Breakage

You would think that living out of coolers is easy during winter. After all, just plop the stuff outside and Mother Nature does the work. Well, yes and no.

We've had to rotate coolers in and out of the house to keep them from freezing - even the cooler with beer. I am sure we have lost all vegetables (lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and a bag of salad) from the freeze/thaw cycles they have been in. After I discovered the frozen beer, I checked on the cooler with condiments (I hadn't worried about anything but the veggies previously) and found that everything was frozen. Probably most of it will be okay, but I'm fairly certain that mayonnaise doesn't take to that sort of treatment kindly. Hmm, come to think of it the two cartons of sour cream are probably toast too.

The fridge won't be delivered until this afternoon, so it won't be cooled off until later tonight - so we play the rotation game one more day.

The salesman, Kevin, called yesterday and blamed the shipping mishap on the computer (it told him that it was available for delivery so he went by that). So there are two stories; that they don't deliver on Saturday's and that there were computer problems (true, there were computer problems when we were there). We got the computer problem story after the the no Saturday delivery story - so I don't believe that they don't deliver on Saturdays (was kind of far-fetched when I heard it to begin with).

The second story I might believe if, after close examination of the receipt, I hadn't seen that it was scheduled for a Sunday delivery all along. The only reason I looked at the receipt was that the Sales Associate I talked to Friday night mumbled something about the delivery day would show up on the computer. I figured if it showed on the computer, maybe it would show on the receipt. Sure enough.

So, I'm guessing that the guy was thinking it was Saturday and asked for a Sunday delivery - not a next day delivery. Easy mistake and one I would have understood if someone had just come out and admitted it instead of blaming it on anything but themselves.

So, while the Salesman was busy making excuses, he never once offered a rebate of any kind (as Don, the manager, said he would). Instead he said he could void the sale. Well that would be just ducky if I thought I could go somewhere on Saturday afternoon and get it delivered before Sunday, but what are the chances of that? I wasn't quite so nice in explaining what I thought about that sort of reasoning.

Finally, after figuring out he wasn't going to offer any type of rebate, I just told him that I thought I deserved some sort of consideration for my trouble. He immediately offered a $50 rebate. Jerk, that's what he was told to do in the first place (that is what they offer if they don't hit their next day guaranteed delivery, according to the flyers in the paper). He just wasn't going to offer it unless I demanded something. I should have asked for more, but at that point I was just tired of listening to him continuing to make excuses, so I took it.

We have bought a lot of stuff from Sears - big appliances, vacuums, tools and toolboxes. I have never had a problem with the shopping experience. But dealing with Kevin has left me not feeling real kindly toward them at the moment. And after the vacuum fiasco (where I actually had to buy a vacuum because they had one in for warranty repair for 3 weeks and wouldn't give me a loaner), I'm thinking that I can get this sort of treatment anywhere, so maybe next time I won't go there first to find what I need.

Kevin and Don may think this was fixed, but they are wrong. This was really just the completion of the breaking of a customer's trust, and loyalty. Oh sure, we may still shop there on occasion, but they are no longer my first choice.

Comments

[bod]

that kind of lack of respect may be a sign of the times but it's still sad.