Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sears Appliance Repair: Repair Service Not Included
Since I have access to this giant podium*, I intend to use it. 8-)
On Monday, our washing machine decided that washing was really just too much to expect from any appliance and stopped working. Because of the name and history of the company, and because we didn’t have any better ideas, we called Sears Appliance Repair. Sears Appliance Repair quoted a service call price of $129(!) plus parts, which seemed a bit high, but hey, they need to eat too, right? Sears Appliance Repair scheduled us for the first available slot, today between 10 am and 2 pm. Yesterday, Sears Appliance Repair called to confirm this appointment.
Today? No repair guy, no phone call, nothing whatsoever from Sears Appliance Repair.
Does anybody have a suggestion for appliance repair in Denver Metro that doesn’t suck as much as Sears Appliance Repair? Maybe even somebody that knows something about service?
Update: Calling Sears resulted in a 10 minute hold before they would give out a number for the local contractor. (Apparently Sears Appliance Repair cannot even manage their own telephone lists.)
When my wife called the local contractor and asked to talk to the manager, the employees just set the phone down and talked to each other about what terrible customers we were. (Sears Appliance Repair apparently also can’t figure out how to use a hold button.) After five minutes, they decided to come back on line with the comment that “The manager is in a meeting and can’t come to the phone.”
Seriously, do not use Sears Appliance Repair for anything.
2nd Update: In the comments for this post, a Sears “Senior Case Manager” has commented, offering to resolve the situation. Had this happened when we first tried to escalate, it might have done some good. (Had it even been possible to escalate, for that matter.) As it is, I’ve engaged a different service and plan not to use Sears again.
Still, it looks like when you get high enough up the corporate chain, they actually do care about your opinion, at least if you have and are willing to use a podium (of whatever size). Doesn’t help me much, but might be worthwhile information for somebody else.
* For some deeply idiosyncratic meaning of “giant”, I’ll admit.
And did I mention that Sears Appliance Repair sucks?
Comments & Trackbacks
My parents had such trouble with Sears as a kid I’ve never really considered them for anything major like an appliance purchase. Hand tools and certain power tools maybe, since the Craftsman brand still seems to mean quality, but Kenmore?
Nuh-uh.
My parents had such trouble with Sears when I was a kid…
Oh, it isn’t a Kenmore (we bought it from Lowes, which is a different customer “service” story). I thought I had heard decent things about Sears Appliance Repair; I must have been mistaken about that.
"giant podium”
Why is it that I have visions of hundreds of DougS dancing on the head of a pin?
Probably just me…
I am legion, for we are many.
Not exactly angels.
8-)
Not going to get much disagreement from this corner.
To DougS,
I am very sorry to hear about our technician not making the appointment. My name is Brian and I am part of the Sears Cares escalations team. We do not like to see things like this occur. They sometimes do, however, and that is why my team is in place. We would like to look into the situation and make sure the service is taken care of. I assure you that we make every effort to make every appointment for the day, or the service unit calls the customer to advise of this. This ensures that you as the customer do not waste a day waiting on a tech who can’t be there. I don’t know where the failure occurred but we do want to look into it and get your washer up and running as soon as possible. When we step into a situation, because of the level of escalation we are at, the service will happen on the day it is set for. We also need to know more about when you called in for more information as that is not acceptable behavior by any Sears associate, and we will address that accordingly. If you are still interested in Sears providing this service for you, please contact my office via email at and we would be happy to help. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the washer was purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. Also, please provide the screen name (DougS) used to post here for reference to this issue, and we do look forward to talking to you soon.
Thank you,
Brian J.
Senior Case Manager
I’m late to the game on this one, but I use ServiceMagic.com for all my needs like this. I have yet to find a bad contractor out of the 4-5 I have used through the service (so far for landscaping, roof repair, garage door service, exterior painting, and something else which escapes me).