I would like to bring to your attention a series of occurrences I recently experienced with Sears Home Services when I needed repair help for my French Door Bottom Freezer refrigerator unit,
Model _59676509500
July 11 —
Refrigerator temp down to 59 deg, freezer temp at 30 deg. Everything was thawing.
Called Sears Home Services. They scheduled appointment for five (5) days later…. July 16th from
1:00 PM -5:00 PM. Unit started working on July 14th but everything was spoiled and had to be replaced.
July 16th
Day of scheduled appointment with Sears Home Services, for which I had to take the day off from work. At 4:58 PM, two minutes before end of scheduled time slot, Sears called and said the technician wouldn’t be finished with another service call for three more hours. They wanted to re-schedule for the next day, July 17th. I had to work, but agreed to the appointment only if they could arrive at 1:00 PM. They agreed, but at 2:00 PM they called and said the technician was (again) running late. This delay greatly inconvenienced my schedule as I had other commitments which I had to rearrange. He arrived at 3:00 PM. Unit was (again) temporarily working and he said there was nothing he could do but if it happened again, I should call and - hopefully - it wouldn’t be working when he came out so he would know what part to order. He checked the compressor and said it was working. He gave me a form to complete for itemizing products that were lost…up to $200.
July 27th
Unit again not working. I called Sears and they set up an appointment for July 29th. The same technician arrived and - of course - the unit was then working. He said he would order a compressor and a computer unit to be sent to my home and I should call when the parts arrived; however the first appointment available would be between 8:00 AM - 12:00 Noon on August 10th (12 days)!! He said he would be the one to come out because he knew the history of the unit.
August 18
Page 2
August 10th
I had to take another day off work for this appointment, which was scheduled for 8:00 AM -12:00 Noon. Sears called and said technician was (once again) running late and arrived at 1:30 PM. This was a different technician. He said he knew immediately what the problem was before looking at it. He explained that the particular compressor in this model didn’t always work and he spent a few hours installing the right compressor. He said the tech before him should have known that. Unit is now working well.
Summary:
It took a month to resolve an issue that should have - admittedly by the second technician - taken a couple of hours to rectify.
I have missed two days of work; much more than the allowed $200 in food spoilage; missed other commitments waiting for technicians; stored food in coolers (not to mention repeatedly buying ice for them); and the frustration of late appointments by technicians. Most of this (except the first occurrence) could have been allayed if the first Sears Home Services technician knew what the problem was. This he should have been trained for, as was the second - and final - technician.
I had purchased an extended warranty for $200. I purchased the service agreement because, according to their website, "A protection agreement can provide you with peace of mind by knowing that if a problem occurs with your product, you know whom to call to take care of it right away." This statement is completely false; I had no peace of mind nor was my problem taken care of “right away”. This service agreement will expire in November, and I will not be renewing it. If there are further problems with this unit, I will scrap it and switch to another brand entirely. I’ve bought Sears appliances all my life - based on brand recognition and reputation - but will never again do so. Nor would I recommend Sears brands or Sears Home Services to anyone.
Recommendation:
Refund $200 in food spoilage as well as the $200 I spent on the extended warranty. This is much less than I lost in wages, food replacement and frustration, and would take some of the sting out of the “bad taste“ of doing business with Sears Home Services. If not agreeable to this, please respond with your own recommendation to put this matter at rest.
Sincerely,
Beverly Becke
0 comments