Original Report
Do Not Use SEARS Home Improvement Co. for any installations that are crucial to your home or comfort. They do not have emergency weekend telephone numbers and use local independent contractors. That being said I will tell my story: I Just bought a house and was in the process of updating a lot of thing's including installing a central air system...house had none, but had a forced hot air furnace with duct work in place. I interviewed 3 Contractor companies for installing a Central Air system to my forced hot air furnace. Sears was the most competitive so I signed with them.
Next step, they sent in a local contractor (not a Sears Employee) to assess the job. He said that it wouldn't work and I would be unhappy with the results because the cold air wouldn't be blown up to the bedrooms (Custom Split Level Home with 4 floors instead of the usual 3).
Sears sent the sales people back in. He tested my system and said that I had a 2 speed blower on the furnace and that it should work. I demanded that the local contractor come back to assure me as to what the salesman said was true. Contractor tested the 2 speed blower in my system and said that IT STILL WOULDN’T WORK. I said what about a booster motor that could be put on the 2 vents that were the problem (one vent already had one that didn't work-thus the recommendation on my part). He said that would work so we scheduled the job to start.
Installation took the better part of a day. I added a dehumidifier which was installed and they also installed a separate Condensation Evaporator unit.
In comes the electrician to run wiring to the unit and the compressor from the fuse box. All is well and working well on Thursday in time for my company from South Carolina to visit during the Memorial Day weekend. Thursday night sleeping was terrible...it was hot. I checked the unit and it wasn't working and THE breaker in the fuse box was tripped. I called Sears on Friday morning and they sent the installation contractor back on Friday morning. He checked out the system and said that everything was working well-off he goes. Friday late morning, My wife and I and the guests went visiting (left the AIR on) and came back about 6:30 pm the house was a sauna because we closed all of the windows. TRIED EVERY NUMBER I WAS GIVEN FOR SEARS HOME IMPROVEMENT, LEFT MESSAGES EVERYWHERE BUT COULD NOT GET TO SPEAK WITH ONE PERSON, EVEN TRIED ALL NUMBERS AGAIN ON SATURDAY...NOTHING. My wife was so frustrated she left NASTY messages on all the phone number Sears gave us...NOTHING. WE WERE STUCK WITH A CENTRAL AIR SYSTEM THAT DIDN’T WORK ON THE HOTTEST WEEKEND THIS YEAR. EVEN WITH ALLL THE WINDOWS OPEN IT STILL WAS 85 DEGREES IN THE HOUSE.
Memorial Weekend was ruined due to the heat because Sears has no emergency weekend telephone numbers. Adding Insult to Injury: Contractor came on Tuesday afternoon (after the Holiday Weekend was over) and replaced the Condensation Evaporator unit which he thought was the problem. Unit worked fine for about 2 hours and then no cold air again. My wife went down to do laundry and found the basement floor full of water (Lot of damage to miscellaneous items stored because we we’re still moving in and the inside of the house was being painted). It seems that the Condensation Evaporator unit was leaking water all over the basement, after the clean up and throwing out of the damaged stuff my wife put a pail underneath the CE unit.
Contractor is back (scratching his head) everything checks out. Long story longer, Electrician was supposed to run a hardwired line to the CE unit but instead plugged it into one of the receptacles in the basement. This receptacle worked when you turned on the basement light but didn't work when it was turned off...How stupid is that NOT TO CHECK EVERYTHING. This whole process was a comedy of errors and omissions. FACT STILL REMAINS, SEARS HOME IMPROVEMENT COMPANY IS NOT GOOD AND IF YOU NEED THEM OVER A WEEKEND FORGET IT...DON'T GIVE THEM THE JOB.
Update 1: Sears Social Media Department (yes they have a department that monitor's on line complaints...Hmmm...why do they need one) contacted me because of my many online complaints against them. They offered me a $100.00 Sears gift card to appease me...I guess they're hurting financially . I laughed and refused the card.
Update 2: Permits were secured from the town. Building inspection passed; plumbing inspection passed; ELECTRICAL INSPECTION FAILED, NOT FOR 1 VIOLATION BUT 3. It's been a day and a half since I called with the information about failing the electrical inspection and I still have not heard from Sears or the electrician who is local.
YOUR CRAZY IF YOU USE SEARS HOME IMPROVEMENT FOR ANYTHING.