We bought a new Kenmore range at Sears back in September, after our former range died ( the search, and the new purchase). That’s only about seven months ago.
Yesterday, as we were preparing lunch to service during an Easter visit from my mother and sister, that new range sizzled, blinked, and smoked. We weren’t even using the stove when this happened. It went off on its own. The kitchen filled with the scent of burnt wires. Just what we needed as we got ready for guests.
Luckily, despite some strange behavior, I was able to fire up two burners long enough to cook some pasta and make some simple cream sauce, which we served with some grilled chicken, some of Meda’s cole slaw, and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
Later in the afternoon, though, things started happening. The stove would alternately display an error message, and then endlessly sound its timer alert, beep, beep, beep, and it would not turn off. Meanwhile, we found the oven wouldn’t heat. At this point, we turned the power off, so I’m not sure whether any burners still work.
So I got on the phone to Sears. They were, the recording said, “experiencing high call volume.” Or, more likely, short staffing, I’m afraid. It was about 15 minutes before the call was answered. Luckily, it didn’t take long to establish that the main digital controller board has to be replaced. Then came the surprise.
Instead of trying to work my schedule around a visit from the Sears repair person within the next couple of days, the service rep on the phone announced, quite cheerfully, “I’m going to order the part and it will be shipped directly to you. Then we’ll have a technician install it.”
What? I guess that I was supposed to be happy that the part will be shipped to our house. “We allow a week for delivery,” the service rep said, making the earliest appointment with the repair guy a week from Monday. That’s at least twice the response time of any other repair we’ve had in the past.
Aggravating, to say the least, since this appliance couldn’t be called “cheap” by any means.
And it seems to mean Sears doesn’t have parts available locally for all the appliances it sells in Hawaii. That’s certainly not good news for customers, even if it does help the company’s bottom line.
Sears service? It used to be something you could rely on. Now, forget it.
The only good news is that it’s still under warranty. So delays aside, the repair shouldn’t cost us anything. I have my fingers crossed.
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Don’t you think that you should have ordered the stove over the Internet? That way the seller could have avoided the 4.712% GET, and sold it to you cheaper than the Sears product. But, no. You want your “cake and eat it too.”
You want Sears to compete with those mainland entities on price AND provide expensive local storage for spare parts, AND provide local technicians (free if possible), AND provide service on your schedule, at your home, out in the country. The economics of today, with entities like Amazon (and others) eating the figurative competitive lunch of Sears, Wal-Mart, Target–and the other “brick & mortar” stores, because “smart shoppers” like you buy from places that have nearly a 5% economic edge, does not permit places like Sears to provide the services you want, when you want them.
There is legislation to level the playing field–but it is not likely to pass, because, despite this current kitchen kurfluffle at Lind Manor, Hawaii consumers like to get something for less–regardless of the potential long range consequences–such as those you are now encountering.
So let me get this straight.
Because we chose to buy local, in a brick and mortar store, paying a higher price in the process…we are somehow responsible for the problems?
Not so much.
-Ian
Nicely written, John, but you seem a little angry about something else today. Having a passive-aggressive moment with Ian, are we?
12/22/2012
Having just ordered a washing machine online today from Sears, they do add the GiT as they should.
Why does Sears really Suck?
1. The online ordering didn’t allow for store pickup @ checkout despite checking the *Pick up at store option earlier in the process.
2. Calling the 800# CS dept got me past that hurdle. They were even able to confirm that Windward Mall Sears had available stock.
3. Sears sucks because they didn’t have one available for pickup & cancelled the order.
4. Sears sucks because they debited my debit card the purchase price although they claim they didn’t debit the card.
5. The cancellation notification email they sent to me included in PLAIN TEXT
a. Name
b. Address
c. PH#
d. last 4 digits of debit card
I realize this is an older blog entry I’m posting to but obviously some things are timeless & will always be current, such as Sears Sucks!
Not only will they ship the parts to your house, they’ll FedEx them so they’ll have to swallow a huge shipping cost.
Sears has been doing this for several years now. And you do get the part quickly and they come fairly quickly to install it. You can’t expect and repair shop to stock every spare part-and this way you know the part comes quickly and to the right person.
Something similar happened when we called the warranty company to fix our reclining sofa. They emailed David pictures of the pulley handle. David chose the wrong one, which was mailed to our home by Amazon. He emailed them with the correct choice. Again, Amazon mailed it to us and then the warranty company hired a 3rd party to replace the broken handle.
If they shipped the part to me I’d probably install it myself and get it running sooner than later.
On the other hand, if the stove weren’t working I’d have to take my wife to dinner and she’d probably appreciate that more.
And I could heat water for coffee on the propane stove outside.
Probably void the rest of the warranty, ‘tho, if you did the repair yourself.
Ian, did you get that “hurrican stove” like advised last year when this came up? Hmmmm? I hate to say I told you so, BUT I TOLD YOU SO!
Dear Mr. Lind,
Please accept our apologies for the trouble that you have encountered with range. I can understand the frustration that comes when a high dollar purchase fails. It only makes the situation worse when the item is less than a year old, and you have to wait a week for service to correct the issue. My name is Brian and I am part of the Sears Social Media Escalations team. After reading your post, I have to say I am very concerned. I understand that it is not easy to be without a working range, would like to offer my team’s help in making this right.
At your convenience, please contact our office via email at smsupport@searshc.com so you don’t have to continue to be frustrated by this. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the range was purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. Also, in your email, please provide the name (Ian Lind) you used to post on this site, for reference to your issue, and we do look forward to talking to you soon.
Brian S.
Social Media Moderator
Sears Social Media Support
Sears Cares? Weird. And weird that you have a social media support program, or, wait, that’s all you have because you are focused on damage control and not the original damage. I bought a water softener at Sears, paid full price + installation + 3 year warrantee. Installation was to be the next day. Softener was dropped off, crew said they had to come back the following day. One week later, no install, so I went back to Sears in person and asked for an installation. Turns out that the contract installer has a “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau. I told Sears to come pick up the item because I wasn’t going to wait any longer. Two days later the softener was picked up. More than three weeks later my purchase was not credited, then finally someone found out that Sears “forgot” to credit the purchase. All of this was communicated to Sears in person, by email, and by phone, with no suitable timely outcome. So recover that Social Media, because you obviously can’t do the work when it matters.
Dear Brian S.,
How wonderful Sears employed lurkers to scour the angry blogs and crazy Web sites created to vent when local, national and corporate Sears entities forced such activities from its customers. Following is my recent Sears story for your pleasure, if you are still employed by Sears:
Oh my God Sears deserves to hang itself. At the very least, I wish the company would quit taunting the public with the belief that Sears might be a good location to buy a product. A year ago I purchased a high-end Kitchenaid slide-in range, for a fair sales price with a new Sears credit account to take advantage of their 18-month zero interest offer. Except for the almost three weeks delivery time, the rest of that transaction has been beautiful and the Kitchenaid product has been as terrific as I expected.
Then, fast-forward about 11 months later to the week before Thanksgiving 2013, and I found myself frustrated with the lack of space available in my very nice Kitchenaid refrigerator. I looked around online for various styles of fridges and discovered “freezer-less” fridges by Frigidaire. This would be a perfect auxiliary garage fridge. The discovery of this product was made on the Sears Web site. I spent some time deliberating and also discovered Sears was again offering zero interest, this time for a period of 12 months, sold somewhat at a sales price compared to the normal listing price.
So I placed my order. And, the really exciting thing happened when I discovered I could have the new thing delivered the very next day. I did it! And Sears delivered late the next afternoon. My God how exciting!
Well when the delivery crew of three (Really? Efficiencies require three delivery people?) brought the product into my garage and removed the box, we found a big old dent in the upper portion of the right face of the fridge. The lead delivery person said I should contact Sears and I will probably receive a rebate in the form of 10 percent-off coupons on future purchases or something like that. Well that didn’t sound terrific to me, one because the machine could be affected internally somehow and two because I didn’t pay $1,600 for something that arrives damaged-on-delivery.
Regardless, I slept on it, filled the fridge with loads of beer, wine and leftovers, and then decided I didn’t really care about the dent. Thanksgiving happened. Then it was Black Friday. I curiously checked Sears’ site to see if they were marking that model down. And, indeed they did by about $77.
I printed my purchase receipt and the sales price and went to my local Sears store where I showed the appliance sales people how the price had changed in less than 48 hours, fully expecting to get a $77 refund. I was met with an incredibly rude attitude and the response that Sears corporate instructed all employees that there will be no honoring Black Friday sales prices for previous purchases. I asked for a manager, for which one was rudely offered, and he curtly provided the same attitude and answer.
On the way home I called the number given on the Sears Web site, through which the same response was provided. When I escalated my question to a manager, a woman of whom I could barely understand, one with loads more attitude and rudeness than I had experienced in the store, sang the same song.
I told her I wanted both she and Sears to clearly understand that unless they honor the sales price and refund the measly $77, I would return the product completely, dent and all, and they could just eat the whole $1,600.
Sears apparently operates on a business model that I am way too stupid to comprehend because that fridge was picked up Sunday afternoon, following Thanksgiving, and the full refund was on my account within 24 hours, including delivery charge.
I now own the exact same refrigerator model, purchased from an online appliance vendor, both tax-free and free delivery, and for less than the sales price at Sears, saving me a total of $491.
Incredible journey to keep $500 in my pocket but I see no future in bothering with Sears, ever.
I had a Sears warranty on my all Kitchen appliances.
When my cook top failed, Sears failed to show up for three separate scheduled appointments. There is a 10-14 day waiting period between each appointment regardless of how long you wait. Escalating the problem to a supervisor did not solve the problem.
That is three days sitting at home waiting for nothing. Do not buy an extended warranty from Sears. The warranty is not insurance and offers no consumer protections from this kind of delaying tactic and fraudulent corporate behavior.
I agree Dee Dee, my 91 year old father bought an extended sears two warranty on a sears dish-washer. It stopped working the other night and I called Sears. It will take almost two weeks for the tech to get here.
Heck I could have called a local guy, he would have changed the same or probably about a hundred less if I’m guessing right and it would have been working in two to three days.
Price wasn’t the issue, convenience was and this is not convenient.
Moral of the story, CALL LOCAL AND DO NOT BUY THE WARRENTY, it’s faster and if you ever have a problem it’s the same cost or less in the long run.
It’s two year warranty and charged the same
Oh my God Sears deserves to hang itself. At the very least, I wish the company would quit taunting the public with the belief that Sears might be a good choice to buy a product. A year ago I purchased a high-end Kitchenaid slide-in range, for a fair sales price with a new Sears credit account to take advantage of their 18-month’s zero interest offer. Except for the almost three weeks delivery time, the rest of that transaction has been beautiful and the Kitchenaid product has been as terrific as I expected.
Then, fast-forward about 11 months later to the week before Thanksgiving 2013, and I found myself frustrated with the lack of space available in my very nice Kitchenaid refrigerator. I looked around online for various styles of fridges and discovered “freezer-less” fridges by Frigidaire. This would be a perfect auxiliary garage fridge. The discovery of this product was made on the Sears Web site. I spent some time deliberating and also discovered Sears was again offering zero interest, this time for a period of 12 months, sold somewhat at a sales price compared to the normal listing price.
So I placed my order. And, the really exciting thing happened when I discovered I could have the new thing delivered the very next day. I did it! And Sears delivered late the next afternoon. My God how exciting!
Well when the delivery crew of three (Really? Efficiencies require three delivery people?) brought the product into my garage and removed the box, we found a big old dent in the upper portion of the right face of the fridge. The lead delivery person said I should contact Sears and I will probably receive a rebate in the form of 10 percent-off coupons on future purchases or something like that. Well that didn’t sound terrific to me, one because the machine could be affected internally somehow and two because I didn’t pay $1,600 for something that arrives damaged-on-delivery.
Regardless, I slept on it, filled the fridge with loads of beer, wine and leftovers, and then decided I didn’t really care about the dent. Thanksgiving happened. Then it was Black Friday. I curiously checked Sears’ site to see if they were marking that model down. And, indeed they did by about $77.
I printed my purchase receipt and the sales price and went to my local Sears store where I showed the appliance sales people how the price had changed in less than 48 hours, fully expecting to get a $77 refund. I was met with an incredibly rude attitude and the response that Sears corporate instructed all employees that there will be no honoring Black Friday sales prices for previous purchases. I asked for a manager, for which one was rudely offered, and he curtly provided the same attitude and answer.
On the way home I called the number given on the Sears Web site, through which the same response was provided. When I escalated my question to a manager, a woman of whom I could barely understand, one with loads more attitude and rudeness than I had experienced in the store, sang the same song.
I told her I wanted both she and Sears to clearly understand that unless they honor the sales price and refund the measly $77, I would return the product all completely, dent and all, and they could just eat the whole $1,600.
Sears apparently operates on a business model that I am way to stupid to comprehend because that fridge was picked up Sunday afternoon, following Thanksgiving, and the full refund was on my account within 24 hours, including delivery charge.
I now own the exact same refrigerator model, purchased form an online appliance vendor, both tax-free and free delivery, and for less than the sales price at Sears, saving me a total of $491.
Incredible journey to keep $500 in my pocket but I see no future in bothering with Sears, ever.
I hope you got your range fixed. I got a kick out of Sears Cares. Yep, they sure do! I created a YouTube channel about all the Sears Garbage I bought through the years. Take a look. If interested, contact me.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOHaGmzGG5P0qWHifysn_cg
Sears Basura Web Channel