Venting Thursday - Follow-up, Follow-up, Follow-up

I have to vent today, not Friday as we're headed to the Purina Nat'l dog show in Toronto. TG I've got a great 'kennel manager' ... Mary-Anne is indispensable when it comes to weekends like this.

OK... I've vented on Sears, and here we go again! Since the last stove repairs a month ago with 2 new parts we're back to the problems we had in the 1st place, plus 2 more issues. So I've called Customer Service, 3 x now & left mssgs for someone to get back to me, and what do I find out about my last 2 mssgs? AAAHHH, they were sent to the people who would repair the FURNACE! Did no one catch on that something was amiss? Or did it just go to the shredder? So, I now have a "SNR" tech coming Monday to review what the problems are and determine a 'fix'. Here I go again waisting a day 'booked' for a service guy! Funny thing is the problems the last tech had weren't reported ... just that it was 'fixed'! They are on my receipt tho! Now the Sears furnace. Yes we had the 'repairs' done last week, finally since around December when they were 1st discovered, put back in the electronic filter, now only to have mssgs come up on the controls that it needs changing ... AAA??? Does this make sense, nope! So, I call the direct line to the gentleman that was handling this issue ... what do I get, someone else answering this line, for a NEW person! Yep, the previous guy .. that was 2 wks ago folks, is no longer there! Mssg left, have I heard back? Not yet, so I called and left ANOTHER mssg this morning.

We get our Sears bill in, and we have points to claim to get $ certificates. What do we see, almost 90% of our points, evidently have been 'claimed' ??? and by who? not us. So now it's gone 'somewhere' else for this to be checked into. And what does the person say to me at the end .... it will take about a week, and may I suggest if you haven't had a call next week you FOLLOW-UP!!!

I've had several other 'follow-ups' this week on other things .... am still waiting for resolution/call backs. Right now, they are a little bit more minor, just taking up my time, and clouding my brain.

I wonder who's working these days?

Off to show groom my girls .... that should calm my nerves ....

Read more...

So Who's Our "Head-Ache"?

I was asked ... so here goes .... SEARS ... is the company that we've been having the headache with for over 2 yrs on our new GE stove, and since the fall on our new Carrier furnace. In web searching I found these 2 sites where you can search on Sears and come up with others with the same old problems.

I found 2 sites where you can do searches using Sears and the list is endless of complaints. I even found a few public Blogs with entries on them.

ttp://www.my3cents.com/ http://www.complaints.com/

I have found out the main call center has been moved, yet another company, off to an island in another 'world'. The techs are not allowed to carry the # of parts in the vans as before to possibly fix your problem on the spot, so you wait, weeks it may be, for the part to come in and another week for a tech to arrive. Of course living in the country only compounds the problem, since they only have a few techs that do the country areas and only on certain days. This we are finding with out especially with our furnace as there is only one guy who services propane operated ones and does runs to our area on certain days, at least if it's not an emergency.

Another thing we were told, is that if you place 3 calls in the 1st yr then they will consider replacing the item .... well we've placed more than 3 calls on our stove, however the 1st 3 weren't in the 1st yr.

Friday came and went, and no call back from the Snr Manager about what action is going to be taken to solve our furnace issue. TG it still works, it's still COLD out, although what we don't know is, is it working up to snuff?

Obviously not would say .... I think I'm going to put the special electronic filter back in, close that door and see if we get more system malfunctions on the thermostat.

After reading many of the complaints on these sites, I don't think people would be venting so much if they weren't given the run around, you could talk to someone knowledgeable, weren't sent back to the main call center answering system only for you to decide which #'s you should now push to get the 'right' department, and not have to get hot under the collar to be put up to a more senior level to get appropriate action.

I will say, in general the 2 techs that have come to the house have been frustrated themselves, know Sears has a BIG issue, and unfortunately are the ones that have to come face-to-face with the angry customer.

WHY?? I wonder ... we've had a Kenmore washing maching & dryer that, gosh, must be 15+ yrs old and other than a few belt changes on the dryer, and maybe one timer switch (all of which we had a local applican guy do) they have worked wonderfully (he's always said fixing these older machines is better than buying new) .... why are we pulling our hair out now?

Customer service, poorer product manufacturing now, too much one-touch-button electronics ??? do things break down too soon? Are we becoming such a throw away society we don't care to fix things now?

OH WOW ... as I've been typing this, I get a call from the upper crust of Sears about the furnace!!!! Guess someone is now following the cookie trail, and staying on the Yellow Brick Road!

The TV we've had this power pack problem with, it was a ViewSonic 29" LCD.

Friday night we went out and, yes paid a bit extra for the name, bought a Sony 32" 1080p LCD. We found good reviews on it when searching the web. What we did find out tho, is that most companies will no longer be making the 1080pixels in the 32" as they find the clarity isn't that significant from the 720p. 1080p will eventually only be put into the larger size TV's. All I can say is the ladies Scotties Tournament of Hearts curling and the Super Bowl was awesome to watch!

More time will be needed to cook various meals to find out if the stove is working as we think it should ..... I'll keep you updated.

Read more...

Venting Friday - Does Nothing Work Right Anymore?

I think we're going to BLOW here! It seems everything we've bought new in the last 3-4 yrs has had issues, some of which are still on-going, hummm all of them as I think of it. I'm not going to mention product names, nor service people, but is it just us that find one doesn't get the quality nor customer service anymore, unless you SCREAM at the person on the other end phone?

Last night we were settled in, dogs out, a nice fire going and watching our Favs the Ottawa Senators hockey team make a run for 11 straight game wins, when all of a sudden in the 3rd period our LCD HD tv starts to fade out to black along with the sound. Slowly, nothing. Dead. No light for on/off, nothing. The TV was bought new just over 3 yrs ago, June last yr we spent close to $250 to have the power pack replaced. The TV went the same way then, thus we suspect it's the same problem. 90 day warranty ain't any good now! So we're in a dilemma ... do we get it fixed, do without a TV probably till mid next wk and expect the same problem in another 6 mnths, or do we buy new? Buying new is what we checked out the reviews/prices etc on-line while we listened to the rest of the Sens winning game on the computer.

Next, our new, high end convection stove, bought when we moved here. 1st new one Mike & I have ever owned. Each home we've owned separately or together has come with a stove, working well, so have never invested in a new one. 1st it was a 25 lb turkey being done for xmas day that the FELL, grill and all to the bottom of the stove! The whole insides/racks & insulation had to be replaced. Fine, now that works OK, but the grilling rack STICKS ... not fun when one is trying to remove a hot sheet of hors d'oeuvres, with it finalling flying out on that last tug! Burn baby burn! We start to encounter another problem ... nothing seems to cook all the way thru? Temp doesn't seem to hold, or is 'out'. After a few cancelled service calls (all them, not us!) the tech says the oven is out by some 27 deg! The rack problem ... oh, a lot of people have that problem and unfortunately by the time they notice it, their warranty has run out. Luckily we added the extra yrs on. After several more cookings of various foods, still isn't working right. Last fall the service tech comes again (more cancellations - and as you know each time you've scheduled time off to be home), and decides to order a new inner box & electric control system. Another appt is scheduled for Nov, however that day the tech finds out that a door had been ordered instead of the inner box!!! The controls are in, did I still want him to come ... YES! we'd like a working oven for xmas/New Yrs PLS! He removes everything, only to open the box and find it BROKEN! Parts should be in Dec 25! HA! Fast forward to this past Wed, while after WEEKLY calls to the Company, having my calls routed to Corporate Services, as to why it's taking over 2 months to get the parts/service, he comes to replace everything this past Wed. We end up fiddling with the temperatures between bake & convection, and don't we find the temp is not only out by 25 deg, but it also seems that the temp will drop by 20deg before it kicks back on to keep the temp of the oven! He did some more fiddling; I had an appt and had to leave Mike with him when he got home from work. Mike went to change, came down and the service tech was driving away! SO?? did he fix the problem? did we see that it was working OK? nope! Did the tech see a way to 'sneak' out when no one was beside him .... hummmm .... do wonder??? And I ask, how easy is it going to be for us to determine if the 'problem' is fixed? we don't have a high tech heat meter, we just have to go by whether what goes in the oven comes out cooked with the temp & time it should. OH Boy! I can see some later dinners coming up again!

What we don't understand is the cost of rebuilding this stove runs close to $500 each time, just for parts, and they've been out some 4-5 times and put in over $1,200 worth of parts ... why not just give us a new stove??? Is that not cheaper? and OH, the sales person that sold us the stove in the beginning ... he says we're the 1st to call stating there is a problem! Not what the tech tells us who's dealing with all the service calls.

Next venting ... we bought a new furnace with a/c 1.5 yrs ago, through the same company that we bought our stove. Again high end name brand, high efficiency furnace. Installation went smooth and it's worked fine until a month after the annual service last fall. Then temp control panel with all it's techy readouts, says 'System Malfunction' call for service. The furnace is still working, what's UP? Same tech comes back (again a cancelled appt), only to tell us he suspected a problem a month ago but since there were no 'reports' on the control panel, he couldn't report his assumptions. SO, what is the problem? not enough cold air flow back to the furnace when it's on the high speed, thus it shuts off. Now what? well a report will get put in and his boss will have to decide what they are going to do. In the meantime, remove our special electronic filter and keep that panel off, keep the furnace area door open, all to allow for more air flow to the furnace.

Well ... I have called, AGAIN and AGAIN, every week since the beginning of January, each time a different dept, different person, different 'reason' as to why no one has gotten back to us. The last one a week ago ...'oh, repairs closed the case as it was no longer their problem, it should go to installation, I'll see that it's reopened and So-in-so is notified'. This week, no reply, I call again, another mssg will be sent and I should receive a call within 48 hrs. Well it is now 48 hrs, and nothing!

Guess, I'm back on the phone AGAIN today!

Blood pressure is rising, I'll try and keep my cool, but we are so darn tired of new things breaking down, service being the pits, no one careing and it seems you have to FIGHT to get any resolution.

It seems you just get one thing 'fixed' and you're on to another long line of repairs, service calls, and $$$'s. What happened to the good old days? Our TV upstairs is some 25 yrs old and works like a charm!

Read more...