It was the summer of 1996, and my car's brakes needed to be replaced and my husband needed new tires on his pickup. So, we went to Sears Automotive. My husband chose off-road tires for his pickup, but when the tire replacement was done, they were the cheap tires. We pointed this out, and after trying to convince several auto techs and the manager for about an hour, they changed the tires to what we ordered and had purchased.
We also paid for the brake job, but when we drove out of the parking lot and stopped at the first stop sign, the brakes sounded worse than before. Drove right back to the automotive department, where they said, oh, we just replaced the brakes on the rear drums. So, why did the brakes sound worse? They gave us the rear brake job for free and proceeded to do the front discs. Okay, we drove out and the brakes made a horrible worble sound. This is not good. Drove the car back. They said that they did not sand down the rotor evenly, so after waiting to get in a week later, they took it back to fix it. I drove it out, thinking the brakes were fixed. Not so, the brake response was worse and within a week, the worble sound was worse than previously. We called Sears Automotive and wanted them to make it right by replacing the rotors that they sanded down too far. They said they couldn't do it. We drove there and let them drive it around the parking lot with us to hear and feel the horrible brake job. They admitted it was bad, but were unwilling to give us new rotors. Mind you, this is now about a month after the first brake job, and the charge was on my Sears card. I wrote to the Sears credit card company to tell them that I was not going to pay for the brake job until it was resolved, and paid off the rest of the card except the charge for the brakes. I also wrote several letters to the local Sears and the national company, as well, with no further response. I continued to speak with the manager at the Sears Automotive, who delayed responses on resolving the issue.
Then, I got a nasty gram from the Sears credit people because I had not paid that portion of my card. I waited another week, and after the automotive manager gave me a wishy-washy response to resolving the bad brake job, I decided to pay my stupid Sears card off and cancel it, and along with my check, I wrote a nice nasty gram back to them to let them know that I would no longer shop at Sears, and I would let everyone know of my experiences with their incompetent staff. (That I continue to do to this day...)
The very next weekend, I took my car to Brakes Plus where they treated my very nicely and gave me a new brake job with new rotors. After spending $350, I finally had a safe car to drive, no thanks to Sears Automotive.
For the next eight years, I saw that credit ding from Sears on my credit report. Even though I had a note referencing the issue, it still put a negative mark on my credit, and cost me more with higher mortgage rates. This summer we purchased a new mini-van, and for the first time that Sears ding was no longer on my now excellent credit report, thus continuing to remind me how I really hate Sears.
0 comments