My day as a Sears Customer
I'm sure you've run into this one......the wife finds something - the "perfect" something that you need, and so you set out to get it, no matter the hassle or cost.
Becky found a set of Patio furniture, at Sears of all places. Now, my experiences as of late with Sears have all sucked, to the point I refuse to shop there. But it was one of their exclusive collections, so I had no choice.
Step 1 - 8am today I went to the Sears website and ordered the patio set for in store pickup. The website said it was available for pickup today. I wrote down the order confirmation number, then we headed out to run errands, thinking we would swing by and pick it up on the way home. It was 11am before I received the text message saying it was ready.
Step 2 - Store pickup. This is supposed to be a quick and painless thing, you pull up to the loading doors, punch in the order number, and they bring it out. Well guess what.....order number pulled up nothing. It took almost 30 minutes of going from person to person, asking or help, consistently being told "I don't work in that department" before we found someone willing to help. Unfortunately he couldn't find the order in the system either, and said the only way they MIGHT be able to pull it up would be with the bar code included in the email pickup receipt. So we drove home to print the email. (I keep my wifi-tablet in my car, which isn't the vehicle you take to pick up patio furniture.)
Step 3 - Print receipt, return to store. They still can't get the order to pull up. It's now 1pm. I finally tell the guy we'll just buy it at the store, and I'll get sears.com to refund the first order. But the "loading" department can't ring up sales, so they send us to the Patio department to checkout.
Step 4 - There is no register in the Patio department. So we start going to the nearest registers. At each of the first 5- we are told "I don't have any idea how to ring that up, you'll have to go to (insert name of next visited register) to do it". Finally we end up at the hand tools register. The guy here says sure, I can ring that up - makes sure they have it in stock, then rings it up. I'm now out the price twice.
Step 5 - The pickup - head back to the loading door, hand them the receipt. Another 30 minutes goes by - no one coming out - before I finally grab someone who had just brought out another customers order. I ask what the delay is, he goes into the back for a few minutes, then comes out and says "Oh we don't have any of those in stock". I point out that the clerk checked before ringing it up - us now having paid for this patio set twice - and he says the clerk must have been mistaken - they don't have any.
Step 6 - back to the hand tools register, explain to the clerk whats going on. He then says, "well, I guess you'll have to pick it up at the north store." He checks, computer says they have one. But - we have to do it as a new transaction. So he runs a refund on the set I had just paid for, puts the money on a gift card, then turns around and rings it up again as a "different store pickup" purchase. Finally out the door, we drive up to the north side Sears - receipt in hand. Mind you we are now driving from South Austin to North Austin - in rush hour(s) traffic, which typically moves no faster than 2mph.
Step 7 - the other store pickup. - Here the news starts out good, they do in fact have it in stock. But....the clerk rang up the new sale as a "deliver to this store" rather than "pickup at different store" - meaning the south side store will have our patio set in 2 weeks for pickup. I ask them to just refund that sale and ring up a new one, so I can pick the damn thing up on the spot. They can't issue refunds on items not yet picked up from another store, I'll have to return to the south store to get the refund. So ......yes you guessed it - I pay for the patio set a 3rd time. But I finally have it in my hands.
Step 8 - skipping through the rush hour crawl home, we are now up to 8pm, I've dropped the patio set off at the house, and head back to the south store to get a refund on the duplicate - "2 weeks to delivery" purchase. But in case you missed it - the clerk refunded the original in store purchase to a gift card - and since the current purchase was paid for with a gift card, they will only refund it to a gift card. Now we aren't talking about a cheap set, the total after tax on this set comes to about $900. And I've now paid for it online, again in the first store, and yet again in the second store. Now losing my cool, I demand the store manager. And after 30 minutes of no one showing up, I demand again. And again at 8:45. Finally at 2 minutes till 9, a floor manager (not the store manager) shows up. I explain the events of the day, making very clear they WILL refund the $900 to my debit card. After much bickering, and me threatening to file a chargeback with my bank, and a complaint with the BBB, he finally agrees. But its now 9:15, the store and the registers are closed. He tells me there is nothing I can do, I'll have to go back tomorrow for the refund. But he explains that tomorrow is his day off, so I'll need to talk to another manager.
Step 9 - After calming myself with a crown and coke, ( I admit, there wasn't much coke in it) I call the sears.com 800 number to get a refund on the first online order. It's now 10:04, they stop taking calls at 10pm.
And if all of that wasn't enough....I start unboxing and assembling the set I was able to pick up - only to find the love seat frame is bent all to hell.
Tomorrow will not be a good day to be a Sears employee.