I would like to share my experiences with customer service dealing with a case this week.
Saturday Sept 21
I made an order for a washer and a dryer, the amount ia about 1400 dollars, I have about 2500 in my account.
I chose paypal as my payment method.
Sunday Sept 22
I receive an email saying my order was canceled. The first line of the email is
"No charge will be assessed to your credit card"
I decide to go to Lowe's and buy the washer and dryer there.
Monday Sept 23
I check my bank website and see the charge from Lowe's. There is a pending charge for the cost 1400 from sears outlet
which will cause an overdraft in my account.
I immediately call customer service, and speak with Sheryl. She was very nice and helpful and when I asked for
an email summarizing what was done to resolve the issue she sent the following.
I did contact our online solutions department to request a release of funds be faxed to PAYPAL in your behalf. This was done by Frank. This is not a guarantee that the charges will not or have not already gone through.
At this point, satisfied with the way they are handling it. I ask if they will refund me for the overdraft fees that my bank charges me, she says she cannot commit to that but I can call if the charges go through and discuss that.
Tuesday Sept 24
I check my bank account and see that the charges have gone through, so I decide to call them, to update them on the issue and see if they need to process this differently now that the money has been transferred.
I speak to Linda who, very aggressively tells me that they've done all they can do and she can't help me. I ask her about the possible overdraft fees and she responds aggressively with "yeah, how much do we owe you?".
I am transferred to her supervisor, and then his supervisor, Star, employee number 70060. She reiterates that a fax is all they can do, that I need to speak with Paypal and with my bank in order to get my money, and that if I have any other concerns I'll have to get in touch with corporate. She cannot transfer me to corporate and says the only way to reach them is through email or a letter.
I ask her if she can send me an email saying that there is nothing she as a representative of sears outlet can do to help me, she says no.
I ask her if she can send me an email summarizing what we spoke during the call, she says she can't.
I ask her if she's going to write notes on my account about the case, she says yes.
I ask if she can send me a copy of those, she says no.
I ask her if she can write them and read them to me so I can have a record of what she has said to me, she says:
"Sir i'm not going to do that, thank you for calling customer support, have a wonderful day." She hangs up.
I sent an email to corporate describing the situation and asking that they please reach out to me.
Wednesday
I get a phone call from my bank saying they have just received a fax from sears outlet asking to remove the hold they have on my account, they say the hold was there 2 days before but by now the money is in their hands so they'll have to send the money.
I call customer service again and this time I speak to Ally, who was very nice, understanding and helpful. She says she can send a fax to Paypal and ask them to process the refund, that the best thing I can do is call Paypal and ask them to expedite the process on their end.
She calls Paypal and transfers me to them. I am directly transfered to Jo from Paypal and after she, who tells me that the money has been transferred to sears outlet and that they need to process the refund. I ask them about the fax, and she says she doesn't understand why they are sending a fax, the refund process is done by the sears account manager by going online and clicking issue refund.
I ask for and receive an email with detailed instructions on how to issue a refund.
I call sears outlet and ask to be transfered to Ally, she is busy and they say they can try to help me or have her call me when she is free. I ask to be called back.
2-3 hours later I call again, and the representative who happens to answer is Ally. I explain to her the situation and she says that unfortunately she is not in a situation where she can help anymore so she transfers the case to someone else who will definitely be able to help. The problem is that it will have to wait 24-48 hours.
I ask if I can have her word that she'll keep track of this and make sure the case is followed and I am reached on Friday. She says yes.
Friday
My girlfriend gets a call saying that there is a delivery from sears scheduled for saturday for the washer and dryer. So she tells them that sears cancelled the order and gets transfered to billing, where she asks about the status of the order, they verify that it's cancelled and state 3 times that a washer and dryer will not be delivered on saturday.
At the end of the day, since I have not received the call I was promised after the 48 hours, I decide to call again and am eventually transferred to manager Maria, with extension number 14446. She tells me that sears has a deal with Paypal and they process refunds that way, that two faxes have now been sent to Paypal and that after they receive that they can hold on to the funds for up to 30 days.
She cannot verify that Paypal has received the faxes and so I ask her to call them and find out, as well as ask why it is that they're telling me that the faxes are not the way to process the refund.
She calls them and speaks with them, then comes back and says that they want to talk to me and won't speak about the issue with her, so she is going to transfer me. I accept and and put on hold, there was not a representative there ready to speak with me, after waiting for a while, I get Gustavo, here is his email summarizing our conversation.
In order for you to have a transaction refunded since it has been completed already and the money is on the merchant's account, you will need to contact them and ask to speak with the person that manages the PayPal account. Once you do so, they need to go to the transaction detail and click issue refund bottom, then your refund will credited back into your PayPal account.
Since the money remains into their PayPal account, we do not have access to take it out from there without their authorization not even by sending any fax requesting it since it does not work like that. Its their own responsibility to refund it since they have it.
I call sears outlet again and get Julie, who is nice and patient. She says that on Tuesday, Linda transferred the case to "offline" which is the department that "processes credits", and that normally they process them in 3-6 days, but they're running a week behind so I should expect it to go through in 10-13 days.
I don't understand why I wasn't told this before, or what the point of the faxes was at all.
I asked if I could be notified when "offline" receives the case and she said she would add a note to ensure that. I asked if I could be notified daily of the status of this given that my account is overdrafted and I'm being charged daily fees. She guarantees that between now and when the issue is resolved I will get daily updates from customer support.
My intention is not to get anyone fired, the people I have talked to have very hard jobs and are not given the tools and resources they need to assist the customers they are supposed to care for.
I believe that sears outlet can provide service better than this, especially if someone with actual decision power hears about the way a situation this urgent is being handled.
A 13 day delay to refund money that they said they would not charge me is not acceptable by any standards. I am posting this in as many places as I can hoping to get the attention of the right people.
Thank you, and have a nice day.
Saturday Sept 21
I made an order for a washer and a dryer, the amount ia about 1400 dollars, I have about 2500 in my account.
I chose paypal as my payment method.
Sunday Sept 22
I receive an email saying my order was canceled. The first line of the email is
"No charge will be assessed to your credit card"
I decide to go to Lowe's and buy the washer and dryer there.
Monday Sept 23
I check my bank website and see the charge from Lowe's. There is a pending charge for the cost 1400 from sears outlet
which will cause an overdraft in my account.
I immediately call customer service, and speak with Sheryl. She was very nice and helpful and when I asked for
an email summarizing what was done to resolve the issue she sent the following.
I did contact our online solutions department to request a release of funds be faxed to PAYPAL in your behalf. This was done by Frank. This is not a guarantee that the charges will not or have not already gone through.
At this point, satisfied with the way they are handling it. I ask if they will refund me for the overdraft fees that my bank charges me, she says she cannot commit to that but I can call if the charges go through and discuss that.
Tuesday Sept 24
I check my bank account and see that the charges have gone through, so I decide to call them, to update them on the issue and see if they need to process this differently now that the money has been transferred.
I speak to Linda who, very aggressively tells me that they've done all they can do and she can't help me. I ask her about the possible overdraft fees and she responds aggressively with "yeah, how much do we owe you?".
I am transferred to her supervisor, and then his supervisor, Star, employee number 70060. She reiterates that a fax is all they can do, that I need to speak with Paypal and with my bank in order to get my money, and that if I have any other concerns I'll have to get in touch with corporate. She cannot transfer me to corporate and says the only way to reach them is through email or a letter.
I ask her if she can send me an email saying that there is nothing she as a representative of sears outlet can do to help me, she says no.
I ask her if she can send me an email summarizing what we spoke during the call, she says she can't.
I ask her if she's going to write notes on my account about the case, she says yes.
I ask if she can send me a copy of those, she says no.
I ask her if she can write them and read them to me so I can have a record of what she has said to me, she says:
"Sir i'm not going to do that, thank you for calling customer support, have a wonderful day." She hangs up.
I sent an email to corporate describing the situation and asking that they please reach out to me.
Wednesday
I get a phone call from my bank saying they have just received a fax from sears outlet asking to remove the hold they have on my account, they say the hold was there 2 days before but by now the money is in their hands so they'll have to send the money.
I call customer service again and this time I speak to Ally, who was very nice, understanding and helpful. She says she can send a fax to Paypal and ask them to process the refund, that the best thing I can do is call Paypal and ask them to expedite the process on their end.
She calls Paypal and transfers me to them. I am directly transfered to Jo from Paypal and after she, who tells me that the money has been transferred to sears outlet and that they need to process the refund. I ask them about the fax, and she says she doesn't understand why they are sending a fax, the refund process is done by the sears account manager by going online and clicking issue refund.
I ask for and receive an email with detailed instructions on how to issue a refund.
I call sears outlet and ask to be transfered to Ally, she is busy and they say they can try to help me or have her call me when she is free. I ask to be called back.
2-3 hours later I call again, and the representative who happens to answer is Ally. I explain to her the situation and she says that unfortunately she is not in a situation where she can help anymore so she transfers the case to someone else who will definitely be able to help. The problem is that it will have to wait 24-48 hours.
I ask if I can have her word that she'll keep track of this and make sure the case is followed and I am reached on Friday. She says yes.
Friday
My girlfriend gets a call saying that there is a delivery from sears scheduled for saturday for the washer and dryer. So she tells them that sears cancelled the order and gets transfered to billing, where she asks about the status of the order, they verify that it's cancelled and state 3 times that a washer and dryer will not be delivered on saturday.
At the end of the day, since I have not received the call I was promised after the 48 hours, I decide to call again and am eventually transferred to manager Maria, with extension number 14446. She tells me that sears has a deal with Paypal and they process refunds that way, that two faxes have now been sent to Paypal and that after they receive that they can hold on to the funds for up to 30 days.
She cannot verify that Paypal has received the faxes and so I ask her to call them and find out, as well as ask why it is that they're telling me that the faxes are not the way to process the refund.
She calls them and speaks with them, then comes back and says that they want to talk to me and won't speak about the issue with her, so she is going to transfer me. I accept and and put on hold, there was not a representative there ready to speak with me, after waiting for a while, I get Gustavo, here is his email summarizing our conversation.
In order for you to have a transaction refunded since it has been completed already and the money is on the merchant's account, you will need to contact them and ask to speak with the person that manages the PayPal account. Once you do so, they need to go to the transaction detail and click issue refund bottom, then your refund will credited back into your PayPal account.
Since the money remains into their PayPal account, we do not have access to take it out from there without their authorization not even by sending any fax requesting it since it does not work like that. Its their own responsibility to refund it since they have it.
I call sears outlet again and get Julie, who is nice and patient. She says that on Tuesday, Linda transferred the case to "offline" which is the department that "processes credits", and that normally they process them in 3-6 days, but they're running a week behind so I should expect it to go through in 10-13 days.
I don't understand why I wasn't told this before, or what the point of the faxes was at all.
I asked if I could be notified when "offline" receives the case and she said she would add a note to ensure that. I asked if I could be notified daily of the status of this given that my account is overdrafted and I'm being charged daily fees. She guarantees that between now and when the issue is resolved I will get daily updates from customer support.
My intention is not to get anyone fired, the people I have talked to have very hard jobs and are not given the tools and resources they need to assist the customers they are supposed to care for.
I believe that sears outlet can provide service better than this, especially if someone with actual decision power hears about the way a situation this urgent is being handled.
A 13 day delay to refund money that they said they would not charge me is not acceptable by any standards. I am posting this in as many places as I can hoping to get the attention of the right people.
Thank you, and have a nice day.
