Megan hates Sears. Oh boy, does she hate Sears.

Rod,

Have to say, I must agree with the poster.

My nightmare with Sears began when I moved into our new home about a year and a half ago. Being a rural area without a major shopping center nearby, I went to sears.com to purchase a washing machine and fridge (my house came with neither). Sears.com said that the items I selected were not available locally, but that they would be shipped to me, and that I would get an e-mail to confirm the available date. I figured it would be no more than a week or so. I paid for the items (about $1000), and then received an e-mail that it would be over a month before the items would arrive. Unacceptable.

It was at that point I drove up to nearest Sears Hardware & Appliance store (about 30 miles from here) and spoke to the manager about my dilema. He looked at my purchase order and told me he didn't understand why Sears.com said it would be a month to get these sent to me because he sold both of those models in the store and I could have them by the end of the week. The local store manager could not have been nicer - the owner actually delivered and installed the items himself.

This is when the nightmare truly began. I called the sears.com customer service line at least 3 times to get the order cancelled, and was told that it would take about 7-10 business days to get the payment credited back on my card. Fine. When I called my credit card company 3 weeks later to confirm that this was taken care of, they said they had received no such chargeback from Sears. So I called Sears again, only to find out that the order had indeed not been cancelled, and this rep told me it would take up to 30 days to process to the chargeback. So I called my credit card company to dispute the charge. That rep to me to pay the full amount of the bill minus the disputed charge. I guess that rep was wrong too, because when I received my next credit card statement, I was slapped with about $50 in finance charges (which I finally argued with them and got taken off). All told, it took almost two full months to get a chargeback on my card. I wrote a letter to higher ups at Sears about the experience, but never received any sort of response.

Another guy has posted his ongoing nightmare with Sears.com at a blog about them continuing to ship him the wrong washing machine, and then scheduling someone to pick it up who never shows. So I know its not just me.

I've also had one experience with Sears Appliance Repair where, because of needing a part shipped and two cancellations on their part, it took over 3 weeks to fix my oven.

I'm afraid we'll see much more of this "customer no-service" as companies continue to tighten their belts evenmore.

John,

I don't necessarily blame the people in customer service. Ages ago I used to work in a customer service center. We were never empowered with the tools to actually do our job adequately without continually going back to our manager for advice or approval. I liken it to going to buy a car and the sales person never being able to give you a yes or no without speaking with his manager first.

I think it all boils down to Sears customer service reps needing some tools (and not Craftsman, mind you) to do their job effectively. And management being afraid, very afraid, to give them those tools which will enable them to speak with honesty and clarity to the consumer.

Not a new phenomenon with Sears, I had a similar experience with them about 15 years ago. With me it was a dishwasher that had given up the ghost before its first birthday. Several service calls later the repairman finally admitted he didn't have a clue as to how to fix the machine. Now dishwashers really aren't that complicated, they only have a few moving parts, so determining the competency of these so-called technicians are left as an exercise for the reader. No offers to replace the unit were forthcoming, and I never could get Sears to honor their warranty after that, they would neither repair nor replace it. The topper came when, right after I had given up on Sears and bought a new dishwasher, Sears called up and offered to extend my warranty! I'm surprised that my response didn't melt the phone lines.

I won't tell the whole story, but we just completed our own three month escapade trying to get a new drum for a Kenmore dryer.

The hardest thing about this kind of service is finding someone to blame. Venting at the front-line employees is a sin.

I hate that Megan had such a hard time with Sears. I love Sears for appliances, I really do. I have a Kenmore Refrigerator, Dishwasher, Range, Garbage Disposal, Washer & Dryer, and a Craftsman Lawnmower! (No, I don't work for Sears.) Must be something with my childhood. I find it easiest to shop at Sears rather than wade through all the offerings at Lowes or Best Buy. AND the appliances at Sears seem to have higher efficiency ratings than similar-looking models at the other stores.

I have a good story to tell about Sears. About five years ago, we were doing renovations to the house. Needed a new clothes dryer. I had decided to install natural gas in our home, so I bought a gas dryer pending the installation of the gas line. Well, the gas company wanted $5,000 to run the line to my house. Propane wasn't much cheaper. So, six or eight months later, I gave up on natural gas. This gas dryer had been sitting in the box in my garage the whole time. I was afraid Sears wouldn't take it back, but they did. Sears let me return the gas dryer less a small restocking fee, and trade it in on an electric dryer which was on sale! I was so relieved.

The only complaint I have against Sears is that they charge $40 for the water filter for the refrigerator, and you have to replace the filter every six months. Other than that, I'm good.

Wow!! I thought my experience with trying to get Sears to fix my dishwasher was bad! This is Division of Motor Vehicles bad!!! This is old Soviet Union customer service bad! The person who contacted their state attorney general is on the right track. Most state attornies general offices have some sort of consumer fraud protection unit. This is what happened to me: got a mail solicitation to 3 days at a resort in Colonial Williamsburg. I realized it was probably a timeshare presentation thing but thought, oh well, I have sales resistance, it will be a nice little vacation. It cost $135 to book the trip and it had to be taken within a certain time frame. I later realized that we would not be able to take the trip within the certain time so I called to cancell. They said you could not cancel. (this was never told to me before) What do you mean I said, you can always cancel hotel reservations at least 48 hours ahead of time at the least. Well, we don't allow that, she said. Let me speak to your manager, I said. Well, I can give you their phone number but they never answer the phone, she says. (she was right). So, I decided to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office. I wrote a certified letter to the resort with a photocopy of the complaint I was filling out with the state AG office. I had not filed the complaint yet. The next week after sending the letter, I got my credit card bill and saw a credit for $135 from the resort (I was also planning to dispute the charge with my CC company if necessary). I hadn't even had to file with the AG and they refunded my money, which shows me they knew what they did was not legal! But get this, they never wrote or called me to tell me they were refunding my money, or apologized or anything like that. Maybe I should have gone ahead and filed the complaint anyway but I was just glad to get my money back.

My other pet peeve about customer service: Call centers with people from India and the Phillipines who speak English (after a fashion) but their accents are so heavy, I can't understand a word they say! This is beyond frustrating when I reflect some American call center drone probably lost their job so it could be outsourced to people who cannot be understood by an American English speaker. Incredible!

We just bought a stove, microwave, refrigerator, dish washer, upright washer and dryer from Sears. The salesperson was very helpful and we spent hours with her over several trips. Sears always has some type of sale going on and she told us to come back for in a week for some of the items. I forgot about an old Sears card I had and they had a 10% off special purchases so she took that off the sales price. She was very knowledgeable and told us to call Lowes and Best Buy. Sears beat their prices for the same models. She convinced us to buy the satin finish on the fridge instead of the stainless, which was a very smart move. The items were shipped when promised and one was not on time but they called to let us know. Consumer Reports rates Sears in the middle of pack for repairs. Of course you locally owned store rates the highest by far, but they can't match the price.

She needs to call a local appliance shop and ask them to do the repair. Contrary to popular belief, techs not under contract to Sears can get parts and do repairs on Kenmores. You might have to wait a little longer to get the part, but you'd get the service much faster, so you'd probably come out ahead, and if it's a shop with a good reputation to maintain, you'll definitely be happier.

If it's still under warranty, that's another matter, but at this point, paying for it herself might be worth ending the cycle of grief.