On June 8 I purchased a 4 burner Kenmore gas grill from Sears. I requested that the grill be delivered fully assembled. I was told in order to have that done, the grill would have to be shipped from their warehouse and the earliest delivery date would be June 16. They charged $50 to assemble the grill and that was on top of a $65 delivery fee. Still, I wanted the grill and agreed. On June 16, they deliver the grill in the original box, totally unassembled. The delivery man apologized and showed me his papers and no where did it say anything about my wanting the grill fully assembled. I brought out my receipt and showed him I paid for the assembly. The guy called Sears and told them the situation. They said they would assemble the grill and redeliver on June 18. I had to ask them if they would do anything for my inconvenience and only after I asked did the Sears rep say they'd send me a $50 gift card.
June 18 comes (10 days since my original purchase) and the grill this time is fully assembled. I took a few proud photos of it and later that day I wanted to grill. The grill would not ignite. I called customer service and they told me that perhaps the ignitor was bad and they'd have to set me up with a service call. The date they gave me was July 1! I told them OK and hung up, but then I realized, no, this was NOT OK. I drove to the Sears store where I made the purchase and told them the entire story. The department manager called their service dept and told them this was unacceptable. He said you expect this customer who spent hundreds of dollars on a grill to have to wait almost a month before he can use it? Despite his best efforts to help me, they would not budge from their July 1 service date. The manager told me to just be sure there was a battery in the battery compartment. I went home and checked the compartment there was no battery. I was very happy thinking that this was the problem. So I put in a battery and... Nothing. I tried several new AA batteries all to no avail. I am certain no battery was ever used and therefore the grill was not tested after assembly.
In the end, I wound up having Sears pick up the grill for a return. I'm still waiting for the gift card. Now I have shopped at Sears many times in the past and always had a good experience, but this time it was awful. I wound up buying a very similar grill from Lowes. They delivered it in three days in full working order and at a better price, with no fee for the installation.
Steve
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