Sears Local and national customer service ignorance, broken system, lies, broken promises Charlottesville, Virginia

I ordered a major appliance at Sears in Charlottesville on 12/22. I was assured delivery could be as early as the 24th but we agreed to wait until Monday. I received two automated calls telling me the appliance and its special plug would in fact be delivered on the 27th, the last call on Sunday night.

At the scheduled time on Monday two guys showed up with the plug only. Not their fault; the new range was not even on the manifest they had, not even as "backordered." I called delivery's toll free number, which is actually a call center, and got a patronizing woman who just kept repeated like a broken record "I apologize" but could not explain what happened, nor offer any help. She said the "robocall" just read the items and scheduled delivery date and did not actually "know" the status or whereabouts of the merchandise.

She said the warehouse had tried to call me Monday to tell me they hadn't got it. I told her they didn't. She verified the number, which was a non-working number, out of service, which I had asked to be removed and replaced with a new home and cell # when I made the purchase. The cell got replaced but the old home number did not. She said the warehouse had for some reason ignored the cell number--they only tried the non-working number and then apparently gave up.

The woman at delivery told me the range was not in stock and they had to wait for the manufacturer (their own Kenmore) to send some more. She said the sales associate who took my order should have told me this. Somehow she had magical awareness of the things that had transpired; the next day I spoke with a customer service person, not a delivery person, who said this call center person could NOT have known those things. Just making it up or giving me a standard speech/strategy and no actual help.

I repeatedly asked for the woman's supervisor and she simply refused, telling me the supervisor would only tell me "the same thing." I told her I wished to speak to her supervisor about her performance, which was extremely patronizing, unhelpful and clearly on a power/control trip, and that then I was going to call the local store. This too is a script, as I found out later. Finally, she said she would connect me to her supervisor.

After a 10 minute wait, I found myself speaking to the an assistant manager (I guess) at the local sears. He did not clearly identify himself. an assistant mgr at Sears. She did not tell me she was going to do this, and I had told her I would do that call myself. In any case, the assistant manager could not explain what happened. He swore that the sales associate would have seen the date of the 27th as open. No way to prove that now; but had the sale associates told me it was "on order" I would not have purchased this appliance. The assistant manager did nothing but apologize.

I had to demand a refund; he first offered me "free delivery" which was bogus, because the appliances get delivery rebates. He did not know this. Too much to expect that a manager would know about the departments? We argued to what I consider to be small consolation to being given a date, having the date confirmed, and then have this major purchase go missing.

I spoke with customer service, a call center somewhere, who told me she could only take information about the local store, not about the delivery call center or the warehouse. I took the time to fill out an online complaint, and I received a call from customer service, a person who told me this was a "mystery" that no one could explain and she would research it and get back to me. That was last week.

On Tuesday I went to get my refund. The assistant manager told me the sales associate would have seen the date of the 27th and that "ordered" on my receipt meant "ordered from the warehouse" so there must have been a range available but somehow it completely fell off the radar.

We called delivery because the date he was now showing, January 3, meant nothing to me unless or until someone could explain what went wrong with my purchase. Delivery said they could not guarantee delivery--or offer to track my range to help a very disappointed customer feel some reassurance. Deliver said this was a "scheduled" date not an assured date. So apparently they have no way to contact, interact with, or locate their own merchandise. I have spent at least 4 hours plus travel time so far. I told them if the range did not show up due to another "mystery" there would be a major throw down.

And tonight, the night before the delivery is "supposed to" happen, I just got a robocall telling me that the two items are coming tomorrow but these items are not the same: now they are a plug and a 4' cord. No mention of the range. So I pushed the button to speak to a person and he says the robocall was a mistake, and his screen showed the plug and appliance would be delivered. His explanation for the error in the call was that "the system is updating."

Really? So when it updates, instead of keeping the order--that was how I was told it worked last week--it just randomly adds and removes items? He expected me to believe that--again, reading from a script that has no relation to reality. I asked him if he could verify the range was to the warehouse. He said no, but that he would call them; he came back to say they were closed and maybe I could do HIS job by tracking down the warehouse in the morning. I said that was not my job. So I asked, "you only see the order and the scheduled delivery date, right?" He agreed.

So you have no idea whether this is going to happen in the real world? You are delivery but you don't know where the range is. You don't know how a 4 foot cord, which was NEVER discussed or on any piece of paper I saw magically got on the delivery and the range removed? No. He did not know. Dead silence. I finally asked to speak to his supervisor. Like the woman I spoke to the week before in delivery, he said his supervisor would "tell you the same thing as I did." I insisted. And went onto hold for 7 minutes before giving up.

Sears cannot do a simple exchange of money for merchandise. "Ordered" can mean in the warehouse or the manufacturer, but they do not disclose this at the time of purchase. They SHOULD.

Sears does not know where its merchandise is or when it might be delivered.

No one at Sears understands how their own systems work. They don't know where the warehouse is, they don't know how the robocall works, they cannot figure out why things go wrong, cannot even figure out how a major purchase just vanished somehow--a mystery to everyone I talked to.

Sears has no customer service. Google "Sears customer service" and watch the complaints pop up. Web site after web site.They don't know what customer service is. They apologize, then read you a scripted falsehood to get you to go away. Their supervisors have no idea, because you cannot speak with one; and they write the "notes" as they see fit, as I learned when I made the in-person visit back to Sears and called Delivery.

Sears does not know the difference between a scheduled delivery date and an actual delivery date. Apparently their system is so shaky, unreliable, and so uncertain that they would not dare try to give you an actual delivery date. Even a pizza place will do that. Major appliance? Can't do it.

I will never darken their door again, unless, of course, the range does NOT in fact show up tomorrow. Because then it will be fraud, when you sell something you do not actually have.