Sears Rant

So about 3PM Monday the wife calls, "The freezer's not working. What do we do?" Now the fridge is 24 years old & we've already been told that rerpair parts are non existant so the answer is obvious: (GULP) it's time to spend a lot of money on a new fridge. I'm close to Sears so I go by to look, pricing from about a grand to three grand but she wants the french door kind & they seem to start @ $1500. I'm still not finished with my day so I send her over to get what we need & she wants. She calls back about an hour later & she's found one for about 2K, she thinks the extended service contract (5 years $500) is a rip. Oh, and there's a charge for taking the old fridge away. OK, when can we get it? Long pause "Thursday, probably." Ours is down, I've just made a run to get 50 lbs of dry ice to try to save our frozen food & you're telling me Thusday? "Well that's the best we can do" Blah, blah, blah. Within a mile of the Sears is a Loew's they have a nicer fridge on sale, in stock, delivered next day. Extended warrenty is $150, & there's no charge for removing the old one. They were here Tuesday AM by 10 o'clock. So much for the fancy 'Blue Crew' ads.

Yeah, I guess Lowe's wanted your money a little more than Sears did. I just hate it when you're going to drop a load of cash and retailers aren't willing to do a damn thing for you. Good on you for taking your business elsewhere.

I recently bought one from Lowes as well. It was delivered the next day and they hauled off the old one no charge. I, of course, stripped the useable parts from the dead one first. The dead one was only like 2 years old, Chinese, bought from Home Depot and out of warranty. The new one is bigger, $30 more than the crap Chinese one and made on this continent somewhere (shock).

QUICK!!!!!!!
Go to the post office and ask for a change of address form. These are now behind the counter and you have to ask for them. Tell them you will fill it out at home and reurn the form later. Actually, throw the form away, but...

Inside there is a 10% off coupon for anything bought at Lowes up to $5,000(including appliances.) This will save you $150 off a $1,500 fridge.

PS: Home Depot and Menard's also will honor this Lowes coupon. The coupon is roughly business card size so I make sure that I always have a few in my wallet. I think the post office is onto it and that is why they are kept behind the counter but if you ask for the address change packet they will give you one.

Having worked in a sears appliance deptartment, yup.. they arent the best thing going.

Did you feel like a piece of meat when you walked in? Comission based pay. Another thing to keep in mind is that 10% (or was it more?) of the price of the service contract goes straight into the salemans pocket. (and they get in trouble if they dont sell enough of them)

I didnt like that job, made me feel like a weasel.

Best Buy is quick to tell you they do not work on commission but what they do not tell you is that if they do not sell enough extended service packs they get fired.

I think the P.O. moving the CofA cards has nothing to do with the coupon but more to do with mail fraud of some type. Think about it, you get the address of someone changed to your address and with a little effort you can steal their identity.

Anymore, I don't even bother with Sears. It's a shame, as they seem to be improving the stuff/brands they sell, but the whole customer experience is annoying.

Your wife was completely right on the service plan being a rip.

Several years ago we bought a new fridge at Sears. In less than a year the compressor went out. Called the service number tell them the fridge is down we need someone to come out and look at it. They say they will have some there in 7 days. WTF? Ask the call taker to explain why we have a service plan and it takes a week to get somebody out here. Their response is "you have a $200 food voucher." I ask where am I going to store the $200 worth of replacement food, in a wet sack for a week? They just say "somebody will be out in 7 days."

Appointment gets scheduled. Call the store we got it from to see if they have any other number, etc. Get a runaround. We kindly explain our future appliance purchases will be made elsewhere and hang up. My wife has an Irish temper. She isn't giving up. She starts googling other numbers for Sears and making phone calls. I jumped in the truck and headed to Lowe's. Bought an upright freezer (we were planning to get one eventually), a mini fridge, and a hand truck. Get home and Erin is still making calls.

Eventually she got hold of an inside number and asked to speak to a manager. The girl on the other end said "Asking for a manager here is like asking the Hoffa family to see the body." At least Erin got a laugh out of that. Girl explains that once K-Mart took over Sears the service group was slashed and burned. Most managers were let go and the ones that remained just didn't care anymore.

Week later repair guy comes out and looks at it. Confirms the compressor died. Has to order one. I ask why there isn't one on the shelf in the service van. He explains they aren't allowed to stock parts anymore. I ask how long. 7 days. Swell.

The new compressor shows up at our house in 6 days and we have to call the service guy to let him know it's in. He was there the next day. We waited several days before putting any food in the fridge. Put some gallon jugs of water and some thermometers to observe before trusting it with food. Later we canceled the remaining time on the service contract.

Since the Fridge Fiasco we have gotten a couple other appliances at an independent place about an hour from home. The plunger on the dryer door broke so the light was staying on. Called out there to see if they had the part. They checked and one of the service vans was in our area. Within 20 minutes the van pulled in the driveway. The guy took a look at it, called back and told them exactly where to check on the shelf. They had the part and he said he was going to be back in the area the next day and would bring the part and install it at no charge. When we redo the kitchen the new stove and range top will be coming from them.

Oh, the minifridge is now in the garage under the work bench keeping tasty beverages cold. The upright freezer is still chugging away in the basement. The Sears fridge is still running, but always treated with suspicion. And the only time I get anything Craftsman now is if it's replacing an existing broken tool or was on clearance spotted while exchanging broken tools.

dont blame the tools man...theyre still pretty good...but yeah, pretty much everything else at sears is a suckfest

I remember now. My dead Chinese refridgerator had a 3 year warranty and was dead in 2 years. However, the fine print on the warranty said: 1 year, it breakee, we replaceee. 1 year to 3 year, it breakee, onreee compressor fixieee, you pay all labor. So, it was basically disposable.

4cylndrfury wrote: dont blame the tools man...theyre still pretty good...but yeah, pretty much everything else at sears is a suckfest

No, the tools aren't the same quality anymore either.

I have 20+ year old Craftsman ratchets that work better than the off the shelf new ones. Any made within the last 10 years that I've had were junk.

Gone through a couple Craftsman needle nose pliers. The 2nd pair had the casting fail at the end of the jaws just above the hinge pin. Wasn't doing anything stupid with them either. Was trying to hold a flat washer when they snapped. Upon closer inspection the hinge pin had China etched in it. Don't know when they started making Craftsman products outside the US, but I was pretty disappointed.

I don't have the patience to explain my whole story, but trust me, you don't ever want to hire Sears home services to come fix an appliance. They find local morons who will work at slave labor rates, but charge you a full Sears expert price.

And this is why I will always pay more to support the little guy. Those are the last few vestiges of the appliance industry that haven't had the big box brain slug strapped to them.

I read this rant this morning. Coincidently,after lunch the TV repair center that has my 22 month old set, calls to tell me the inverter is shot and, unfortunately it's integral to the main LCD panel. The TV is junk and out of warranty. So ,I call the manufacturers US headquarters and express my displeasure with a $1300 product that craps in 22 months and the parts aren't even available to fix it. The rep tells me that's because they're so expensive no one fixes these sets. Talked to his boss next, and apparently they do have a customer review panel to see what they may be able to do for me. We'll see in a couple of days. I doubt they can appease me, so it'll be some other brand for a replacement.

My local Sears repair guy came to fix the stove, which was only a couple of years old. He took the time to show me two different priced switches, which differed only in a little detail. He let me watch him change out the bad switch and he also showed me where to order the next one I would need,too.Instead of $129 per switch, I can fix it myself for $27 ! He's a good ,honest guy!

Since I am part Bohemian; I am required to shop 6-8 stores before any appliance is purchased. Our washing machine was reviewed and I admit it was the last time I would ever walk into Sears for a major appliance purchase.

The manufacturer's also play a part here as some of the places had the "older" model and Sears had the "newer" model. There were a lot of games when I tried to compare one Whirlpool washer to another.

The mattress people play a similar game in making it impossible to compare stores model to model.

Last 'fridge came from the Sears appliance outlet store near Baltimore. All the appliances that are floor models or refused on delivery due to dings - or having been skewered by a fork lift - end up here. There's an online inventory that's representative if not accurate.

We found a super nice stainless steel Kenmore "Professional" series w/ the fridge up/freezer down, split upper doors, tilt-out lower door, ice+water in the door etc. etc. Original price was the better part of $3k and they were looking for something like $1600. It only had a couple tiny dings, but one of the upper door hinges was missing. Like all appliances Kenmore=Amana=Frigidaire, etc. and all the parts are interchangeable. So I grabbed a screwdriver and a pair of pliers from the dump bin of $.99 tools by the front counter, and swapped on a hinge from the most hammered unit that had one that would fit.

It's been a great 'fridge.

Yep - similar situation with a LCD TV I have - power supply is part of MOBO - 16 months after my 12 month warranty is up, all of a sudden it cant handle supplying constant 12v power needed to keep my high res settings - watch some seriously dynamic HiDef action, and the TV turns off yep - the computer decides its unsafe to stay on when the voltage drops, and kicks out. Come to find out, my brand was only created to move the remaining inventory for a failing bankrupt mfr, so the replacement parts literally DO NOT EXIST - my only "fix" is to drop some color and refresh settings to more power-supply friendly levels. Thats the last time I buy hi dollar electronics from a store where I can also buy conditioner, toaster strudels, and boxer briefs.

any way to use an outside , regulated 12v power supply and patch it in..?

I worked at Sears for two years (2005-2007), six months in the men's apparel department and the remainder in footwear. Two years too long- It was the most utterly soul-crushing job I've ever had, bar-none.

DeadSkunk wrote: I read this rant this morning. Coincidently,after lunch the TV repair center that has my 22 month old set, calls to tell me the inverter is shot and, unfortunately it's integral to the main LCD panel. The TV is junk and out of warranty. So ,I call the manufacturers US headquarters and express my displeasure with a $1300 product that craps in 22 months and the parts aren't even available to fix it. The rep tells me that's because they're so expensive no one fixes these sets. Talked to his boss next, and apparently they do have a customer review panel to see what they may be able to do for me. We'll see in a couple of days. I doubt they can appease me, so it'll be some other brand for a replacement.

what brand tv

lowes is my appliance supplier preference.

got my stove there on a 10% off all major appliances and they let me use the 10% off moving coupon on top of that.

+1 for Lowes. When we built our house we cash purchased all the apliances for the house there. When we told them it was our first house they found all kinds of discounts and free delivery. When they delivered the stove as the deliverer was moving the plug and drug it across the pain. It scratched of course. A call was made to a manager and a $200.00 coupon was on its way. We kept the stove and only an inch of the scratch was visible after the stove was installed. A black Sharpie took care of that.

My dad buys all of his appliances at Lowes on clearance. We missed getting an $1100 clothes dryer for $220 by 20 minutes. I really don't care about a nick or ding on my appliances. They're going to be used and abused.

Sears amazes me that they are still alive. I've never seen a store so determined to self destruct but keep on going regardless. They are truly, remarkably, bad.