Sears Home Improvement

The flooring install itself was done well. However, the quarter round was not installed professionally at all. They did not miter the corners into each other and instead rounded them exposing the unfinished wood. Our expensive bathroom remodel looks very bad because of this. I have reached out to them multiple times to try to get this resolved but I get no response. I was told about 2 months ago that they would get things fixed once businesses started to re-open. That happened about a month ago, and yet I have not gotten a response from them. I am beyond frustrated and I will continue to try to get this resolved. At this point, I don't even want them to fix it, I just want a refund for a portion of the work so I can have a more professional contractor finish the job the right way.

Lousy. Cost was so high. I was overwhelmed by the salesman. The whole pitch was done on a computer. I received zero documents. I’m writing BBB and state of Ohio to complain about how I was treated.

unknown

I contracted with Sears Home Improvement out of Columbus, OH on March 26, 2013 to install a new kitchen in my house. The contract stated that work would begin in 4-6 weeks time, which would have been mid-May. When I called the company in mid-May, I was told the cabinets had not yet been ordered and installation would not begin until June at the earliest. Finally, by the end of June, I received word that the cabinets had been built. After many phone calls, with 4 different project managers, during June and into July, I was told an installer would arrive on July 16 (15 weeks after the date of the contract). It should be noted that I initiated all phone calls. Sears never contacted me. When the installer (Sears contractor) arrived he had with him approximately 1/3 of the cabinets. He unloaded these into my garage. When he reviewed the design and saw the plumbing modifications that were to be made, he stated he could not perform the work, but needed a master plumber. He contacted the only plumber he would consider working with (someone out of the Columbus area, not the Dayton area). The plumber was not available until July 25. The contractor proposed to come by to my house on July 24 to begin removing old cabinets in preparation for the plumber on July 25. He, the contractor, would continue work on July 26. I told him that the problem with that was my vacation scheduled for July 27 through August 4. No work could be done during that time. He then stated he was going on vacation August 4 and would return August 9. I stated I had to return to work on August 9 and no work could be done after that date. (I had given these dates in clear terms to the project manager.) I stated I wanted to end the contract with Sears. He notified the project manager; I called two project managers and stated I wanted my deposit back and the cabinets removed from my premises. When I received no response, I contacted the Better Business Bureau (BBB), who sent out my complaint straight away. Sears was given 10 days to respond. There was no response. The BBB sent out a second notification. I finally heard from Sear legal department and within another 10 days, the deposited was credited back to my credit card account. The cabinets were finally removed from my premises on August 16. I recommend Dayton area consumers NOT consider using Sears Home Improvement. Find someone local.

Since the installation we have had very high heat bills. When I tell them I have also since found that we definitely could have put in a gas furnace( upon checking with other furnace installers) that I originally purchased they just ignore the issue totally. They continue to tell me nothing is wrong with the new furnace and the Manager Buddy Eubanks will not return my calls when I want to take my case further. A $720.00 electric bill in a 1400 sq ft well insulated home is NOT normal at any time especially the winter of 2012 which went down on record as one of the the mildest winters. The bills continue to be high ($465.00, etc.) and we also had an issue of the heat pump freezing up at the end of the 2012 season, they looked at it and told me it was fine and that the defrost cycle would switch on and take care of it, March 2011 turned warm, the heat pump defrosted and that was the end of it until Dec. 2013, the heat pump was out of warranty for labor and I had to have Sears return as it froze again with the first cold weather and it needed 2 parts which were covered but we had paid $259.00 in labor for something that should have been taken care of in Mar. 2011. Per Steve Borod, Manager in Home Improvement Dept., we could not prove that the part needed replaced in 2011. Next problem was the furnace was unable to keep up with the temp set on the thermostat. Set at 69 degrees and on cold nights/mornings the furnace was at 64 degrees and took all morning to get up to temp. There are other issues as well that they will not address. The installer, Smith Heating and Cooling, was very nice, professional and responsive on installation and with the high heat bills issue to come look at the furnace in the beginning but when it came to problems or solutions they continually said nothing was wrong. You would have thought that everyone had $720.00 heat bills. My husband and I have dealt with Sears for many years (in our 70's now) and put our trust in the Sears name on this very expensive project and have been totally let down. Will never deal with Sears again as it apparent they do NOT stand behind their subcontractors and no one wants to take responsibility for any issues what so ever. Sandra Davis Thornville, OH

Their price was very high. The salesperson was very pushy. When we said we wanted to think about it, he was apparently unhappy and didn't want to answer any more of our questions, which was unprofessional. I don't know what's their affiliation with Sears Stores, because I normally have very good experience there, and that's why we wanted to use Sears Home Service. But I'm very disappointed.

I thought they did a good job, but would note that their contracted cabinet technician no longer works for Sears.

Things went fine. We called several heating and cooling companies because we wanted to get bids. Sears was the only ones that called us back. They made an appointment and they assessed our home and the current heating and cooling system. They spent the time and didn't make us feel like they were rushing to get to the next appointment. They were very professional. They had a presentation and everything flowed very smoothly. They gave us options and didn't tell us what we had to get. They didn't put intense pressure on us to buy right then. They made the appointment when we were ready. Other than them leaving a little tool by the front door, we would have never known they were there. There was no mess in our house, no dirt on the carpet or marks across the walls. Outside of seeing the new unit, we wouldn't have known they were there. They were $3,000 cheaper than another estimate but it was still quite a bit of money.

There were several problems during the job process with Sears Home Improvement. They did not allow enough time for the products to acclimate. I thought that they would use local people. It turned out that they had people from Knoxville come to do the job. They just wanted to get the job done quick and leave. They ended up coming with the wrong flooring. It turned out to be a six day delay to get the job done. I thought that the cost was too high for the product. I would never use them again!

I called up to get some work done on my rodent killer. Every thing was good on that part. They came in here in June. When I called them, they said they would get back with me in two weeks for the siding to be done, after two weeks they never got back with me. I called them, they said they would have some one call me. I called the sales guy and left a few messages and he never called back. I eventually got a hold of them through customer service, with the manager. They said that any materials un opened they would take back. The workers were nice, while they were here. They left material outside that i paid for. They covered up the old stuff instead of taking it down. The store is good, but the home improvement is not. It took 2 months to get them to come out and do the work.

On August 21, 2010, we entered into a purchase contract for Sears to order and install a new entry door and storm door. A sales person came to our home and spent 2+ hours with us as we chose our doors. The next day the sales person came back because he lost our order. He also told us he would be present for the installation to be sure everything was to our satisfaction. We never heard from him again. Sears installed the FIRST DAMAGED DOOR on 09-11-2010. There were 4 problems with the installation: the entry door had a 3-4 inch scratch on the front, the interior trim around entry door was the wrong style, the exterior wood trim around entry door was the wrong color, the exterior storm door trim was missing. A new door was ordered and installed on 11-04-2010. The NEW door was DENTED, but Sears installed it anyway. Since 11-04-2010, I have been trying to get this problem resolved. They won't give me my money back, and to this day have NOT provided me with the UNDAMAGED entry door that I ordered. They have charged me $3,800 for the DAMAGED door. I did not order a scratch & dent sale door. I have spoken to numerous people with Sears Home Improvement in Columbus, OH, as well as the Sears Quality Control Dept. and a Sears district manager that is out of Louisville, KY. Currently, I have 8 pages of notes from all my phone conversations. OVER SIX MONTHS later, I still have no resolution to my problem.

After examining the roof from the ground, the salesman was shown the 3 crawl spaces which showed the underside of the original decking prior to signing a contract. The salesman took pictures of both the exterior and the interior. I signed the contract for the work on 31 July 10. The contract called for the work to be started in 3-5 weeks and completed in 1-2 days. The contract called for the new roof to be installed according to the shingle manufacturer's warranty specifications. The original deckng did not meet the manufacturer's warranty specifications because the boards were too wide. The decking had to be replaced to meet the warranty requirements. This resulted in an estimated $4000, based on $2.10 per square foot of wood used, being added to the original contract price, even before a sub-contractor was assigned. On week 6, the work actually commenced. The sub-contractor was fabulous and had two work crews on the job from 6 am to 8 pm. They completed 95% of the work in one day. Sears never told the sub-contractor that he was supposed to install soffit vents. After several phone calls, the sub-contractor took care of the installation, but without using any lead abatement techniques. The sub-contractor was very up-front about not having the equipment or the OSHA licensing to do lead abatement work. The sub-contractor also pointed out that the slate shingles on the dormers would have to be replaced in order to properly install the roof. The sub-contractor took care of this work the following day and left the work site extremely clean. The insulation work was scheduled to take place at the start of the following week. The insulation installation took another 4 weeks before the work was started. Following many phone calls and emails, Sears claimed the delay was due to their recent discovery that insulation work in West Virginia had to be performed by a contractor licensed for insulation work. Once a sub-contractor was assigned, it took another 3 weeks for the work to actually be performed. During this time frame, the sub-contractor did an examination of the crawl spaces and informed us that they could only insulate the walls to a R-13 standard since the studs were 2x4s. A R-38 standard would require studs that were 12" deep. The insulation sub-contractor was very efficient once they came to do the job. It has taken an additional 3 weeks to get Sears to provide an itemized invoice that showed the actual amount of material used to replace the decking to determine what the additional cost would be. I have had to send multiple emails to everyone at the Sears Office for weeks to get a response. I finally got action when I left a message with the head of the Columbus office telling them that I would be contacting the National headquarters regarding the poor performance. As of 11/21/10, I am still waiting for the final bill showing the reduction in cost for the lead abatement work not being performed and the insulation being reduced from R-38 to R-13. The only thing that keeps the overall rating from being listed as F is the actual work that was performed by the sub-contractors.