I have been a very satisfied Sears Customer for more than 50 years. I have been buying Craftsman tool, Kenmore appliances, Sears shoes and clothing and Sears electronics, home and automotive products and services for all those years. All of these years Sears has treated me like a valued Customer and has stood behind every product and service they have sold. That all changed on Wednesday October 28 at the Sears Automotive Center in the Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Va.in June I brought my Toyota 4Runner in and purchased tires, brakes, wheel alignment, serpentine belt and other services totaling almost $ 1000.00. Recently my vehicle developed a shimmy in the front end which is usually associated with wheel balance or defective tires. I brought my vehicle in and the mechanic checked out the problem. They determined that I had a bad wheel bearing in the front wheel. At that time I asked them if this was something they could fix or if I need to take this to my dealer or another mechanic for repair. They responded that this was something they could fix and had done this work before. I asked for an estimate before I made my decision. I also called the dealer and the mechanic I normally work with to get a price for comparison purposes. If the Sears price was within the range I would allow them to do the work. The Sears salesperson came back with a price of $ 426.93 for parts, labor and tax to do the work. This was below the others but within the range so I ask them to complete the repair. This was at 9:30 in the morning and they told me it would take an hour or so to get the part and about 3 hours to do the work, but that the vehicle should be ready by 2:30 PM. They proceeded to take my car apart in preparation for the work which needed to be done. I came back past the service area around 12:30 PM and the vehicle was still up on the lift with the front still disassembled. The salesperson came out and said that the wrong part was sent, but that the correct part was on the way and that the vehicle should be ready around 2:30 PM. I came back around 2:30 PM to find the vehicle in the same condition. I was advised again that the wrong part was sent and that the correct part should be there soon. I was there when the part supplier arrived again with the wrong part. At this point I became very concerned as to weather or not your mechanic and salesperson really knew what they were doing. The salesperson went into his office and called a Toyota dealer parts department and told them what they needed. The parts department told them they had ordered the wrong parts and the parts they actually needed were more expensive. They salesperson then advised me that the cost to repair my vehicle was going to be $ 707 about $ 280.00 more that original estimate. This was also more than $ 100.00 higher than I could get it done elsewhere. I refused to pay $ 707 and the salesperson said all they could do was to put it back together the way it was. At this point I told them to put it back together as there was no other option. Had they given me the correct price in the beginning I never would have asked them to do the work. I thought they knew what they were doing, but apparently they did not. They told me to come back around 5:30 PM to get my car. So I had to walk home because I had a prior commitment which I need to take care of.
When I got home I also called Sears Corporate office to express my displeasure. I had tried to contact you but was told you were out until Monday and I was given not alternative but to escalate this. I also went online and pulled up the diagram of the front bearing assembly of my vehicle, got the part numbers needed and called the local auto parts supplier. The retail price he gave me for the 4 parts was around $ 275.00. The price your sales person was giving me went from $ 170 to more than $ 450. Something is wrong there!!!
I returned at 5:30 PM and picked up my vehicle. So after wasting 8 hours of my time the only thing I get is I'm sorry and my vehicle back with the same problem it had when I came in.
I guess what this tells me is that my time is worth NOTHING and as a Customer who spent about $ 10,000.00 (which you can easily verify) in your store in the last 2 years I am worth nothing?
Sincerely
A VERY UNHAPPY CUSTOMER
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