My Letter To Sears

To Whom It May Concern:

This afternoon I went to purchase a pair of slippers for my mother at your store in Sudbury, Ontario. When I entered the shoe department, a sales clerk asked me if she could help me, and I told her what I needed: a pair of slippers that was stretchy across the bridge of the foot. She told me the pair I was looking at was somewhat stretchy, and then left. She did not come back. I continued to look around at the wall of slippers. I finally found a white pair that was suitable in size and they were adjustable across the top so that was a bonus. My mother is in the hospital and her feet are very swollen so her normal sized slippers won't do. [**note to my blog readers: My mom went into the hospital yesterday because the skin on her lower legs is infected and blistered. She'll be there for three days or so while they load her up with antibiotics and try to heal them up.**] I took them to the register and asked the three clerks standing there if these came in a different colour. One of them said she would go check. The second one took the pair I had and started ringing me in. The third one said "There's nothing in the back, what's out there is what we have." The clerk ringing me in (named Rhi-Ellen but I may have spelled that wrong) told me the total and I paid with my debit card. Then the first clerk came back with a navy blue pair, which I preferred. I told them I would like to take the blue pair. Rhi-Ellen said she couldn't just give me the blue pair, she would have to do a return on the white ones first. She asked me for my phone number which I gave, and then continued to ask me my name and address and postal code. I asked why I needed to provide all that, and mentioned I would rather not divulge my personal information. She said she needed it to get into her computer to process the exchange. I said again I didn't want to give out my information. She insisted three times that I give her the info. So I said my name was Jane Doe and I lived at 123 Main Street. She was snarky and told me I wouldn't know the postal code for that made-up address. I told her P3C 4J1. Then she told me the computer knew that postal code didn't exist. I told her I didn't know what she wanted me to do about that. I got fed up and finally told her my real address and postal code, even though I saw no reason why I had to. I asked her why she had rung me up when she knew there was a possibility I wasn't getting those slippers. She told me that it was my fault for okaying the transaction. After she entered my information into the computer, she encountered more computer problems and was not able to complete the transactions quickly. She ended up not even using my information, but putting her own in. I knew this because she had to get another sales clerk to co-sign the return slip since she put her own signature on it. Then she left before ringing in the new transaction for the blue slippers. Another clerk came over to ring me in.

My questions are these: 1) Why ask a customer if they need help if you're not going to actually help them? 2) Why isn't there a dummy account or other such thing to accommodate customers who do not wish to divulge their personal information? Especially on returns that were the clerk's fault and not the customer's. 3) Is there no quality of service standard with Sears Canada? No way to check that your sales clerks are being as helpful and positive as they can be?

I found the clerk at the register to be rude and argumentative. She blamed me for her mistake of ringing me in before I had the item I wanted. I clearly came to the counter asking about the alternate item, way BEFORE she rung me in, even tho she tried to tell me it was after. Trying to blame me for her mistake was not appreciated. Being asked three times for personal information that I did not want to give out was not appreciated. Her attitude towards me trying to keep my right to privacy was not appreciated.

I will not put up with abysmal customer service (customer disservice was more like it) and without suitable apology, I will be very reticent to shop at Sears again.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Huss