Call-Centre Government: For the Rule of Law, Press #

I Introduction: 'Welcome to the Sears Customer Service Desk'

One morning in the fall of 2003, I dropped in to our family chalet in the Laurentians on my way to a conference at Mont Tremblant. As the nights had been increasingly cool, I turned on the furnace, so as to warm up the chalet for my return that evening. Unexpectedly, the furnace failed. So I called the 'no-heat' number on our service contract. To my chagrin, I discovered that it was that very weekend that the service agreement had been assigned from Esso, which supplied me with fuel oil and with which I had initially contracted, to Sears. Armed with a new number, I called for assistance and was routed through a call centre in Waterloo, Ontario.

Unlike the situation that had prevailed under the Esso contract, where the 'no-heat' number was answered by a regional dispatcher in Montreal, I found myself shunted through the Sears national call centre 300 miles away. More than this, whereas negotiating the keypad matrix for the Esso plan was relatively simple – you were calling either for fuel delivery or for emergency no-heat service – the Sears system was noticeably less so. When I phoned Sears, the menu of options included furniture, appliances, home decorating, furnace and air conditioner sales, regular maintenance, credit card problems, and emergency no-heat service.

Even more insulting, given that this was the first weekend of the transfer and also the first really cold October Friday (which probably meant that half the chalets in Quebec were calling for no heat), the process was agonizingly slow. I spent more than twenty-five minutes trying to get through to a live person once I had pushed buttons for five series of menus to locate what I was looking for. Need I add that these menus had not been properly adjusted after the transfer of the Esso service contracts? As a result, it proved well-nigh impossible to determine how Sears characterized the particular service I was trying to contact.

After many false starts, I was finally able to arrange a service appointment, which I asked not to occur before 5:00 that afternoon. Upon my return to the chalet at 5:15, I found the inside temperature to be just 4%C. I held out until 6:00 P.M. before calling for service again. Four more times I called that evening, never getting past a pleasant but monotone voice that assured me I was being looked after and promising me service before midnight. At 6:30 the following morning, half frozen, I called again to inquire and was told that it was a busy night and no one could predict when a service person would be available. I indicated that I had to be in Montreal for 10:00 A.M. and would have to leave the chalet by 9:00. At 8:45 I phoned again to learn the status of my request, to be told that no information was available.

When I returned to Montreal and was free to call Sears again, I was informed that a service van had been there at 5:00 P.M. the day before and again at 9:15 that very morning. Of course, I was also told that the problem was really my own fault, since I wasn't there when the furnace repairmen came by, and that the customer service complaints office was closed until Monday. After six more phone calls over the next four working days I was finally able to arrange for service – never once speaking to anyone other than a 'passive-aggressive' monotone interlocutor (I tried to keep count and think I spoke to four different monotones).

Never did I receive a call back from a supervisor, from the customer service representative, from any person connected to Sears, or from the local sub-contractor. Never...