Have washer and dryer purchased from sears with the 3 year MPA of which is coming to its expiration date of 1/3/06.
Instead of receiving a written letter notifying me of the pending expiration and a written offer to extend I have been solicited by phone. Not just one but 4 different phone calls, including one on christmas eve! To further infuriate me we received another call last evening of which I answered and asked for them to send the information in writing and informed them we do not take phone solicitations. I was told that they would not send it in writing and then the caller hung up.
I then initiated a call to sears to address this situation by calling the 800-4-my-home # I was placed on hold for more then 20 minutes including to actual conversations with customer service (that's a joke) reps who kept placing me on hold. Was finally redirected to another # to call 800-827-6655. This is where the fun really started.
Placed the call to the new # and waited for another lengthy version of sears marketing to cease and was finally rewarded with a human. I requested information regarding my current warranty and the costs of renewing. Here is a break down of what I was told. (Original 3yr warranty for products $279)
1yr ext.=$195,2yr ext.= $357,3yr ext.= $571 and a 5yr ext.=$900
I asked the rep why the costs of the extensions were so much higher then the original and she replied that it was because of the age of the units. I then confirmed with her that my current agreement would expire on the third and asked if I would have till then to renew? She replied by telling me that she could not guarantee the price would be the same and she added that the price she was giving me was only good for the current call.
Obviously this was an attempt to force me to purchase a renewal by threat of a price increase. I asked to speak to her supervisor and she replied by asking why. I said that I needed to speak to her supervisor to discuss the forced sale tactic and the phone solicitations, she ask me to hold and then hung up.
I know this may sound a little petty but it seems to me that sears has created a marketing scam that allows them to harass their customers by phone with no recourse for the consumer. They have divised a way to quote prices without written guarantee and to threaten price increases if they don't except the offer!
I am just amazed at the audacity that most of coperate america has with its consumers and how our laws do not protect the consumer from this behavio
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