Costumer Service?

Be forewarned. This is a long post full of my rantings. Feel free to skip it without feeling any guilt.

I can't believe it! I actually had a positive experience while dealing with a business this week.

It seems like over the past years a lot of businesses have stopped focusing on costumer service. What ever happened to the motto "The costumer is always right". I think this has been on my mind lately because in the last month or so I have had two major confrontations with sales people. The first one was with Temp-A-Cure. I am going to discuss that one on a post all of it's own. The second was with Sears. So here's my story.

Two Christmases ago, Daniel bought me a watch from Sears. It wasn't exactly my style so I returned it and purchased a different one. When I was paying for it the clerk offered me their 2 year service warranty. I told her no thanks because I always lose the receipt, so it ends up just being a waste of money. She then told me that I didn't have to keep my receipt because Sears kept my info in their system. All I had to do was go to any Sears in the US and give them my name and they could pull up the warranty. I thought that was great, so I bought it.

Well, about three weeks ago I took my watch in to get the battery replaced because my indiglow light had stopped working. I took it to the jewelry counter and the clerk asked me for my receipt. I explained that I didn't have it and then explained why. She tried to pull my info up on the computer. No luck, she couldn't find me. She went to the back and tried there. Still no luck. She was pleasant enough to work with but after about 20 minutes she told me that she couldn't help me because their system only kept records for 1 year and then it dumped them. I asked her what should I do. She said if I could bring in the credit card statement that said that I had bought the watch from Sears that I could get a new battery.

I drove home slightly flustered. However when I got home I went back through my bank statements and found where it said that I had made a purchase from Sears. It didn't list what I had bought specifically but it was the best I could do. I knew that was when I had purchased it, so I knew it was the right transaction.

2 weeks later back to the store I go. I explain the situation to the lady behind the counter (a different girl this time). This lady was not helpful. In fact I would have to say that she was down right rude. Basically she told me that there was no way to prove that I was being honest and that it was stupid of me not to keep my receipt in the first place. I asked her if I could speak to a manager and she got all puffed up and informed me that she was one. After several rounds with her she finally told me that "just this once for customer satisfaction" (oh boy, was I NOT satisfied!) she would replace the battery. She gave me a little slip to take to the repair counter that stated that I had no prove and that they would not honor any other part of the warranty except to replace the battery this one time. Hello! Why didn't she just stamp the word lier on my forehead!

The thought occurred to me several times "Was all of this worth it for a new battery?"

And then wouldn't you know it? The technician informed me that the battery was not the problem. There was something else wrong with my watch.

I stormed out of there and on my way home I called Daniel and unloaded on him. Can I just say how much I hate confrontations (and how much I love Daniel). Daniel sat and listened and did what I could never have done. He sent an email to Sears Corporate office. They emailed us back to say that we would be contacted in a few days.

Two days later I got a call from the general manager of the store that I had gone to. Let me just tell you the experience was like night and day. He had me explain the situation to him and then he sincerely expressed his apologies. He said that he felt bad that I had to go though such an uncomfortable situation and that he planned to make it up to me. He then asked how much I payed for the watch. He then said that the next time I went into the store there would be a credit waiting there for me in the amount I paid for the watch. He said that I could us it for whatever I wanted.

WOW! I couldn't believe it. I guess customer service isn't dead. To bad I had to be made a fool of to get any. All that really matters to me though is that they did make it right, in the end.