Complaint Rating:

I walked into the Sears Outlet in Nashville with the hope of finding a refrigerator that would fit my very restrictive space in my home. Much to my delight at the time, I found the Kenmore Elite 22 cubic ft. fridge and it was one of the only ones of its kind anywhere in Nashville. Hooray! When I asked the obviously new employee about the warranty, he said it was the same one that people get when they purchase a brand new fridge, and that if I were to have any problem, it would be replaced with a new one from the normal Sears store.

It was a "dent & scratch" and it had a few scratches on it, but I could totally live with it. It cost $1199.00. We had to pay for a connector hose for the water line, paid for a shut-off valve upon installation, and paid $60 for delivery.

Four days later, as arranged, our fridge was delivered. The installers were the BEST part of the story - they handled it with care and were SO respectful and courteous. They set it all up and left, taking our old fridge away.

We moved all of our organic food, condiments, health products, etc. quickly into the fridge to avoid spoilage, as it took a while already for them to get set up. The next day, things tasted a little warm, but we didn't fully pay attention until the next day, when the milk was really warm. We put a thermometer inside the fridge and it read 60 degrees! After itemizing all of the food, etc. that we lost, it came to roughly $1000 worth of food and medicines, condiments, etc. that were no longer trusted - a great loss to us.

So we called the company (we had the basic warranty, not the upgraded 2 year extended one) and were told that we were going to have a service technician come out. When we asked when they said Tuesday (it was Friday). So we asked when. They said they didn't know and said that we could call on Monday after 8pm to see when they might come out. Monday evening we received an automated call that said that our repairman would be here between 9am and 6pm the next day. They came in the afternoon that next day, and I had to take time off of work (not a half day, but a whole day of loss based on the vague nature of the repairman's arrival time). This was nearly a week after we had purchased and lost all of our food. We were eating out for almost every meal at this point and getting a bit impatient. If only we knew, the journey had only begun...

The repairman came, "fixed" it and left. This time we were wiser, keeping the thermometer in the fridge watching it go from 59 degrees to 60, to 65 and so on. It stabilized around 65 degrees and that was that.

So we called again, again it wasn't too urgent and we needed to wait for a few more days for another repairman to come. He came eventually, after the same 9-6 time estimate, another day off of work. He came and said that the motherboard was shot and needed to be replaced. He "emergency ordered" the part and said to give him a call when it came to us. 4 days later we got the part and called him. He told us to call the repair service center to schedule a time, so they did schedule sometime two days later - another full day off of work.

He can and installed the part and then went out to his truck to make a phone call. Turns out there are TWO motherboards on this fridge, so we needed to wait for the other part to come in.

Today, 3 weeks after purchasing the fridge, he came over. The part finally came in... almost a week after ordering it. Both motherboards installed, it still didn't work. It took 4 visits from the repairman, 4 days off of work, and 3 weeks after purchase it was finally deemed unfixable.

So what do we do?

Well, I called for a replacement as was told to come on down - come pick any other dent & scratch! Are you kidding me???!!! Like I want another almost month without a fridge!

I have talked with every department and manager in that store and in the corporate office. I get the runaround like you would not believe. They will only reimburse us for the actual fridge, not the delivery of this lemon, not the tube we had to purchase in order for it to be installed, not any loss of wages or food...

I own my own company and would never DREAM of treating a client this way! We simply wouldn't have any business if we operated in the same fashion. I am pissed, my husband is pissed, and we have money to spend on brand new appliances, but NONE of that will ever go toward Sears ever again.

BUYER BEWARE!!!