Sears at Valley View Mall

2. April 2008 by Matt.

Having your car worked on has to be one of the more begrudging tasks facing anyone. I knew I needed an oil change and brakes. I planned to have it done at Sears at Valley View Mall this past weekend. The main reason I chose Sears, was so I could walk the mall and do a little shopping while I waited.

We arrived at the mall around 2-3 PM, I suppose, and immediately dropped off the car. The drop-off process took roughly 15 minutes while I had to review and be offered everything under the sun for my car. You never know, one might need spinning hubs or whatever. (Just kidding on this - he really didn’t offer me that.) I was only interested in doing the brakes and the oil change. So, we were shopping and got a call from the attending cashier at Sears. He wanted to let me know that one of my front strut plates was broken and needs to be replaced. I asked him how much that would be and that caused an additional “evaluation” to take place before I could be given that information. Oddly, everything they do outside of an oil change requires an “evaluation”. I agreed to the evaluation.

Here is where you’re going to laugh. Seven o’clock rolls around and I haven’t heard anything from them. Finally, we get a call, but I miss it, so back up to Sears to find out what is happening. Once I arrive back at Sears, the attending told me he tried to call, which I was already aware and a moot point, but nonetheless, I was there and looking for answers. He told me they didn’t have the brakes in stock, but could probably obtain them from one of their vendors. He said he does have the struts, however. Since so much time has passed from when we brought in the car, the oil change and the “evaluations” from hell, we decided not to endure more waiting and to defer the remaining repairs until Sunday.

The expectation was to have the brakes and the front two struts replaced on Sunday. The plan was for me to take the car to Sears directly after church and wait for Cara to come pick me up. We estimated about an hour wait for me from the time I dropped off the car to the time she was able to arrive. She arrived pretty much right about an hour later and we came back to the house to wait. I haven’t told you yet, but they gave me an estimate of 4.5 hours or 5 to be on the safe side.

Looking to be smart about the work being performed, I also had him remove some strange add-on that would extend my brake warranty. It’s important to understand, I’ve had this car since 1999 and this is the first time I am replacing my brakes - the add-on would have extended my warranty to 5 years. What’s the point, though? I’ve had the car for at least 8 years, so no matter how you slice it, I have a 3 year advantage over the warranty. And why pay more money for something that will not provide any benefit? I think this is sort of like an EKG - they’re not much good AFTER they are run.

Now ensues the wait. Directly after leaving Sears, we went to Starbuck’s for a coffee treat and moved on to our next item on the itinerary - minor shopping at the Fresh Market located at Towers Shopping Centre. After picking up a few things there, we drove back to the house to wait for Sears and begin our home routine. Not that we really have a routine, per se, but mostly just to relax and refresh ourselves. The time is roughly 3:30 PM now and I’m playing a game on Xbox Live - No, I’m not a gen-Y’er. Surprised?

As I recall, I receive one call from Sears around 4 PM, which I missed due to being my basement where the signal is poor (I think it rang twice and went to voice mail). I call them back immediately and they tell me they are not able to get the strut parts in today and they may need to get them from the dealership. I said that is fine and to go ahead with the brakes. I didn’t ask how much longer it would be, but I do call them back around 6:30 PM, since i haven’t heard anything else from them. When I call back, they tell me it will be about 30 more minutes. We plan, then, to go back to Sears to pick up the car.

We arrive back at Sears around 7:15 PM. The attending has to go out to the repair bay to ask the mechanic how much longer it will be. The mechanic informs the attending cashier it will be just a “few more minutes”. When we walk out to the bay, the mechanic is working on an adjacent car and mine is still on the lift with all the tires on the floor beneath it. I figure with the air-powered lug tool he would have the tires back on in about 15 minutes or so, but not much more, since that’s all that needed to be done. I proceed to the waiting room to wait it out. Five minutes pass, then ten. I look out into the repair bay to see my car looking exactly how it did when I arrived, while he is still working on the other car. I go back to the cashier to ask him how much longer it will be and drop a few sarcastic remarks about how much I would love to hang out there with him, but I have things to do. He goes back to the repair bay and talks with the mechanic again. I continue to wait.

Well, as you might have expected, I endure and the mechanic is focused long enough to reattach my tires. My final ticket has a time of 8 PM exactly on it. You do the math. Wait! I’ll do it for you! My car was at Sears on March 29th from 3:30 PM to around 7:30 PM, that’s 4 hours. Then again on Sunday, March 30th, from 1 PM to 8 PM, that’s 7 hours. The bottom-line is, it took Sears at Valley View Mall 11 hours to perform an oil change and replace my brakes. I’m glad I wasn’t paying them by the hour! I know this, Sears is losing business - they’d have to be! There’s no efficiency to performing these few tasks in 11 hours - none whatsoever. It appears Sears is in desperate need of corporate review. I should send them a bill for *my* time. Though, that would only be appropriate if I were a Gen-Y kind of guy.

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