Sears Repair Service

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I wanted to replace my 23-year-old basement fridge without spending a lot. (Fridge was failing & local elec. co.'s rebate program was about to end.) Sears Outlet sells mostly dinged & scratched appliances--floor models & out-of-box returns that have been refurbished and tested. I bought my kitchen fridge from them 11 years ago, and it's still going strong. I did my preliminary research online, where you can check the local outlets' inventory, condition and specifications. I found what seemed to be the perfect top-freezer replacement fridge--same cubic feet, similar dimensions--at 39% off retail. (I did miss the one-day 50% discount several days before Black Friday while I was still doing my research, but hey.)
But I was worried about the VERY narrow clearance with my basement steps, so I went to the store, where I talked at length with a neophyte salesperson and the floor manager. We inspected the dents--nothing major--and discovered that the refrigerator door handle had been broken off, which was not mentioned in the online condition report. The manager agreed to order a replacement gratis. We all agreed that if the unit was the same size as the old one, which had made it into my basement, it would be fine, so I signed on the dotted line. We scheduled delivery for today.
The truck pulled up this morning and one of the 2 crewmen came in to look at the route, location and clearances. He pulled out his tape measure, said he'd be right back and went to measure the fridge. UH OH. It won't fit down the stairs. (Seems it's 2 inches deeper than the old one, and the specs don't include the back-panel electrical cord, a crucial difference.) He said he would alert the manager, and he was sure I'd be able to substitute a slightly smaller alternative.
 
I went back to the store this afternoon and met a different floor manager, who already knew about my problem. He said, "No problem." As long as the fridge never left the delivery truck, it wasn't delivered, and the delivery service wouldn't charge them. Wow!! I was sure I was going to be on the hook, having bought AS-IS merchandise advertised as "no returns." As it turned out, I don't even have to pay the delivery fee. I chose another, smaller fridge, which will be delivered next Tuesday, and I will pay only the cost of the smaller unit and one delivery charge.
Everyone I dealt with in this transaction has been extremely helpful, patient and pleasant. It's the right way to do business, and I highly recommend the Fenton (MO) Sears Outlet Store.
PS--Price gets a B only because identical units in other Sears Outlet cities sometimes have better prices, although interstate delivery costs much more.

We purchased a dishwasher (Kenmore 24" Built-In Dishwasher w/ PowerWave? Spray Arm) in October.  In March of this year, it began to flash a F2/E2 code and stopped the cycle.  Was not able to clear the code and the dishwasher would not work.  We called the Sears repair service center and they came the next day.  During the first visit in March, we were advised to purchase the Protection Plan, which we did (fortunately) because it's been an endless line of visits, but after the first visit, we normally have to wait a week for them to come out.  After a visit, the dishwasher may work for a week to 10 days, and then the F2/E2 appears again.  They have replaced the control panel twice now.  We just had the 7th visit (where the 2nd control panel was installed).  I was alarmed because this repairman was only there for about a half hour (normally they work for an hour).  On his way out, he said he had to go to a wedding. 



I have been told a number of different things when I demanded a replacement.  One service center employee told me they have to have five visits.  Then the repairman said you have to need replacement parts on four successive visits.

My complaint is about 2 things - my repair experience and how the Sears protection plan was misrepresented to me. I have a Kenmore washer purchased 11/28/12. The drum started wobbling so badly that it banged against the walls and the machine would walk across the floor. My appointmentt was between 7:00-11:00 but apparently that meant Eastern time because the repair man mentioned that he arrived on time at 8:00 and this was his first appointment.
He tested the machine with water and no clothes and said that machine  just needed to be recalibated. He then instructed me on the proper use of the machine and insisted that I was loading it improperly. I told him I had tried reshifting the load around repeatedly on 2 separate loads of clothes.
After he left I thought to press down on the corner and realized that it was still not level and rocked like a table with a short leg. I still had his number and called back. He came back after completing his next appt., confirmed that it needed to be leveled (I showed him where it had walked away from the wall on his first visit) and adjusted the legs and left.
I immediately started a load and the banging began as soon as it started the initial weight balancing steps. When it got to the spin cycle the banging went crazy. I called him back and he said he was out of the area and his office is closed and to call the 800 number to see if someone else is available.
I called and she said I'd have to call back in the morning because since he was out of the area, she couldn't reschedule the ticket because it was still connected to him. So the repair man either was not aware of this process or he was just wanted to blow me off. This is upsetting because I'm wondering if they are trying to wait for the manufacturer's warranty to expire.He suggested that I purchase the Sears warranty and I pointed to my other recently purchased washer that I don't use anymore. I was so unhappy with the Sears warranty and my user experience with that one that I just use it as a dryer stand. I told him that the salesman ensured me that the warranty covered everything 'end-to-end' (I even asked what it does not cover) but the repair on that one was not covered. The repair guy informed me that the Sears warranty does not kick in until the manufacturer's warranty ends. So that means consumers are purchasing extended warranties that do nothing for the first year. So, now I will either have to keep this machine under an extended protection plan because it will surely need to be recalibrated constantly because the mechanism is 'so sensitive' as he put it, or buy another machine. Well, at least I wont have to schedule an appointment for the repairs on my Samsung DVD player purchased in 2011 or my Samsumg tv purchased this year as they are broken too but they are small enough to carry in.

Trying to get ahold of people there was a problem. They said they had to deal with my return through Texas, which was not true. I finally got it returned.

They had to come out three different times within three weeks to fix my dryer. They sent three different guys, and all three had different ideas as to what was wrong. The first guy ordered parts, and it took a week to get in. The second guy came out and said the first guy had ordered the wrong parts, and they ordered more parts. The third guy came out, and he was able to finally get it fixed. They have terrible communication.  I was called, and they told me my appointment was canceled because the parts did not arrive. I then informed them the parts came in and were at my house. They came out and fixed my dryer for me. All three guys that came out were very polite.
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I use to buy appliances from them for their warranty but I have bought things out of warranty though.  One nice thing is they do just about everything for rental properties so I have a variety of things a lot of which I do purchase at Sears Outlets because of their warranty so the breadth of that I like, that is good.  Sometimes on things like the lawn related equipment the negative is that it has taken weeks for them to get out the responsiveness and that is poor.  Frequently what I don’t like about them, sometimes you tell them what the problem is then they come out that they don’t have the part for that.  So then you have to wait more weeks for the part to come.  That is the negative.  I also had for my personal use some steel that I bought there and basically they kind of acknowledged that the quality of what they sold us was not desirable thing to be used.  They acknowledged that it was not good but offered to forfeit with them to get things resolved and that we will not use them again though we used them this time even it is under extended warranty.  Specifically it was some stainless steel plate around the burners and then there is cast iron pieces that go on top that.  They have little rubber things on the bottom to keep them from scratching that.  But they come off easily and stainless steel scratches noticeably as a result of using them.  They agreed that it how it is made and that they could not do anything about that.  That is where we had a lot of hassle about that.  We also had a hassle with them in that  a grease mark down the glass window and we had great deal of difficulty with that since they said it was not covered by warranty.  Then after the fact we had contacted them with some these problems within the first year and after they came back they told us that had we contacted them within a year they would have replaced it but it is after a year so they will not be able to do it.  Frankly had they told me about that I would not even have realised.  But being upset with that would have been an understatement and this was considerable number of months ago.  Their quality varies.  With our refrigerator they were very quick to respond.  There were instances where they have said that they would be here between 10 and 2 that day and they don’t make it at all that day and you have to be at home and you have to be there waiting all day and if they don’t make it that day then they reschedule it to another day.  This is not an isolated problem and it has happened several times.  There are times when there have been no such problems either in the overall picture.  Professionally their technicians are pretty knowledgeable.  I would use them again.