Craftsman: Reps were only interested in selling a service...
A Craftsman customer review by GetHuman user GetHuman-bkos from December 1st, 2017
Background on GetHuman-bkos's case
GetHuman: GetHuman-bkos - can you tell our other Craftsman customers when your case took place?
GetHuman-bkos: Yeah. It was morning, on November 27th.
GetHuman: Did you reach out to Craftsman, and if so, how?
GetHuman: And which of these common Craftsman customer issues best describes the reason you wanted to talk to them?
(Shows GetHuman-bkos a list of common Craftsman problems)
GetHuman-bkos: "Complaint" was why I was trying to call.
GetHuman-bkos's review of Craftsman customer service
GetHuman: So how would you sum up your experience for GetHuman's Craftsman customer community? We'll censor any IDs, numbers, or codes and any inappropriate words here out of respect to the millions of other customers using this resource.
GetHuman-bkos: Reps were only interested in selling a service call they admitted was more expensive than a replacement.
GetHuman: Can you tell the rest of us a bit more from what happened on 11/27/17?
GetHuman-bkos: I don't like giving my personal information out when it's not relevant to the issue at hand. I could not find instructions to pair a remote control for my car to the garage door opener so I called craftsman looking for help. I had to go back and forth a bit with the woman who answered to reach the right department because I didn't want to give out my address. I gave her my phone number immediately though, that should be enough. I explained that it's irrelevant to have my address because, contrary to her assumption, I didn't call to make an appointment which she would have known if she heard me out before demanding my address. She finally transferred me to a man in technical support or whatever they call that department. After locating the mode number (he didn't know where to tell me to look for it after it wasn't on the outside sticker on the unit he basically just said knowing the unit was *** horsepower was good enough and wanted to move on even though they probably have several dozen *** HP units through the years and this one only had (according to him later in the conversation) * compatible remotes. So if we moved on he would have not been able to tell me what remote I needed. Anyway I found the mode number and he told me what was compatible. Two remotes. I've been using about * remotes all different than the ones he recommended, so they must have been magical because he said firmly their were the only two remotes that could possibly work with the unit. He also later acknowledged the home link in system in my car could work but probably didn't because it may be broken. Well how could it work if it's not one of those two units? Ok. I also told him that the craftsman remote I was holding would work for a day at close range and then stop. Again, a different model number and he said something about different frequencies. Knowing how frequencies work, the remote either can talk to it or not, the frequency difference wouldn't have anything to do with only connecting for a day. All of this was frustrating because it was painfully obvious that had I known nothing about the matter at hand, I was placing my trust in someone who was incompetent or unwilling to put effort into resolving the problem. His motive was as clear as the first rep though: he wanted to sell me a service plan. He asked me if he could look up the address to see if there was a service plan attached to the ** year old unit. I had never heard of a ** year service plan on a garage door opener but I told him most likely no plan was purchased. He then suggested paying for a service call. A technician would come to the house and look at the unit to see if it was dysfunctional. I already know their answer would be yes if they're anything like the support I already received but I asked how much that usually costs. He told me it's usually "at least $***-$***". Wow. To have someone look at the unit!? I don't know if that included a repair or not but I replied "that's much more expensive than a brand new unit" to which he replied "yes". A new comparable unit is available on Sears' website right now for $*** on sale, $*** normally. So even full price that unit is at least $**-$** less than repairing a ** year old unit, on sale it's easily less than half the cost of having a technician come out. Why didn't he offer that option or suggest a replacement instead of the repair that he knew was much more expensive? This has shaken a lifelong confidence in craftsman seeing that they would put little effort into helping and push an overpriced repair this hard. I can only imagine how often they take advantage of those with little to no technical or DIY knowledge.
GetHuman: Let's quantify your experience contacting Craftsman. On a scale of 1 to 5, how easy is it go get help on a Craftsman problem?
GetHuman-bkos: I'd give them a three out of five for ease of finding your way to help.
GetHuman: What about quality of communication. How would you rate that on a 1 to 5 scale?
GetHuman-bkos: I'd give them a four out of five on communication.
GetHuman: And what about Craftsman's ability to quickly and effectively address your problem?
GetHuman-bkos: For that I would say one out of five.
GetHuman: And finally- any advice for other Craftsman customers?
GetHuman-bkos: Call them early in the day or late. Don't forget any personal or account information you might need for Craftsman to know who you are.
GetHuman: Well there you have it. Some useful feedback and words from GetHuman-bkos taken from his Craftsman customer service problem that occurred on November 27th, 2017.