It’s interesting what you learn from your parents when you sit back — you now being late in your 30’s — and take it all in. Or, to put it another way, it’s easy to put your parents in perspective when you’re responsible for making your own decisions.
About the time I was old enough to understand the concepts of work and money, I was tasked with mowing the lawn. Our first lawnmower, a Toro, lasted from the late 1960’s through 1983. We bought a Honda in 1984 and to this day (yes, 2009!) the mower lives — and it still works! Since there was a clear difference in quality (I know this because I had been tasked with lawn care) between the Toro and the Honda, I made a mental note to buy a Honda mower someday when I was in the market for a quality mower. I bought one in 2002, adding to note that I bought it at a premium price, and was beside myself that its power drive was dead by 2008. The power drive can be replaced, but at a premium price.
Same goes for Sears. We used to almost exclusively buy Craftsman and Kenmore brands for home improvement and home management needs. We had these items for years and years. If I’m correct, my parents still have power tools from Craftsman that are more than functional, but perhaps sitting on a shelf because they have been replaced with more modern ones that function without cords, with added features, or without the explicit threat of electric shock. Still, that’s not a knock on Sears. It’s just an understanding on everybody’s part that safety and regulations have changed over the last 38 years and maybe some replacement with new technology would be in our best interest.
It’s strange that as you grow older you act as you envisioned your parents as having acted when you were a child. In my case I went with brands that were “family friends” and in this case it was Honda and Sears. In my experience, we didn’t buy that much unnecessary stuff. We bought things here and there, but when we bought things we paid top dollar because we expected them to last. And given my lifelong experience with these items, I can say that empirical evidence lead me to put faith in the previously mentioned brands such that I put thousands of dollars of my own money into purchasing these brands — as I envisioned myself being able to influence my future childrens’ buying biases in the same way.
A funny thing happened on the way to bragging about brands 30 years from now: super-capitalism.
Bellyache all you want about government spending and the supposed ineffectiveness of services handled by government. Attend as many “free-stater” meetings as you want. Ignore history even though its most negative aspects are repeated constantly by businesses in our country. Believe FOX News if you really have nothing better to do. In the end, you are left to wonder why this country is where it stands today: “we’ve demanded too much and now we’re getting too little in return”. It’s not the government (or its relative size) that’s killing us. It’s corporate mismanagement and misbehavior.
Now let’s talk about Sears.
I spent $1000 for a snowblower in 2002. It was a “top of the line” model from Sears/Craftsman with a Tecumseh engine, 29″, 9hp. I live in NH and I’m sure we easily get 130″ of snow per season, so this model seemed to take me where I needed to go. I could see myself using it for years to come and maybe even leaving it to the next owners of our current home, that is, until it broke the first time: in 2002. Thankfully, it was under warranty, and after a couple of weeks Sears had a tech come out to repair it. It worked until 2008 — when it started to misbehave again. As of 2009, it’s in dire need of service again since it’s practically unusable. I figured “fine”, after all I didn’t expect Sears to service an out-of-warranty product for free, and called Sears for a service appointment. They were scheduled to arrive last Saturday at 9:30 for a service appointment.
I woke up at 6:30am last Saturday and waited until 9:30am. People, I am a Unix System Administrator. I wake up at odd hours for maintenance all the time — like 4am, 5am, 2am, whatever. I’ve been living this kind of lifestyle for at least a decade — in real true blue industry — and I’m totally used to it. As such, there was no way I would’ve missed a Sears tech who was scheduled to arrive at what I’d estimate as a totally reasonable time.
As of 9:45am, there was no sign of a technician.
- I called their 800 number and was told that a technician would be here between 8-5. Really? That’s not what I was told two weeks ago, but whatever.
- By 2pm I hadn’t seen a tech. My wife urged me to call Sears. I did and they claimed that a tech was at our house at 8am but nobody was around so they left. No call the night before as promised. No call the day of the appointment as promised. I was aghast. I asked them to send a tech out right away as it was impossible that I missed the tech, and they claimed that the “dispatcher” claimed it was impossible to do so.
- After my first escalation they claimed that the tech had left a note and after I walked around my yard like a dumbass while talking on my cordless phone to a Sears “manager” while looking for a note on every door. The manager claimed that I probably just couldn’t find the note!
- After escalating to another manager I decided that I wanted to speak to the dispatcher directly. Upon waiting another 15mins (it was 3pm now) they hung up on me. I was irate and waited another 15 minutes on hold before I reached another manager who told me that “our records indicate that you hung up on us”. Our “records”? You keep records about my call but can’t track why your technician can get to my house at 9:30am as promised or where he might be now? What is this: Seinfeld? Is the AMA going to deny treatment to me next time because my eyebrows look too “aggressive” to them?
- I unleashed a fury (like it was going to do any good) and the manager asked me if I wanted to “file a complaint”. I asked what good it would do me, and they claimed it would help cure the disconnect with the service shop. I was incredulous and after more ranting asked to speak to their manager. They claimed that their manager could not be reached: directly or indirectly (do you work for the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by chance?). At this point I just hung up the phone. What good would more talking do?
I ranted a bit to my wife then wearily headed upstairs to shower. She called Sears back while I was in the shower and according to the escalation path she was on, she spoke to a nice woman who not only registered our complaints, but claimed that “Sears Corporate” would call my cell within 48 business hours and that it would be possible not to be charged for our service call based on a conversation with corporate.
As it turns out Sears publishes PDF service manuals for all their products online. I perused the manual and spoke to a friend who knows this stuff like it’s nobody’s business. The end result is that I probably need to buy a rubber disc for like $15, and this should cure the problem with the blower’s power drive. Great.
Fast forward to today, 96 hours later, my wife called Sears again. The “Sears Escalation Line” refused to accept her complaint or request for remedy. In fact, they claimed that they did not accept complaints at all. Seriously? You’re a business and nobody on your end is willing to be accountable for anything?! Are you people the real socialists? My wife ended up getting sent back to customer service who disavowed all knowledge of our service problem, accused my wife of hanging up on them, and further refused to give us any relief as a customer. I strongly suggested that we should let the tech come out on Saturday, claim that we were granted a gratis service visit from Sears, and that if they didn’t agree we would send them on their way. There is some disagreement about this suggestion of mine between the two of us, but on the other hand I’d hate to have to explain to Sears why we don’t owe them for a service call that never actually took place — given how “effective” our results have been with Sears customer service up until now.
Remember, Sears was a small and private business back in the day. 100% privatization always seems like a good idea: until you realize that it’s terrible in practice.