Still can't post any new photos since Kodak is now insisting that I talk to them in an attempt to get my computer communicating with my printer and camera and I get really poor cellular reception in this cabin, especially here at the kitchen table where I have my computer, so, I'm not sure a phone conversation with Praneeth Krovi is the answer under the circumstances, but I'm putting the entire issue aside until I get the table safely ensconced in the cabin. I did note last week that the price of Kodak stock had fallen so low, the NYSE was threatening their removal. I think Kodak was considered a Blue Chip stock at one time.
In the meantime, while I'm waiting for my boots to warm up so I can go out and shovel snow so someone doesn't slip and break a leg getting the table from the truck to the cabin, I thought I'd tell you about another ongoing issue getting customer satisfaction from another company in decline, Sears. This is related to some faulty automotive repairs their Longmont, Colorado, repair center "provided" last fall. That store, by the way, is one of the Sears stores that's being closed. I don't know whether the quality of their automotive services was a factor. Here's the letter I sent to the CEO of the Sears Holding Company last fall:
October 27, 2011Mr. Lou D'Ambrosio, CEOSears Holding Corporation3333 Beverly RoadHoffman Estates, IL 60179Dear Mr. D'Ambrosio:Just in time for Halloween I am writing to relay a Sears horror story and to ask you to make things right.This past Monday, October 24, 2011, was an unusually beautiful and warm day even at 9,000 feet in the Rockies. However, the forecast was for a major blizzard on Tuesday night, so I decided to drive down out of the mountains the 60 miles or so to the Sears in Longmont, Colorado, where I had purchased four snow tires late last November, and have those tires put back on my car. I would also get an oil change and a new air filter and I had noted I had a headlight out and wanted that addressed and asked that the technician try to determine what might be causing my car to start overheating when I idled for any length at stoplights in Boulder. There are no stoplights in Nederland or the old mining town of Eldora where I am living in my retirement in a one-room un-insulated cabin with no running water that my father built in 1939.The first thing that happened in this saga was that I was told two of the four snow tires I had purchased last November and on which I had driven for six months before having my "summer" tires put back on at the same Sears store, were so badly worn they could not "legally" be put back on, and, strangely, two of the "summer" tires still on my car were worn in the same way, and the wear indicated it was caused by over-inflation. Both sets of tires had been installed and inflated by a technician at this Sears automotive center and I had never added air. Could I leave the two good "summer" tires on and have the two good snow tires put on the front? No. That also would be "illegal." I would have to buy two new snow tires. With a storm brewing and a very treacherous mountain road to navigate back to my cabin, I couldn't argue if I wanted snow tires, so I agreed to the purchase and to pay the recycling fee on the two snow tires and the two "summer" tires on which I was told the tread was deficient. They would order the necessary bulbs for the headlight and call me when they determined what was causing the overheating. I went to breakfast and got a call indicating the technician had determined my power steering pump was leaking and needed to be replaced and that would be another $352. Obviously can't have power steering going out on mountain road. I agree to the repair. What about the overheating? Oh. You need a new thermostat. OK. I agree to that, which seemed reasonable.I do some shopping, return to Sears. Technician, one of two on duty with the first major storm of the season on its way, says he's about half finished. Then 8 p.m. perhaps? Oh, shouldn't be that long. Prowl the mall, which is basically empty of stores. Find something to eat for supper. Return, eat, read, watch T.V. Finally, about 8:30 p.m., the technician comes in with the print-out of my existing alignment. Not bad. No way it could have been responsible for the wear on the tires. Do I want the alignment corrections made? Yes. Shortly he returns. Do I really need the print-out showing that he's done the alignment at a cost of $79.99? Because the computer has crashed...again...and he'll have to start over if I want proof. This had happened three times to one customer the day before and she was really angry. I'm exhausted. He's exhausted. I'll forego the proof.So, around 9 p.m. I'm told the car is ready. I put the $1,014.15 repair bill on my Sears card and depart, appalled at the cost but reassured my car is set for winter. Drive south past Niwot, through Boulder, get about halfway up Boulder Canyon and note that the heat gauge is climbing. Pull over. Gauge tops out and car explodes in a cloud of steam and smoke. Open the hood. Too dark to really see what's going on, but smoke and steam keep boiling out. Get cell phone. Try to call AAA. No service, with canyons rearing up on both sides. Pitch black. The few cars heading up the canyon at that hour just want to get home. Flag down a car. Luck out. It's the chef from one of the restaurants in Nederland coming back from a job interview in Denver. He not only drives me back to Nederland, where he lives, but on to my cabin in Eldora before returning to Nederland to celebrate with his wife what he's pretty sure is a new job at a new up-scale restaurant in Denver.I sleep fitfully, worried about my little car left beside the road. Get up at 5 a.m. Get wood stove going. Heat water to clean up and make coffee. Call AAA. Yes, they will allow the tow truck driver to pick me up at my cabin and take me back to my car where we will hook it up and tow it back to Sears in Longmont. Tow truck driver goes to bat for me and tells young man on duty at the maintenance center that Sears should pick up the cost of the tow. Call in store manager who agrees. Technician orders new radiator cap and all agree Sears will pay for the radiator cap (an approximate $15 part) as well. A few minutes later, technician returns and says radiator has burst and must be replaced. He is the only technician on duty.Go to McDonald's for breakfast. Return. Read, watch T.V. About 4 p.m. am told car has been repaired and I leave. Get about six miles down the road and car starts over-heating. I can hear it boiling. I limp back to Sears, stopping about every quarter of a mile to allow boiling to cease. Technician is at supper. I go to supper. Get a call. Technician has called several other Sears automotive centers and Toyota and no one knows what the problem is. Must take it to a specialty shop to have diagnostics run. Call one such center recommended. They think the car has blown a head gasket, but they can't run diagnostics until the next day. Find a nearby Holiday Inn Express and get a senior "discount" rate of $80.00. Decide in the night, with the snowing falling at a rapid rate, to have car towed back to Nederland where the tow truck driver said the garage that works on imports is good and honest.Wait until morning. Call AAA. Me again. Need a tow back to Nederland. Storm had left 11 inches of snow in Longmont and possibly more in the mountains. Tow truck came.Had to stop enroute up the canyon and put on chains. Made it to Peak to Peak Imports whose owner gave me a ride back to my cabin. An hour later, get a call. Car is fixed. Sears tech had installed the wrong radiator cap. However, the second lot of antifreeze that Sears had installed had boiled away so that had to be replaced. Another $128.83.Woke up this morning and realized that in all of the kaffuffle, my two remaining good "summer" tires had never made it back into my car as requested. I called and was told tires had not yet been recycled and tech would go through the tires and find my two good tires. After four hours of waiting, call again and manager says he never relayed the task to the tech, but he will find the tires. Calls back shortly and says they have been located and are in the office ready for pick-up. Hopefully, this part of the saga actually comes to pass when I make the 120-mile round trip to pick them up.In order to be even close to being a satisfied customer, I want to be reimbursed for the cost of the tow back to Nederland from Longmont yesterday, which came off my AAA quota and will not be available to me this winter should I need it (you can use the cost of the tow the previous day for which the driver provided a receipt $193.00, which is actually less mileage than the subsequent tow); the cost of my room at the Holiday Inn Express ($88.14 with tax) and evening meal ($9.39) Tuesday night; and the cost of the radiator cap and antifreeze replacement undertaken by Peak to Peak Imports in Nederland which fixed the problem caused by the installation of the incorrect radiator cap ($128.83). That's a total of $419.62.I won't even go into why, all of a sudden, after the initial work was done by Sears, my car radiator exploded or whether I was being given a song and dance about the four tires being inadequate for installation (both tow truck drivers and Peak to Peak say I was) or whether the power steering actually needed repairing.I await my check.Sincerely,Teddee Grace
Subsequently, the car over-heated again coming up the canyon and my local mechanic replaced the thermostat installed at Sears with an authentic Toyota thermostat and gave me the the one installed by Sears. The gasket was so loose that it seemed apparent to me this could have caused it to be inefficient, if not defective. I then asked to be further reimbursed for the cost of replacing the thermostat. I think we're over $500 at this point.
Now, Sears Customer Service has turned the matter over to Sedgwick, its claims office, and Paul Bernardy at Sedgwick is giving me the runaround. I think his last admonishment was that I should have kept all of the defective parts Sears installed and he refuses to communicate via e-mail even though I've explained about the poor phone reception here in the mountains. If this goes on much longer, I'm contacting the T.V. stations in both Chicago and Denver. I don't go down easy.
Have you ever battled a company over a customer service issue? Did you prevail? Teddee
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