SEARS - Not a Service oriented company

Over the past 4 weeks I have been trying to get my lawn mower looked at by the service department.When I dropped my machine off at the local store I was given a claim receipt when I filled all my contract details in. Since that time I have been getting multiple phone calls requesting that I contact sears about a $49 service fee that needs to be paid before a tech will look at my machine to determine if its covered under the warrantly or not...When I call back to provide my credit card information (which should have been taken when I dropped the machine off in the first place) I get a store of someone from another department needing to call me back to confirm I am who I say I am...no one ever calls back from the other department (three weekends in a row) and the calls start again Monday morning demanding that I leave a contact number where I can be reached.

My wife happened to be home this week (week 4) and was around when the return call was made to get our credit card information to make the $49 payment...and still I don't know if the problem (less than two years old and will not start) is covered under my warranty or not...now I have $49 sunk and it would cost me more to not get the product fixed by Sears...not very good customer service as I know have a hay field to cut and no mower.