Careful of Your Allies

Anyone reading this or any of my facebook entries of late would know that my garage door opener has been the bane of my existence and I've blamed Sears for my heartburn. I have to make an amendment. After stewing about my situation and a little goding from my husband, I called Customer Service and complained. She filed a complaint and said someone would get back to me. They didn't. I called again and was referred to a different number. Ready to get frustrated, I came across a man named Steven. I explained my frustrations and he told me not to worry, Sears would make it right. "Sure" thought I. "I'll believe it when I see it." He ran some numbers and told me that he was authorized to make it right to the tune of up to $150 for labor and $100 for parts. WOW. That means all told, instead of $244, I only have to pay $45. Believe it or not, the math does really work. Parts were more expensive than $100 and labor was less expensive than $150. Regardless, Sears restored my faith in them as a company.

However, if anyone from Sears is reading this, and anyone else running a business in these tough economic times is interested in keeping customers, please take this warning. Be careful who you ally with when they are promoting your brand. Your brand is you. Perception of your brand is reality. A&E is the name of the company performing the repairs on my garage door opener, but in my mind, it was Sears. Yes, Sears came through and made me happy. ( I think...the part hasn't arrived yet) BUT if Sears was a little more careful with the stewards of their brand, they never would have had an unhappy customer in the first place. Don't let anyone sully the good name of your brand. You've worked hard to make it solid and trustworthy.

On the other hand, Precision Garage doors came out to fix the cords on my door. The cords were damaged when we manually raised and lowered the door. Related to the lightening - not exactly, but it's a secondary problem. If the door was working, we wouldn't have been raising and lowering it manually and probably wouldn't have messed up the cords. Either way, the tech came out in a 2-hour time period, told me what was wrong. Told me how much it was going to cost, repaired it and charged me for what it he said it was going to cost. Way to go Precision. Do what you say you are going to do and you'll have a loyal customer.