Customer service sucks at Sears, AT&T and I am sad to say...Apple

And I forgot to add the products of Maytag suck too.

All that said, here's the last two day of bad product and service for us.

Let's start with my sad and unhappy experience with Apple and AT&T. Then we can move on to Maytag and Sears.

As both of my readers know, both Kathleen (one of my readers--Hi Honey!) and I bought new iPhone 4s. And we passed our current iPhones down to friends and family. Josh got my 3Gs and Kathleen's original iPhone went to Bob and Judy (so Mason could play with the Star Wars sounds. Josh gave me back my original iPhone so I could turn it into an iPhone touch for Brian and Michelle.

So, I hooked up Josh's phone to my Mac and attempted to erase and restore it. I got to a point where it asked me to activate the phone and put in my phone number. Well, I didn't want to put in my current phone number because at that point I thought it would do something to my current phone. So when I was out Friday morning running errands I stopped in at the nearby AT&T store to ask them about it. The guy I talked to said there would be "no problem. Just give them your current number and because this phone has been deactivated it will just activate this but not switch it on.

So (being a believing soul) I went home and did that. Not only did the old iPhone not work after I did it, but my new iPhone 4 stopped working. Or at least my 3G data did. Could not get any data at all unless I was on a WiFi network. Ticked me off.

Got my iPhone 4 fixed this morning (Saturday) by going back to the AT&T store, to the same guy, who was amazed at what he had caused. After checking their records it showed that I had an international data plan (because we spend a little time in Canada on a regular basis) but no domestic data plan. It seems that when I put in my phone number it killed my domestic data plan. Fun stuff. That's fixed. Only an hour out of my life.

Now back to the old iPhone. Called Apple to see what to do to turn it into an iPhone. First guy I called said, "It's not possible. Can't do it." So after he hangs up on me, I do a search on the web and after a while of looking I find an Apple tech support document that tells you not only that it is possible, but how to do it. Great! Only problem is, the first thing it says to do is to activate the phone!!! What the hell?

So I call Apple again, refer the tech guy I get to the Apple document I found and he reads it and says (first), "This is AT&T's problem." Then he tells me that "I might be able to help" but that because I am calling about an older iPhone he will have to charge me for the support--$35. Now this is where I really get ticked off. I ask the guy to look at my Apple user acct. "How many current Macs do you see?" I ask him. Six he says. "How many iPhones on my AT&T account?" Three, he says. I said not only that, we have 4 iPods and and iPad. I have been using Macs since early 1984. He has the gall to ask me, "Do you think we should treat you differently because you have purchased quite a few of our products?" I wanted to shout, "SHIT YEAH!" Shouldn't you treat your best and longest customers with great care?

I have probably spent $100,000 with Apple over the years and anyone who knows me knows what a Mac fanboy I am. God knows with my recommendations back in the 80s I probably sold another 1,000 or so Macs into Oregon schools not mention I did a bunch of unpaid tech support for them. So I basically think this tech guy could have answered a quick question (I didn't want him to spend hours on the phone with me) for me without charging me. After all, I wouldn't have had the problem if I hadn't just bought a brand new iPhone.

So here I am on Saturday afternoon and the old iPhone doesn't work and the new one is working again. I will take it in to the Genius bar when I have time and see what they say.

Now on to the Maytag/Sears story. In early June we went shopping for a new washer and dryer. Our old ones were on their last legs. Still running, but they were energy inefficient, slow and noisy. We settled on a Maytag washer and dryer and placed the order. The dryer was on back order so we couldn't get delivery until July 23 (yesterday). So yesterday afternoon the truck pulled up right on time, they took our old ones, installed the new ones and were on their way. Before they left they made sure they were both working. When Kathleen got home she loved them. Got right to doing a couple of loads of wash and thought they worked great.

This morning she went to wash one more small load and lo and behold, the washer had died. No matter what we did, it would not run. It (still) thinks the lid is up. The lid is down. It really is. I have checked to make sure and nothing is blocking it. In fact we completely emptied the machine and it still things the lid is open.

So first I called Maytag customer service. After 30 minutes on hold, his solution was to unplug the washer and plug it back in. I had already done that but I did it again to humor him. No luck. So the guy said we would have to have it serviced. His first available date was Thursday. THURSDAY!!!??? Totally unacceptable when we had just spent $1000 on a washer, it should work.

So, I decided to call Sears where we had purchased it. Their phone system is one of the worst I have ever encountered. First you have to answer a bunch of questions to their automated voice. I never understand why you have to give them your name, account number, phone, address and all the rest of your info and then as soon as you are transferred to someone else at Sears you have to give it to them all over again It's like they are making you do it the first time to make you wait. Between the automated call answering and the multiple transfers I was on the phone for about 2 hours. I finally gave up and hung up and decided to go to Sears as soon as I had time, which was about three hours later.

When I arrived at the store I asked for the guy who had sold it to us and was told he was busy with another customer and I would have to wait. No one else acted like they were in any way interested in helping me. They were all too busy standing around and yakking with each other. So I pretended to get on the phone with Kathleen and tell her all about it. In full voice. That got two ladies from Sears really interested in helping me just to get me to shut up as others customers were listening to me tell my imaginary Kathleen all about our problem and the lousy service I had gotten and was getting.

One lady tried to help me so she called the very same place I had been trying to call from home. She had a little better luck as she got through to a human in just a couple of minutes. The repair people she was talking to wanted to know all my info AGAIN so she handed me the phone. You can believe that I talked to him in my best vocal tones. There was no one in the appliance department that could not hear the entire story of what we were going through and how lousy the service and product is.

And then the guy she had me talking to not only put me on hold but transferred me to someone else. And I had to totally repeat everything that I had just told the first guy. At the same level of volume. By now, I had driven away at least 20 customers and the sales people were in a panic to get rid of me. So one of them finally got on the phone and got me a Monday afternoon repair appointment. Still pretty ticked that a brand new washing machine doesn't work right out of the box.

All I can say is that when the guy shows up on Monday he better:

A) Be on time.

B) Have the parts he needs to fix it.

C) Be able to fix it.

If he doesn't then Monday evening I am buying a new washing machine, contesting the VISA charge for the original washing machine and telling Sears they can come here and remove this washing machine and stick it WHERE NO LIGHT SHINES.

I promise to post the results of our Monday repair visit later this week.