Sears Service is HORRIBLE!

[Harry Everhart]

I have enjoyed shopping at Sears and my Sears Card says valued customer since 1969. Over every door of Sears is the motto - "satisfaction guaranteed or your money refunded." I can give you many stories of taking stuff back to Sears and getting my money refunded. I built an entire home with a radial saw and took it back one year later when it failed. I have returned a sofa after one year of use and it started to sag. If a sales person ever balks - I point at the sign above the door. I have nothing but good things to say about Sears standing behind their products.

It is not Sears fault that your ACC failed on Friday and they can't fix it until Monday. If you don't like Sears - don't shop there anymore. There will then be more room in the store for me :-)

[stevie]

agree with turtle.

sears might be ok with washers, dryers, etc., but I don't think I would trust them with HVAC, or any major household repair/replacement. Usually, they just sub-contract the work so you pay your money and you take you chances.

This is Turtle

You have just been exposed to service and how it all works. When you buy a Speciality HVAC type equipment from a discount store. Do you really expect them to be set up to give 100% service when they only sell them and could care less after sale because they have no more need of you anymore as to fixing if it breaks. Never buy HVAC equipment from a store / company / who ever that only sells the equipment part time and is not 100% in the business of the Sales & repair of what you bought from them.

another secret here. Sears does not work on HVAC equipment that is out of warranty or they did not sell it. They may say so but if they do come out they will tell you to buy a new one because yours is burnt up and need a totally new one. Their service department is just a '' sales force '' doing business for service after the sale does not make very much money.

TURTLE

[Jimbo]

Original poster mentioned something about people in colder climates wouldn't accept waiting that long for furnace repairs, well he's wrong. Back 30 years he would have been right because service was great and you would usually see someone at your door in between 4 to 6 hours, but not anymore. Even with a service contract the big companies don't guarantee service in less than 24 hours. The really big companies have cut back on staff so much that some people without contracts have to wait 3 days or more in sub zero weather to get their furnaces fixed.

Profits are sky rocketing and service is going down the toilet.

Jimbo

[Dr. Hardcrab]

"willshak" wrote

To INSTALL something, or repair it?

Big difference......

[schallerp]

Well here is where I stand at the moment.

I did call an independent dealer to come out at 6pm Friday to look at the unit. I figured even though the unit is just less then a year old I would have them look at it and eat the cost especially since they do repair Kenmore(carrier) units. The person came out and looked things over. He isolated it to the defrost board, Heat pump/AC unit, but told me he didn't have the part. He did say though that I have a high end unit and didn't feel comfortable messing with it to get it to run as it would void my warranty. He also told me that there is no way to bypass this board to make the unit run. He didn't charge me a penny and felt sorry for me having to deal with Sears. This company is very reputable in the area and I would trust them. Seeing he didn't take a penny from me after coming out at 6pm on a Friday was very good.

So I went back a replaced my call in to Sears repair and hope they can get out on Monday evening. The real issue here I guess is that Sears doesn't have any type of emergency, for me this is an emergency, response where maybe I pay a deductible. Secondly why do they only have one company they deal with in the area. Why not have a backup in case the other person is busy. I think the main company is busy doing new/replacement units which probable pays better then my warranty repair.

Why did I choose Sears to begin with? The free financing for a year of which I just paid it in full last week before payments kicked in. Well I guess I learned a very good lesson here. I know some people made a comment about the fact that we lived many years ago with out a/c but I do have an out of town guest with asthma staying with me and I thought I could keep him comfortable here. Oh well.

[CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert]

You are probably right. Their automotive service is no better. But I can still walk in with a broken craftsman product in my hand and get a replacement without filling out any forms.

I only buy craftsman because of that.

[Nathan Gant]

Sears maintenence tech just came out to my home for a service fix last week. I bought a riding mower at an outlet store that was missing a part, the belt was slipping and it woudn't go, but he fixed it in 1 hour on site, no charge although it was a $200 fix on paper.

Depends on the situation -- a lot of people in Sears tool and garden depts. probably don't know the difference between a socket and a screwdriver, they hire idiots to work there for minimum wage, so what can you expect? Sometimes you get lucky, I guess.

[nospambob]

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

The reason sears does not have a back up is they have hell get a First up to warrant their stuff and install it. the Sub contract the jobs out and have a set amount to do on each type job and usely is dirt cheap to fit the Pay of Sears. then Sears put a Extra $1K on the job to get their share and sell it to you. then when you have a warranty problem, Well you dealing with the cheapest contractor Sears could find at the time to come do your warranty work for nothing. Sears Sticks the warranty labor on the Subcontactor who installed it and expect him to do it for nothing. If the Subcontractor does not show. they fire him and get a new one to take his place and then they will pay the new subcontractor to come warrant the unit. Sears in my area changes subcontractor atleast once a year for they getting trashy installing it and just will not come back and warrant the work or job.

So Don't Buy from Middle Men selling HVAC equipment.

TURTLE

[willshak]

On 6/11/2005 10:36 PM US(ET), Dr. Hardcrab took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

I said 'repairman'. They come with a little notebook computer with a wireless connect to Sears, and record the repairs made, print your bill, accept your credit card, which they run through the computer, have you sign on the computer screen, and print you a receipt. Nothing is hand written. Every repairman (or repairwoman) was pleasant, told me everything they were doing, and offered advice on how to keep the machines working. One guy even stopped working on the washing machine (under warrantee) to take a tick off my dog. Another one found a 10 penny nail in the washing machine pump which was the cause of the failure. He wrote it up as a faulty pump. All my appliances are from Sears and I would go there first for any replacements.

[ds549]

when you wait till its 99 to test your ac, you can expect await . everyone is so busy. call around and maybe someone has a guy whos free to come over.i like to clean and test mine out a month before i need it. lucas