Sears, Appliance Repair and Customer Support. Redmond Washington

Sears Appliance Repair and Customer Service, Redmond Washington

I purchased a Kenmore washer dryer set with a service agreement. The unit failed (2nd time in 2 years). Due to Sears Service ineptness and inflexibility, my wife and I find ourselves in the position of having accumulated over $400 in lost wages waiting for service calls. All this activity is to accommodate 4 service calls, none of which resulted in a successful repair. And now we face the prospect of yet another service call next week. Hear is the story.

1st Service Call: The washer failed over the weekend flooding the utility room. I called Sears service and a technician was dispatched the following Thursday. The technician troubleshot the unit and placed parts on order and set up another service call in 2 weeks. Half a day lost wages. (Sears Service requires you to be available half a day so you can be there when the technician calls you ‘whenever’.

2nd Service Call: The parts arrived and another technician came to complete the repair but he could not. The first tech had miss-diagnosed the problem but that did not matter because the wrong parts were shipped anyway. The technician ordered more parts and set up a 3rd service call. Another Half day lost wages.

3rd Service Call: The parts arrived and yet another tech came out only to find out that the package of parts was incomplete. He double checked the parts order to find out the last remaining part had just been shipped that day. The technician set up another service call for two weeks. He said if the parts came in time, I could have the service call moved up a week. When the parts arrived on Friday, I tried to get Saturday service but was informed by the scheduling supervisor the Sears did NOT do Saturday service on washers regardless of how much I was put out by the circumstances. They did agree to move the service up a week to today (April 26th.) Through “One Source” I requested they intercede on my behalf to try to get Saturday service, but they got nowhere. They did assign me a case number though. Yippee! (The Case # is 1341758). Another Half a day lost wages.

4th Service Call: The service technician was a no show. After 5pm (the end of the service call window of time) I called the service center. They informed me that my service call was for May 3rd, 1pm to 5pm. The service call that had supposedly been set up by Sears service and verified by One Source had actually never been changed. I reconfirmed the Service call for Wed, May 3rd, 2006. This time the agreed to have the tech call be one hour before service so I will only miss about 2 and a half to three hours instead of 5 or 6. Another Half a day lost wages.

So Far, we have be out about $400 in lost wages, and another about $40 to $50 in Laundromat costs. (This does not take into account costs for the coming week) This is not to mention being treated like my inconvenience and frustration is of no real concern to Sears. I have been a loyal customer of Sears sense the mid 70’s and have always believed that Sears had the very good products and made up for any product shortcomings with great customer service. I am saddened to see that is no longer the case. The people at One Source are sending me some gift certificates to help defer some of the costs. (about one forth) but that does little to make me feel better about Sears’ commitment to it’s customers.

Least you forget, Sears, it is your CUSTOMERS that allow you to stay in business. Shame on you for treating them this.