Sears Has Horrible Customer Service

Other than one time, we have always bought our appliances from Sears. They usually have good customer service, they price match and they have always had a good warranty, which is the main reason we use them.

Not only will I never buy another appliance from Sears, I will never step foot in Sears again.

On September 15th my dryer stopped working. The morning of the 16th I called the Sears warranty number. After getting my information they transferred me to Residential Maintenance, who they contract the repair out to. An appointment was made for the 22nd with a four hour (8-12) wait window. I rescheduled everything I had going on that day to wait. At 11:00 on the 22nd I get a phone call saying the technician called in sick. I was frustrated, but we rescheduled for Thursday the 24th, with an 8-12 window again. I cancelled/rescheduled/changed all my plans for Thursday so I could sit and wait.

Thursday the tech comes. He spends maybe 10 minutes in with the dryer. He does not take anything apart or look at the inside of the dryer. He comes and says the belt broke. He told me that they would order the belt that day and he would be back on Monday to install it. He also said that I would be called to have an appointment set up for Monday.

Friday afternoon (the 25th) no one had called. I call and leave a message that is never returned. Monday I call again. After getting my information she puts me on hold for 15 minutes. She comes back and says that the belt was ordered priority, but it will not arrive until Wednesday. (I can order priority from anywhere and it won't take a week to get here, so my guess is that the 15 minutes I was on hold she was ordering the belt. And so far no one I have talked to has said other wise when I make that comment). I am told that a second technician will have to come out with the guy because my washer and dryer are mounted together. I tell her they aren't. She says he said they are and two people have to come. She schedules an appointment for Thursday, October 2nd.

On the 30th I contacted Sears through Facebook. I sent them a private message, trying to give them an opportunity to make things right. I told them what had happened. They assigned a Sears Member Experience Manager to this and gave me a case number. The point of me contacting Sears was because I bought this warranty through Sears, not Residential Maintenance. Sears name is on the paperwork and they are ultimately the responsible one for fulfilling the warranty. I hoped having them involved would expedite the repair and also allow Sears to know that this company has horrible customer service and do not come to appointments. What I got instead is basically a person that calls the company they contracted the work out to and accept the excuses they are given and then relays those excuses to me.

So, today, after all of my schedules and plans have been changed again, I sat and waited. After sending an email yesterday to the Sears manager asking if I had an appointment today and never getting a response, I emailed again at around 9 this morning. She emailed me back a short time later to tell me that she contacted the repair company and their technician called in sick. AGAIN. I CONTACTED THEM AND FOUND THAT OUT. No one called on their own to inform me the tech called in sick. The repair company told her she was unable to get through to me this morning on my phone. However, I received no voicemail and show no missed calls. Amazingly, they were able to get through to Paul immediately after Sears called them to check on the appointment. She told them they were working to get another technician out today (which is the same line I was given the last time this excuse was used and no one called to tell me there was not another tech available. I was left sitting and waiting).

At this point I have spent more than SIXTEEN HOURS of my time sitting and waiting on appointment windows. Not to mention the numerous schedule changes, the time and gas and money to try and have laundry for my family and the amount of time trying to get someone here. I was asked to continue to wait today, past my four hours, because they were trying to get someone here. I told her this was unacceptable and I HAD to leave by 2 to pick up kids. I asked the Sears manager to give me the contact info of someone above her. Her response:

We are an escalated group and I am a manager. We are working with the service provider to ensure that someone does come out today. Once I have any further information I will be in contact with you.

At 9:41 she said they were working with the repair company to get confirmation that someone would be out today and at what time. Four hours later at 12:26 I asked if there was an appointment for today. At 1:32 I had not received an answer or a phone call. I sent a message saying that I was again requesting the contact info for someone over her. I then called Sears corporate number. I was immediately transferred to the department I had already been dealing with through email. While on the phone with this lady the manager I had been talking to responded the same response as above and added that no other technician was available today (this is at 1:55 for an 8-12 appointment) and told me that they had scheduled an appointment for tomorrow morning between 8-12.

Neither of these ladies are a CEO. Neither are on the board at Sears. Do not tell me there is no one above you to handle problems. Everyone has someone to answer to.

At this point it is obvious that my time is not at all important to them. They will not allow me to have someone else repair it at their expense. They will not reimburse lost wages for hours of sitting for no shows. They will not reimburse gas or laundry expenses. They obviously are not concerned about my schedule since they are scheduling appointments without even asking (which, by the way, I have an appt that can not be rescheduled tomorrow at the time they chose to reschedule for). When the lady on the phone made a comment about "Well you could try to get a new dryer because of all of the missed appointments, but they won't even consider it at this point because there is an open work order." When I yelled (I admit, I yelled) "CLOSE THE WORKORDER!!!!!" She calmly says "I can't do that." Then why the @#(*$&@(*#&$()*@U#$% did you even mention it???????

After talking to the repair company and two different Customer Experience Managers with Sears, I am no closer on October 2nd to having a working dryer than I was on September 15th when my dryer stopped working.

My children do not like their sun-starched clothes. I don't blame them, I don't either. The towels are scratchy when you dry off. Their pants can stand on their own. And we won't even start with the wrinkles. Finding time to sit at a sketchy-area laundry mat, alone, is not easy.

Ultimately, I paid Sears $280 for a warranty to cover my appliance should it break down. I did not pay Repair Maintenance. I was not informed at the time that this is an "overflow area" meaning that they don't have enough Sears techs and have to contract out repairs.

The Customer Experience Managers do nothing to get the problem taken care of any quicker. They are simply a middle person. They took over making the calls I was making and they didn't get me any where closer to having my dryer repaired. Three weeks without a dryer because of something as simple as a broken belt is beyond ridiculous. Sears is not concerned with me at all, and most definitely not their reputation. I got online and found complaint after complaint about broken appliances and having to fight to get them fixed.

I will no longer shop at Sears for my appliances. Or anything else. I also will not shop Lands End, Kmart or any of their other shops. I know they won't even notice the loss of me as a customer and that is okay. The way they treat their customers after the money is in their pockets is NOT okay. My mistake was in thinking they still thought customers mattered.