It's been a while.....

Surprise! It's a post that has nothing to do with my kids. Crazy, I know, but I'm just mad enough that I need to vent. Seriously.

If you've known me for a while, then you probably remember when I had the "I don't take customer service crap" attitude. Maybe it's because I was "younger" (ha. I'm not old now!). Maybe it's because I didn't have better ways to spend my energy. Whatever the reason (helloooooo three kids 3 and under!), I tend to let things roll off my back more now than ever before. Until today.

I was in a department store. Wait. I usually don't use names (people or places. well other than the girls.) to keep my tiny little corner of the internet just a little less searchable but. Sears.

I was in SEARS. So I was in Sears the other day attempting to purchase a cargo carrier that goes on the roof of the car. One of the collapsable ones. After waiting my turn, and then waiting no less than 10 minutes while the sales guy rummaged around "in the back", he offered me the smaller version of the one I wanted because even though their system inventory showed 3 in stock, they were all opened and missing parts. So our conversation goes something like this:

Me: "So you don't know when you're going to get any more in?"
Sears Guy: "Nah."
Me: "Can you have one sent over from another store?"
SG: "Ain't no telling when it'll get here."
Me: "Soooo.....you can't have one sent here?"
SG: (typing on his computer) "I'm showing 3 in stock at [the store closer to an hour away from my house]. You can go get one there."
Me: "How do I know they really have one there?"
SG: (pointing to his screen) "It says right here they have 3."
Me: "Well. Your computer says you have 3 here, but clearly you don't."
SG: Blank stare.
Me: Starting to walk away.
SG: "Uh. Do you want me to call [the store closer to an hour away from my house]?"
Me: Raised eyebrow stare. (and in my mind "I'd hate to make you put forth all that effort"). See. Still some rolling off the back. The younger me would have said that out loud.

After searching the internet, it appears as though Sears is the only place we can purchase this particular model of carrier. Sure there are other ones in the same family. But it's this one we've seen in person. So D calls customer service to try and get them to send one to the store that we can pick up. Fail.

So tonight I tried to call a different number. I reach a customer service representative who is extremely nice and sympathetic. Who is going to make another call to help me! So I wait. And then she comes back and tells me the best she can do is have it shipped to my house, but I will have to pay shipping. Hey. At least she was nice, right? So that's how it goes. You can't stock an item in its entirety. You can't override the system to replace the unsellable inventory. But you can let me drive out of the way to another store. Or pay extra to ship it. Customer service at its finest, no?!?

Whatever. I promptly found another model that's similar and looks like it will do the trick. And I'll gladly pay shipping.

So I used the last bit of my youthful energy to send an email to Sears customer service. Clearly I don't expect any kind of response given my experience so far, but I needed to get the last word in. I gave a quick summary of my experience and ended with this........

I'm truly disappointed at the quality of service from this store and sincerely hope my experience is not a common one. Perhaps a larger sale would qualify for extra effort to complete the transaction. If that's the case, I'm glad the economy has turned around so much that representatives do not need to be bothered with a mere $200 purchase.

I know. Rude. A bigger person would have let it roll off their back and move on to another store. But today I'm the littler person. And they deserve it.