Sears has No Empathy for Customers

I AM A SEARS TECH WE ARE OVER WORKED ANS UNEXSPECTED THINGS HAPPEN
EVERYDAY IMAGINE HAVE 13 CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU TO DEAL WITH EVERYDAY DAY
HOW LONG WOULD YOU LAST? GO TO LOWES OR HOME DEPOT U WILL GET THE
SAME.. PEPLE EVERYHERE IN CORPRATE AMERICA ARE TREATING PEOPLE WRONG
NOT JUST AT SEARS.. THINK ABOUT THAT DONT U GET TREAT BAD BY YOUR
EMPLOYER???????????????/

You need to realize that a computer is the one routing your call. If
the unit was on fire they would tell you to call 911 as any sensible
person would. Dishwashers are considered lower tier priority in
regards to stoves etc. They have only so many techs and so much time.

You are no special than any other customer.
Get over it.

Other people have broken appliances too, wait your turn in line.

I'm sorry but the part that gets me laughing my arse off is "I came
into a kitchen full of smoke, ashes and a screaming kid"

and what was my first priority? getting my kid out and calling the
fire department and rescue? NO. CALL SEARS REPAIR!

another mouth breather, brought to you by PFB...never ceases to amaze
me.

Good for a writing assignment, but then maybe only a "C" grade. If it
wasn't "really" on fire, then how were there ashes when you dashed
into your kitchen? And why did you pick up the phone to call Sears
and not put out the fire? You mentioned nothing about putting out the
fire. Because there really wasn't one. Just some smoke! And why are
you using your 19 month old child as your bait for sympathy? Why?
What happens when he gets older and harder to use to your advantage?
And how can you just not use the appliance for 2 weeks while waiting
for your service call like the rest of us on Earth and wash the dishes
by hand. How is that going to endanger your childs life?

I have lots of questions. I sure hope you have lots of answers. Your
letter gets nowhere in my opinion. Service calls are scheduled as
they come in. Wiring problems happen. Sinks leak too. Trees fall on
houses. Tires go flat. It's called life. It happens. Chill!

Peace!

Couple years ago I was a phone rep for XM sat radio, so I feel
compelled to speak up for the Sears reps (as well as for phone reps in
general.)

The reason the reps showed very litte empathy and concern was for two
very simple reasons:

1 - They have heard it all before.

The first time I heard 'omg my kid...' I was very sympathetic and went
out of my to help. The 50th time...not so much.

2. There is nothing they can do.

They have a schedule and unless the company has found a way to send
their repair people out to multiple locations at the same time, there
is nothing the reps can do but give you the next available appointment
time.

The major difference between phone reps and store clerks is the store
clerks are 'local' and the phone reps aren't. When I worked at the
fabric store, I would see my customers all over town and I could talk
with them about newest scandal or gossip or whatnot happening around
town. When I was a phone rep, I would talk to people in towns I had
never heard of, in states I had never visited. It's really hard to
work up enthusiasm and empathy for someone you will never see or speak
to every again and yes, this has an effect on customer service. Sad
but true.

In the future, when dealing with a phone rep, keep it casual and
business-like. It will make it easier for everyone involved. Treat
them like someone you just met casually and you want to make a good
impression.

Take my word for it, for the callers who were nice, even in the midst
of a billing crises, I bent over backwards for, while the callers who
treated me like I had deliberately screwed up their reception got
their problem fixed sure enough, but it wasn't a pleasant experience
for anyone.

Did you check to see if there was a recall on this particular model of
dishwasher? It seems to me that this is either a manufacturing problem
or an installation error, neither of which is Sears' problem. The
house I live in has a dishwasher that is twenty years old, and I have
no idea where it was purchased from...however, I can look at it and
see who the manufacturer is and look inside at the plate for the model
number and other pertinent information should I need replacement
parts, or, were it newer, warranty information. I think I would take
the matter up with the contractor or the manufacturer.

Dramaaaaaaaaa Queen

"The worst part is that when my husband explained his anger and
frustration was due to the fact that we have a potentially volatile
dishwasher sitting in our kitchen, that our 19 MONTH OLD SON, was
sitting next to when this happened" But you ALSO say.."I ran into the
kitchen to thick smoke," which leads me to think you were in a
different room than the child, so your going to blame his safety on a
dishwasher?? That is your problem. There is ALWAYS a risk of something
going wrong with electronics and appliances.

God forbid you have to wash dishes by hand the next two weeks.
Sheesh.

While I realize that the dishwasher is still under warranty, I would
call a dishwasher repair person and have them come out and diagnose
the problem.
If the issue wasn't caused by faulty installation then maybe you could
try and get the manufacturing company to come out and look at it.
Also, you could ask Sears if you have the repair person fix the
problem are you able to bill Sears. This way you have a dishwasher
that is hopefully fixed to your liking and you can reap the benefits
of the warranty.

Blame Kmart ever since the merger Sears has gone downhill!

Sears repair service is terrible. We were without a working
redrigeator for over 6 weeks! We had to wait 10 days for the part,
then the repair man picked up the wrong part, then he did not show up,
it was one thing after another! We had to use bagged ice in the
freezer compsrtment to keep food cold. I won't even buy a pair of
socks from SEARS!

I can't offer too much advice, aside from the advice the other posters
have stated.

If you can get ahold of your builder, then perhaps he can contact the
store he bought it from and talk with them. A manager could probably
talk with the repair store and get the appointment moved up. Though, I
wouldn't count on it, because if the relationship between the store
and the repair store is anything like the one between mine, then...not
much will happen. (We hate each other, basically.)

Now if he/she gets the store manager to take care of the problem, I
think you might get better results. Heck, talk to the right person
(while being calm and collected about it) they might up and replace
the whole thing without having to mess around with repairing it.

If you do end up getting it replaced, maybe you should get Sears to
install it, because it doesn't sound like it was installed right in
the first place.

But I wish you good luck and I hope they work with you better on this.
I would have been mortified. I can understand the csr's position,
however. They don't have the authority to move around appointments.
Perhaps you should speak with managers from now on.

Good luck.

Have you tried calling the builder to see if they would do anything
since they installed the dishwasher in the first place?

The problem may have been caused by installing the dishwasher wrong.

While I understand your frustration the bottom line here is that all
the service techs are booked. Which customer should wait while they
move your appointment up? The senior citizen without a refrigerator?
The family of 6 with no stove? Do you see what I'm saying?

As long as the dishwasher is unplugged, there is no longer a danger of
fire. While it is inconvenient to do dishes by hand, it's truly not
as bad as being without a refrigerator or stove.

"What I want to say is that, god forbid, had something happened where
our son was injured, I can insure that there would have been a lawsuit
due to either the faultiness of the dishwasher or the installation,
yet these customer service reps behaved as though that meant NOTHING
to them."
I work in retail and as a store manager I have to deal with all
complaints. While I may sympathize with a complaint it may not always
come across because of what I'm saying. What I mean is they may have
been sympathetic to your problem but unable to do anything more than
they already had. I would follow the suggestions of some of my fellow
posters and unplug the machine, wait for service, and if you still
feel strongly about it don't buy anything else from Sears and tell
your friends about this. That is the way you get a companies
attention, bad word of mouth not threats of a lawsuit.

While I am certain this incident was scary your house didn't burn down
and your child wasn't hurt. I'd be upset too. However, now what you
have is a broken dishwasher. Unplug it and wait for the repair
person.

Just because your child was near the machine when it broke doesn't
mean this is a crisis worthy of disrupting the entire repair schedule
for you. It's still just a broken dishwasher. What MAY have happened
really is irrelevent at this point.

Threatening lawsuits for something that didn't happen does not add to
your letter in any substantial way. In fact, it probably lessens your
credibility and adds unnecessary drama to your letter.

Also, on a side note, just because someone is able to look at a
situation realistically and without undue emotion doesn't
automatically make them childless. That whole "you must not have
children or you'd understand" stuff just means that the parent is too
emotional to see things in a rational manner. Believe it or not, some
people with children CAN actually take a calm, common sense approach
to life.

We just sell them, on-line, so maybe your complaint so go to HP, Sony,
Compaq, or whomever manufactured your product! We don't sit around and
say, "hm, let's make Sony make us a couple of defective laptops so we
have to keep replacing them!" What did you get, a Compaq? If you
did...no wonder you have problems because those things suck.

All we do is sell the product. We don't make them. I think Whirlpool
or Maytag makes the Kenmore branded dishwashers, washers, dryers, etc.

2 weeks seems to be standard from all the people who come here and
complain about appliance service.

You mentioned your 19 month old child at least 3 times in your letter.
The bottom line is that your child was not injured. Stop the
hysteria. And why a need for empathy? The dishwasher did not catch
fire, because a dishwasher can't burn. The wiring got real hot and
caused some smoke and charring. There is no emergency; it isn't a
bomb, it's an appliance. If the power to the unit is disconnected,
there is no danger. There is no need for "empathy". There is a need
to understand how repair scheduling works these days.

It boils down to you are like everyone else that has a broken
appliance. The response time won't be much better elsewhere, unless
you go to an independent appliance center to buy your appliances. I
assume it is too late for that.

When the smoke clears, you'll realize you just have to wait. I don't
see why they'd escalate the matter. You have a broken dishwasher.
Everyone waiting in line would like their dishwasher working. I wash
mine the old fashioned way, by hand.

That must have been extremely frightening for you, and I understand
how worried you must be about the safety of the dishwasher. I hope
you have unplugged it while you wait for service.

Under the circumstances, I do think Sears could have tried to
accommodate you with an earlier appointment. They rearrange
appointments all the time, based on my experience. At the very least,
I think they could have sounded a bit more concerned about your
situation, but maybe that's one of the reasons Sears is losing
customers.

I did have one other thought. Did you try to contact the builder?
Maybe the problem had something to do with the installation, and not
the appliance itself. If the dishwasher was installed by the builder,
he may be willing to help you determine the cause of the fire and
maybe even take responsibility.

Good luck with this.

As horrible as it may sound, two weeks wait for warrantied repair is
pretty much standard for most any manufacturer. I can commisurate with
the possible injury of your child, but adding that to the letter,
along with reference to a possible lawsuit is a bit too dramatic for a
first written correspondence.

Just mentioning litigation may route this letter to a legal department
to make absolute certain that the company words their letter in a way
that mitigates any implied or stated remedy.

I'm not sure if pulling the appliance out to inspect it would be an
issue or not. I've tried to fix things myself before calling for
repair, but usually when there isn't a warranty or safety issue. All
that was necessary was to trip the circuit breaker to the appliance
and wait for their people to get there. It would eliminate the fear of
it catching fire and make it safer to be around.

I don't see why two weeks is a "ridiculous amount of time to wait." A
dishwasher is a luxury, regardless of how many people might claim to
be unable to live without one. A fridge/freezer seems more important,
possibly followed by the washer/dryer, since it'd cost you money to go
to a laundromat.

Two weeks is the length of time it takes to wait. Would you be
writing this letter of complaint if it wasn't under a warranty and a
regular repair company had told you it'd be two weeks before someone
could come out and look at it?

No appointments means all of their repairmen are fully booked up.
Should they hire more repair persons just to accommodate you? Should
they arbitrarily cancel someone else's appointment just to cater to
your whims? Two weeks is a long time to wait, but that's life. Have
patience and do your dishes by hand.

Also, why was a 19 month old wandering around the kitchen alone and
unsupervised anyway? The baby is not really relevant to the complaint.
It is not Sears' fault he was alone near the appliance when it
malfunctioned. That is your responsibility, don't shift blame
unnecessarily.

Wow.. I agree totally! However...now that your husband went and pulled
out the dishwasher and went near the wiring...it may void the
warranty. Not that I'm accusing you of voiding it...it's just that
the repair man may see that the appliance was pulled out and say that
you all tried to mess with it.