Forum Archive

You can read my nightmare below. My question to the Brownstone community is how do you manage to repair your appliances without going insane? Is PC Richards (or any other place) better than Sears for appliances and appliance repairs?

Fellow Brownstoners, heed this warning – DO NOT USE SEARS FOR APPLIANCE REPAIRS. The customer service is horribly inadequate and they just don’t seem to care whether or not they make it to their appointments.

So I JUST bought a separate, stackable washer and dryer from Sears (Kenmore). I use the washer twice before it stops working. I bought a five year extended warranty thinking that it would save me time and energy. Boy, was I wrong!

I set up an appointment for Friday. Took a half day off. Got a confirmation the night before saying that the technician would arrive between 8:00 and 12:00 p.m. I sit around chewing my nails and decide to call customer service at 11:45 since I have to leave for work. The representative assures me that the fellow will arrive by 12 and the work will be completed by 12:30. I finally leave at 12:45, late for work, and call customer service on the way to the train. I call the direct number later and the woman apologizes and assures me that I’ll be the first person on the technician’s roster and reschedules me for today.

Guess who never showed up? I called customer service, irate, and explain that I’d taken 2 half days off from work and didn’t have a washer (that I had JUST bought) for about a week. They said that the technician would arrive at 2:30 and that the time slots were just estimates. When I spoke to the technician he said that I never should have been told that I had a morning appointment, since it was humanly impossible to get to my house before the afternoon. I was number 9 on his list. When I spoke to the call center manager about all of this he said that he could do nothing for me – no discounts, no replacing lost wages, no empty guarantees that I would be the first person to be serviced if I rescheduled. On both days no one ever called me to tell me that the technician would be late. It was expected that I would just keep waiting around for him until he showed up.

I got off the phone and started figuring out how I could return my Sears items. Anyone else have a similar experience with Sears?

Thanks to everyone for allowing me to vent. Now that I’m returning my washer and dryer, where should I buy my next set?