What's killing Sears? Its own retirees, the CEO says

[photo drum guy]

85. response to patrick O

When Lampert took control of sears , one of the first times I heard his name, was when he took away all contributions from the 6,000 service techs across the U S. Then things begin to change as a tech, We no longer were visited by vice president in charge of Home Services. We were always told get it fixed the first time what ever it takes . We want that customer back in our stores. Then routing kept changing we were no longer routed by store, it was first changed by district, then later by region, then half the country east and west, as those changes were being made we had less hands on training, less time with other techs to talk over tech problems. my last year in late 2011, I rarely saw another tech in person. Call centers were taken away from home towns and finally moved to Pakistan. When I arrived on a call the customers were so irate at sears from long waits and then not being able to understand call center people, I would spend more calming the customer down than working on the repair. No morning chat times. Less training , We were told "you are suppose to be professionals" you should know this stuff. NO training on LG or Samsung appliances but still expected to identify problems and fix them . That was at a time Sears walked away from Whirlpool ,a 70 year working relationship. Kenmores were then made by LG. (Lampert would not be able to run Kenmore like it was), No training on LG, Samsung ,GE ,Fridgidaire, or Whirlpool Gone were seminars on new equipment , and the tech magazine which was always full of Techs helping techs. I thought, Lampert does not get it, The techs are there for a reason, get that customer back to Sears If you were a sears tech, you were taught well, trained by an a seasoned tech for two months before you were out on your own. When I stared in 2005 , it was still a good place to work, by 2007 you could see things were going down hill.... Parts and repair centers were closing , no longer had uniform service, there was more emphasis on selling things rather then repairs, Couldn't run your truck for heat if you were punched out for lunch if you packed a lunch, We had a union for a little while in Denver region, lasted about a year. I was the first one to leave within 2 years, 7 more techs quit, older guys combined service of over 175 years.. All Lampert did was take , take, and take, He really should be in Jail. How can one person take so much from two companies and not be prosecuted ?