Tyler Jorgenson

I would venture it safe to say that people enjoy shopping where they feel they are appreciated and where they get good customer service. Sears has been in the news and on business blogs a lot recently as a struggling company and one that is losing customers.

My wife and I bought a new home a couple of weeks ago and I have been shopping for a new washer and dryer (our laundry has been piling up). I’ve done some online shopping and gone to the local Lowes, Home Depot and Best Buy. Last night I went online to Sears.com and compared found a good deal set. Then I cross checked them to one of their affilliated companies, The Great Indoors. The price for the same Kenmore set was much better at The Great Indoors. I must say that I think this is one of their mistakes. No customer wants to buy a product and then learn that they could have had a better price on the same product from the same store. This isn’t really where my beef with the company lies however. The Great Indoors doesn’t really carry stock, so it would take 2 days to get the appliances (you remember that I mentioned the laundry was piling up?) Earlier today I called a local sears store to see if they had the appliances in stock and if they would price match. I dialed the number that Google Maps Mobile brought up and it just rang and rang. I then went online and got the number… no answer. I called the automotive department and they gave me the same number to call… no answer. I didn’t give up too easily as I tried to call another Sears nearby. When I got to a live person the gentlemen was very polite and took the item # to look up the product. He then, I’m assuming accidentally, hung up on me. A few more phone calls too Sears, Sears Grand, K-mart (whose appliance section is Sears) and I finally went to Lowes and got great service and bought my new appliances from them.

If all of their stores are being run the way that the 4 I tried to deal with then there is no question as to why the company is struggling. Let’s hope the new CEO can turn things around.

Most companies won’t get that many attempts from their customers to let them get it right. This experience certainly reminded me to be good to my customers.