A few weeks ago, I brought my car in to Sears for an oil change and alignment. They recommended a new wheel bearing. I had to postpone the wheel bearing until I could save up some money. They finished my other repairs in the promised time.
Then yesterday, I brought my car in at 10:45 am for the wheel bearing. The individual helping me, Daniel, couldn't find the estimate in the system so he said he would have to do an eval. "We trust you, we just have to do the evaluation," he said. That's reasonable. I stood in the very loud workshop while he struggled to find the wheel bearing items in the system (he had to ask someone else what menu it was under). He told me it would take 60-90 min and they'd call me.
After an hour, he called to tell me the evaluation was complete and I did need a new wheel bearing. I asked how much longer. He said it would take an hour and a half, "he's just started." I killed another hour at the mall and then went to the waiting room at Sears.
Daniel told me at 1:30 the seals were "shredded" and asked if I wanted new ones. I said yes & asked how much longer. He said 45 minutes. I said "You said an hour and a half an hour and a half ago." He acknowledged that and said they hadn't predicted how long it would take to get the bearing off.
So I waited. And waited. And waited.
At 3:30, I walked out to the lobby and called the Sears auto customer service number. Someone asked how they could help me. I said I was waiting for my car. He asked, "Are you in the lobby? I could come talk to you."
"That would be nice," I said.
He came to check on me. I told him someone had quoted me 45 minutes 2 hours previously, and I was about to hit the roof. He went to check on the car and presumably talk to a manager.
The person who showed Daniel how to find a wheel bearing in the computer came and talked to me. He said the wheel bearing took longer than expected and they would give me $20 off the repair for the inconvenience. "He should have quoted you a longer time," he said.
"Quoted, Hell," I replied. "When he said 45 minutes, as soon as it took longer, he should have stopped to give me an update instead of letting me sit here for TWO HOURS."
"I'm sorry about that," he said. "He should have talked to you."
"How much longer?"
"I'm hoping it'll be done within the hour," he said.
"Within the hour," I repeated. "Well, that's not great, but I can't drive my car without a wheel, so I've got to live with it."
"I apologize for the inconvenience," he said. "I'll see if I can take some more off the bill for you."
"This is way beyond an inconvenience," I said. Five hours is not an "inconvenience." Five hours is long enough to drive to DETROIT.
They finished my car and checked me out at a little after 4. Daniel apologized again and said "It took longer than we thought to get the bearing off."
I arrived at 10:45 and left at 4:15. Five and a half hours. I have no doubt the bearing took longer than expected; it's a 13-year-old car. The repair quality is fine, I'll give them that, and Daniel did seem to genuinely feel bad about the situation. They also comped 10% on my repair bill, so they took off $34 instead of $20.
But here's what boggles me: did it really take the mechanic 90 minutes to notice the seals were "shredded"? Or did it just take him 90 minutes to get to it after the evaluation, and then he actually started the repairs at the time they were supposed to be done?
It would be one thing if Daniel had originally said, "The repair takes 90 minutes, but we're really busy today, so it'll be an hour and a half, two hours before we can get started." I would have made an appointment for later in the week, or rearranged my plans for the day before they got completely screwed.
It would be another if Daniel had stopped by after 45 or 60 minutes and said, "I'm sorry, it's taking longer than expected / we don't care about your elderly car / the mechanic passed out from low blood sugar and went to lunch / whatever /, it's going to be about another hour." Then I would have at least known I had time to go get something to eat.
He did neither. I know he saw me there. I caught his eye several times when I looked back into the repair shop and saw my car still up on the lift.
Here's the thing: I drive an elderly car because I stopped climbing the corporate ladder in order to go back to grad school and complete a Master's in Psychology. I know a thing or two about service - people used to pay me a lot of money to fly around the nation and teach week-long sales training seminars.
That's right, Sears. You just served a five-and-a-half-hour customer service problem to an articulate person with ten years of customer service training, access to social media, and a finely-tuned bullshit detector.
Please teach your employees about communication and setting expectations. read more
