Sears
reviews and complaints

I recently went to a Sears Portrait Studio which I have been going to for a number of years for portraits of my children. I have always been pleased with the staff (very nice) and the photos (good quality and creative). However, I have become concerned with their pricing and feel that they may be taking advantage of customers.

The salesperson never tells you how much each sheet of photos is. They charge different amounts for "enhancements". You don't recieve an itemized list of how much your photos are. You basically tell them which ones you want, they figure out the price then tell you that there is a "package" that is just as much and you will recieve all the photos you have selected plus something else and urge you to purchase that.

On my most recent visit I had a coupon for 20% off and a free 10x13 and for the life of me cannot figure out how they got the elevated price they got. My one year old was getting fussy as we had allready been there an hour and we needed to get out asap so I didn't have time to argue. Once home I still cannot figure out how they got to the price they quoted me. Also, I have always been a member of the Smile Saver club because it's cheaper than paying a sitting fee. For years no salesperson ever told me that I should have been getting a free 8x10 with each session and that Mon-Thurs is BOGO free. I only found out when I went online looking for coupons for my session.

Because of this I will not be returning to Sears. When you take small children there it is just too hard to keep them occupied, pick you photos on the spot and try to figure out if your getting stiffed. My hairdresser said go to JCPenny's, their quality is very good and pricing is better.

The new $1300 plus taxes Whirlpool gas stove we purchased from Sears in Ancaster, Ontario, on 09/02/26 was delivered today, 09/03/04 ($60.00 delivery charge) with the left side panel and top left edge badly dented.

A Sears representative informed us that a replacement stove could not be delivered until March 12 - eight days from now, but said we could use the stove in the interim. When asked who was going to pay for the gas fitter to hook up the damaged stove today, un-hook the stove on March 11, and then hook up the replacement stove after delivery on March 12, she wasn't sure but suggested that there might be some compensation.

I suggested that the best solution was for Sears to pick up the damaged stove by tomorrow at the latest - it's now blocking the middle of the kitchen - and that we would purchase a stove elsewhere and have it delivered way before March 12. She requested time to see what she could do and promised to get back to us by 9:00 tonight.

It’s now 9:26 p.m., and - you’ve guessed it - no phone call !

I googled “Sears Canada” while I was waiting for the call that never came. Based on the latest business reports, it would seem that Sears Canada is in serious financial trouble. If Sears treats its customers like we’ve been treated I can understand why, and unless Sears starts to treat its customers with honesty and respect, Sears financial problems are only going to get worse - much worse !

Beware of Sears appliances. If something should happen to your appliance, you are at the mercy of one of the worst set of untrained, rude and incompletent people who give you the run around, keep you on hold for hours and then hang up, give you false information, never provide a definite time that they will come to fix your problem and then cancel your appointment.

READ the fine print before you sign up for their service agreements. They outsource everything and you will be left frustrated having to deal with people who have no power to do anything customer friendly (but every right to be rude) and read from scripts. Even their dispatchers and repais folks are outsourced and they dont care if they deliver shoddy service or not.

You can be rest assured your first scheduled repair appointment will be canceled after you take time off work to be at home. When they come they have no clue what they are doing. they order wrong parts, try to blame the customer for defects in their appliances and will give you the run around for atleast 4 trips before you can get your appliance in working condition, which will be good till the next defect.

DO NOT BUY SEARS. YOU WILL REGRET IT. If you do, have a lot of painkillers and aspirins handy. You will be talking to one of the worst trained employees that will make street hawkers from Bangladesh seem more customer oriented. They talk to you as though you owe them money.

One Sears customer rep told me today, "You should not have bought the service agreement if you were expecting service from us'. I am still baffled at how any company can afford to be so customer unfriendly and shoddy in their promises in this current economic climate and still be in business. The biggest mistake I made with my appliances is to buy Sears.

My whole family went to Dayton Dental. We all needed fillings and I needed some extractions. I was told that my daughter and son needed root canals. It has been 1 year since the work has been done. All of our fillings have come out except for 2 of mine. My kids have extreme pain off and on with their root canals. Plus with their fillings coming out they are in even more pain. We went back twice when our fillings came out and to address the root canal pain and the fillings fell out again and they are still having root canal pain. It is not cheap to go to the dentist but to keep having to go back because they don't know what the heck they are doing is ridiculous. We will never go back there again!

To Whom It May Concern

After numerous discussions and a costly one we finally agreed that Central Air was the right thing to do plus it would add additional value to our home. The house was originally built with Electric baseboard and we need a much more efficient way to heat and cool our home. We had grown tired of paying extremely high electric bills every winter. So we made an appointment with Sears to have a sales person come out and provide us with information about different units and what to expect. The Sears sales person Joseph Sodl came he explained that the installation would be smooth and that we were making great decision by choosing Sears that their service was the best. He also said the Installers were experts in their field and installation would be quick, only to find out later that Sears sub-contracted their work.
We were told that the unit we would be purchasing would be very efficient 14 seer with a variable speed instead of a single speed unit we were told that we would be comfortable no matter what season. He also mention that our current electric base board would not be removed and left to be use as auxiliary heat backup in the event that the system stopped working for whatever reason. We were also told that we would be able to control the thermostat remotely via the internet once we had a connection to an ISP. Another great reason to purchase the unit from Sears. We decided to go thru with the purchase. After about 4 hours with the Sears sales person we felt very comfortable and had all our questions answered. Sears we thought to ourselves was very reputable nothing can go wrong. What a mistake.
As per the Sales person we were told that the contractor would come by and survey our home prior to installation, once that was done installation would begin and wouldn’t take more 3 to 4 days at most. Ok, that sounded great. After all was said and done one week went by and we heard nothing from Sears or got any calls from the contractor. Finally we reached the project manager Anthony Rovinski whom we felt was not at all sensitive to our situation since we had left previous messages for him to have the technician give us a call. Finally the contractor Andre from “Real Technicians Heating & Cooling” called stating that he would be at the house sometime in the morning between the hours of 8 &10 am. He never showed until 12:30p and we never got a call that he was running late. He supposedly surveyed the structure within 1 hour and the only thing that he said was “the job can be done”. To us that meant that the layout was ok and there would be no hiccups throughout the installation. Were we wrong!
My fiancé scheduled the entire week off in preparation which was somewhat an inconvenience due to time of the year, but the end result we thought would be worth it having a Central Air system instead of the use of our baseboards. Now to the beginning of our downhill battle with Sears. On Day 1 the installer never showed up. We called the Project Manager who did not even apologize on Sears’s behalf, instead he said he will look into it. On Day 2 Tuesday the contractor got to the premise at 12p no apology and no explanation. They worked for about 1 hour and for the next 2 hours they were at lunch returning slightly after 3p. On top of it all they stayed at the house until 9p without even asking me if it was ok. As the customer I wanted the job done so I sucked it up. Day 3 they showed up at 10:45a claiming that they had to pick up equipment. Again they took another 2 hrs lunch while I sat there waiting. I got a break they left at 8p. Day 4 they showed up at 8:45a took another 2 hr lunch and worked until 10:20p.Day 5 same thing. Now we’re into the weekend. I suppose Day 6. One of the installer showed up at 12:30p and stayed on the phone while the head Installer (Andre) give him instructions on what to do. As he got more and more aggravated he kept saying “You should be here I cannot hear you” Andre showed up at 2:15p very nonchalant as if all was ok and I had nothing better to do.
Now we have gone through 6 days of a 3-4dy installation. By day 2 I was beyond disgust so I started recording the events. I knew we had made a wrong choice when the installer on day 3 said “I cannot provide you with a vent in your half bath and we have to place the downstairs vents in the ceiling as oppose to the floor as planned, and we will now have to get duct work in 3 of our BRs as oppose to the 1 closet”. Their explanation the closets did not line up properly. I know am not the expert but this should have been determined when they did the survey. It’s 3 days into the installation and I’m hearing this which left me with little or no choice but to continue. We did not agree with this and expressed this to the contactor but we were told that there was very little that could be done since they had to work with the already existing infrastructure of the home.
Ok, back to day 6 they checked and rechecked all day finally turning up the system. By the way the installer Andre said the only reason he did not turn up the system on Day 5 was due to my fireplace being on. This was a cop out since he could have told me not to turn on my fireplace since he will be turning up the system that day. By now I had become accustom to their unprofessional attitude. Now all was beginning to unfold our house was not heating properly the upstairs was extremely hot and the downstairs very cold. They dampen and re-dampen the vents to no avail it was not working. This was when we found out that they had taken away the electric power to some of our baseboard heaters, as I stated before we were told by the sales man the contactor had to run new wiring on a separate breaker. So our option for usage was out the window and we were in the midst of winter with a system that was not performing.
.Six days of hell and they could not get the unit working properly. Throughout all this I was making calls of complaint to the Project Manager asking him to come out. All I can say is my efforts were all in vain he NEVER bothered to show up just kept on promising to do so. Our installation was scheduled for November 10, 2008 and it was not until over a month later December 11th that we the Project Manager for the 1st time and this was only because we refused numerous times to sign off on the project. He came out with 2 of his supposedly better Technicians as he stated “ The ones he would use for most of his projects”. As a customer and being in a Service Industry myself I thought that was inappropriate because I felt like my installation was not worthy of the better Techs/contractors. Anyway they stayed at our house for hours testing everything with testing equipment that our contractor did not have or never bothered to utilize. After several hours we felt pressured into signing since they all told us that the unit is new and it was installed correctly and all is testing well so in time it will get accustom to the temperature settings of our house.
Stupidly we signed and here we’re a new year with our system not working efficiently, my electric bills higher that they have ever been in 10yrs and no one to turn to. While researching we’re finding out more and more information indicating that Sears might not have sold us the most efficient system for our area. On top of it all we were recently told that we cannot get propane delivery because we’re in code violation – the unit is too close to the propane tank something the Installers should have investigated. We called the Installer Andre at (973) 280.2931 on February 9th he said he would be by that weekend February 14th he never showed up and we never got any calls. On Feb 19th we called Sears at (800)681.7106 they said someone would call us back. We got no callback. On February 23rd we called Sears for a second time I was referred to the Quality Department at (888) 673.7881 spoke with Hector. He typed all that I said and advised that a complaint was opened and our job number (8509882) would be our Reference#. He said that he will attempt to get another Technician Michael Ashmoore out as early as tomorrow and I would be given a callback. No one from Sears has called back.
Now we’re without propane because my tank was disconnected by my propane Distributor. We have no baseboard heaters because they were disconnected so that the system could be powered. All we have is a system that’s costing us higher electric bills and the downstairs of our home remains cold. After our 2nd electric bill we called in a independent Contractor. Upon inspection of the unit we were told that the system Sears sold us would only be efficient 40 degrees or higher, anything below 40 degrees the unit would not perform efficiently. Now we live in Pennsylvania where during the winter months most of the days are below 40. Sometimes fall brings frigid temperatures as well. It’s ironic because the Sears Installer Andre said that the system sold to us was not suitable for our home. Of course he told us this after he completed the installation which again reflects how unethical these people are.
In conclusion all we want is for Sears to take responsibility and live up to their promise to customers. We want Sears to provide us with the unit their Sales person told us we would get. Energy efficient, quiet and one that evenly distributes heat and cool throughout our house. It’s unacceptable that we will be billed almost 15, 000 for a unit that is not efficient and more costly than baseboard heat which we all know is the most expensive heating. There’s no reason why the temperature between the upstairs and the downstairs is a 10 degrees difference.

Thanks in advance for your consideration

Unsatisfied Sears’s customer

I purchased a kenmore refrigerator from sears balto. Md. On august 2006. Thus far it has been working fine. I pulled the refrigerator away from the wall this week and found i have a scorch mark on the floor under where the compressor would be. The repair man that came out said don't worry about it. It won't start a fire. This has changed the color of my vinyl flooring and i'm worried that it could start a fire at some time. Have you ever had the same complaint and is this something common in this model. (#[protected]) please respond to my question. Thank you carolyn bish - - [protected]@comcast. Net

I called Sears for repair service on two garage door openers still under warranty. They scheduled appointment for Fridad 2/20/09 They made me wait all day and never showed up. When I called Sears, they apologized and explained that due to a mistake on their part, they put me down for service on that day but their system did not assign my ticket order to a Technichian. Therefore, nobody showed up. I called 5 different times that day and when asked to be transferred to a Supervisor, Reps kept dropping the call. When I finally talked to a Supervisor, he claimed that someone should still show up. When I told him that 4 other people had already told me differently, he stated that those people were mistaken that someone should still show up today. I told him I disagreed with him . He said his name was Brian, he was a supervisor in the 800 Repair center and that I was the one mistaken. I hung up and called back again. And of course, the rep on the phone told me again that nobody will be coming today.

SEARS NO LONGER CARES ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS ANYMORE!

Beware beware beware if there was a rating lower than -100, that's where this should be rated! This is the worst piece of junk available.

Purchased just two weeks ago, an auto sensor is supposed to sense the weight of the clothing and fill to the appripriate water level. It does not provide enough water to get the garments wet. Your only other option with any sears machine equipped with this auto load sensor is to raise the lid and have the washer fill to the maximum level — if that will in fact happen... It usually didn't... No water savings there. Beware here too... Once you start the cycle, if you lift the lid for any reason (Such as to add a hankie) your only fill option is to the maximum level... Something the local sales people did not know. The machine resets and weighs the water in the basket and provide water to wash the water!

The agitator captures and rips the clothing under the fins. Huge design flaw.

You must run the spin cycle 2-3 times to remove water. Even on the heavy bedding cycle, you can ring excessive amounts of water by hand out of lingerie! It would be impossible to remove water from towels! They would be soaked.

There is a loud "klunk" and shutter every time the cycles change. Sounds like something is trying to break apart.

While you can select water temperature, the machine does not mix warm water... Your clothing is subjected to alternating hot and cold water being dumped in... Great for delicate/knits.
All sears and whirlpool models do this, but the salespeople don't know that either. Check the manual, bottom of page 4.

The matching 800 series dryer is equally terrible. It takes three cycles to dry one light weight knit top. The auto moisture sensor goes on and off... As a result the heat goes on and off... While the dryer continues to operate, consuming 220v of electricity. No energy savings there. The only way we were able to dry clothing was on a very long timed cycle at the hottest cotton setting. The clothing comes out of the dryer twisted and wrinkled. Everything required ironing.

The original delivery person did not test the washer... Simply pulled out the knob to see if the water was filling and declared the washer "operational". He refused to install the dryer vent stating we had the "wrong part" for the vent kit. I installed the vent kit myself. Apparently the installer simply didn't want to be bothered.

Yesterday we arranged to have these lemons returned and purchased a more expensive set. The delivery person just left... The new washer is sitting at the front door where the delivery person left it as he would not remove the "old" washer as removal wasn't on his "work order". The new dryer door fell off during unpacking, so we refused delivery. The two week old set won't be picked up until sunday.

Sears service (Despite their overly polite 1-800-4-myhome operators) is terrible... I have low expectations for the new washer/dryer ($1800 on sale!).
The government has mandated a 21% increase in energy efficiency... No energy savings here... Only frustration.

On 10 December, Sears serviced our washing machine. After paying $70.86 for a new pump, we were charged another $141.00 (+ $11.63 tax) for labor. This labor took 20 minutes to perform, which means that you are charging us $423 per hour! You sent out a technician; not a lawyer! This is OUTRAGEOUS!

If you reduce the labor from $141.00 to $41.00, you will still be charging us $123.00 per hour for labor, which should be more than enough! I have already heard the excuse that you don�t charge by the hour; I don�t care, you charged us $141.00 for 1/3 of an hour�s work, so that is $423 per hour!

I have phoned your company several times to complain, and ask for an adjustment of at least $100 on this $223.49 bill, but all I get is attitude from your telephone reps; they say that they can not make adjustments to this bill.

The matter is very simple, at this point; either you reduce this bill to a reasonable amount, or I will no longer do any business with your company, and I will make it my mission in life to tell everyone I know about your outrageous billing practices.

Do you think that customer service like this may be part of the reason that your stock has been down as much as 86% from its high, while Walmart has only been down 26%? All of the hype that I heard about what a great manager you are is obviously a load of crap! It is my fondest hope that SHLD goes bankrupt and that you are ousted as Chairman!

Received a pair of Ked shoes for Xmas. Not what I wanted. Went to Sears to change to a different shoe. This Ked was selling for $45 on the shelf. They wanted to give me $9 and resell them for $45 because I didn't get a receipt with the gift. Not only would they be making $36 off my daughter who bought them for me, but $36 from me to buy another pair--even the same shoe but different model. This is an unfair business practice as well as totally unacceptable. What kind of integrety does this store have? I even spoke with the manager. So wrong!

I purchased a Washer/Dryer combo for a great price on 11/28/08. It was purchased at a doorbuster sale for Black Friday. As of now 2/18/09 I still have not had my washer and dryer delivered as they keep rescheduling delivery due to overselling the product. I thought products were delivered on a first-come first-serve basis but not with Sears. No information was given at the time of purchase that I would need to wait three months for delivery. The new delivery date is 3/7/09. Sears customer service is non-existent. I am currently on hold with Sears. I urge consumers to steer clear of Sears and their advertised "door-buster" sales.

Ok I have been trying to get my equifax and sears crap cleared up with my visa I had back in 2002. It shows on my equifax I still owe 1430.00 however I declared bankruptcy in 2002, was discharged in 2003 and the sears gave me a r9 which is the worst mark for credit, I have called several times and never get anyone who speaks just plain old english! I have emailed I have phoned over and over and nothing is getting done!
Then they called my house 1 time but at 530 in the damn morning! Never returned my call.
I want this cleared up nowand it aint happening and I am getting very mad!
Lisa tosoff

Sears-Kenmore Laundry Washers Suck! || Risking Life, Limb and Serious Property Damage

http://searskenmoresucks.com.sapo.pt/

Last week at the Visalia, Ca. Sears, a much-liked manager named Shelley Jackson was fired for a contrived reason (they told her they were eliminating her position entirely); the real reason that she was let go is because she looks too old. Sears has an ongoing problem with age discrimination, and the Visalia Sears is a classic example of this.

Shelley was replaced with a 27-year-old who is in way over her head. She's a nice person, but she is not ready for a position that is as wide-ranging as the one that Shelley handled so well.

Run for the hills before you purchase a maintenance agreement with sears!

Contacted sears and purchased offered maintenance agreement on my maytag dryer.

Requested service 2/05/09 serviceman arrived promptly a day later with no parts for my dryer on truck. Evaluated the dryer and was told that I needed a moteor but did not have any (Or ever did) on truck. This was after I gave to model, serial number to service & told them it was already looked at & needed to orer part (Duh!) told they would order the parts and schedule return date but over a week later.

Now the technician proceeds to tell me he doesn't carry any of those parts on the truck & I would need to take off another day of work & wait the 1-2 weeks to have it repaired! Then of course I have to listen about his "knowing it all" about what he does, & I could call & cancel if I wnted to. That plus a whole lot more of policy, etc... Failing to tell me I still have to wait a day to cancel! Noiw I get on the phone to 4 different people & yes have to tell my story 4 different times (So who is really mad now!) & get no better service than I am an executive, call another number to file a complaint, the part takes weeks to get in (No stock on hand?) we did the best we can do! Our technicians can't carry all on truck? Well, wasn't the tech told it needed a new motor, given serial & model numbers & oh yeah! This dryer has been worked on before, didin't they have record (Was told info was misplaced (Yeah right!) I think it is a scam! The original call that was made was by a service to do nothing more than sell you a service contract not not not contected to sears at all! The technician was ill prepared, arrogant, quasi knowledgeable & rude! Do not gt scammed & call your local appliance repairman, they can give you the best service of all! I do have 6 other appliances that was bought trough sears & repaired for 10 years (Up till now) guess who just lost a lot of business! No wonder they are going broke!

We purchased an expensive treadmill from Sears some years ago. Approximately one year ago it failed and we called for service. The service man came out and repaired the machine, which we paid for. The machine failed again and we called for service. Another service man arrived, walked in the door and within five minutes looked in his service computer and announced "there are no parts available, I cannot repair this." We were expected to pay $109 for this service call in which no service whatsoever was rendered. We do not intend to pay for this and will never buy another product from Sears. If something is purchased from Sears, serviced by Sears, then they should know before they dispatch someone whether they can service it or not without expecting the consumer to pay for a useless service call.

The us department of energy reached an agreement with lg electronicis in reference to sears trio & elite french door refrigerator / freezers with through the door ice / water, with model numbers starting with 795, manufactured by lg.
The above described units have lost their energy star rating, are not energy efficient, and if you 'google' doe agreement lg refrigerator energy, you will find that; lg manufactured the sears french door refrigerator / freezer, and that lg knew of the us dept. Of energy's procedures for confirming claims made by the manufacturer (Lg) in order to obtain the energy star rating (This is also the monetary amounts shown on the yellow tag that advise you as the amount of money this unit should cost to operate for one year) , and with that knowledge, lg maliciously and intentionally inserted a circuit board, that would recognize the fact that doe testing was occuring, and would shut down certain operations of the product, so that a false reading would show the utilization of less electricity than the unit would really utilize in your home or during testing.
Lg being aware that the seal on the doors are not keeping in the cold, and the front doors are insulated improperly, especially in the area of the ice maker (This is why if you touch the font doors, they are cold, the sides are not) , hence, a refrigerator that is statically giving off too much cold air, and not keeping the cold inside the refrigerator, and doubling the cost of the operation of the unit.
Lg knowing all of this, placed in the circuit board, an ap that when certain criteria was met (As in testing, and during your your personal use, etc.) the unit would shut down the operation of the refrigerator / freezer, thus falsely reporting a lower energy useage. The ap shuts down the part of the unit that keeps the humidiy low (Frost free) in the refrigerator and freezer, thus when a certain ambient temperture in a certain area of the refrigerator / freezer unit is reached, the unit shuts down, resulting in food & drink in the refrigerator being covered in condensation, uneven cooling, foods not being kept at 40 degrees or less (As required when refrigeration is required of a food) , and now the need of your residence's hvac system to compensate for the energy loss from the refrigerator into your kitchen, etc.
This now explains why i must set the thermostat temps far below 40 degrees in the refrigerator and far below zero in the freezer, to keep food cold and or frozen. It explains why the inside of my refrigerator is always full of condensation, and different areas are different temperatures.
Lg agreed with doe that they are willling to send a tech out to replace the circuit board, so that your energy consumption doubles, while it is alledged that inside the refrigerator and freezer the humidity will be kept low and free of frost, while not fixing the front doors problem.
Lg is will to send the consumer 7 - 30 dollars, per year, for a period up to 14 years as compensation for additional energy uesage of the unit.
Why has no one sued sears & lg yet? This would be a class, and the circuit board, already caught by doe, which lg has admitted to fraudulently placing in the unit, is evidence against lg, proving intentional fraud. The amount to make me whole again is much more than $4 a year.
Sears has made no attempt to contact me in this matter. Calls to sears are fruitless, as they claim to not know anything about this matter. Calls to lg result in being told that since i didn't send my registration card in, they could not find me to notify me, even though i paid for it through my sears account.

Our washing machine stopped working two weeks before Christmas of last year. I called Sears and scheduled an appointment for repairs. After waiting an additional two weeks, the technician stated that the problem was the water pump. He then installed the water pump and he was making sure that the pump would work. The machine did nothing. He then said it was the transmission and said it would be in excess of $500 to repair. I stated that I could get a new machine for that price. I asked him to remove the pump so that I would not be charged. He stated he could not do that. I called the home repair number back and reported the useless pump and a need for a refund. After three weeks, I finally received a phone call from Sears saying they would not give me a refund. Talk about cheated!

I had an oil change done at Sears automotive n 12/27/08 and part of the oil change service is to have the oil replaced, filter replaced and a 24 point inspection where the customer is notified if there is some sludge build up. Well, I did have some sludge build up and apparently that is the reason why my vehicle broke down n 1/18/09 after 14oo miles because sears and their insurance (which by the way will never call you back no matter how many times you try to get a hold of them) say my oild was burning. I have my car a 2004 Toyota Matrix at a nearby Toyota dealership and the mechanics there tell me that I should have been notified about the sludge that who ever changed my oil should have notified me per the service that they are supposed to provide. I have tried calling several managers and have asked to speak to someone in corporate yet Im given the runaround and do not get any call backs. I just sent an email to KGO channel 7 on your side and am waiting to get a response to them because I will go public with this. I need to have Sears reimburse me for some of the damages because they did not provide the service that I paid for. It is very apparent that my vehicle was not given a 24 point inspection. I need to speak to someone in coporate and am tired of getting the runaround. - Hugo Barrientos