BEWARE of KENMORE Refrigerators and the Sears WARRANTY Serice. A complete waste of time and money. I bought both June at the Sears in Falls Church, Virginia. The fridge and warranty cost me approximately $1000 and some change. Its now April my warranty expires this June and I have had 4 service calls, 2 in none in 2006 and 1 this month April and will need one more service call later this month to complete the repair service.
In the fridge stopped cooling for 3 days but I following the service reprsentative / technicians instructions and it started working before the service call so I cancelled the call to avoid missing another work day. I have NEVER been able to get a Saturday service call. I had a General Electric that lasted for 20 years without problems but made the mistake buying this Kenmore b/c the style and color of my GE was outdated. If you have an old fridge keep it as a back up.
Warranty - Timing: The warranty leaves you completely exposed in terms of timing. My average wait time when I consider my 3 service calls has been 7 days withOUT a working fridge. The worst was this April were I was from Sunday March 22 to April 2nd with out a fridge (9 days and counting) making due with frozen foods and take out, which gets expensive.
April 2nd the technician comes only to find out he has to order parts, the parts need to arrive and I need to schedule another repair call. So I'm stilling roughing it without a fridge. OH I left out the most important part, when you schedule a service call they give you an 8am to 5pm wait period. When I ask for a 2 or 4 hours window, I was told that was not possible.
I was told the best they could do was have the technician call me 30 to 45 mins before arriving which is absolutely useless unless you work from home. One day of lost work cost my way more than the warranty.By the way, you will not be informed of the average wait day or wait time on the day of service when you purchase the warranty
Warranty - Food Coverage: The warranty covers you up to $250 dollars per year in spoiled food. 3 different customer service reps told me to give my list of spoiled food itemized and totaled to the technician and he would call it in to the Food_Loss Department and they issue a check. My mother misses stays in to wait for the Service Technician, he comes around 2pm and did not take or call in list of food items which I neatly typed up for him in Excel and provided my cell phone on the list. My mother is 82 years old so she did not put up a fuss. I suppose its not his money, he's not eating take on a regular basis so obviously he is in rush to secure me a refund.
Warranty - Customer Service: A complete nightmare and horrendous waste of time!!! The reps are friendly and professional but they are misinformed and constantly transfer you to another rep who proceeds to do the same thing. I spent an entire lunch hour trying to get to the supervisor of the technician who did not take my list of spoiled food.
Why because every rep told me that the only way I could get reimbursed was if the technician called it in and even after I explained to mulitple Svc Reps that the technician did not take the list from my elderly mother, they said I had to talk to the Technician's supervisor.
Consequently, I wasted an hours being transfered across the Sears network of numbers. I was transfered to Tim in Plantation Florida, to Shay in Mobile Alabama, Wayne in North Carolina and it wasn't until ANOTHER HOUR on the customer service 1-800 line today (my second lunch hour) that I was finally provided the number to the Service Unit for my area. All my time wasted because a technician did not do his job.
Warranty - Upfront Disclosure: I spoke to countless customer reps as I was transferred everywhere and I told all of them I was without a fridge. Only one told me I was entitled to a rental reimbursement and that was only after 10 days without a fridge. The original service rep who knew she was scheduling a service call 9 days later did not offer that information. So read the fine print do NOT expect a Service Rep to sympathize and offer the information. The Service Rep that told me about the rental reimbursement only did so after I asked what Sears would do for me after 10days without a fridge.
After this terrible experience I will never buy another Sears KENMORE appliance or warranty. Several friends and family have had similar experience with KENMORE Fridge and Washer/Dryer. I will go back to General Electric. What I paid for the warranty does not begin to compensate for my time, lost food and frustration. I would have been better off buying another reliable product and / or calling a Service technician before my food went bad. Hope this helps someone avoid a similar experience.
Brenda
Falls Church, Virginia
U.S.A.
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