Burns Sears Burn

Me talking to Sears customer service

So Sears is nearing its much deserved end.  Once a titan of American commerce and the retail giant of all retail giants, Sears is down to only a few dozen stores left open.  The new big game seems to be investors and market watchers betting if this is the year Sears finally gets nailed in the coffin.

I must say, good riddance.  Two years ago we purchased a dishwasher from Sears and, as of now, we have yet to have a working dishwasher.  We also had purchased a washer and dryer from them many ages ago.  To this day, the dryer is still not working properly.  And that's after I purchased extended protection plans for the warranties. 

The reason?  Lousy customer service and, to be honest, I'm guessing Sears is hoping it can drag things out and not have to give us anything else.  Week after month has gone with broken promises, poor customer relations, no callbacks or follow ups, and endless dozens - perhaps by now, hundreds - of hours on hold, on chats, on forums trying to get the situation resolved.

Last month the replacement dishwasher was supposed to be delivered, only to see the wrong appliance delivered instead.  So the actual dishwasher replacement was moved back another whole month to this last Wednesday.  On a lark, I decided to call to verify that the delivery was on and all was going to finally happen with the delivery. And - you'll never believe it - turns out they don't have the dishwasher in question and they'll have to kick it back to sometime in October.

After hours of chats and phone calls, I finally got connected to the ones in charge of all this and was more or less told 'sorry about your luck.'  Though the rep pointed out she never said any such thing, I informed her that was her attitude.  Basically, if I wanted to do the footwork, I could always find a different dishwasher that might be in stock, go through everything myself. and it might get here sooner.  Or might not.  Or I could suck on it and wait for the one that may or may not ever come. 

That's Sears.  A far cry from the retailer my Dad swore by back in the day.  A far cry from the store my Dad would patronize when it came to its batteries, auto service and, of course, Craftsman Tools.  Heck, it's a far cry from the Sears I first dealt with in the first decades of my adult life.  

And it deserves to die.  Few seemed to really care about fixing the problem, and Sears has no provisions for fixing anything.  It is as if it just isn't trying.  Why is that?  I don't know.  Somewhere, the great promise of Capitalism - that it would lead to better innovation, better products, better services, and competitive prices while encouraging the best and brightest employees for that corporate edge, has fallen on its butt.  

Today, the Marketplace is about giving the least possible for the most imaginable.  It's about cutting corners, slicing service, and minimizing quantity.  It's about putting the screws to as many employees as possible.  And it's about sucking up to whoever has the money, and if that means encouraging something like the United States - that might block such aspirations - to die, so be it. 

One big claim made by defenders of Capitalism and the purity of the free market is that government is inefficient, and the market is all about success and profit, and therefore efficient. Perhaps in some age of bygone days age that boasted residue from that Protestant Work Ethic, that was true.  But I've worked in large, multi-billion dollar corporations, and I've dealt with such corporations, and I can assure you that today there is little difference between government and private sector where efficiency is concerned.  And if outcome is the decider, tell me when the last time that American industry and innovation was the envy of the world.  Given what I've experienced in dealing with these companies, I have a hard time believing it's all the government's fault. 

Personally, after watching things for years, I wouldn't mind seeing more vast, corporate interests go the way of the Sears-like dinosaurs.  I'm more and more convinced that the great multi-zillion dollar global interests are as antithetical to a competitive market as any intrusive government interest.  In fact, the two often seem impossible to distinguish. 

Of course there is little I can do about my own problem.  I either suck on it and wait until we get a replacement or I bite the bullet and buy the appliances from another retailer, assuming any other cares more than Sears.  Such is the problem in the modern retail marketplace.  Ages ago, I would go down to the shop and confront the craftsman or merchant face to face.  Today, I speak to someone somewhere out in the world who apparently isn't the least bit interested in helping because she has nothing to lose by merely echoing her employer's own apathy regarding its customers.  Costumers who, it seems, are best for the bottom line when they are reduced to as low as you can go. 

Thus, the legacy of Capitalism:

Really, when was the last time you pulled up to a service station and had an army of workers jump out and clean, service and check your car while they put gas in the tank?  And have gas prices gone down with the shaving away of such services?  Since Wall Street and Corporate America have joined to destroy the American experiment, its freedoms and liberties, and are openly making war on the Church and its teachings, the clinging to the marketplace and the high ideals of Capitalism as the path to salvation is one that will challenge the most credulous of us, if you think on it.