Sears
Reviews and Complaints

I am writing on behalf of myself and my family who purchased a Kenmore refrigerator from Sears, along with other appliances, in April 2006. Five months after the purchase, the refrigerator stopped working. The technician who came to fix it said the fan had broken. This first visit by the technician led to a complaint I already made because he did not submit the food loss records I tried giving him and this led to Sears not honoring the $250 food loss reimbursement.

The following summer, our refrigerator stopped working again. This time after calling Sears and finding out it would take over a week to come fix our fridge, my husband decided to try to turn the refrigerator off for several hours and try to turn it back on. The fridge began to work again after we plugged it back in but we had already lost much of the perishables in the fridge. We decided not want to write another letter claiming food loss even though all our perishable foods did spoil. We had a problem with our refrigerator twice already and, again, in the summer of 2008 we had it break on us again. This time when my husband pulled out the fridge to unplug it, the copper water line burst and we had to turn off the water to the fridge. This occurred July 21, 2008.We called Sears immediately and was told by Lisa that the water line was covered by our Protection Agreement and extended warranty. When I asked when was the earliest Sears could come and fix the broken refrigerator and water line, it would not be until July 30. I was so upset because each time we have had problems with an appliance, it seems that Sears does not seem to make it a priority to send someone out as soon as possible. My husband unplugged the unit again but when he plugged it in a few hours later it was still not getting cool. We loss all the food in our fridge and added to that, I had just gone to the grocery store right before the fridge broke down. We had well over $250 worth of food that went bad very quickly. That day, I spent over an hour calling different Sears departments to request a quicker response to our refrigeration problem but to no avail. When I spoke to Gerald, not only was he rude and inconsiderate, he matter-of-factly stated he, nor a manager (because I requested to speak to one) could do anything to speed up the process of getting a technician out any earlier than the 30th. He then told me to call the local Sears service number [protected] to see if they could help me and then he said he would attempt to get a manager. He kept me on hold for almost 20 minutes pretending to get a manager the entire time. I was so fed up I hung up the phone. I finally spoke to Latina who at least showed some compassion for our situation but she could not do much except put in a request for an earlier service appointment. She suggested I call another number which I did not write down because it seemed like every time I called Sears, I would just get the run-around to call someone else or some other department which in turn would then tell me to call another number. She promised that I would get a call no later than the end of the business day of the 21st letting me know an earlier date for someone to come out to fix our unit and water line. I never received a call.

The next day, my husband tried to plug in the unit again and it actually worked so when a technician came 9 days after we called to get a service appointment, it was running OK except the water line was still busted. He told us that since the fridge was working when he arrived, he cannot submit for food loss and Sears does not cover copper water lines, only plastic. This truly infuriated us. I could not believe that Sears will now take the stance that they don’t repair copper water lines (even when it was installed by Sears) when I was told they do when I first called on the 21st. Also, we could not believe what he was telling us- that we should have left the unit alone and not tried to fix it ourselves because when it begins to work again, Sears has no liability.

This is truly outrageous that Sears will first sell protection agreement plans and extended warranties and not follow through with the promises set forth in the warranty and plan. We ended up hiring a plumber to replace the copper line and had to incur an out-of-pocket expense of $287. Secondly, what suggestion does Sears give to homeowners that need a working fridge in the middle of summer besides waiting a week and a half for a technician to arrive to look at it? Also, is it truly reasonable for a fridge to break down every summer? We cannot afford to continue to unplug and plug the unit in as our food spoils in the hopes of it running properly. We truly believe your company has employed very deceitful and unfair service tactics that truly prevent a homeowner from being treated like a valued customer. Sears does not believe in doing what is right. Instead they will cut corners and lie about what is covered and not covered and make it nearly impossible for anyone to get their appliances serviced within a reasonable time frame. What is an extended warranty worth if consumers are prevented for ever really using it. I truly believe Sears sets a policy to sell as many extended warranties as possible to unsuspecting customers only to make it very difficult for customers to actually reap the benefits of the warranty.

Our refrigerator is a lemon. When it broke after only about 5 months into it being installed we knew it was a bad sign of things to come. We have had more problems with this fridge than my parents have had with their 15-year fridge. We also spent a great deal of money purchasing this lemon that we have regretted ever since.

I am requesting reimbursement of $250 for the food loss in July 2008, $287 for the copper water line having to be replaced, as well as demanding a replacement for our refrigerator that continues to give us problems. Our other Kenmore appliances have help up well so far but the rate at which our Kenmore refrigerator has broken down on us is inexcusable and needs to be addressed. And added to the stress of our lemon of a refrigerator is the fact that our protection agreement expires in January (as I was told on the 21st).

I can guarantee our fridge will break down again next summer and we will have to incur more financial and emotional losses to replace spoiled food as well as to pay for a service technician to come and try to repair it again.

As consumers who do not write a complaint for every little disagreement we have with a company but I think of all the companies we have had business with, Sears is, by far, the worst in customer service and reliability. If I counted the hours I have spent trying to get our fridge serviced or attempting to speak to a manager about our problems, I would estimate well over 10 hours in the past two years. None of those calls resulted in any issues being resolved; Instead they just produced more stress and agony that have taken a toll on us. We truly hope our voices will be heard. It is unfathomable that a company as big as Sears will not put their customers first and take consumer concerns seriously. Integrity and forth righteousness are company traits that will carry a company far; Sears lacks both and will only lose customer trust and loyalty when issues and problems are not resolved appropriately. We will never do business with Sears ever again.

This is a credit card designed to screw you. They are waiting for your slightest flaw. I dutifully tried to cancel this card and pay it off in full over the phone and on the web site. This was not possible. So I did pay it off in three separate payments three days in a row. OR so I thought. I came to find that even though I paid off an $8034 balance in full and on time and had canceled my card, along comes a bill next month with a charge of almost $100 for interest!

The old adage of pay your cried card bill on time and in full does not work with these people. They charge you a daily balance, even though you pay the balance due in full and on time! In theory this bill could practically never get paid off from month to month.

Sears Gold Card is a rip off scab operation. Plus I had been a cardholder for over ten years! With on time payments.

I purchased a Kenmore Bottom Freezer Refrigerator in February 07. It has a 1 year warranty. It is now August 08 - My refrigerator is 18 months old. I spent $1, 400 on this appliance. Earlier this month I smelled something burning in the refrigerator, but could not identify it.After some time the smell got worse. Then the light fixture literally melted down from the top of the shelf. Apparently the lights did not go off and burned the fixture to melting. We unscrewed the lights and the fixture now hangs down and we are unable to access the shelf. The warning for the refrigerator being open no longer works. The plastic lining on the doors is already falling apart. The doors no longer open independently. If you open one door, both open. The freezer shelves do not pull out properly.

I have had this refrigerator for 18 months. I have never had an appliance that fell apart so fast. I have read online that other people have had the same problem with the light fixture burning. I believe this is or should be a recall item.

We usually purchase our appliances from a local dealer. This is our first purchase from Sears. This is a Sears product- Kenmore. I am shocked that Sears could sell an appliance of this quality. I called for a repair and told it was $175 just to come out and look. This is ridiculous. A refrigerator is only made to last 18 months? Our last one was 15 years old and in better shape than my new one is. I will take my old one back in a heartbeat.

I believe Sears should repair this appliance at no charge, or take it back and refund me a reasonable amount. I intend to contact as many business organizations as possible to advise them of my situation. Sears is selling their own brand appliances that fall apart in 18 months. The light problem was a serious fire hazard. Luckily we noticed it in time to prevent a fire in our home. The plastic on the fixture is melted and visible.

Again, I believe that Sears should repair or replace this appliance at no cost. This experience has totally eliminated any confidence in Sears that I might have had.

I would like to be contacted as soon as possible by someone who has the authority to help me.

I am beyond angry at this point and I am tired of talking to people who are trained to tell me they can't do anything for me.

I'm kicking myself for this but last Monday night, I called to make an appt. for service because my freezer wasn't working well. They told me it would cost $75 just to come out plus parts and labor for the repair OR I could purchase a repair warranty for $250 which would cover the repair and if the repair costs less, I could get a refund. I got the repair warranty.

They told me someone would come between 8 am and 12pm on Tuesday. Someone finally showed up at 4pm. No one every called to update me that the tech was running late. The tech diagnosed the problem in 5 minutes, changed the motor on the fan (which I know was already working) and was out of there in less than 30 minutes. That same night the freezer is still not working and now the refrigerator is getting warm so I called back and they tell me they can't get someone here until Monday of this week. I called back Wednesday morning and finally got someone who was able to schedule an appt. for me from 9-5 that day (yes, the day before Thanksgiving). At 5 pm, he shows up and after 5 minutes, he tells me my compressor is bad and it will be 5-10 days to order the part and fix it.

Plus it would be an extra $144 since my warranty only covered me to $500. I refused to pay, he ordered the part anyway and scheduled the repair for yesterday morning, Thursday. At 10:45 the tech calls because he's on the way. I don't have the part yet so he can't come. At 11 am, just 15 minutes later, the part comes. I call back and I'm told the tech will come back. At 3, I call back and I'm told the tech will not call back and the next available appt is Dec. 5. He forwards me to someone who seems to understand the situation and she says she will talk to the routing mgr and try to get me in for today or tomorrow and she will call me back.

Of course, no phone call, I call back this morning and I'm given the Dec. 5 date again. The CS reps won't transfer me to the local dispatch and they won't force an appt for me because it's a 3 hour job they say. I spent about 3 hours on the phone this morning trying to get an earlier appt. No success. I tried to get my warranty refunded so I can call a local repair man. No success. The first useless appointment used up the cost of the warranty. I am livid at this point.

At the risk of sounding like a spoiled brat, I want my refrigerator fixed ASAP! I have a 3 and 4 yr old and trying to provide meals for my family using a dorm size fridge for 2 weeks is unacceptable.

Fast forward to Dec. 5, the tech comes at approx. 11:30. Gets right to work installing the compressor. After 2 hours, it's in and the fridge still doesn't work well. He waits a bit and opens more of the fridge. Then decides that the problem may be the freon flow so he vacuums it out and refills and now the fridge seems to be working. Had a competant teck done that at the very visit, Sears and I would have saved alot of money. I'm out the money for the warranty, plenty of spoiled food in excess of what I will be reimbursed, money spent on fast food, and money for another small fridge to hold us over. The worst part is I did not get one sympathetic cs person out of the 20+ that I've spoken too. They must hear my same sob story all day every day. It's ridiculous. A 4 yr old unit should not be broken so soon in my opinion. Not if it were a quality product. My only saving grace is that I got a WONDERFUL repair tech to come today. If it were one of the others, I'm sure they would have replaced the compressor which wasn't broken and left before realizing the refrigerator was still not working. I am beyond upset and frustrated at this point.

COMPLAINT:

My dishwasher broke a month back and I called sears. After I told the customer service guy that my dishwaser had stopped working and I tried fixing it but was unable to he convinced me that I should get the service agreement which would cover everything for 1 year. It was going to cost me $220 but I said fine if it rids me of the hassle for a year.

So he charged my card and set up and appointment a week from then and gave me a time-slot from 8am-5pm. I called up on the morning of the appointment date and they told me the technician should be there by 12. The techinician didnt arrive till 3pm and he took one look at the dishwasher and said he cant to anything because the door was taken out and he would need 2 ppl to fix that (nobody ever told me while selling me the service agreement), so my entire day was wasted.

Next day I called up again to setup another appointment (the earliest was another week later) and this time I requested 2 ppl be sent as the technician had told me. Again I called up on the date of appointment to confirm and they told me that they would send 2 ppl and that the techinician should be in by 12. Needless to say the techinician never showed up, he called me up and said he couldnt get the other person so he wont be coming thus wasting another working day for me. Moreover, he told me that the service agreement was cancelled because of the door beign taken out. He did this by himself with nobody bothering to inform me of this, moreover even though according to him the service agreement had been cancelled, they had happily booked me another appointment. On top of all this when I called the recovery dept they assigned me a case number but the rep with id 11194 was totally a mean person and didnt even acknowledge that sears was at fault.

So the end situation is this .. my dishwasher has been broken for over a month, sears has charged my credit card $220 allready and wasted 2 working days for me withouth having the decency to even fix my dishwasher. This is completely outrageous for a company its size, needless to say I would never be dealing with sears service again, morever I would inform bbb.org and any consumer complaint agency of the aforementioned.

Regards,

Bought $17000 in kitchen appliances in March 2008 from Sears at Montgomery Mall, Bethesda, MD. Everything came except the refrigerator which was scheduled later because Kitchenaid required their own installation and only after the cabinet to house the built-in fridge was built. Remodeling schedule was on track and in June 2008 we scheduled the fridge delivery for 8/15/08. Sears delivery company tried to deliver it 7/16/08--30 days early. 7/16 I spoke with Jack at the Excel Delivery company told me the woman I had been working with was fired and they don't know why it was delivered early. The delivery company returned the refrigerator to Whirlpool because they couldn’t store it for 4 weeks and told me that I would have to order it again from Sears. 7/19 Loree, delivery company manager said that Whirlpool said they refunded the fridge already. No refund has been credited to my credit card and I spoke with the bank and they were not holding any transactions. 7/28 I went to sears and spent 1.25 hours trying to get this fixed without success. Gave it a few days more for a refund to show up on my credit card. 8/6 Loree said she can't help me anymore, the computer says I have been refunded though my credit card company has no record of refund. 8/6 I printed my credit card statement all the way back to 6/26/08 and spent 1 1/2 hours at sears with a Dennis who says he was the manager and that it was the Sears helpdesk that needed to fix the problem. He said he would call me the next day and get an email. Never heard back from him. 8/11 called Sears and left a message for Dennis to call me immediately. No response. 8/12 my credit card bank still has no refund processed. I have spent more than 3 hours during 2 visits to Sears (with 4 kids in tow) trying to get this fixed and another 4 hours total on the phone. I can not get anyone at Sears to process the refund so that I can order the refrigerator again. The delivery company blames Sears, Sears manager blames Whirlpool and the Sears helpdesk, and I can't get anyone to do their job and fix this order so we can get the refrigerator we paid for in March 2008. I have no refrigerator and I am out $8180.95. No one should ever buy so much as a pair of socks from Sears. They have absolutely NO customer service, and no accountability. There is no information on line to escalate up through management either.

I ordered a part through SearsPartsDirect.com. My anti-virus software blocked the acknowledgment e-mail as containing a phishing virus:
Phishing.Heuristics.Email.SpoofedDomain
MAIL FROM: [protected]@m.e.searspartsdirect.com

I will never buy anything from Sears again. If there is a class action suit that encompasses all of Sears actions, let me know so that I can join.

I wanted to comment on the Corinth Sears since Danny and Linda Woodruff have taken over this store it has gone to hell in a handbasket. This store used to be a great place to shop in Corinth. In fact Many times my wife and I were looking at something at either the Memphis Sears or the Tupelo Sears before purchasing it we would check to see if we could get it through the Corinth Store and if Possible Buy it there. We've bought a 46" tv. a large Treadmill, window air conditioners, a large upright Freezer, and a over the stove microwave. All of this just in the past 3-4 years. It is very safe to say that we are very well established customers of the Corinth Sears. On December the 8th of 2007 my wife and I were in the store an looking at a home Theater Surround Sound System to replace the one that had stopped working. We left to shop around and look at other systems, and she secretly called back and purchased the item over the phone from a sales assioate named Cindy. on Christmas Eve she gave the the system to me as a Gift. Upon opening it my first thoughts were that this was not the same box that I had looked at in the store. when I opened the box I found that the system was very used. one side of the unit was dented, the speaker towers were scratched and there was no paper work nor remote in the box. We made the decision that we would return this unit to the store and find something else. On the 26th we purchaced a different system at the Tupelo store and made plans to return the original one to the Corinth store on the 27th. Upon entering the store around 1:45pm on the 27th we were approached by store assioate "Cindy" and after telling her what we were there for she advised us that her "manager" (the owner Linda Woodruff) was at Wal-mart shopping and had been gone about 25 minutes and would return shortly, and that since this was considered a "big ticket item" that the return would have to be done by the owner. We told her that this would be fine and that we would just Wait for her to return. After about 15 minutes it beacame obvious that our waiting was not accaptable to Cindy and she began calling her manager to see if she could go ahead and process the return. As she was trying to ring up the return the managers husband (owner Danny Woodruff) called and informed Cindy that she would have to charge us a 15% restocking fee since I had not brought back the Remote or Manuals that should be in the Box. I told Cindy that this was unaccaptable as I was returning the unit because it was missing these items. She imeadeatly became very defensive and rude with us informing me that if I wanted to return the unit I could pay the 15% or wait until the manager returned from the Bank and talk to her, again we advised her that we would wait. This only seemed to fuel her anger. After well over an hour of Waiting she informed us that the Manager had called again and stated that she would be there "shortly". My wife asked her what shortly meant because she had been telling us shortly for over an hour. Cindy spun around on my wife and started yelling at her that she did not know when the manager would be back and that she had told us it would be shortly and that was all she knew and that if we had any problem with it we were welcome to leave any time and she once again disapeared into the back stockroom. after a few minutes she came back out and was waiting on another customer when a police officer walked in wanting to know what the problem was. we all just kind of stared at him not knowing what to say. finaly my wife spoke up and said that the only problem that we had was that we had been waiting over an hour and a half for the manager to return to process our return. my wife turned to Cindy and stated, "oh my lord, you called the police on me because I wanted to return this!?" the poiice officer stated that he had been dispatched to the store because a customer was yelling, and screaming at the manager and being Belierent with her (the manager that at this point was still not even in the store) after the police arrived it was still around 30 to 45 minutes before the manager walked into the store. when mrs Woodruff walked in she came through the door in a huff, obviously mad that we were still there waiting for her, as soon as she walked up she got in my wifes face and yelled to her that she had already had 2 rude customers that week and she was not going to put up with our crap. I told her that paying 15% for returning this item was simply un-acceptable and she mouthed off a little wile about different things and then finaly stated that she was going to refund our money but that she DID NOT WANT TO. after several minutes of typing on the register she handed us a recipt showing our credit and lo and behold it was 15% short of what we paid for the system. I informed her again that this was unacceptable and the police officer pointed out to her that she did say she would issue a full credit and that she needed to do so. so she placed a call to Sears Corperate hotline to find out how to do this. While on hold she turned to us and pointed out that we had purchaced this 20 days earlier, why were we just now returning it. we reminded her once again that it was just a couple of days after Christmas and it had been a Christmas Gift and there fore had been hidden for the 20 days in question. Finally after talking to her district manager she was able to refund our full purchase price, but never not one single time did we get any type of apology from either the Rude clerk Cindy nor mrs Woodruff. We have spent the days since then telling every one that we can about our experience and it will be our goal that no one we know will purchase any thing from this Sears store as long as Mr and Mrs Woodruff own it. If you find this comment helpful, please call Mrs Linda Woodruff at the store [protected], and let her know the story is out on how she treats repeat customers.

WOW--Our poor landlords. They purchased the Kenmore Oasis Elite Washer/Dryer. You got it---on both machines the circuit control board just stopped for no reason.

Guess how the Sears service was---You got it--same as everyone elses. They knew the problem, came with out the part, now is the time to wait for the part to be sent to the house and then call them for a repair set up. Sad part--our landlords have a 4 year warranty.

Fortunately we were prepared for the lack of customer service and attitude from the many reviews on the internet. We are telling all people to stay away from Sears. Money and mostly TIME are too costly to deal with a company so disreputable.

Aug 4, 2008 13:30 approx. Looking for a new BBQ ... found a model on sale Broil King 90 ... looks great nearly $200 off and I ask "can you assemble it and deliver it for a fee?" No we can only deliver. I said "that would be a deal breaker" Oh well was the response. Un Frigging believable. We went to Home Depot and bought a similar model ... that was actually better and they assemble and deliver.

Sears Canada ... oh well .

Last August I bought a Sears Kenmore that worked for less than 2 weeks. I wasn't worried, I had purchased a 3 year warranty. Beside this was Sears they would stand by their product. Then followed 8 appointments in which Sears did everything to not replace the unit. They replaced it's condesors and piping, it 's electrical switching. The Sears technicians even put in their reports that the unit was not repairable. I estimate they spent much much more than the unit was worth ($230).

Finally this past April, a department at Sears called OneSource said ok, they'd ship me a replacement. A week later they changed their mind and told me I'd have to return the unit to the store for a replacement.
I returned the unit to the store only to be told that no they would not replace the unit, they would have it repaired. I said that as I had waited 6 months and been promised a replacement that it was now their problem.

I walked out of the store leaving the unit behind. I filed a complaint with The City of Yonkers Consumer Protection Bureau. At the hearing Sears failed to appear. They were fined $500 for deceptive practices and ordered to re-imburse me $352. I have not heard from Sears so with this judgment, I am now taking Sears to small claims court.

Note, when buying from Sears, you should be aware that if a warranty repair becomes too difficult or costly to them, they will, as they did in my case, walk away.

The refrigerator in the unit that I rent has not been cooling properly. My food and milk spoils in a few days.

The landlord blames me, and says that I have too much in the freezer compartment. He suggested getting rid of some of the frozen items. My defense is that the freezer is not overly stuffed. He said he'd have someone look at it.

One evening I realized that someone had been in my apartment to see the refrigerator, because items next to the refrigerator had been moved. Then I noticed a memo on the refrigerator that says
"PLZ remove 1/2 items in Frezzer, Refer cooling Normal, Poor Air Flow. Thz Sears" .

I did not believe that this memo was from a repair person. How could a refrigerator repair person misspell freezer? Aside from the misspelling, the comment left echoed of my landlord's words.

I called Sears the next day and someone told me that the work order mentioned that the refrigerator is 14 years old, and that something was sealed. He then asked if the refrigerator was still not working.

When I asked for a copy of the work order, he transferred me back into phone automated la-la land. Finally I got a hold of a live person who claimed she could not hear me, then could not find any information on the service I was asking about. When I insisted that I just spoke with someone who found record of the service, she agreed that a service person was at my apartment between the hours of 8 and 5 the previous day, but that she could not tell me anything about the repair, and that the previous person should not have either.

They should provide a copy of the service order to the user of the refrigerator via mail, at least.