Sears Heating & Cooling - East Texas
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 46% | ||
| 23% | ||
| 8% | ||
| 8% | ||
| 15% |
SEARS did not repond to our calls and no one at Sears really cared, that is until I told them to remove the unit and refund my money. Than someone from Sears came out, and than they decided to send out another sub contactor, he was great, he figured out our problem and replaced the coil, (it had a defect in manufacturing) once the coil was replaced the unit worked properly! I will not hire SEARS for anything ever again.
After signing the contract, we requested additional information in writing for the various promised pieces, including financing and warranty information. As we had a five day period to cancel the contract, we wanted to get this information ASAP. The opportunity to cancel the contract passed, but we made the mistake of trusting what we were told and proceeded.
The installation crew, who was contracted to provide the service by Sears, arrived on time and completed installation of most parts within a reasonable time frame. Some components (e.g. media filter) were left off the order, so they were not installed during the first date. Since our old AC died between signing the contract and installation, we had them install the pieces that had arrived and were promised to have the rest done later. (I had no issues with the installation crew, who were not Sears employees but outside contractors)
I contacted Duane regarding the discrepancies between what we were told during the consultation and what was actually done, as well as requesting (again) written copies of the warranty and financing. He was out of the office dealing with a personal emergency (understandable), but his projects were not handed off to another consultant, leaving us without any way to get answers and move forward. Once I contacted additional staff listed on the information sheet with my concerns, they were referred back to Duane. If we did get a reply, it was brief and incomplete, referring us to other departments. Our “single point of contact” couldn’t address our concerns, and has been unable to put us in touch with anyone who can address our issues.
This has been an incredibly frustrating experience, as I felt I was mislead and lied to about the true price of the system and contents of the warranty. When an error was discovered and pointed out to Sears, no one was/is willing to step up and find a solution, but keep passing the blame to other departments. It has been three weeks since the initial consultation and two weeks since installation, and we are yet to receive satisfactory answers to our concerns. We had hoped that escalation of the issues above the project consultant would yield results without luck. They were very fast and responsive until I signed the contract, and have since been impossible to get a hold of with answers/solutions to raised issues. I am still awaiting installation of the missing components (which are included in our bill).
Summary of Issues:
- We are still awaiting an appointment to complete the installation. The system is functional, but is not everything we paid for.
- We were promised a total of $950 in rebates. Carrier is only willing to recognize $250 of these, increasing the cost of the system by $700.
- The warranty covers significantly less than was promised during the initial consultation. We finally received a copy in the mail 10 days after installation, and realized the gap between what was promised vs. delivered. Either the project consultant was misinformed (and passed along the information anyway) or was misleading about the facts.
While I have used Sears many times in the past for purchasing tools and appliances, this experience has ensured I will not give them any business in the future, and has reinforced the importance of getting EVERYTHING in writing before committing a signature.
It was absolutely a disaster. It was a horrible, horrible experience. We finally had to take out the air conditioner and heater they installed and get a brand new system. They wouldn't do anything about it. They kept putting parts in it and it kept breaking. We went for months without any air conditioning in the hot summer. They had untrained employees. The machine actually blew up and they should have replaced it but they kept sending more people. They also sold us an undersized air conditioner. It was a 4 1/2 ton and it should have been 5 ton. My electric bill has gone down a fair amount since I got a new air conditioner because the Sears air conditioner ran constantly. They replaced the compressor at least 3 times. They put in motherboards and totally rebuilt the air conditioner several times. They kept trying to fix the air conditioner instead of replacing it. Sometimes it would take a month to get the parts to try to fix it. The employees didn't know how to fix it. When the first guy came out, black smoke came out of the air conditioner. They would come and fix it and then within 2 hours it had stopped working. They don't come on weekends and it would take 2 or 3 days for them to give us another appointment. Some of the technicians were really nice and some were very surly. Actually one of the technicians told us to ask for a new system since he was one of the people who had been working on the system from the beginning.
We tried to contact various levels of management in Sears but were rebuffed at all levels. The people who would answer the phone would give us some sort of excuse (e.g., the system has not broken down enough). We did reach the Houston District Service Manager who continued to give us the runaround. Tired of this foolishness, I asked the man to refund my $18,000. He said he could not authorize that but he would talk to his manager in Florida and that person would get back to us in a day or two. One year later, we have not heard from any one at Sears regarding my refund.
For years we bought all our appliances and tools from Sears. Now we would not recommend Sears or their products.
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