Sears
reviews and complaints

Sears has been discontinuing items in its craftsman line of tools, thereby voiding its so-called "lifetime guarantee." most recently, I returned a craftsman tape measure which had worn out, and was told sears no longer carried craftsman tape measures. Instead, I was offered a stanley product with no warranty. After arguing a while, I ended up taking it because I was in the middle of a project and needed a tape measure.
This is not the first time this has happened to me at sears; I also was given a hard time about a rake (It didn't say craftsman anywhere on it except on the paper label it came with.) the salesman didn't want to give me another until I showed him one from store stock that was exactly the same. If I hadn't saved the label, I would have been out of luck. Nice try, sears. Another time, I was told that a craftsman hose was not a craftsman because it was not stamped on the brass fittings. I had to find a very worn-out marking and convince the salesman that it said "craftsman", which it did. Sears policy on this "lifetime guarantee" is bs and they know it... It has just gotten to be too much of a burden on their profit margin, so they are sticking it to their customers. Don"t buy craftsman tools! Their guarantee is worthless!

On June 8, 2011 I purchased a 4 burner Kenmore gas grill from Sears. I requested that the grill be delivered fully assembled. I was told in order to have that done, the grill would have to be shipped from their warehouse and the earliest delivery date would be June 16. They charged $50 to assemble the grill and that was on top of a $65 delivery fee. Still, I wanted the grill and agreed. On June 16, they deliver the grill in the original box, totally unassembled. The delivery man apologized and showed me his papers and no where did it say anything about my wanting the grill fully assembled. I brought out my receipt and showed him I paid for the assembly. The guy called Sears and told them the situation. They said they would assemble the grill and redeliver on June 18. I had to ask them if they would do anything for my inconvenience and only after I asked did the Sears rep say they'd send me a $50 gift card.
June 18 comes (10 days since my original purchase) and the grill this time is fully assembled. I took a few proud photos of it and later that day I wanted to grill. The grill would not ignite. I called customer service and they told me that perhaps the ignitor was bad and they'd have to set me up with a service call. The date they gave me was July 1! I told them OK and hung up, but then I realized, no, this was NOT OK. I drove to the Sears store where I made the purchase and told them the entire story. The department manager called their service dept and told them this was unacceptable. He said you expect this customer who spent hundreds of dollars on a grill to have to wait almost a month before he can use it? Despite his best efforts to help me, they would not budge from their July 1 service date. The manager told me to just be sure there was a battery in the battery compartment. I went home and checked the compartment there was no battery. I was very happy thinking that this was the problem. So I put in a battery and...nothing. I tried several new AA batteries all to no avail. I am certain no battery was ever used and therefore the grill was not tested after assembly.
In the end, I wound up having Sears pick up the grill for a return. I'm still waiting for the gift card. Now I have shopped at Sears many times in the past and always had a good experience, but this time it was awful. I wound up buying a very similar grill from Lowes. They delivered it in three days in full working order and at a better price, with no fee for the installation.

Steve

My in-laws purchased a kenmore air conditioning unit, model r-410a about 5 years ago. It worked great for the first summer, but they have had nothing but problems with it ever since. The last 4 years Sear's technicians have come out and simply refilled the freon supply but never checked for leaks or cracks in the system. Finally 4 weeks ago the unit stop working again. Sears was called out and a technician named Ignacio determined that there was a large crack in the unit and it was leaking large amounts of freon. He stated that sears had stopped making this model because several of these units were going bad. So ignacio ordered the part and said he would return in 5 days. Well its been 4 weeks. He came back today fixed the cracked piece but then stated that the fan was bad and it would take 10 days to get the part! My father in law is terminally ill and housebound, my mother in law is incapable of getting this taken care of so i am stepping in. The service has been beyond horrible and no thought has been given to the ocuupants who need their home cooled. They need a new unit installed NOW!

We have had a lot of trouble with our washing machine! The first problem being the dispenser computer chip was not dispensing the soap and other stuff properly. We had to have that serviced 4 times for the same problem. At that time I insisted that they replace it, because once the computer chip has electrical problems, it continues. Well they said if they had to have a service rep here for 4 times, they usually replace the item, well they were called here 4 times, but they insisted it wasn't for the same issue? 3 times for the chip and 1 time for suds chip, which I only use he products! We now came across another computer chip problem, again for the suds and f35? They said they have a problem trying to get the part in, in the meantime I have been without a washer in almost 1 month! I have 3 kids, 2 of which are teenagers. I use my washer everyday to keep up with the laundry. I have had to go the laundry mat 3 times already each being 7 loads each time. Each costing around 70 Dollars each time? They still don't know if the part will be here this month of July 2011? I can't believe their customer service! We even have the extended warranty. Little help that is! This is about the 3rd time I have had trouble with this company and I know quite a few other people that have as well! I guess I will not be using this company SEars again !

Do NOT buy a Sears extended warranty. It is not worth it – and for the extra money you pay you get nothing but “extended” waiting for service (it’s been over 7 weeks now since I called them), headaches, and misery. Below is a summary of my recent HORRIBLE experience with Sears Customer Support and “Maintenance Agreement” warranty program.

Seven (7) weeks ago, the motor in my 2.5 year old Kenmore dryer died. A simple enough problem to fix – right? WRONG! At the time (no longer, mind you), I was very grateful I had purchased a 5 year extended “Maintenance Agreement” warranty on the appliance. I called customer service, and they booked me a technician appointment ...for nine (9) days later. I was not thrilled by the long wait, to say the least, but little did I know the wait would actually be MUCH longer. It’s now over 7 weeks later – and I’ve experienced two (2) rescheduled appointments AND two (2) no-show appointments and Sears has refused to “escalate” or resolve the matter. Each time I call, I am sent to the Customer Solution (escalation) center – and no one is able to escalate anything. Whatever “next available” appointment is offered to me is ALWAYS more than 7 days away –and is NEVER changed by the “specialist.” The two “specialists” I spoke with after my “no show” appointments even claimed they had no supervisor, when I asked to speak to one. (Does the CEO of Sears realize that “Bryce” and “Eric” apparently report to no one? If he does not know this – he will soon, as I am going to send my complaint to all Sears executives - detailing all dates and “non-helping” specialists names and employee id numbers. )

Here is a summary of my lack of service to-date:

FIRST CALL TO SEARS: I am told next available appointment is 9 days away

APPOINTMENT #1: The first technician couldn’t find a parking spot, refused to park on the next block, and drove away, which forced me to be rescheduled and have to wait another 8 days for service.

APPOINTMENT #2: They did not have the necessary part, so I was again forced to reschedule and wait 13 days for the next appointment.

APPOINTMENT #3 No show. I called Customer Service and was forced to reschedule, next available appt is 8 days later. Even though it is Sears ‘fault that the technician did not show.

APPOINTMENT #4 No-show AGAIN. I called Customer Service and AGAIN was forced to reschedule, next available appt is 8 days later…even though (AGAIN) it is Sears’ fault that the technician did not show.

I have two small children with no clean underwear or towels right now because Sears technicians did not follow through and/or show up when they said they would. I took time off from work to wait for these technicians four times (4 hour chucks were REQUIRED each time).I told the “specialists” all of this. I also suggested that Sears cover the cost for paying a technician’s OVERTIME at this point to fix this issue since we have been inconvenienced for too long. The specialists – who report to no one --said that is not possible. I lost money staying home to wait for no one – yet Sears refuses to pay a technician an extra $100 in overtime to fix my dryer and satisfy a customer they have put through the ringer? Instead of losing $100 – Sears has lost me as a customer for life. We are buying a new home soon, and a whole new set of appliances. None of these will be bought at Sears. What a shame they couldn’t prevent this – I gave them MULTIPLE opportunities.

Marni (in Southern California)

I'd like to review my Kenmore / Craftsman products

Kenmore Refrig model #253.[protected] Shelves break at will.
Kenmore Elite Convection oven model #721.[protected] Convection no longer works had to replace light under and inside twice
Kenmore Dryer Model #110.[protected] 125.00 in repair bills
Kenmore Washer model #110.[protected] 150.00 repair bill
Kenmore Steam cleaner model#7226-900 Broken recepticle tank 50$
Kenmore Vaccuum model #116.[protected] No suction beltless system does not spin rotor

Original report
Do not use sears home improvement co. For any installations that are crucial to your home or comfort. They do not have emergency weekend telephone numbers and use local independent contractors. That being said I will tell my story: I just bought a house and was in the process of updating a lot of thing's including installing a central air system... House had none, but had a forced hot air furnace with duct work in place. I interviewed 3 contractor companies for installing a central air system to my forced hot air furnace. Sears was the most competitive so I signed with them.

Next step, they sent in a local contractor (Not a sears employee) to assess the job. He said that it wouldn't work and I would be unhappy with the results because the cold air wouldn't be blown up to the bedrooms (Custom split level home with 4 floors instead of the usual 3).

Sears sent the sales people back in. He tested my system and said that I had a 2 speed blower on the furnace and that it should work. I demanded that the local contractor come back to assure me as to what the salesman said was true. Contractor tested the 2 speed blower in my system and said that it still wouldn’t work. I said what about a booster motor that could be put on the 2 vents that were the problem (One vent already had one that didn't work-thus the recommendation on my part). He said that would work so we scheduled the job to start.
Installation took the better part of a day. I added a dehumidifier which was installed and they also installed a separate condensation evaporator unit.

In comes the electrician to run wiring to the unit and the compressor from the fuse box. All is well and working well on thursday in time for my company from south carolina to visit during the memorial day weekend. Thursday night sleeping was terrible... It was hot. I checked the unit and it wasn't working and the breaker in the fuse box was tripped. I called sears on friday morning and they sent the installation contractor back on friday morning. He checked out the system and said that everything was working well-off he goes. Friday late morning, my wife and I and the guests went visiting (Left the air on) and came back about 6:30 pm the house was a sauna because we closed all of the windows. Tried every number I was given for sears home improvement, left messages everywhere but could not get to speak with one person, even tried all numbers again on saturday... Nothing. My wife was so frustrated she left nasty messages on all the phone number sears gave us... Nothing. We were stuck with a central air system that didn’t work on the hottest weekend this year. Even with alll the windows open it still was 85 degrees in the house.

Memorial weekend was ruined due to the heat because sears has no emergency weekend telephone numbers. Adding insult to injury: contractor came on tuesday afternoon (After the holiday weekend was over) and replaced the condensation evaporator unit which he thought was the problem. Unit worked fine for about 2 hours and then no cold air again. My wife went down to do laundry and found the basement floor full of water (Lot of damage to miscellaneous items stored because we we’re still moving in and the inside of the house was being painted). It seems that the condensation evaporator unit was leaking water all over the basement, after the clean up and throwing out of the damaged stuff my wife put a pail underneath the ce unit.

Contractor is back (Scratching his head) everything checks out. Long story longer, electrician was supposed to run a hardwired line to the ce unit but instead plugged it into one of the receptacles in the basement. This receptacle worked when you turned on the basement light but didn't work when it was turned off... How stupid is that not to check everything. This whole process was a comedy of errors and omissions. Fact still remains, sears home improvement company is not good and if you need them over a weekend forget it... Don't give them the job.

Update 1: sears social media department (Yes they have a department that monitor's on line complaints... Hmmm... Why do they need one) contacted me because of my many online complaints against them. They offered me a $100.00 sears gift card to appease me... I guess they're hurting financially. I laughed and refused the card.

Update 2: permits were secured from the town. Building inspection passed; plumbing inspection passed; electrical inspection failed, not for 1 violation but 3. It's been a day and a half since I called with the information about failing the electrical inspection and I still have not heard from sears or the electrician who is local.

Your crazy if you use sears home improvement for anything.

I bought an expensive dishwasher from Sears a year ago and I have had nothing but trouble. I should have known, when it took a month from purchase to installation. Thank goodness I bought the extended warranty since my dishwasher has been broken down 4 times in one year and now it is out of the intial warranty! It takes 3 weeks to get a service appointment and twice, they have not shown up for my inital appointment. This time, I have taken 3 days off work (for 3 appointments that the contractor either didn't show up or they were canceled and rescheduled at the last minute) and my dishwasher has been un-useable for over a month and my appointment is still in 2 weeks! I call everyday to see if there has been a cancelation - with no luck. You would think I would take priority if I have had several appointments that have been broken by no fault of my own. They have ordered a part and the Tech hasn't even been out yet! I will NEVER buy anything from SEARS again!

A True Story About Sears Credit

My wife has a Sears credit card. Well, she has had it a long time, but she never used
it until recently.

Here’s the story.
A member of my family needed a window air conditioner, just a small one for one room. There
was one on sale at Sears online for $160.49, so my wife ordered it. The delivery was to the Griffin “Hometown Store” owned by Jim Easterling.
Surprisingly, the next day I found an Email that the unit was in the store to be picked up. Thus,
I went into the store with the Email in hand.

The sales person stated that the one air conditioner that was in their stock was damaged. There were no others like it available. He also offered another unit. I declined, asked for a cancellation and a credit on my wife’s account. I then ordered one from Amazon which was delivered promptly by FedEx.

Later in the week we discovered that no credit had been made. A visit and a call to the store
did no good in removing the charges for something never obtained. In a later conversation
I was advised by our local Sears to try the Sears Credit department, which I did and with no success. This included calls and a long letter to dispute the charge with several attachments on our attempts for resolution. I at first understood the problem was in the online system and not the dealer, and of course this advice came from the dealer!

This week my wife received a letter from Sears Credit stating the issue of was closed.
They stated the store refused to issue credit, plus a warning that non-payment meant a report to credit agencies. The latter included a listing of the three agencies and addresses.

The real “dig” was that if I wanted credit given, Sears Credit stated I should return the item ordered.

How do I return something I never received?

That’s a challenge!

We have a high credit rating!

Thus, I am sure that because of a management error or maybe a local store screw-up,
we will pay for the item. I investigated and found small claims court cost is around $90 and then there is
no guarantee of action. I thought of an attorney, and I have a good one. He does no
pro bono even for us!

Folks like my wife and me who are retired and on limited incomes have our own contacts. It is probable that if this had been a regular Sears and not a locally owned one such a issue would not have happened.

So, since Paul Revere is dead, passing on this message-

CAVEAT EMPTOR-Let the buyer beware.

So as it is written, so shall we do.

[1] Only corporation in Canada keeping customers on hold for an hour or more on a routine basis [Proof: call [protected] choosing option of service] [2] Cancelling service appointments with informing customers regularly [Proof: ask its service centre staff about statistics of "no shows" - even Sears Canada Inc. itself cannot deny this]

I have a very bad experience with Sears Home Repair Services from Southern California District in Ontario. The more I complained, the worse services I received. Not only it is difficult to get an appointment that fit our schedule, their technicians are so incompetent. Technicians did not order all the parts need to do the repair. Moreover, one of the technician came without the tool to do the job! Please do not buy Sears Warranty Service.

Sears store in Nelson has a very poor customer service. The owner and the staff do not have a helpful attitude. It is more like "whatever, I do not care". We asked the owner of the store (manager) for an advertised product to be ordered (as they didn't have it in store) and he said he will place the order tomorrow, a s he is too busy that day. We assumed that this means that we will get the advertised in the flyer price, but we will wrong. Next day, the owner said that the price is higher as the sale is over. It was very suprising to hear this, but it did happen. Since this incident we have decided never to shop in this store and tell as many people as possible this story. It is simple lack of respect for customers, and their hard earned money. Shopping in Castlegar now instead.

So for those who have read my complaint on Sears Home Central we have the following with regards to the sub-contractors they use.

1st Giant Heating out of bridgewater mass., is someone to avoid. their work is shoddy, without question below average and there is a good chance you will have call backs and damages. They had to return mutliple times to evaluate the vibration of the newly installed furnace. On the 2nd trip they simply lied about it but on the third trip they acknowledged that they had lifted the pipe which was not rattling against the floor, sheetrock or both. They would go on to say that the electrician that was noted on my first item evidently no longer works for sears or they have not seen them.

However, they went on to try and bubblegum the vibration rather than simply fix it. The 2nd item is the thermostat. While they installed the correct one they simple screwed it into the sheetrock. When I observed this i indicated it appears rather loose, yes? Well usually we hit a 2x4 at which point I say, " ahh I don't think so".. Maybe you should use the sinkers and reinstall.

Through-out their initial install they did nothing but complain of how little they earn from Sears in doing this work! They complained about other subs and issues related to working with Sears.

They damage things after installation and try to walkaway from their responsibility and are not someone I can recommend. For that matter perhaps I would advise to stay away from Sears as their track record from my viewpoint is not a good one.

Windows ordered 3/11/11. It is now 7/1/11 and 6 of 8 windows are partially installed and/or boarded up holes in my home, old windows on my property, new incorrectly fitting windows have been sitting in my living room since April 2011, major water leaks from incompletely installed windows, etc. Please feel free to view photos at the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150229236448876.315914.591003875&l=12504f54d0

My wife and I purchased a Proform 390 treadmill from Sears in late February 2011. She began having problems with the treadmill, speeding up randomly, which above all else is unsafe. By the time I contacted Proform the 90 day warranty had expired even though there is a 5 year warranty on the motor (which I feel is part of the problem). The people at Proform had me recalibrate the machine and then had me remove the motor cover and reset a reed control, (which was something a technician should be doing, but I am pretty handy so I agreed to do it. After recalibrating it once more and realizing it was not working properly the woman on the phone told me the machine needed a new controller. I was told by Proform that I would have to call Sears for that. I spent the next hour and a half on the phone speaking with a total of 5 people who gave the royal runaround. Finally I spoke to a Supervisor named Monique and she was absolutely useless. I explained to here that several other people had told me they would cover the part but not the labor. I asked if they would send me the part and I will put it in myself because they wanted to charge me $100 to fix a $400 machine that was less than 4 months old. This is the second time I have had problems with Sears in as many purchases and I will never purchase anything else from them. I am concerned that my wife will be injured using this fairly new treadmill, but Sears just doesn't seem to care. Monique told me she was only authorized to give me a discount on the labor although she never made that offer. Sears and Proform will never again see my business.

Recieved a phone call around 6pm tues june 29. I was told I have an out standing dept from 1996 but mickey was not able to tell me if it was a credit card or a purchase. The dept is 1272.35

I applied online for a Fulltime position. I arrived early for my interview. They seemed to be dissatisfied with this . The manger introduced himself and said that I was early and would have to wait. This was fine because I was. A young lady called me in never told me her name or position. The interview was horrible. She asked nothing about my sales experience or anything. I respectfully complimented her and she rolled her eyes.Instead of being respectful and confident. I have over 15years management experience and I believe they sent out a CSR to interview me due to lack of being organized. She told me within less than a minute that they did not hire FULLTIME that they only hired PART TIME? I would have never applied for a part time position . I could not believe that my app was not taken more seriously and the fact that they did not try to sell themselves as a company or anything . I was more of pls sit down what hours are you looking for and we only hire part time .OMG! She saw my eye brows raise and said well...should I go on or is this interview over. Wow!(OVER!) I can not imagine what customer service is like there . I guess they want to keep their own job security... by running out the advancer.

Sears Home Improvement scheduled an all day appointment 8-5, to service my HVAC. The technician did not show up. When I called to inquire about the technician, I was told they do not service my area or this part of the country for that matter. I scheduled the appointment on June 9 for the service call for June 23, the company issued a memo on June 14 that they no longer had a technician in this area or this part of the country any longer. NO ONE CALLED TO CANCEL THE APPOINTMENT. I lost a days wage! Do they care? Absolutely not. I will never shop at Sears or any of their affiliates ever again.

In February of 2011, we purchased an elliptical trainer from Sears. My husband and I (well, my husband more than me) put it together. I immediately started using it and used it 4-5 times per week for approximately a month and a half. The last time I used it was on a Thursday (in April of 2011), and it worked fine. When I went to use it the following Sunday (in April of 2011), it was completely locked up. Luckily (or so I thought), I had purchased the master protection agreement. I obtained the necessary information and called Sears within 2 days to schedule a repair appointment. Approximately 10 days later, a repair person showed up to fix the elliptical, only to tell us that parts needed to be ordered for it. He ordered the parts, and we were forced to reschedule our repair appointment.

Approximately 10 days to 2 weeks later, the repair person again showed up to fix our elliptical only to discover the parts that Sears shipped were the wrong ones. We were again forced to reschedule our service appointment. This time, the repair person ordered 3 different parts in the hopes Sears would ship the correct part to fix the machine. Our repair appointment grew closer and we still hadn't received all of the parts; only I didn't know this. I called Sears the day before our appointment and the customer service rep assured me we still had a repair appointment scheduled for the following day. I had to work, so my mother stayed at our house the next morning waiting on the repair tech. After about 3 hours, he hadn't showed up, so I called Sears again. This rep told me that our appointment had been cancelled becaused we hadn't received all of the necessary parts for the repair (two parts were on backorder and wouldn't ship for another week). No one at Sears informed me that our appointment had been cancelled, so I wasted my mother's time. We were again forced to reschedule our repair appointment - 2 more weeks to wait. Now, it appears all of the parts have shipped to our house and our appointment is tomorrow. It is now JUNE 23. I guess it remains to be seen whether the parts we received are the right one, and whether the machine will actually be fixed tomorrow, but I still have hope.

Bottom line is that our machine has been broken for longer than not. I will NEVER again purchase ANYTHING (appliance, fitness equipment or otherwise) from Sears. Buyer beware. The master protection agreement is a JOKE!