Summary: Very poor service on warranty repair at Sears. After this and another bad experience with a different Sears appliance (refrigerator), we will not be buying any more appliances or extended warranties from Sears.
Bought Electrolux EL7020B vacuum cleaner from Sears Palmdale store 3 years ago. Also bought 5-year extended warranty at same time. At that time, there was a local (Lancaster - 10 miles) Sears service center.
Last month, on October 12, we took this vacuum to local service center, which had closed, permanently. Then took vacuum to store, where they transported it to a Fontana (63 miles) or Tustin (96 miles) service center. We were given both destinations at different times. The repairs needed were relatively minor - cord retractor working poorly, broken catch to hold wand upright.
We were promised two-week turnaround - longer than we expected but OK, we can live with 2 weeks.
It's now November 14, over a month later, and we still don't have the vacuum back. I won't bore you with the usual litany of complaints regarding broken promises and useless messages - you've heard it all before and we received the same lame excuses.
The excuses given included thinly veiled "if it was a Kenmore vacuum, they'd have all the parts and wouldn't have to order them." I'd like you consider for a moment, the last time you or your spouse took your vehicle in for service and was told that something was broken and they'd have to order a part. Dealer OR independent garage, did you have to wait a MONTH for the part to arrive? More likely, they got the part the same day or sometimes the next day.
Sears claims to have a service dedicated to the repair of merchandise they sell, and encourages customers to buy extended warranties on both Kenmore AND other name brands. It is absolutely inexcusable for Sears to then take over a MONTH to get repair parts, no matter where they come from. This kind of DIS-service should and will lose customers.
Suggestion: Support your local independent appliance dealers and repair shops, where they still exist. We're both over 60 and can tell you from experience, we've had much better service from our small locals than from Sears. Sears doesn't care about you or me, as long as we keep buying from them.
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