Monday, July 26, 2010

What the Heck Is Happening with This World?

It seems that every time I turn around I am now forced to rant about yet another poor quality of service. It is now like a mantra.
Holy Monkey! I cannot believe I have tell you about another thing that happened to me that makes me want to vomit with disgust.
I thought I had heard all the BS when it came to the hospitals and their lack of care or concern for my poor 971/2 yr old mother-in-law.........
Now more BS from Sears Canada today that makes me really worried for more vulnerable folks who may not question anything and just give out info.

If you are a Sears Canada Account holder you need to read this: This is a letter I sent today about an incident that occurred to me today:
(I will post their reply to me as soon as I get it, and I promise I will not edit it.)


To Whom It May Concern,

On Monday July 26th, 2010 I received a call from someone identifying themselves as Theresa from Sears extended warranty...at 12:56PM
The number I was called from came up on my caller ID as UNKNOWN CALLER. The number is 1-877-889-2024.
The woman inquired if I would like to extend the warranty on my Kenmore vacuum, as it had recently lapsed. She also inquired about early renewal of my furnace and air conditioner, and any other warranties I had which would save me over $100.00 if I renewed them early.
I told her I would not like the whole of the warranties renewed at this time, but I would like the vacuum warranty renewed.
Then she told me I needed to give her my card number.
*I told her I had problems with that as I have no way of knowing if they are officially Sears or are an impostor, because the caller ID is blocked by the caller.*

As I looked for my card I thought about how I would ensure my own security.
While I was looking for the card she began to read off my card number, and I asked her to wait a second. She had gotten read off the first 4 or 5 digits before I stopped her.
I stopped her because I was not looking at my card at the time, as I was still looking for it. She was anxious on the phone to get me to confirm and kept talking while I was looking for the card trying to convince me she was an official Sears representative. By asking questions like: You see the 877 number, you can call it and see....
Once I found my card I had decided to ask her to tell me the last 4 digits of my card so I could ensure she did have access to my information by legitimate sources.
Theresa told me 4 digits that were not my account. I told her that was not my account. She then said that there were two cards on the account and the other card number was.... and that was my card number.
**Theresa said she had both of our account numbers in her system and she could see them. **

When I was satisfied enough that she did know my account number then I approved the warranty for the vacuum.
After I hung up with her I realized there could be an issue if the wrong Kenmore vacuum I own was put on the extended warranty, as I purchased a new Kenmore in the spring of 2009 after having on old model Kenmore vacuum for many many years under the extended warranty. I still own both, but only want the new one on warranty. So I called the above number to inquire on which Kenmore vacuum was covered on the warranty, and to change the policy if the old vacuum had accidentally been put back on extended warranty, instead of the new one getting its warranty upgraded.
When I called back I got another service person, and I explained that I may not have been diligent enough to properly inquire which vacuum was now on the warranty. When the girl looked at my account she could not see any warranty transaction taking place. She said that was strange, as all the transactions were in real-time. She suggested that I should call back at the end of the day to follow-up on this situation. I said well I had had previous misgivings about the the quality of the first call to me as now that there is no record of this transaction I am quite afraid that fraud had taken place, and that perhaps my own security measures were not enough to prevent our accounts from being compromised. At that point I asked to speak to a supervisor. As I didn't feel it was up to me to do the follow-up on a quality control issue within the department, and I wanted the supervisor to do the follow-up and let me know the results. I also felt that if there was a fraud issue occurring then the supervisor would be better equipped to contact the correct security department within Sears to take care of the matter.
***I was told there was no supervisor available***

I then said that I thought that Sears was ISO certified, and I would then be satisfied to speak with the acting supervisor for the department.
I was told there was no such person.
I then said, but if a company is ISO certified that standards and practices system requires that all stations have a trained back-up person so there is always someone available......
I was told all they could do is email a supervisor and ask them to call me, and they would call within 48hrs.
I ended this call with her; accepting that they would have the supervisor call me.

I then proceeded to call corporate headquarters at 416-362-1711 to then file a formal verbal complaint about the lack of quality control in these procedures, and the lack of a supervisor and the lack of a back-up supervisor and to still query about the possibility of a fraud happening on my account as no one could find any record of this so-called transaction.

I spoke to Diane ( and my call to Diane ended at 1:38PM)
Diane was very patient with me and informative. I told her that I was really nervous now about the situation and I had told her all I have told to you above.... I said I was nervous because I was now concerned that the number could have been bogus, as there is no record of transactions taking place.
****Diane informed me that only employees of JPMorganChase have access to the account numbers and that no service department or warranty department have access to the account numbers since Sears sold the credit card over to JPMorganChase.****
Now I am doubly worried that fraud has taking place, as Theresa was able to give me the first digits of my accounts as well as the last before I confirmed all the numbers. Which I was told by Diane-Theresa should not have had...
Diane could not tell me if the 1-877-889-2024 number was a Sears Warranty department number or not.
Diane instructed me I would have to call the Warranty department at: 1-800-361-6665 to make the query and complaint.

Right after I hung up from Diane I called the number.
The woman on the other end was so rude to me. She talked to me like was a child.
She said she would call the 1-877-889-2024 and see if it is a Sears number or not. She came back on the line to me and said of course its Sears. It says its Sears and gives the voice prompt(with a really snarky attitude like I was stupid or something). I told her I knew that it said all that because I had called that number back to make the query about what vacuum was put on the warranty script, but because there was no record of the transactions I felt that something was fishy and at the least I should get confirmation from corporate if this number really is a Sears number or a fraud,and corporate could not confirm this so they instructed me to call this lady.
Seeing the lady was so rude I was not going to waste much time talking to her, so after I quickly went over the plight again-covering all the above bases that I have already listed I again asked to speak to a supervisor.
She told me that the lady before told me there was no supervisor available.
And again I had to ask for an email to be sent to them with a prospect of a reply by phone within 48hrs.
*****She did tell me before I hung up that she figured Theresa didn't press the ENTER key before she did the transaction.*****

At this point I was losing my patients. I was on the phone almost an hour already trying to follow this situation up with no satisfaction. I was doing all the leg-work with no positive information coming my way. So I called back corporate. By this time I get the number dialed and I begin to get beeps on my call-waiting. I answered the call-waiting beep in the middle of the corporate telephone menu-just in case it was the supervisor calling me back. Lo and behold it was Theresa. She was calling me to get my account number again. I told her was not giving it to her again and hung up on her, as I was still in the phone menu of the corporate system.

I don't believe I got all the messages correct and I possibly chose the wrong department cuz Theresa kept calling back causing beeping in my call to the menu.
So I eventually got someone and I think it was someone from Coroporate in retail at 1:59PM. Her name is Lindsay.
I explained the problem and gave the details of what had happened up to this point and she also could read it in the system notes. So she had a really good idea where I was coming from.
******I explained this was turning into a huge quality assurance issue that was ending here with no satisfaction and now me being called back over and over by Theresa so she could complete the so-called -transaction******
She said a formal complaint would have to be made at the number for Warranty at 1-800-361-6665. I said that now I have gone through outgoing and incoming from that department and had been a victim of such gross quality assurance issues, I could not possibly feel comfortable addressing this situation with the department seeing I want to complain about the specific incoming and outgoing practices to the incoming part of the department.
Lindsay said the best thing would be to send this email, and she gave me the address.

When I got off the phone there was a voicemail from Theresa telling me that she is sending me an invoice.

I then proceeded to call back the Warranty Department at 1-800-361-6665 to address the voicemail and issue about the invoice. The next lady I got was also very rude.
I am trying to be patient again to explain this whole thing once more, as she tells me that she can see no notes on all of this stuff accept for a note from Theresa saying she sent an invoice.
The whole time I was trying to explain the details patiently she kept cutting me off to tell me about this note from Theresa by saying yes I know there was an invoice sent to you today. I kept telling her no, listen to me there is more. She kept trying to cut me off. ******So I asked her to look at the notes and that is when she told me there were no other notes*******
So now I am dealing with another rude woman who is trying to talk over me and now the notes that everyone else was able to see are now missing.
So now another quality assurance issue. So that is 7 quality assurance issues over one department and the security of your company's name, and the security of MY personal information, and a breech of ISO standards and practices. Plus I have spent from 12:56PM to 4:44PM dealing with this, with no satisfaction.

I am disgusted by these shoddy practices. For nearly 30 years my Husband and I have been long standing account holders. We have chosen Sears to do business with because their business practices were a cut-above. This quality control assurance crap I went through today is making me rethink my contracts with your company. I am an intelligent woman with some business savvy and I worry for the more vulnerable of your clientele now. You have now proven that I could go to a liquidation house and get equal shoddy customer service and a cheaper price, but there I would expect the headache and pain-in-the-ass customer service. Sears is now selling us a rouse of customer service......

Please reply with a report covering how my points were addressed and how you will make this quality assurance issue a thing of the past, or I will be forced to take my business elsewhere.

Sincerely,

Lynn Tucker

2 comments:

Susan Demeter said...

Lynn I googled that 877 number and there are tons of complaints about it.

Anonymous said...

It is just another example of the scam that is Sears. If you accept the warranty, it is unlikely to get register on the service system that enforces the warranties and then you will fit like crazy to prove that you had extended warranty and get know where. Sears is such despair they are now out to get what money they can be fore it all completely shuts down. .....words from a former employee.