On Thursday, April 30th I purchased a Power Miser 12,50-gallon Natural Gas Water Heater for our daughter's condo in Blacksburg, Virginia. The purchase was made over the phone at the water heater sales online number located on your website. A sales person named Kathy asked me for the measurements of my current water heater to be able to sell me one that would fit in the space available.
I gave her the measurements of 58 tall x 20 wide (diameter). The water heater I originally wanted was the Power Miser 9. However, she told me that this item was not available in my area but that a more expensive model, the Power Miser 12, was. She also mentioned to me that the water heater was one inch taller than the one we currently have in the condo, but she said the installer would take care of that. It should not be a problem, she said.
I proceeded to place the order and she then began to add charges to the water heater price, including installation (normal), and removal. I asked her what the total amount would be when she finally charged my credit card and she gave me the price of $789.96. This was just the beginning of a big nightmare with Sears, a company that our family has been faithful customers to for over 50 years. We have always trusted Sears for their high quality and customer service.
Kathy also mentioned that water heaters are usually installed in 24 48 hours and that the installer would call me in a couple of hours to let me know when he was coming. She gave me the reference number 1220048. A couple of hours passed but the installer did not call. My husband and I contacted Sears again to obtain their name and number in order to track them down. We left a couple of messages for Affordable Plumbing until they finally called us back indicating they would deliver the water heater on the following Tuesday, May 5, at 11:00 AM.
My husband and I drove to Virginia from Florida to be there by 11:00 AM in time for the delivery. Upon arrival we received a call saying that there was a delay in the delivery and that they would be there as soon as they could. We told them we had a commitment at 3 PM and needed them to arrive before 1:00PM. They arrived at 2:30 PM and proceeded to remove the old water heater; they also noticed that the new water heater would be 1 inch taller and said that they would take care of it. Everything else looked fine and we left the installers in the condo to do the installation while we went to watch our daughter defending her Masters thesis. When we returned at 5:00 PM, the installers were still in the condo. We found out that the new water heater was wider than the one that was there before and it could not be positioned in the corner as the other had been. Therefore, the new water heater was pretty much sitting in the middle of the pantry, the only place where it could fit.
It turns out the water heater was 22 inches in diameter instead of 20 inches. Why was it that Kathy did not mention this to me? Why did she knowingly sell us a water heater that was wider than our old unit? As I stated above, she told me about the height difference. She never mentioned the difference in diameter. The installer also failed to tell us that the water heater was wider than the original, something they should have noticed earlier when they told us about the difference in height. After all, they are supposed to be regular installers for Sears.
My daughter handed me the copy of the invoice she had received from Sears so we could call customer service, and to my surprise and astonishment I saw the charge of $912.45. That was $122.49 more than the original charge Kathy had given me over the phone when I first ordered the water heater. I just could not believe this! On top of everything else, the installer was surprised that Sears charged extra for installing a heater on a 2nd floor because they are not paid for that.
I called customer service and complained to a supervisor. It turns out they do not sell 20-inch wide water heaters. Why did they sell me something different to what I had requested without telling me? She also mentioned that there were charges for out of area. Again, why did they fail to mention all of these extra charges? They made me upgrade to a Power Miser 12 because they did not have the #9 in the area and it would have had to be ordered. I think they ordered the #12 too, because I had to wait 4 days for it! Did they just want me to pay more? I wonder. I cannot believe a water heater priced at $450.00 turned out to cost me more than double. That is quite appalling.
I asked the supervisor to take the water heater back since it was not what I had ordered in the first place. She said that because the water heater was already installed, I would need to pay $319 to return it. She also wanted me to take responsibility for the error since I left the installers in the condo to complete the installation. I disagreed with this for two reasons. One, the installers had my cell phone number and could have contacted me at any time, and two, if they had arrived at the correct time (11:00 AM), I would have been able to remain with them during the entire installation.
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