Weed Eater Woes - Part 1, Dealing with Sears

Several years ago, my wife wanted me to mow the grass.  I refused, saying that it didn’t need it.  She said it did!  My argument was that if I couldn’t easily see the strip where I had just mowed, it didn’t need it!  The disagreement went on so long that, I got a “fine, I’ll do it”!  She has been taking care of the yard work ever since. 

Now, I have to tell you that I appreciate it greatly and am willing to get her any equipment she needs to accomplish the task.  Trim work with a string trimmer is also very important to her.  I bought a Stihl FS 35 to use, but after using it a while, she didn’t like it.  It was too heavy.  So we researched battery operated trimmers and chose the C3 from Sears.  It worked great for a while, but the batteries started losing their charge too quickly.  We upgraded to two lithium batteries and that seemed to do the trick.  Then “it” happened.

She came in one day and said there was a crisis.  I jumped up and said “What”?  “My weed eater quit working”!  I looked at it, changed the battery, but still no heart beat.  I declared, “looks like its dead”!  She said, “I’ve got to have a weed eater”!  I was working the next day and couldn’t take care of the problem.  We were long past the warranty period, so I suggested she to go to Sears and buy a new one.  Crisis solved, for a while.

She went to sears and they showed here the combo pack with a blower & weed eater.  They were both at home when I arrived that evening.  Everything was okay for about four weeks, then it was deja vu all over again!  “David, my weed eater!”  I heard her shout one Friday afternoon.  I said, “No way, its brand new”!  “Yep, its dead” she said.  I changed the battery, no luck.  I said, “you’ll have to take it back to Sears and get another one.  It’s still under warranty”.  Appeased again,  she actually waited almost a week, till I was off on a Sunday to accompany her.  She did call Sears on Friday, and was told to bring the whole combo with the battery, back to the store and they would replace it. 

Sunday afternoon, we drove over the Riverchase Galleria Mall and the Sears store there.  We had to park in the parking deck and carry everything in, dividing it up between us.  We had already thrown the box away.  We went to the first desk in 'lawn and garden' and explained the situation to an employee there.  He said, “yea, no problem.  Take it to K**** at the other cash register and he’ll take care of it.”  I said thanks, and we carried everything over to K****, told the story again about D** telling us to bring everything back to replace it.  He looked at us and said, “I don’t know why he told you that, we can’t replace it until it goes to the repair center.  Shocked, I said “Okay, where is that”?  He said, “Do you know where Oxmoor Rd. is in Homewood?”  I think I repeated “Homewood?!”  more as exasperation than a question.  I saw fire in my wife’s eyes and knew right away that I needed to protect this man from an angry white woman?

She said, “How long is this going to take”?  He said, sensing his immediate danger, “If you’ll take it downstairs to our merchandise pickup window, they will send it out for you and you won’t have to drive to Homewood.  That will be quicker, because they have a truck leaving in the morning.  The turnaround time should be about a week.  And all they really need is the weed eater, not the blower.”  I said ok, and we went downstairs to the merchandise pickup window.

We walked in there and a guy asked us our problem.  We told him the story and he said, “we don’t do that”.  About that time, a lady came out and he told here the story, and she said, “we don’t do that”.  "Did they fill out the return paperwork for you upstairs?” She asked.  “No, they just said to bring it to you for the truck in the morning.  She said again, “We don’t do that here.”  She said, “Do you know where our store on Oxmoor Rd. in Homewood is?”  She said  I said “No, but can’t you send it out on the truck for us?  She said, “We can, but it won’t leave here till next Saturday”!  At this time, my wife who had been fuming and was about to explode said, “I can’t wait till Saturday.  I’ve got to get this fixed now.”  I said, “Okay, tell me where it is.”  She went back in and brought out a map.  My wife asked why the other three people we had talked to didn’t tell us all this.  The lady said that not only could they not replace it right away, it had to be returned three times to the service center before we would get a new one.  We also found out the location in Homewood was closed on Sunday. 

She would have to return it on Monday, while I was at work.  That night, I helped her with the directions and we discussed the best time to leave to beat the Birmingham traffic congestion. 

The next day, I got a phone call from her about 10:30 in the morning.  “You’re not going to believe this” she said.  I took them the weed eater and said we were told to bring it there.  The lady said, “We don’t do this here.  You need to take it to our location on Lakeshore rd, behind Jim and Nicks Bar-B-Que.  I think I said, “Unbelievable”.

That location ended up being a merchandise pick up point as well.  The real location was across town.  The lady asked her for the store’s return paperwork and of course we were never given any.  "We don't complete that here, you'll have to return it to the store." My wife said, "look, everyone we talk to sends us somewhere else.  Can you not take care of this?"  She referred it to a supervisor nearby who said it was okay to complete the correct paperwork and send it off to the Chattanooga repair center.  

So the weed eater got sent off for repairs and they took our number to call when it was returned.  It took about two and a half weeks before we had a message on our answering machine that the weed eater was ready for pickup.  The message didn’t give the pickup location, so we called the last place and they advised it wasn’t there, it must have been sent to the Galleria store.  We got in the car and drove over to the merchandise pickup location, gave them our return pickup paperwork and the information that a call said it was ready.  The lady went in the warehouse but came back out empty-handed.  “Its not here” she said.  My question was, “where is it”?   She said she would call the other location.  

I watched her talk on the phone a few minutes then she came out again saying, “its not there either.”  I said, “Do you have a supervisor I can talk to”?  She said yes and went to get one.  We waited a while and a lady walked up about the same time that the first one with the paperwork came out another door and explained to her our problem and added the information that the other location had located it and found it marked “non-repairable”.   The manager took the paperwork and disappeared into a nearby room.  I assumed she was making calls to get approval for a replacement, from a high-ranking manager.  No one gets to make decisions anymore in our “micro-managed corporate world”.  After several minutes, she came out with the statement that “we’re going to give you a new one”.  We walked pretty silently(thank goodness) up to the 2^nd floor to receive a brand new C3 weed eater.  I thanked the manager for her help and we left the store, glad that the ordeal was over. We never did get an “I’m sorry” from anyone or an answer as to why everyone had a different story to give us.

As soon as we arrived home, I unboxed the weed eater and got the battery and charger out to plug it up for a complete charge.  No lights…  I plugged it into another socket, no lights…  I put the battery into our first charger, lights worked okay.  Unbelievable!  I went upstairs and said, “you’re not going to believe this”.  She said, “Does it not work”?  “No, its okay, but the battery charger is dead on arrival.”  She suggested we take it back.  I said “No, I don’t have the desire to go through that again”. 

I know that we probably won’t shop at Sears any longer and I understand now why their business seems to be struggling.  Customers are like your teeth, ignore them and they’ll go away.  Treat them right and they’ll stay with you for the long haul.  The other comment I’ll make here, is that quality of merchandise counts.  If cheap labor and cheap parts push the profit margin to the roof, it will do you no good because the product won’t last.  Customers will return it and poor quality control takes away your profits and your customers.  Sell a quality product, and take care of any customer that has a problem, period!  It's just good business.

Weed Eater Woes has a part two, and that will be my next blog.