[Courses] [Spineful Living, lesson 5: The Hardest Nos]

[Poppy Lochridge]

On May 8, 2007, at 8:49 AM, Terry Hanson wrote:

>
> I've had rather an interesting experience with Sears 1-800 telephone
> specialists this past week.  It started on Sunday with trying to  
> order a
>
>
>
> Finally after over a week of frustration, I have satisfaction  
> knowing that a
> bit of spineful perserverence and time will work in your favor.
>
> Terry

Terry's story reminds me of my latest headache.

A month ago, I ordered a studio light/umbrella kit from a well known  
mail-order shop. Since I'd had some trouble with their online  
ordering system before, I called and placed an order with their  
service department. The kit arrived, but when I started assembling  
it, it appeared that something was missing. I spent a few days  
checking the box for extra pieces and checking the picture of the  
assembled kit before contacting the store about the missing part. By  
the time I was ready to contact, it was after their closing time on  
Friday, so I sent the contact to their Customer Service email address.

I got two emails in response, one automated thanking me for my email,  
one which told me "Ok, we'll look into that and get back to you."

On Wednesday, five days later, after they hadn't "gotten back to me",  
I called the store, spoke with someone in lighting who agreed that I  
was missing a part, and told me which part it was. He sent me back  
over to Customer Service, where they told me that the issue had been  
escalated to a buyer, and I should wait for contact from the buyer  
later in the day.

After still no response, I called back in the following Sunday.  
Customer Service agent told me outright that the case had been sent  
to the buyer, the buyer was not available on Sunday to check the  
status of the case, and therefore, the only thing he could do for me  
was to send another email to the buyer asking him to follow up. I  
asked for a supervisor, but he told me that none were available. (It  
was around lunchtime in New York, so this was believable.) He also  
told me that talking to a supervisor wouldn't help me, as the  
supervisor doesn't have any other information available to them than  
he did.

It's been a week and a half since then, and I've called 2-3 more  
times. On one call, the CS rep told me that it looked like they were  
just shipping the part out to me, but he would find out and email me  
with the information. Still no contact.

Called this morning, and the rep checked with the buyer, who had him  
simply transfer the call. The part will be shipped out today and he  
will call my cell phone with tracking details when it goes out.

It may have taken three weeks of regular calls to them, but I'm  
finally getting the rest of my order.
(and the buyer says that I should have voice mail - which is  
possible, I've been in and out of the house so much in the last few  
days, I don't think we've checked for messages lately.)

--Poppy