Horrible customer service - don't buy from Sears

My sister and I went in on a joint gift for my mom - a sewing machine! We debated purchasing it at various locations, but ultimately, decided to purchase from Sears because they carried the Kenmore brand. I have a great Kenmore sewing machine, so I know they're nice and reliable. Alternatively, we could have easily purchased a Brother machine from Amazon.com. About the same price, still free shipping and pretty much the same features as the Kenmore machine.

So, I called my mom today to see if she got her gift yesterday. She hadn't. Confused, I went back to my email to see if I was not right in thinking they had told me the delivery date was to be 12/20. I was right. Hmmm, hoping things hadn't fallen through the cracks, I went online to see what I could find on the website.

This was the first thing that caused me grief today - logging into the Sears system, I couldn't remember my password. No matter, I'd hit the lost password button to try and get it. So, I do that. Nothing appears, so a few minutes later I rehit that button. Finally something arrives in my email. I put in my email address and then the temporary password. It prompts me to change my password. Only, apparently, I don't pick a good enough password, so it does not accept it, instead, it tells me that I should read the password policy. Only, I'm locked into that screen and can go no where else on your site. I finally had to clear all my cookies (that was fun, retyping all my passwords for every website I visit) in order to go through the whole process again. I finally picked a good enough password.

Now, where my true frustration has come from. I look at the tracking information for the order that I placed on Saturday. It tells me it's in transit. So, I call the 800 number provided for Sears.com. I speak with an associate (I didn't catch her name). She was perfectly nice and all, but she couldn't answer my question as to why I was told it would be arriving in Belgrade MT on 12/20, but why she just told me that it was shipped on 12/20 so I asked to speak with a supervisor.

The supervisor that finally came on the line was a Christina (operator 64803). I can not believe that someone so rude could work in customer service, let alone be a supervisor. All she could do was talk over me and continually tell me that my item should arrive by 12/24. I started to explain that I wanted to know WHY this had happened (12/20 arrival vs shipping it on 12/20) and she proclaimed that I was not listening to her. Um, hello - you're supposed to be listening to me! I finally asked her to speak with her supervisor. She told me that she didn't have a supervisor.

When I questioned the fact that she had no supervisor, she finally admitted that she did have someone above her but that none of those people were there at the moment. So, I asked how I could talk to someone above her to complain about her rudeness. She said I'd have to talk to corporate. I asked for a phone number. She told me that they didn't have a phone number, only an address. I questioned how a corporate office could not have a phone number. She back pedaled and said they did have a number, but that they never answer their phone. I asked for the number and was finally given it. First call = 19 minutes, 41 seconds.

I called the corporate number given (1-847-286-2500). Surprisingly (since I was told they don't answer) the phone was picked up on the first ring. I was transfered to a Sandra. Upon explaining the situation to Sandra, I was told that she was going to transfer me to someone who could help me. Great, I thought. She transfered me to an Amber. Although Amber was nice, she was very soft spoken and generally hard to hear despite having my phone cranked all the way up. So, I explain my situation to Amber. She then tells me that my package shipped on 12/18, not 12/20. She also tells me that the email that says it will be there in five days is wrong, they know it's wrong and have asked for it to be changed. Finally, after running around and around, I realize that Amber is probably not the person I need to speak with (not that she wasn't nice, just wasn't able to help me, much like the first woman that I talked with). I asked Amber if she was at the corporate office or if I was transfered back to the general call center at Sears.com. I was. I told her that I needed to speak to whoever was Christina's supervisor. She explained that she wasn't able to escalate that, but she could get her supervisor, who could get his supervisor. I said fine, please do that. I finally get Neil on the phone and he wants to help, only at this point, I want to speak with someone above Christina - someone needs to realize how rude this woman is. He tells me that it would be at least 20 minutes on hold. I tell him that this is my second call and I'm already at 30 minutes, I might as well wait another 20. I wait around some more, start this letter and am shoved into a voice mail box.

So, now I've left a voice mail and never expect to hear back on that, since it seems like all that happens at Sears.com is to be shoved from one person to the next that just wants to create excuses for the other person and to never escalate things beyond the initial supervisor. I've also sent an email to the customer service email address on the Sears website.

So, a huge vent and a huge PSA - don't do business with Sears.com!