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Sears Stinks
SEARS SELLS GARBAGE
To: madwand@madwand.org
Subject: SEARS: Is this really service??
From: Nls3rd@aol.com
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 10:58:42 EST
Beware:
Anybody who is considering purchasing something from Sears
- you know, the company who says "Sears, where else?"
- the company who claims "customer satisfaction guaranteed or you money back."
On April 4, 2002 my husband and I bought a high efficiency furnace from Sears,
as well as a service contract. We also ordered an extension to one of the
baseboard units, and Sears set up installation with their subcontractor for May
30, 2002. Between the subcontractor not showing up and canceling at the last
minute, and failing to return my calls, and several calls by me to Sears, the
subcontractor did finally show up on June 25, 2002, but did not have the correct
parts for the baseboard extension that we ordered. After several attempts to
call, and the subcontractor not returning my calls, and several calls by me to
Sears, I finally got an appointment for the subcontractor to install the
baseboard extension in August 2002. They installed the baseboard extension, but
failed to install one of the connectors for the baseboard cover. I called the
subcontractor the same day they were here in August, and they said they would
mail me the part. Again, after several attempts to call, and the subcontractor
not returning my calls, and several calls by me to Sears, I finally received the
cover connector at the end of September (more than 5 months after we purchased
the furnace and baseboard extension from Sears).
At the end of January 2003 our heat in the zone for the bedrooms stopped
working, and I called Sears. They said that the furnace was under warranty
within the first year with the subcontractor, but that the original
subcontractor had gone out of business. They said they would find out who was
taking over for them, and call me back. After several calls by me to Sears, and
unsuccessful attempts to reach our salesperson, I called the salesperson's voice
mail again and left a message that if somebody did not come to resolve the
problem with our heat that day that I wanted them to come and uninstall the
furnace and I wanted my money back, since I would not be satisfied ("customer
satisfaction guaranteed or your money back"). They did send somebody that day,
and the technician told me that the pipes were frozen and there was nothing they
could do. The technician told me that I had to have the heat on all the time in
order to prevent this (so much for the high efficiency furnace). The pipes
eventually thawed out, and we were lucky they did not burst, as they are all
enclosed in a finished ceiling. I did not have a problem for the rest of the
winter, as I had kept the window open to keep the heat on all the time.
This year on January 14, 2004 the heat for the bedroom zone stopped working
again because the pipes were frozen again, despite the window being open to keep
the heat on. I called Sears, and they said they would send a technician. The
technician called me on Friday January 16th, and told me there was nothing he
could do, and did not come. January 19, 2004 the pipes thawed out again, and
luckily still did not burst. Early morning January 20, 2004 all of the heat in
the entire house stopped working. I called Sears again. I told them I had no
heat in the entire house, and it was 7 degrees outside. They said they would
send a technician on Friday January 23, 2004 to inspect the problem, which was 4
days away. I told them I had 4 children, and couldn't wait until Friday to have
heat because it was 7 degrees outside. Sears said they would try to get somebody
out to my house sooner, and in the meantime, and they said if it was within my
means they would suggest I get a hotel until then (at my own expense of course).
I then spoke to a supervisor, and I told her the story, and that I just got the
pipes thawed out on Monday, and if I left them without hot water they would
freeze again, and perhaps burst all over my house. The supervisor referred me to
my home owner's insurance. I asked the supervisor if I could have somebody else
come and repair the problem because I could have somebody else here within the
hour, and the supervisor said if I had anybody
else work on the furnace then that would void my warranty with Sears. I called
my salesperson, and found out that he had not had that cell phone number for
over 6 months, and Sears said they were not allowed to give out his new cell
phone number. I called Sears again and asked for the salesperson's voice mail,
and left a message asking him to call me. He did not call me back. I called
Sears again and said "Doesn't Sears have a 'satisfaction guaranteed, or your
money back' policy?" Sears said "Yes." I said "I want my money back, I'm not
satisfied." Sears said "I doubt you will get your money back for the furnace,
you purchased the furnace in April of 2001. "We did not purchase this furnace in
April 2001 because we did not even purchase this house until July of 2001, and
we certainly did not purchase a furnace for a house we didn't even own." Sears
asked me to fax them a copy of the purchase agreement in order to prove that we
bought our furnace in 2002 and not 2001, and that we also purchased a 4 year
service contract, and Sears said they would call me when they received the fax,
and had the problem resolved. I sent the fax within 10 minutes, and nobody ever
called me back.
Anyway, I managed to get the heat working myself in all but one zone - the
basement. The Sears technician called the next day, and I and told him that in
my opinion I felt we needed a new circulating pump. He arrived and said we had
air in the lines that was blocking the water from circulating through the pipes,
and that is why it was not working. I explained the whole story about my
experience with Sears up until that point, to which he responded "I don't know,
you'll have to call Sears, they have all new management over there." He spent
almost 2 hours draining water out of the system to try to get the air out, and
then finally took the cover off the circulating pump and said I don't think this
thing is working, you need a new circulating pump. He then said Sears doesn't
cover this under your warranty, you'll have to call a plumber. He said he had
paper work to do out in his van, and he would be right back. 20 minutes later he
came back and said I can't give you a paper showing I was here because my
printer isn't working. I said I wanted something in writing. He said "You're in
the computer." I called our fuel supplier, and ordered a service contract with
them, and ordered antifreeze for the lines as a friend (not Sears) suggested,
and told them I needed a new circulating pump.
Later that day the heat in the whole house stopped working again. I called Sears
again, and they said they would send somebody the next day. I told them I did
not want the same technician, because it took him over 2 hours to find out
something that I already told him before he even came into the house. I told
Sears once again that if I let my pipes stay cold all night that they would
freeze, and possibly burst all over the house. Again they referred me to my home
owner's insurance; however, my insurance agent told me that home owner's
insurance would not pay for damage as a result of a problem that I knew existed,
and did not do everything within my power to fix it as quickly as possible
regardless who fixes it. However, in order to stay within the guidelines of my
home owner's insurance policy, this would void my warranty with Sears. I called
Sears again and asked them what I would have to do to find out about getting my
money back, because I was not satisfied. Sears gave me another number to call,
and then another number, and finally I was told I would have to talk to the
technician who came the next day, and ask him about how to get my money back. I
later found out that the first technician had drained so much water out of the
system that the water pressure safety valve had shut the system down. When the
pressure built back up, the system had come on again, but there was obviously
now a lot of air in the line, because whenever new water enters the system, air
comes in with it, and the pipes needed to be bled again. On January 22, 2004 I
received a call from another Service technician. He told me that since I was
having antifreeze added to the system in a few days anyway that I might as well
wait until then to get the air out of the system, since they have to flush the
lines anyway to put the antifreeze in. The technician did not come. He did tell
me that Sears discontinued emergency service last winter (Sears had changed
their policy as of last winter, and redefined emergency service to mean ‘next
day' instead of ‘same day' - this policy was redefined after we purchased the
contract).
Finally on January 22, 2004 I received a call from the previously elusive
salesperson. He said he was calling in response to my voice mail, and sorry it
took him so long to get back to me, but that he had been out of town for a few
days, and that he wasn't even in our area anymore. I explained the whole story
to him, and he said he would be giving management a call, and that somebody
would be in touch with me (we'll see).
Anyway, that is my experience with Sears. Now when Sears asks me "Sears, where
else?" - trust me, my answer is "Anyplace else but Sears."
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