Sears review: poor customer service! 14

MY 7 YEAR OLD WASHER WAS NOT SPINNING-CALLED SEARS HOME CENTRAL(SERVICE ORDER#[protected]). THEY SENT TECHNICIAN #0621128. HE WAS HERE FOR LESS THAN 5 MINUTES, STUCK A PENCIL ON A BUTTON, AN INFORMED ME THAT I NEEDED $458.00 IN REPAIRS (CLUTCH AND GEAR CASE)WHEN I QUESTIONED HIM-HE BECAME SARCASTIC. I PAID HIM THE $70.20, WHICH HE DID NOT EARN AT ALL. AFTER HE LEFT I LOOKED AT THE WASHER, AND THERE WAS AN UNDERGARMENT THAT HAD BEEN STUCK UNDER THE AGITATOR-I REMOVED IT AND NOW IT RUNS PERFECT. I WANT MY $70.20 BACK AS HE BARELY EVEN LOOKED AT THE WASHER TO SEE IF SOMETHING WAS STUCK--I WOULD THINK THAT WOULD BE THE IST THING HE WOULD LOOK AT! IFIXED THE WASHER MYSELF-HE DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I WOULD LIKE AN ACKNOWLEDEMENT THAT YOU RECEIVED THIS COMPLAINT, AND I WANT MY $70.20 REFUNDED TO ME. THANK YOU.

My name is Howard Mitchell. My address is 121 Av Brock South, Montreal-Ouest, QC H4X 2E7. I have a service contract with you for my home oil fired hot water heating system. You changed the circulating pump yesterday and charged me $802 because this pump is not covered by my service plan. You charged me $535 for the pump and $149 labor. I found out yesterday that for $100 more a year, I could have had the pump covered under the protection plan. I was never offered this option. The online price of the pump is $250 and that includes a brass impeller instead of the plastic oneyou installed yesterday. The worst of it is, I really only needed a new coupler for the pump, which retails for $22.95. I figure you ripped me off for at least $600 dolalrs. It is totally absurd to charge $800 to change a pump like this. What really tees me off is the fact that I had no choice - the plumber was already going to charge me $149 for his VISIT whether I purchased the pump or not. I SHOULD HAVE HAD A CALL FROM A SERVICE REP BEFORE HAND EXPLAINING THE COSTS AND MY OPTIONS, BEFORE SENDING THE PLUMBER TO MY HOUSE. AND i SHOULD HAVE BEEN INFORMED A LONG TIME AGO OF MY OPTIONS FOR GREATER COVERAGE ON MY SERVICE PLAN. Unfortunately, I had little option but to go ahead with the replacement because I had had no heat in the house for 4 days (that's howlong it took Sears to respond to my 'No Heat Emergency' call).

We call our home "The Money Pit"! Like in the movie with Tom Hanks. First we had a flood in our home, State Farm is our insurance agent. They had subcontrators sent to dry up our home, M&M they boxed things wet, they boxed bills due, damaged our kitchen counters, would not admit fault. Then State Farm's subcontractor KNC was sent out to repair the walls that were damaged, that took 5 different subcontractors from KNC, because of air pockets, large clumps left on wall, uneven textures and even applied wrong color to walls and wood panels, did they admit or State Farm back us up, NO! The sub contractor sent State Farm a letter stating somehow every time they leave or finish a job The ######'s redamage the walls, as if putting their fingers through the wet paint or surface of the walls! It has taken us more than 2 years to have our property completed or items replaced without fighting having to argue or want it do right or satisfactory, to this day it is still shoddy workmanship.

I have had our 10ft by 14ft storage unit fall apart after State Farm instructed the subcontractors to reinforce the area with ply wood, it did not hold, it collapsed causing a head injury to myself which I'm still suffering with and not able to return to work, State Farm is acknowledgeable about this, but I have not made a claim on my injury due to their subcontractors workmanship, because when we were having difficulties with the 5 different contractors already, and the way State Farm was corresponding with our needs, as their customers, I told them we were going to get an attorney, their reply was send our claim to yet another agent, and they told us if we went to an attorney that they would be finished working with us. The subcontractor Irwin's furniture damaged our natural wood kitchen table and denied it, State Farm agreed with them, pre-existing condition, there was no damages when they took it for repairs.

Tolivers carpet, we ordered Berber carpeting, it was suppose to stain resistant, it looks 10 years old, it's only 2, found out it is not Berber, but a different similar fabric. Yet to contact owner. Then our air condition froze due to natural causes, lightning, and flooded our hallway and roof area, no air for 3 days, State Farm did not pay for new parts or stay at hotel, told us it was unwarranted to have to stay, this was in July, home was 138* in the house, that is when new agents decided to look at our damaged personal property, I stayed to show and go through our property, which they said had no visible damages, I took those items to an adjuster or collector who disagreed, another argument. It took all summer for me to locate tile we wanted to replace our wrongly misplaced and wrong colored tile replaced by contractors, again another fight.

Our walls to this day are not the same texture as the rest of our home. Our carpet is aged and stained in just 2 years, wrong baseboards. We have given up, and the strain it has put on our family, my marriage. We still are having problems with State Farm paying for all our damages personal property, in their eyes there is none. How can that be our whole home was under 4 to 6 inches of standing water, but our furniture, they say was not damaged, the smell alone should've been proof, did they clean our furniture or replace it, not even half. Now our water heater has gne out, AZ Plumbling damaged our platform, let water run and cause more flood damages.

Do they admit it, No, have not return my call, said it was a pre-condition of old water heater, we had no water leakage from old water heater, a few drops that lead us to replace the unit, no damages to our platform until the tech replaced it, on top of the wet and soggy platform, that he had caused. We are now trying to Sears who contracted this AZ Plumbing Service to own up and admit fault and come and fix the damages they have caused, I took plenty of pictures to prove our point! We are still waiting, we have had another company inspect the workmanship, only to find out the unit is leaking also.

It was installed on 10/24/07 and now our whole garage smells of mold and mildew, we had carpet laid out on the 3rd garage area, it got wet when AZ Plumbing let water run, he tried to sweep out the water, we have pictures! How can they get away with damaging another persons' property and just get away with it? You try to trust a large company, their name and their contractors. We can't anymore, especially home insurance, who you pay to protect you, not go against you, and contractors whom are suppose to have pride in their work, don't give a ? about your property. We is the back-up, we pay a lot of money for installs, they are suppose to be bonded, licensed, some should not.

We are just pee-ons compared to big companies, we have no say or we are not trusted, what about us trusting them? Our problems have only be addressed and satisfied to the big companies, not the consumers them self. I have read on the dissatisfied customers for all the companies I have listed. I have to admit Sears consumers are trying to solve the issue with the water heater, but is has taken a lot of my time and headaches to solve this on my own, again.

I would advise anyone who is in the market for a new major appliance to avoid Sears as their customer service has really declined significantly.

My washing machine was not spinning, and I was told by the tech that the pipes were clogged misdiagnosing the problem. And they charged me $115. I called 3 more times for service explaining that they needed to call me at work 10 minutes ahead and I would meet them. the first two times the tech showed up and called my home and, of course, I wasn't there. The third time I made an appointment for a Saturday and waited outside convinced that I couldn't miss him now. This tech decided to call and not show up. I missed the appt again. Finally the 5th time I called, they sent the same tech out that misdiagnosed the problem the first time. Being desperate without a washing machine spin cycle for a month at that point, I let him order the part. It's Thursday, and the part has not arrived at my house as promised. If I have to reschedule the appt to allow MORE time (it's been three weeks since), and I wanted a Saturday appointment, I would need to pay an extra $10 ! And they are refusing to waive the $10!

I will never again buy a Sears/Kenmore appliance, and i'm telling everyone out there not to either...it's not worth the trouble or the money.

Sears Home Central is now using outsourcing oversees for their scheduling. Operators speak little or poor English. After finally scheduling an appointment, the repair tech showed up on time and in less than 20 minutes fixed the problem. We paid $165 for a $6.00 part. Five minutes after he left the clothes dryer once again went dead. I immediately called scheduling once again to get a tech back out to make good on the warranteed repair work. I was once again faced with having to talk with operators in a foreign country that spoke little English and really didn't want to hear about my problem. I was informed that they couldn't reschedule because the tech had not yet closed out the service call and that could take up to 12 hours. I was told to call back the next day. I asked to speak to a supervisor to explain the situation, still thinking that by asking for a supervisor I might actually be able to speak to someone in the United States that had more interest in keeping me as a customer of Sears. The operator refused to transfer me to anyone and finally disconnected me. This happened twice before I was able to figure out their phone system and actually got to an extension in North Carolina. I have spent more than 3 hours talking with Sears Home Central employees both in and out of this country. No one was interested in the fact that I have been a customer of Sears for over 30 years. All of our appliances were purchased at Sears and have been replaced over the years by Sears; they have been serviced by Sears for 30 years. This corporation no longer values customer loyalty or provides good service. They may be saving mega-bucks by off-shoring their scheduling but I'd be willing to say confidently they will begin seeing the error of their ways within two years. It may take that long for past customers such as me to tell my story to others who have used Sears in the past or had planned on givng them a call in the future. A faithful customer is guaranteed money in the bank for a company. A customer who is mistreated by outsourced schedulers in a foreign country, and unable to get satisfaction from even the customer service representatives here in the United States, will probably tell 20 to 30 people in the coming year. Without a doubt, Sears will start to see an erosion of both sales and service. Hope the CEO has a big guaranteed exit strategy for himself because I think he's going to have a lot to explain in the coming year. It's only a matter of time until sales drop off, These kinds of blogs will begin to scare people away from using Sears. I found dozens of customer comments online about Sears and none of them were good. Many consumers had experienced similar problems. Sears now has a reputation of saving a buck at their customers expense. I've paid $165 for a $6 part, still have no clothes dryer that is operable, and Sears can't get anyone back out here for another four days. Oh, and by the way, Sears is one of the companies that also believes customers are willing and able to sit at home for four hours waiting for a technician to arrive. Maybe Sears' CEO could set-up an appointment to meet with me and I'll give him a window of four hours between 8:00 am and noon or 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. I might be available in about four days. Let's get that scheduled!

I finally settled with Sears Home Central and replaced the coupler myslef for a cost of $12.95. They took their pump back.

Although Sears has the same issues as any other company, most towns do not require the issuing of a permit to start and complete work on an air conditioning installation. The permit proccess may take quite some time for the local building department to go through thier red tape by which time the summer may be over. When they finally do, they will then send you your new tax bill! I also do not beleive that any community requires a permit to replace a furnace.

I went to buy a new washer and dryer about a month ago from Sears. Talked to the Sales person regarding the L.G.s "Oh these are the greatest"...I asked about local repair shops for my area..."Oh, there are repairman in the Grass Valley Ca area"...I went out to my vehicle called a couple of repair shops in Grass Valley upon doing so found there are NONE...I called a repair shop in Sutter Ca. I asked what a service call would run me $300.00...now thats just to show up. I called LG, they admitted to knowing there is a repairshop problem...Buyer beware of this one...

I just want to inform you and those who see this comment that me and my friend Myron who both of
us live in Hamilton area, experienced a totally
"###ed" service tech, and especially ###ed
customer service rep, who refused and acted more
###ed than a Special Olympic contestant. I would
trust a Special Olympic contestant, to service anything I have than a Sears Tech! HA HA! If I were
an investor, I would do the world a favor and liquidate all of my stocks and bonds and portfolios of
Sears corporate investments ect, and contact my
brokers to flush Sears like they have flushed consumers down the toilet! SELL YOUR SEARS STOCK
AND GET YOUR MONEY BACK IF YOU CAN! BUY
INTO MAYTAG!

I have a maintenance agreement on my Kenmore refrigerator that I bought in 1991 and have kept it up to date over the years. I've had to have the fridge repaired a couple times and twice have been sent a check for $250 to cover loss of contents. The fridge has been out of order again. The repairman come out and said it needed parts replacement - 3 parts - the compressor, the evaporator, and the exchanger with total $609.72 and the labor will total $365.00 - that's $974.72. That's my complaint - it's crazy to spend that kind of money on a 17 year old fridge - I don't have to pay a dime because of the agreement but I believe they should have given a $975.00 allowance towards a new fridge. I think the repairman really doesn't know what's wrong and just ordered all new parts that make the fridge work - jeeeeeeeesh!

SEARS (Sorry Excuse Appliance Repair Service)!

I called Sears and asked them to come fix my KENMORE refrigerator, which I bought from SEARS seven years ago. The hustler at their service desk promised me a quick response and talked me into a $261 one year warranty program and PROMISED to fix my problem. As promised, the repair guy showed-up promptly. He asked me why I had unplugged my refrigerator.

I told him, because it stopped working and I had removed the contents in order to save it. He plugged it in and said well it’s working now, so call us again if it stops and we will come out again (for another $118- which he collected for himself - I guess). He was not even willing to bend over to look at the unit - guess he did not want to get his very clean uniform dirty. I said is that all you are going to do for my $261 warranty? He said yes, call us again if the problem persists -- these warranty things usually work out for the best.

Common sense says that something had caused the refrigerator to stop running, so after he left, I inspected under the refrigerator and found that the cooling coils "ALL” on the bottom of the unit and just an few inches above the floor (A DESIGN DEFECT IN MY OPIN ION ) were totally clogged. I cleaned them off. I guess he won't have to come back after all.

Does SEARS treat all its customers like this? If so, I pity the older customers, any shut-ins, and especially any lower income people who have to give up medication for poor service. Doesn’t this sound a little like FRAUD? Thanks for nothing SEARS (Sorry Excuse Appliance Repair Service)!

Totally agree with this assessment.

I have been trying to get Sears Home Central sub contractor to come out anddo some added kitchen cabinet work to a re-face job done two years ago by Sears. They won't come out for anything under $1500. Finally get someone from the sub contractor to call me and tell me that they can not match the finish anymore because the laminate and style has just been discontinued. I keep getting a total run around when trying to get some answers from Sears. I will never purchase any type of home improvements or major appliances again from Sears (oh I mean K-Mart).

Service just completed on my Kitchenaid oven. Parts and service were done in a timely manner, but when replacing the oven your service man could not lift by himself, my husband has a bad back and couldn't assist... gouges on the wall, which need to be repaired and painted and big chunks out of the door below the oven, I don't know how they will fix that, the service man just shrugged and said tell Sears. SO, we need a Sears person out to repair this, ASAP, I don't want to have to wait and wait for this to be fixed.

These people are utter crooks.

They charged me 250 dollars to put a new belt on a lawnmower, which took them about 5minutes.

Over 200 dollars in labor cost for 5 minutes. When I told the repairmen that price was way too high and asked them to leave my home they threatened me with a 150 dollar bill anyway for coming out.

DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE OR HAVE THEM COME TO YOUR HOME. You have been warned.