer, on who is going to be the one to help them. I am still shocked but finally can see a good reason why they are shutting all of these stores down.
