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,

In September 2007 I purchased a large Mitsubishi HD TV from the "Great Indoors" in Scottsdale, Az. for about $2500. Based upon the recommendation of the sales person I also purchased a service agreement for several hundred dollars which would cover service and parts for a long period.

Four months later I attempted to turn on the TV and got no picture. I then contacted the Sears Service Center (parent of Great Indoors) and was told the earliest they could service the complaint was 15 days from now, which I told them was unacceptable. I am now forced to contact a local TV service company to repair (probably for several hundred dollars) a TV that is already covered by a service contract. I could easily do without TV for 2 weeks if it were not for the fact that I have a large group of friends attending parties both of the nest 2 weeks to watch the football playoffs.

I think it is disgraceful that a big company like Sears can't hire enough technicians to fix problems within a reasonable amount of time.

The only high definition TV I have burnt out June 30th. I figured I would take it to Sears granted the store was really close to my house (nearly within walking distance). I have always taken my equipment to Sears and never had a problem with the repair center until now. I put the TV in the original box, and had to put the stand and remote in a separate box (happened to have a 10x8 shipping label with my address on it) to ensure the metal rods don't scratch up the TV after it is shipped. I took my Akai 37 inch TV into the repair center to get repaired July 3rd, 2008 (at 1PM). I informed the employee to put a little bit of popcorn into the box since I did not have all 4 pieces of styrofoam that came with the TV (wanted to ensure it was safe when sent to repair center in Torrance). We were told that in 1 week the TV would be ready to be picked up.

A week goes by, no one calls my phone number I left for sears. I figured I would drop in and check on the status as trying to call that department makes you hold on for 1min 34 seconds before hanging up on you, with no voice mail. I arrive on July 10th at 3:10PM approximately one week after dropping off the TV. I walk in to the repair center as an employee walks out to help a customer and get a glimpse of my TV sitting 5 feet from the double doors. I wait patiently until it is my turn to be serviced for the repair pick up. An employee brings the TV out and informs me it could not be repaired as it was over 27 inches + it was an Akai.

I figured no big deal I can take it somewhere else, until I found out something very interesting. I ask the employee where the second box is, he then replies and informs me there isn't a second box with the TV. I inform the employee the box was brought in by me & without that box the TV itself was useless. Sal Martinez began to discuss an option such as a refund for the diagnostic fee, in which I informed him the box was shipped to the repair center and not diagnosed (refund & cost were no longer part of the conversation after that it was established the box's packaging tape wasn't broken). One of the employees in the back says "I saw that box a few hours ago." I was informed by Sal Martinez the box would be found within 24 hours, and given a torn piece of a paper that said Sal Martinez and given a number which did not have a voice mail nor was ever picked up. I went home, opened the box to come to a horrifying conclusion, when they shipped the box they had not added any popcorn to the box almost ensuring damage during shipment (you never know how the postal service will handle your box). There is a 35% chance the TV cannot be repaired even with the stand and the remote if it has been dropped without the popcorn the employee told me he would add (I will update this complaint with his name when I go in tomorrow).

The next day I return after calling that number 3 times having it hang up on me at exactly 1 min 34 seconds, and was told by Sal Martinez to come back in 24 hours. 24 hours later I return, still no response, only this time Sal Martinez isn't there and a African American manager within the repair center(who I believe is doing his job better then anyone I spoke with in the store) who told me he would email Sal Martinez & I would receive either a email or a call within 24 hours (I left him my cell phone number). 72 hours passes... I call Sears and ask to speak with a manager at the Ventura store. No one picks up, so I call again and ask to speak with any manager currently available. It rings... and similar to the number Sal Martinez gave me, it hangs up after 6-8 rings. I call again the next day and ask to be forwarded to the complaint department. Instead of the complaint department I am sent to the very same place I had just called (477-3200 + press 0). So I figured I'd just go back in the store since I found out pressing 0 doesn't take you to a operator in the store. 24 hours later I go in to the store to speak with a manager. When I show up at sears I have a manager paged to the front where customer service is, so I could speak with him regarding my problem.

A manager named Jeff Woodlow (not sure if last name is spelled correctly, but he is a assistant store manager) greets himself and I bring him up to speed. Jeff informs me after I explain what happened that Sal Martinez was not at the repair center the day of the loss & there was not a second box when the TV was brought in. I inform Jeff that I bought it in personally & personally spoke with Sal Martinez as well as had his name written down BY HIM with a phone number which turned out to be useless. Jeff again assures me (I don't know how he believes he was assuring me) there was not a second box with that TV. I inform him again I had brought the box in with my tv and the shipping label was only on the box they happened to lose. Jeff gives me his business card and informs me to send him an email with the contents of the box. I go home and immediately within 45 minutes of receiving the business card send him an e-mail with the contents of the box as well as the shipping address information that was attached to the side of the box (in a plastic case so I knew one of the employees had to rip it off in order for them to ship it or cover it with their shipping label). Another 72 hours passes by (Date:July 21st 2008) so I call sears again, ask to speak to Jeff Woodlow, I was informed he was not there. I send him another email to ensure it went through (sometimes checking sent mail just isn't enough).

72 hours passes by, its now July 24th, nearly 2 weeks after I had picked up the TV.. I was beginning to get mad granted the Olympics would be on TV soon and I did not want to miss it. During this 2 week period my xbox 360 and wii were unable to be used & my morale was beginning to drop at work. I no longer had the entertainment I spent so much money to be able to enjoy. I figured it was time to escalate the problem to a complaint department even though the first time I tried it was smacked down by a incompetent employee.

It is now July 26th, I finally get to a "Executive Complaint Department" who supposedly reports directly to corporate. I greet the representative, Marina and bring her up to speed with what has happened so far. She informs me she will call the store and see what the deal is. I inform her she was better off saving her breath since there IS NOT a voice mail for any of the managers in the store. She attempts to call the managers and within 5 minutes quickly realizes I was right. Marina informs me she has sent a notification to the store and to corporate which supposedly charges the store $175 (I don't know about you, but emails last time I checked were free so I figured this notice was just to make me feel better which it did for all of about... 5 minutes).

24 hours passes, no call, another 24, and another 24. At this point I'm beginning to feel a dark cloud pass over me and feel I'm beginning to fight for my sanity, and go to the store and inform jeff if I am not contacted within 72 hours I would call the police (I know its a civil manner but I wanted to see just how far Sears was willing to take it). Jeff tells me he did not receive an email, which infuriates and makes me tell Jeff I was tired of this [Exploitive deleted] and shouldn't have to go through this. I told Jeff all his employees needed to do was look at the manufacturer & the model number to quickly inform me the TV could not be repaired. I told Jeff to grab a piece of paper and write down the contents of the box. I inform him the 2 short black rods screw into a longer black rod which creates a U shape, which screws into the plastic base which then the TV is placed onto that U shape and locks in. Jeff writes down the information and I tell him not to forget about the remote (July 29th).

That was the last time I contacted Sears, it is now August 11th, 2008. I have come to the conclusion Sears is no longer interested in reimbursing me for the stand and remote which I just found out is going to cost $300. $76 for the remote, $224 for the stand since it is a spare part almost no one ever needs so they needed to refurbish a stand just for my TV. I post here as I feel I should not have to speak with a lawyer, and the channels you would normally stay away from I feel I need to utilize in order to possibly resolve this issue. I have been through way to much these past 5 weeks with Sears hanging over my head just out of reach & my work morale falling as each day passes, and I believe at this point Sears needs to give me a TV of equal value, size, features as at this point this is my last attempt at allowing this to be a civil manner. Escalating this issue at this point would involve the consumers union as another owner of this TV (it was split between 2 others) is a member of that organization and believes if she needs to escalate it, the problem won't just be resolved.

Kenmore used to be a good brand name. Obviously not anymore. In the last three years our 1 1/2 yr. old Kenmore dishwasher died, then the ice maker went out on our just one year old Kenmore fridge (two weeks out of warranty) and last week our two year old Kenmore gas grill stopped getting hot enough. This same thing happened last year to friends of ours who had the same model. They had Sears come look at it and the guy told them he couldn't fix it. We just hauled ours to the curb. Sears is NEVER getting a nickel of my money, they build absolute JUNK.

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 662-286-6681, and let her know the story is out on how she treats repeat customers.