Sears Appliances

Sears delivered the washer but not the dryer. The dryer was gas and required a licensed installer, so Sears farmed out the work to a local company. That company and the dryer never showed up; the washer was delivered separately. Trying to deal with Sears.com and their delivery people over the phone is a nightmare. They are incompetent and waste loads of time. It took me 6 calls to straighten the mess out... and all I could get done was have Sears deliver the dryer and arrange for the install myself. Sears.com told me several mistruths during the sales process. They said that Sears employees would handle the delivery and gas dryer install. The appliances came from a third party driving a rented truck. The dryer installation promises were all false. They also charged me tax on a service contract which isn't right in my state. The refund for the gas dryer install will take 7-14 business days... what a joke. Steer clear of Sears.com appliances at all costs. They will waste your time and give you a headache.

My husband did the research for our new washer/dryer online; we found what we wanted for cheaper at Home Depot, but ended up going with Sears because unlike Home Depot, they offered to disconnect the old and install the new gas dryer (for a price). Neither my husband nor myself felt comfortable dealing with the gas ourselves. The delivery/installation cost $220 for the dryer, $70 for the washer, and $10 haul-away for each unit. We also paid extra for it to be delivered on a Saturday, so add $320 to the cost of the actual washer/dryer. We ordered over the phone, not in a store, and also paid to have all the connector pipes and hoses that we would need. The day before the delivery, we were told that the washer and dryer would be delivered separately, as the person who installs the gas appliances is different than the person who plugs in your washer. To me, this is the first inconvenience to the customer because now our day is interrupted with two separate 2-hour delivery windows spaced several hours apart, but this is a relatively small issue. So, delivery man #1 arrives with the dryer; he was punctual, very pleasant and patient (he gave me time to sweep out the dryer vent after removing the dryer and before connecting the new one). He did not, however, have the dryer connector pieces that we needed to connect the dryer. With a little cajoling, he looks in his truck and then comes up with the right parts somehow. At this point, I take ownership for two of the mistakes that happened: 1, I should have at that moment looked at my receipt and pointed out that I had paid for the parts, but was a little flustered, so when he asked for money for them I paid him; 2, I did not double-check that the dryer door swung open the correct way because I was just relieved that it was installed, and did not notice this problem until the following day while doing laundry. My other issue with this part of the delivery, is that only ONE man arrived with the dryer, meaning that my husband (who has an abdominal muscle tear) had to help him carry the dryer into our home and down a flight of stairs -- and we are paying $220 for the service of having our dryer delivered and installed?!?). What if he had not been home, or physically unable to assist? It is ridiculous to pay for a delivery and installation and be forced to participate in the manual labor.Anyway, a few hours pass, and now our WASHER delivery men arrive; when we open the door, they hand us the DRYER connector parts (This is what triggered me to get my husband to print out our receipt and realize that we had paid for these parts twice). Convenient that the washer delivery men arrive with the dryer parts, considering they were scheduled to come second (by them certainly by no input from us, our preference would have been one delivery with both the appliances considering we bought them from the same store, at the same time and they are a matching set). There were two delivery men for the washer, however they were very impatient and unhelpful in figuring out how to get the now no longer needed dryer parts returned. We actually ended up moving the washer the last three feet into place ourselves, because they would not wait for us to pop off a piece of thin moulding that was blocking the way because it was such a tight fit (it took 128 seconds to remove the moulding; I timed it when I did it after they left), I hadn't done it beforehand because it was such a quick job and because I was hoping it would fit without having to. The only good thing I would say about them is that there were two of them. After they left, I began my journey through Sears Customer Service. I talked to 3 people (Bridget - Accidentally? hung up on me when putting me on hold; Ira - rather hostile so ultimately I decided to end that call and try again; Andrea who was professional and probably as nice and helpful as her script and limited power allowed her to be). The value of the two items I had inadvertently paid for twice - once online and once in person to the delivery man- was $27 (dryer flex pipe and connector). I was told by customer service that my options were 1. return items to the store or 2. schedule a pick-up time (another two-hour window that I wouldn't know about until 24 hours beforehand). At this point I was tired and cranky, and quite frankly, I found it ridiculous that I had to be further inconvenienced (either having to sit around waiting for someone to pick up the items or spending money(on gas), energy, and time to drive to Sears for a whopping $27); I honestly felt that since this was their mistake, they should have credited the card I ordered with the $27 and said "We're so sorry this happened." End of story. I had already spent time dealing with customer service and didn't want to waste any more of my time or energy (Sears had other ideas). Ultimately, I was told by customer service that a delivery man would pick up the items at 8AM on Monday. I thought, ok, this isn't so bad, it won't interfere with the rest of my day and it will be done (they flat-out refused my suggestion to just refund my money without wasting more of my time on a return, which I found ironic because they are supposedly sending me a $50 Visa gift card as a refund for my hassle instead of just crediting my card with the $27, (they are also "throwing in" a 10% coupon to Sears which I assured them I would not be needing). This is just not logical to spend more money and further irritate a customer. Oh, yeah, and the 8AM pick-up happened at 2:01PM, but we aren't to that part of the story yet. All of this happened on Saturday. On Sunday, I actually tried to use my new washer and dryer and realized that they had sent the dryer with the door orientation the wrong way (we had explicitly requested it opening TO the left), so back on the phone to customer service I went. My thought was that someone was already supposed to come at 8am to pick up the dryer parts, can that person also take care of fixing my door? So now I spoke with Crystal, who informed me that door orientation was something that needed to happen at the warehouse, so she would schedule an exchange (to clarify -- yes, she wanted to take my new, working dryer away and replace it with another one requiring disconnecting the gas line, etc all over again, not to mention removing the basement door from its hinges a second time, which we had to do for the original delivery). I asked if she could not just send a repairman or a delivery man to perform the task and was told that repairmen only fix broken things and delivery men only do installations. Wow, talk about compartmentalizing! Ultimately, I asked if she could not contact the warehouse or where-ever and see if any of these other persons would be up to the task; after several minutes on hold, she said that she couldn't get a hold of them but that she left a voicemail and they would be in touch regarding the issue. She also suggested that I just ask the guy who came to pick up the parts for return if he could do it, to which I stated, won't that need to be on his work order for the day? Anyway, late on Sunday we got a pre-recorded message saying that someone would be coming between 2:15 and 4:15PM on Monday. Since I had been assured by customer service that someone was coming at 8AM for the dryer parts, I assumed this was for fixing the dryer door. Alas, without any communication, no one showed up until just after 2 PM for the parts; when I asked the gentleman if he was here to also fix the door orientation of my dryer, he said that it was not on his work order and he would not be able to (sound familiar??). I asked if he would call customer service and get authorization, but he declined, so once he left my house I called customer service and asked if they could send someone, I explained to them that I couldn't take time off work to sit around and wait and that this was ridiculous at this point in the amt of time and energy I was having to waste just to get my original order correctly installed and delivered. I suggested calling the team that had just left my house 3 minutes ago and giving them authorization, as they were currently in the area. Lily (customer service person #5) told me that she left a VM with that gentleman, so, as it stands now, I am waiting for a phone call from him as to whether he is going to come back today or not, so instead of running my errands on my day off (which I could have done this AM if not for the fact that I was expecting someone at 8 that came at 2, I am sitting here, wasting more of my time). Sears may not care, but I sure do, and I am definitely going to tell as many people as possible that I strongly recommend AGAINST using Sears for appliances or any item that you might ever need customer service for. I guess I could give them credit for the fact that the washer and dryer showed up intact (they lasted through at least 2 loads of laundry so far), and the wait time for customer service (service is a generous term) is short, but I consider the bare minimum just that. The fact that my husband had to carry the dryer, the dryer door did not come as ordered, the parts did not arrive with the appropriate appliance, and that more of my time and energy have been spent on their errors is enough to make me an anti-Sears customer for life (and a vocal one!). I hope this is helpful to anyone deciding where to buy their appliances, and I wish you better luck than we had!

Keep away from Sears at all costs. I've had service agreements with Sears for several years and been satisfied previously, but no more. A tip off to their recent downward spiral should have started with my being on hold for 44 minutes before reaching a scheduling representative . When I was finally able to get a technician to my home, another week had passed due to Sears scheduling. The service technician didn't have the part available but ordered it that day and told me to expect it within 3 business days. I'm still waiting 2 weeks later. Sears has now informed me that the part is on order for arrival tomorrow but that they can't install it for another 12 days from this date. If that date is honored, it will be 1 month for completion from the date of my initial service request.

I have a contract with them. One time I was not happy with the services provided but I called and told them and they were out right away to fix it. I was impressed with this and decided to continue my contract.

They were terrible. They always try to sell a contract to people when they buy a large appliance and I have that contract and I am very unhappy. I have it on a lot of major appliances and I feel like I won’t buy the contract anymore. In the summer with the refrigerator I had to wait two weeks and then brag that they we get a new one if they can’t fix it, but we never get a new one. The guy that finally repaired the refrigerator said that it wasn’t worth repairing and it broke again. I had to have another guy come, but in the summer I have to always wait. The refrigerator in my house for two years kept getting warm in the summer and then I had a guy come and then it would be alright and it would do it again. Finally, my friend was here and said that a part needed to be changed. The guy did change it and it has been working. The guy said that I had too much lettuce and that makes it get warm and it was like these people don’t know what they are doing. I am just dissatisfied with hem immensely. I don’t remember how much the contract was that I bought. The guy that fixed the refrigerator, I liked him a lot, he was nice and he did a good job and he worked hard. It wasn’t worth fixing and that was the problem and it wasn’t his fault. For the parts, they could have just given me a new refrigerator and that was what I did not like him. I do not want to fault him because I felt like he did a good job and he was nice, but he had to do what he was told. I am not so much unhappy with that particular repair man; it’s just that I don’t like how they operate because they make people wait, especially in the summer time. It is terrible. On the refrigerator downstairs the quality was good by that guy, but the guys I had coming downstairs for two years were awful. Their punctuality was good because they gave me a timeframe and showed up when they were supposed to. Their manners and everything were okay, but sometimes I got different guys and they did not know what they were doing.

They were good and I will continue to use their services in future.