What did it take for me to get my furnace serviced by Sears Home in a no-heat emergency situation?
An email to the Sears Canada CEO, Senior Vice President, and Ellen Roseman @ the Toronto Star.
Scroll down to the first email at the bottom of this page and read the story in chronological order.
--
On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 1:29 PM, Peter Kalen wrote:
Thanks for the note, Elaine. I apologize that it took so much effort on your part. It is not reflective of the type of customer service we are striving to provide.
Warm regards,
Warm regards,
Peter Kalen
Senior Vice-President
Sears Financial and Home Services
(416) xxx-xxxx
xxxx@sears.ca
On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 1:16 PM, Elaine wrote:
Dear Peter and team:
I can confirm my furnace was fixed by 2 service technicians this morning. Heat has been restored in my house.
Peter, my sincerest appreciation for your help in turning this bad customer experience into a positive one. I'm hopeful that my future interactions with Sears Home Services will be smoother the next time around.
With thanks,
Elaine
On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 8:59 PM, Elaine wrote:
I can confirm my furnace was fixed by 2 service technicians this morning. Heat has been restored in my house.
Peter, my sincerest appreciation for your help in turning this bad customer experience into a positive one. I'm hopeful that my future interactions with Sears Home Services will be smoother the next time around.
With thanks,
Elaine
On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 8:59 PM, Elaine wrote:
Dear Peter:
I wish to provide you an update on the situation.
Thanks to your intervention and assistance, a gentleman by the name of Lissandro from the Sears Executive Offices called me around 7:30 PM today to offer help. He has made arrangements for a service technician (Adrian) to come to our home tomorrow (28-Jan by 12 noon). I understand that Adrian (the technician) will first have to provision the furnace parts required from local suppliers tomorrow and will be in a position to repair the furnace at the earliest possible time.
I am grateful for your prompt reply as I am able to see the light at the end of the (cold) tunnel. It was not my intention to escalate, although I felt I had no other recourse or option as no one from the Sears Customer Service team (except Adam and Brae (the Sears sub-contractor I mentioned in my original email below)) was willing to help me and my family.
I will provide an update to this distribution list shortly following tomorrow's service appointment. A special thanks to Lissandro for his empathy and taking the time to contact me tonight. I look forward to the forthcoming resolution.
Sincerely,
Elaine
I wish to provide you an update on the situation.
Thanks to your intervention and assistance, a gentleman by the name of Lissandro from the Sears Executive Offices called me around 7:30 PM today to offer help. He has made arrangements for a service technician (Adrian) to come to our home tomorrow (28-Jan by 12 noon). I understand that Adrian (the technician) will first have to provision the furnace parts required from local suppliers tomorrow and will be in a position to repair the furnace at the earliest possible time.
I am grateful for your prompt reply as I am able to see the light at the end of the (cold) tunnel. It was not my intention to escalate, although I felt I had no other recourse or option as no one from the Sears Customer Service team (except Adam and Brae (the Sears sub-contractor I mentioned in my original email below)) was willing to help me and my family.
I will provide an update to this distribution list shortly following tomorrow's service appointment. A special thanks to Lissandro for his empathy and taking the time to contact me tonight. I look forward to the forthcoming resolution.
Sincerely,
Elaine
On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 6:08 PM, Roseman, Ellen <eroseman@torontostar.ca> wrote:
Thanks, Elaine, sorry about the bad furnace experience. I sent this to my Sears contact to review (xxxxx in communications). Hope he can get you some quick action.
Best wishes,
Ellen
Ellen Roseman
Toronto Star personal finance columnist
On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 6:09 PM, Peter Kalen wrote:
Elaine, I apologize for your experience and will have this looked into immediately.
Peter Kalen
Senior Vice-President
Sears Financial and Home Services
(416) xxx-xxxx
xxxx@sears.ca
From: Elaine Sent: 01/27/2012 06:05 PM EST
To: Sears Executives
Cc: eroseman@thestar.ca
Subject: Furnace Problem: No heat for 30+ hours and Sears Lack of Customer Service
Dear Sears Executives:
I purchased a furnace with Sears which is still covered by full warranty. On Thursday 26-Jan at approximately 7:00 AM, the furnace shut down after making grinding noises. I promptly called Sears Home Services http://www.searshomeservices.
I understood a no-heat situation constitutes an emergency especially given we are in the middle of winter. I was assured by a Sears CSR that the service appointment will be for the same day.
I have received very little help from Sears Home Services thus far.
I made 4 calls to the 1-800-4-MY-HOME number on Thurs 26-Jan following my initial call (10 am, 11:34 am, 3:22 pm, 6:00 pm) as no one from Sears had followed-up with me since I first called. I was provided no commitment, no ETA for when a technician would be able to troubleshoot my furnace.
Back in November 2011 I had a my furnace maintained by Sears via a Sears sub-contractor, luckily I kept his phone number and called him directly on 26-Jan to seek help. He immediately contacted Sears Customer Service to investigate, only to find out that no service appointment was booked for me on 26-Jan. Rather, it was for the next day. He was understanding of the no-heat situation and arranged to go to my home on 26-Jan to look at the furnace. In short, the furnace needed parts replacement ordered before it can be fixed. The sub-contractor placed the order on the same day and was kind enough to leave us one of his portable heaters to assist us through the night.
On Friday 27-Jan, I called 1-800-4-MY-HOME again at 8:45 AM to inquire on the status of the parts order. At this point, I expected the Sears CSR to be able to advise me when the replacement parts will be available. I was advised by the CSR that the parts had arrived on Friday 27-Jan, the technician had it, and my furnace will be restored on 27-Jan. This made me feel really good.... until I received a call two hours later that the parts did not arrive, the technician does not have them, and the earliest we could expect our furnace to be restored MAY be Monday 30-Jan, but they are unable to commit whether Monday will be doable.
This is confusing to me as a Sears Call center Team Leader advised me specifically that the parts were shipped from Belleville today 27-Jan and the truck rolls go out at 2pm EST with arrival in GTA by 5 PM on the same day. The Team Lead / Supervisor (Malisha - sp?) - who promised to call me before she leaves work at 5 PM to provide an update on the parts order - has not called me back, not that I am surprised anymore.
Essentially this means we will be in a no-heat situation for 5 consecutive days.
I do not know what type of service provider lets their customers go 5 days in the middle of winter without any heat. Perhaps I would have been in a better situation if I called another Furnace Repair Service provider, however, my furnace is still under warranty with Sears and I expect the company to honour our legally binding agreement.
As I am writing this letter at 5:32 PM on 27-Jan, I am again on the phone with one of your 1-800-4-MY-HOME CSRs.
Another Team Leader (Adam, Toronto Office) is trying to help me, the first Sears employee to actually provide assistance. He has called the Parts Department who advised that the parts will be arriving Monday 30-Jan. Assuming this is the case, my furnace may possibly be restored by Monday. In the meantime, Adam is trying to make arrangement for Sears Scarborough Town Centre to hold three portable heaters to get us through the weekend, which he advised me to purchase with my Sears Credit Card and Sears will re-imburse me for the cost of the heaters ($90 + HST x 3).
I have been a loyal Sears customer for 5 years and I never thought that I had to beg Sears to provide me with assistance. I am disenchanted by the lack of service, the complete disregard for my well being by at least 5 CSRs. Adam was the only one who even attempted to make an effort to assist.
I am not sure how this story will end, if we will get our furnace restored on Monday 30-Jan, or perhaps we go on without it for another week or so. I will keep you and Ellen Roseman http://www.
Elaine
Sears account phone number: 416-xxx-xxxx
Mobile: 416-xxx-xxxx
