Let me preface by saying I am a single, senior woman who lives in a mobile home with particle board floors. Any water damage really causes havoc with the particle board.

On June 17 I purchased a new refrigerator from DeSears. One June 19 it was delivered to my home by Tom Boles, a delivery person for DeSears. Tom wrote on the delivery invoice at that time that the I6 water valve was bad and needed to be replaced. Someone would come out in a few days to fix it. In the meantime he took the valve off my old frig and put it on the new one. I waited for about 3 weeks for them to come and finally called them because I was going on vacation and wanted it repaired before I left. They came out on July 11 to repair the bad valve. When he pulled out the frig, he noticed the floor was soft behind it. Obvious to me that the water valve had leaked for the past 3 weeks and caused the problem. He just pushed the frig back and wrote on the invoice "previous water leak-floor very soft-customer is aware floor needs to be replaced." He didn't put just the floor behind the frig, but the "floor" was soft. So now DeSears is saying the entire floor was soft before they delivered the frig because that is what the guys wrote.

I left for vacation for two weeks and when I returned my kitchen floor in front of the frig had begun to sink in. The soft area kept getting larger and someone suggested I may have an ice maker water line leaking. The floor was already so bad I couldn't pull the frig out to check. It was resting only on 2x4s because the floor had sunk in all around it. I called some friends on August 23 and they came down and helped me pull the frig out only to find the leaky valve. I immediately put a container under the leaky valve and called DeSears Customer Service and left a voice message. The valve leaked two quarte of water in the next 24-hour period.

Customer Service called me the next morning and set up an appointment for me with the company they use for their service repair--HR Appliance. In the meantime Corey Smith, delivery supervisor, came out that same evening and took several pictures of the leaky valve and corrected the leak. The man from HR Appliance still came out the next morning and said there wasn't any more he could do but it was obvious it wasn't my fault. He was going to report that to DeSears Customer Service. I didn't get the man's name and didn't see a report on his response to the call.

In the meantime, Corey Smith is fuguring out what the company is going to do about my floor. He finally called on Wed., Sept 5, to tell me that it wasn't their responsibility to replace the floor because Tom Boles had written on the delivery invoice that the floor was soft when he delivered the frig. but it wasn't Tom that wrote it - it was the guys that came out on July 11 that wrote that statement. I asked Corey if he had asked Tom if he wrote the note and he hadn't. So I'm sure he didn't ask the other guys who wrote it. I need to get their names.

I did send a complaint to Better Business Bureau but I don't know whether or not they'll do anything. I did see that DeSears on 14th Street, Bradenton, has an "unsatisfactory rating" because they don't settle their complaints. Not good news for me.

On September 12 I called Corey again to tell him my insurance won't cover it and to ask what is the next step. I had to leave a message because they always tell me he is in a meeting. He did not return my call. I feel I need a stronger voice than mine to get any satisfaction from this company. I'm hoping that voice will come from a TV station so DeSears will get the advertising they deserve. Thank you for your attention.

I did get estimates totaling $2, 300 on the cost to replace the floor. That is replacing the sub floor and putting in new tile. I have not repaired the floor in case someone would want to see it as evidence. Also, I can't afsford to!