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A lesson in customer service
January 9, 2008

Last Sunday I ventured to a number of stores looking for an HD television. After visiting several outlets, I bought a 46-inch Sony from Sears. Little did I know what was ahead for me with this purchase. The clerk was helpful, rang in the sale and said it would be delivered Wednesday. It was in stock, he said, and someone would call me on Tuesday to let me know what time it would be delivered.

No call came Tuesday. Early Tuesday evening I called the 800 delivery number for Sears. I got disconnected. I called back and the receptionist (apparently) hung up on me. I called a third time and she said they had no record of a delivery to be made to my location.

I told her I had a receipt and when I read it back to her she said I needed to call the local Sears store where I had bought the television because it was marked local delivery.

I called the Sears store and a woman in the television department connected me to “support.” Support disconnected me, so I called back and was put on hold for 10 minutes. When I finally reached support again, she told me I had to call the television department. She transferred me, but I was disconnected.

Undaunted, I called the television department back. The sales associate transferred me to the manager’s office and after a number of rings, I was transferred to voicemail.

I called back the television department and I asked to speak to the television manager. He wasn’t in, so I talked to a fine young man who described himself as the assistant manager. I told him my problem and he, at first, was puzzled. He then said the initial clerk had made a mistake when he marked it for local delivery. Sears no longer outsourced local delivery, he said.

“He’s a new employee,” the assistant manager said.

Ok, I said, when will I get my TV delivered? He said I needed to call delivery and gave me the 800 number that I had called three times earlier, twice either being disconnected or (apparently) hung up on. He told me he had no control over delivery, he was just in televisions and couldn’t help me.

I then told him I would come in and pick up the television. After all, I had 12 friends coming over to watch the Patriots game Saturday night and had been boasting about my new big-screen television. I gave him the item number and he put me on hold—for 10 minutes.

He came back on the line to tell me the television wasn’t in stock.

“So, I said,” trying not to lose my cool, “you’re telling me that you were going to deliver a television to me tomorrow that you don’t have in stock, by a delivery service that is no longer in business and that you have no control over it anyway and you don’t even know when or if it will be delivered.”

“That’s about it,” he admitted.

We then got disconnected. He called me back a half hour later and said he would re-order the TV for me the first thing in the morning. Then he stopped. “Oh, I’m not in tomorrow so I can’t reorder it,” he said.

“Can’t anyone else do it?” I asked.

“My supervisor,” he responded. “Oh wait, she can’t be in until 1, so I’m not sure.”

I got off the phone, fuming.

The next morning I called the national customer service department for Sears. The young man I talked to listened to my story and said there was nothing he could do. But he did give me the phone number of the local Sears store I had called several times the night before.

“I thought you were in customer service, you know, in business to serve the customer,” I said.

He responded quite indignantly: “Well I did give you the phone number.”

I asked to speak to his supervisor.

“She can’t be disturbed,” he said. “She’s in meetings all day.”

I could only hope that they were sessions on how to serve the customer better.
So I called the local store again and this time talked to the manager--not the television manager, but the head honcho, the man who could get things done. He seemed like a good guy and promised he’d look into it. He even took my phone number—and we weren’t disconnected. In fact, he just called me and said he’s trying to locate the television from another Sears store and have it delivered to me. Locally. He’s the first representative from Sears that has been a help. Oh, well, we’ll see.

I guess this is what customer service has come down to these days. You’re a number, not a customer, and frankly it almost appears like you’re bothering the salesperson or manager simply to complete an order.

I’ve written before that some surveys show that for every bad experience a customer receives, that person tells at least six others, who tell six others and so on.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a small distributor or a major retail store like Sears, bad service can kill you. And those companies don’t even know it. Or maybe they just don’t care.

Posted by Jack Keough on January 9, 2008 | Comments (8)