customer.service

Man. this is gonna be a bitch post.  so, our washer is dying about a year ahead of plans. we want to buy one of those badass Whirpool Calypso washer/dryer (or something similar) sets next year. we know it’s gonna be like $2K for those, and so when this died, we decided to go low-budget. so we went to Sears. we have a Kenmore washer/dryer set we bought in 2000. it’s done damn well considering we bought pretty much bottom-rung sets. i think their second-from-bottom at the time washer and dryer both. like 800.00 for both, maybe even less than that. so we looked, and for 319.00 on sale, they have the bottom-rung washer, which, in actuality has a better feature set than the one we bought 8 years ago. we checked out the others, but, since we want to just turn around and get rid of it next year, we want cheap, but usable. we asked for someone to help, but it seems that the 20 or so people standing around the major appliances don’t actually sell washers, there’s only two people who do, and they were otherwise engaged with customers. the others, even when i said “i know what i want and just want to buy it” wouldn’t help. that’s shitty customer service. didn’t even offer to find another associate that could do so. just stood there. like they’re gonna make any more fucking money if they stand around with their thumb up their asses. i’m sure they’re just not helping because they don’t get a cut of the sale, but fuck that. anyway, we get the female associate to help, and we tell her the one we want. “oh no. that will only last 6 months”. so? and what the fuck is that? that’s the worst fucking salesmanship i’ve ever witnessed. she’s saying that Sears’ brand Kenomore washer is only going to last 6 months? why the fuck are they selling that? i doubt it. our same washer lasted 8 years, and that’s with a family of 5, and last year, we had our father-in-law here doing about 30 loads a fucking day. so we tell her we want it anyway. so she begrudgingly walks away saying “i’ll see if we have any in stock”. about 15 seconds later, she’s back saying they don’t have any in stock. what is she? psychic? it should have taken 2 min or more to walk to her kiosk, look up the item etc. so we just said fuck it and left.

off to lowes, after the most expenisve lunch in a while, getting Panda Express for the kids, and Chipotle for the us. lowes. we find the washer we want immediately. it’s much nicer, and 348.00. Whirlpool. it’s got more wash options, and while they have a lower-end model, we liked this one for the money. and i know i could probably get 150.00 back for it used. again. one person there is talking to the Couple From Hell, who wanted to know each feature of every machine in the area. so we wait. and about 3 min later a girl comes along asking if i’ve been helped. excellent! but no…she doesn’t work in major appliances. but she did go look it up to make sure we could get one. they have 6 in stock. again. awesome. on the right track. so we have to wait for Jeremy to get done with Couple From Hell. 10 min later, his co-worker in the department finally shows up and she takes the number, again looks up to verify that there’s some in stock (we told her they were), and said she would go get it. she leaves, and it’s fucking instant ghost town. jeremy and Couple From Hell are gone, as are any other employees. so we wait. and wait. 20 min, we see a bunch of employees exodus. and still we wait. 5 min later, someone asks if we have been helped. we say we think so, and that she left like 20 min ago to get the washing machine. they said she should be back any min then, and would check for us. 20 min later, we’re STILL waiting, no jeremy and no one else for that matter.

needless to say, we walked out thoroughly pissed and unsatisfied. what the fuck is up with these places? i mean, all the sears lady had to do was go fucking tell the merchandise pick-up people to get that thing out, and take my money. the goddamn unit went on sale TODAY. could they have had someone come in and buy that many all at one time?? and lowes. shame. come on. take my order, print the slip, make me go to checkout and pull out to the pickup area. make me wait after you take my money, i’d probably have been happy to do it. goddamn i’m pissed.

so we still have no new washer. we’ll get one next weekend i guess. i doubt i’ll give my money to lowes for deserting us, and i’m damn well going to a different sears to look. maybe they’ll have a different sale, and i’ll get a better deal. who knows. maybe some force was telling us not to buy one this weekend?

-e