We purchased a Kenmore bottom freezer refrigerator from a Sears store in Marion, NC for our house that was under construction, in Oct. of 2007. The house was completed and the appliances installed in December of 2007. On Jan 2, 2009 my husband smelled a plastic burning smell and traced it to the refrigerator. When he opened the doors he could literally feel the heat from the lights, he put his hand up to the light cover and it was almost too hot to touch. He closed the doors and went to the breaker box to turn off the breaker and before he could get the breaker off he heard a crash and went back to the fridge where he found the light cover had fallen onto the top shelf. The lights had gotten so hot they had melted the cover and the screw holes that held the light cover in place. He threw the breaker and as soon as the bulbs were cool enough to touch he tried to remove them. He had to wear gloves since it had gotten so hot the bulbs were fused to the socket. He finally got the bulbs out where he found a hole had been burned into the top of the refrigerator from the bulbs.

He called the repair number for Sears and reached a person who could barely speak English, when he asked where they were located he was told that they couldn't reveal their location according to law...what? This person could not grasp the concept that the appliances (we bought all our appliances from Sears for our new home) were not two years old, she argued with him that since they were bought in 2007 and it was now 2009 they were 2 years old. He finally gave up and called the store where we purchased them. We didn't purchase a service agreement, thinking that if you pay that much money for an appliance then they should last for a few years at least! But thinking as some of the other complainants, Sears was a reputable company and would stand behind their product, we found out they obviously are not.

We are suppose to have a service technician come out on Monday to give us an estimate. However, when we told the technician that there was a hole burned in the top of the fridge, all the way to the insulation, he said more than likely we'll have to replace the fridge, which was $1900. I'm not sure at this point that I want another Kenmore even if somehow Sears will replace it. I have found this same problem occurring during the month of December of 2008, so it isn't being fixed or addressed even at the place where they build and manufacture the appliance. If my husband had not been here it could have easily burned our house down. I wonder how many homes have been burned down and the cause not attributed to these refrigerators.

We'll see what happens when the service guys comes on Monday. I intend to file complaints with every thing from BBB to the Atty Gen of NC. This is dangerous, not to mention a huge hassle and Sears needs to stand up and take responsibility and stop worrying about their bottom line. In this economy you'd think they couldn't afford to lose any customers.