1. Phone Service Complaint, 2. Website Complaint, 3. Garden Tractor Complaint, 4. Scheduling Repair Complaint - 8 hour window!! Sear Lawn Tractor purchased July 2007. Put together incorrectly, returned and brought a new one. Purchased their warranty plan. 8 hour window for a repair call, 3 weeks away! How convenient is that? I am looking into getting this back to sears and going with a John Deere. The website does not let you login, "please visit sears.com and take a 3 minutes short survey about your phone assistance". When I followed the on-line instructions to login, my passwd expired, "please check your email for a new password" doesn't work, no one at the website number is any help, someone will get back to you in 24 hours...

There whole phone system is a big run around, I have been transferred and given phone numbers all morning for "customer relations". Finally the last person I spoke to transferred me and said I would be able to make an appt. Well, she transferred me to never ever land... the customer relations is closed, and there is no recording with directions how to make any appointment.

Too bad! Sears use to be a good place to do business, I won't be back, ever. I can't even get a person on the phone to address one of the above issues.

Mr. Bruce Johnson
President & CEO
Sears Corporate Office
3333 Beverly Road
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179

Dear Mr. Johnson,

I am writing to you with a sense of desperation, as I have been unable to get service for my Refrigerator which has had a service contract from Sears since I purchased it. Both my wife and I have been repeatedly lied to, mislead, and in general, treated with a complete lack of compassion or understanding. I’d like to give you a brief history of what has been going on although I am sure if you access my file in your records by my name, address and telephone number you will see our repeated attempts to try to get the service we paid for.

On Sunday, May 18, 2008 at approximately 2:30 pm my wife heard a loud irregular noise coming from our refrigerator. When she opened the doors she found the lights were out in both refrigerator and freezer and noticed that rather than the gentle hum of the motor there was silence. She immediately brought the matter to my attention. I checked my circuit breaker panel, which has a dedicated line for the refrigerator, and visually noted no change in the switch. My wife called 1-800-4MY-HOME and scheduled an appointment for service for the following day.

On the morning of Monday, May 19, 2008 while I was waiting for the service man to arrive I went to my circuit breaker panel and threw the circuit breaker for the line for my refrigerator. I went upstairs and noticed that the power had returned to the unit, but when I opened the freezer door, I noticed there was a strange odor but was not sure if it was related. I had a doctor’s appointment so I had to leave before the serviceman came, but my wife stayed home and waited to receive service on the appliance. That afternoon the serviceman came, I don’t know his name but his ID is #0881045 his name must be on record concerning this service incident. He asked my wife what had happened and he immediately informed her before inspecting the refrigerator that it was probably a problem with our electrical system and there was nothing he could do. He asked for a vacuum cleaner which my wife provided. He vacuumed the front of the bottom on the refrigerator, which incidentally was already vacuumed and clean, for approximately 30 seconds. He replaced the bottom guard, he opened the freezer door, noticed condensation and informed my wife that first we should consult our owner’s manual to determine what type of noise our refrigerator is supposed to make, and second that we must have left the freezer door open which caused the condensation and said there was nothing more that was needed to be done and left.

Mr. Johnson, both my wife and I have owned refrigerators our entire life; we were born after the era of the ice box, so we are absolutely familiar with the sounds a refrigerator is supposed to make. This was not a noise which is made during the normal operation of a refrigerator. Also, he made no indication as to the odor that emanated from the refrigerator. In my opinion this technician is incompetent and could have prevented the following chain of events. Unfortunately I was not here when the serviceman came as possibly I would have been able to make sure that the serviceman did his job. Rather he took advantage of my wife, who is not familiar with the technical aspects of the operation of a refrigerator.

By the time I returned home it was approximately 5pm and the house reeked of a strange chemical smell. At which time we placed a follow-up call to 1-800-4MY-HOME to reschedule another appointment. Incidentally, by this time there was a large puddle of water on the floor in front of the freezer door and my frozen food was beginning to thaw. When we spoke to the dispatcher they informed us that since the Monday service call had not cleared from the computer they could not schedule a new service call and that we would have to call back the following morning. As to the chemical odor, the service representative told my wife he would make a “health, or safety” report and someone would get back to us shortly in regard to the odor. That night no one had gotten back to us and my wife began to experience difficulty breathing as the result of this chemical odor she needed to take medication for her condition brought about by this gas, and I had to thoroughly vent the house before we went back home. That night I had my wife sleep at her sister’s house and I returned home and opened all the windows and activated my attic fan in an effort to clear the house of the gas.

I picked my wife up first thing Tuesday morning, returned home, and called the service center. They informed me that they would not be able to schedule an appointment until Wednesday, at which time I asked to speak to a supervisor. I was transferred to Vanessa at your corporate offices who kindly said she would look into the matter while I was on hold and informed me that their service vehicles were vandalized so they couldn’t schedule me for that day, but that they would put me on the schedule for Wednesday unless a vehicle became available sooner. They gave us an appointment for Wednesday between 8am-12pm.

Both my wife and I waited for the serviceman, At approximately 1PM Mr. Lenox, I.D. #13540 arrived at my home, he appeared to be very knowledgeable and professional, and immediately recognized the odor as refrigerant. Mr. Lenox pulled out and inspected the rear of the refrigerator and then opened the freezer, removed the cover to the evaporator and found two holes in the side of the evaporator that apparently blew out which started the release of gas on Sunday. He also verified that all our frozen food was ruined but was unsure as to whether we were covered for the loss on our service agreement. Mr. Lenox informed us that the compressor, the evaporator, the coils and some other part needed to be replaced. He said that it has been his experience that a job as extensive as this has never worked successfully. He called his manager to explain the situation advising him of his lack of confidence in replacing the parts but his manager insisted that he first replace the parts and if that doesn’t work then Sears would replace the refrigerator for the customer. Naturally, when Mr. Lenox informed me of this I was unhappy with his manager’s decision because at this point it has been four days since we have been without a working refrigerator, we lost all our perishable items and at best the parts will come by the 22nd of May at which time I call for an appointment which wouldn’t be until at best the 23rd. Having no control over the situation, I patiently agreed. He informed me that the parts will be sent to my home, at which time I should call for a third service appointment.

On Thursday, May 22, 2008 I called the service department to inquire as to when the parts would be delivered as I have been taking my family to restaurants for 5 days now and it’s beginning to get costly. The dispatcher I spoke to was very helpful and informed me that the parts were to be delivered that day, the 22nd and she would go ahead and schedule the service call for Friday, May 23rd so that I would not have to go through the holiday weekend without a refrigerator I would like to commend that person but she hung up before I was able to get her name or I.D. #. I was informed that the serviceman would be here between 8am and 5pm. The parts did arrive later that day, Thursday the 23rd of May, as the service dispatcher promised.

On the morning of Friday, May 23, 2008 I called to find out approximately what time the service technician would be coming as my wife had a doctor’s appointment and I had an emergency dental appointment, and wanted to make sure that one of us would be here for the serviceman’s arrival. I was told that he would be here sometime between 12pm and 5pm. My wife and I left at 9:30 for our respective medical appointments, and I put my home phone on call forwarding to my cell phone so as not to miss any phone calls from Sears.

While I was in the dentist chair, a call was forwarded to my cell phone from the technician, inquiring about the number of boxes that were delivered. I informed him that three boxes were delivered, he told me that there should have been four boxes as four parts were ordered, and it wouldn’t make any sense for him to come if all the parts were not available. But he did say that he would check with his dispatcher to see if all the parts were delivered. When I got home from the dentist I called the dispatcher and informed him what the driver said to me, and he verified that all the parts were delivered and advised me that he would notify the serviceman. I asked him “can he guarantee that I will get my repair today?” ? He told me he would try, at which time I asked to speak to a manager. He forwarded me to your corporate office, customer care department, where I spoke to Mike, I.D. #54272. I explained the entire story to Mike, he looked up our records and told me he understood my frustration, put me on hold, spoke to the dispatcher then got back to me and assured me that the service technician would be there to try to repair my refrigerator, if the repairs were unsuccessful Sears would authorize a replacement refrigerator. He even gave me his extension at 1-800-609-5650, extension 18473 and told me to contact him personally if there were any additional problems as Sears had dropped the ball 1st on Monday with an incompetent service representative, 2nd Monday night by not having someone call back concerning the safety issue which was posed by the leaking refrigerant that was reported, and 3rd that Sears allowed my family to be without refrigeration for 6 days now.

At 2:30pm I started to get a little nervous because the service technician who came on Wednesday informed me that this was a 5 hour job and it was starting to get late in the day. I called the service department and they assured me that the serviceman was on his way to my location. I asked to speak to a manager, they forwarded me to the corporate office again, and I spoke to Ann, ID #631138. I asked her to connect me with Mike at extension #18473, she told me she could not transfer me but had me repeat my entire story again. Then she asked me if she could put me on hold, called the dispatcher and assured me that I would get my service call today.

At 3pm I called the corporate office and spoke to Ben, ID #69375 and he assured me that the serviceman was en route after checking with the dispatcher. I asked him if I could speak to his supervisor and he informed me that the manager was away from his desk but would get back to me before 5pm.

At 3:30pm I called corporate office and spoke to Jessica, ID #49597 and asked her to transfer me to Mike at extension 18473 and she told me that she was unable to transfer calls. I asked her if I could speak to a manager and she told me that there was no manager available and that she was the highest level of contact I could speak to and that their supervisors are only there for quality control. Again, I explained my entire story which she verified by the notes on our account. She asked if she could put me on hold, she spoke to the dispatcher, got back to me and told me that the service technician was on the way.

At 4:30 the service technician telephoned and said that he was stuck in traffic but was on his way and that he would be here within 45 minutes to an hour.

At 4:45 we received a phone call from the dispatcher saying that we would not be receiving service today as this is a two-man job and the helper was not available to assist the service technician. She told me that she would have to reschedule our appointment and my wife told her that it would have to be first thing tomorrow morning. She then replied that since it was a holiday weekend no service could be made until Tuesday.

At this point my wife and I were beside ourselves with a sense of frustration and powerlessness. We have been dealing with incompetence, lies, and treated with a total lack of professional courtesy. I placed another call to the corporate office and spoke to Dannia #11514. I explained the entire situation yet again which, as you can imagine, I was tired of explaining when they have it all written out in front of them in their computer records. I must say that Dannia had very poor professional telephone ethics; she informed me that she couldn’t transfer me to Mike at extension 18473, that her supervisor, Carlos, was out of the building and would get back to us Saturday morning. At this point for my own health and wellbeing I had to stop pursuing trying to get satisfaction as I was getting nowhere.

At 3:19pm today, while in the process of composing this letter, I received a telephone call from Pat, ID #76307 (who initially refused to give me her I.D. but then checked with her manager and was ordered to do so) and asked me if she could reschedule my appointment for Wednesday, May 28th!!! I asked her if she was aware that they cancelled my service appointment on Friday and told her that I wanted someone here first thing on Tuesday morning. She told me that no one was available at that time. I asked her to please connect me with her manager and she informed me that she could not transfer me and that she would have her manager call me back. A few minutes later at 3:28pm Charles Smith at the call center (who claims to have no ID number) telephoned and said (as if he was doing us a favor) that he was setting up an appointment at their earliest convenience for Wednesday, May 28, 2008.

Mr. Johnson I have no idea what is going to happen next but I think you would agree with me that we’ve passed the point of reasonable customer service. It is now Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 5pm. It is obvious I will not have any refrigeration until possibly Wednesday which will make a total of 11 days without refrigeration. I have had to feed my family at restaurants for each of these days. I have had to spend an evening in the emergency room. I have had to throw away $350 worth of food. I had to cancel a family barbeque that we had planned for Memorial Day weekend. I have absolutely no confidence that when the service technician does replace these parts that my refrigerator will operate properly for any reasonable length of time, if it operates at all, as your service technician informed me that he has never seen a refrigerator work after this type of repair.

Mr. Johnson I am sure if you review my purchase history you will see that my wife and I have been loyal customers for many years, both in our purchases and our service contracts. I have also influenced many people to shop at Sears as I have always been pleased with your company and have never run into this level of incompetence and disregard for the customer’s satisfaction. I am writing to you as a last ditch effort to avert the continuing injustice that has resulted as policies that you may be unaware of. Also please be advised that I am forwarding a copy of this to the Better Business Bureau of New York and to consumer advocates at WNYC Channel 5 Fox “Call for Action” and WABC Channel 7 News, “Help Me Howard”, as I am just one poor consumer without any leverage caught under the Sears corporate rock.

I have tried to name as many contacts as I could so that these people can be instructed on how to handle this type of situation should it occur in the future as I am sure you wouldn’t ever want your family to go through a situation like this.

I hope to hear from you in the very near future. I have gone through the expense of sending this letter via FedEx so it will arrive in a timely manner. Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely yours,



Lawrence J. Sypowicz



LJS/ds
cc : Better Business Bureau
Complaint filed 5/25 on line
WNYW-TV/FOX 5 New York, NY
205 East 67th St.
New York, NY 10021
(V)212-452-5555
(F)212-879-1484

ABC Channel 7 News
77 West 66th St.
New York, N.Y. 10023-6298
(V)212-456-7777
(F)212-456-1424

I purchased a Used Portable AC which had 3 years left on the Master Protection Agreement. No where in the agreement did it state the the original owner had to approved of Transferability. It states that This MPA is transferable to any subsequent owner of the covered products, subject to the terms and conditions of this MPA. I have the original receipt and the MPA what more do they need. I have no way of finding the original owner I bought the thing over a year ago . The original owner paid $539.98 for the AC and $89.99 for the MPA plus tax for a total of $581.56.

So I am stuck with a $581.00 piece of junk

Customer support does not respond to my complains on a Calypso Elite washing machine. It stains the white clothes and build mold. I first received a letter from SEARS, September / October 2004, requesting the use of HE detergents and monthly washing the machine with Chlorine Beach!!! Wash the washer??? I made the first call November 16, 2004, they told me, we will call you back in 2 days November 29, 2004, I call again, they told me, we will call you back, this time I request person name Marian at 9:30 am.

December 21, 2004, I call them and they do not know about my complain, they are sending a technician December 27??? I call to Erick first and James second 2:20 pm. This machine is a Rip-Off!

On Thursday, April 30th, 2008 I purchased a Power Miser 12, 50-gallon Natural Gas Water Heater for our daughter's condo in Blacksburg, Virginia. The purchase was made over the phone at the water heater sales online number located on your website. A sales person named Kathy asked me for the measurements of my current water heater to be able to sell me one that would fit in the space available.

I gave her the measurements of 58 tall x 20 wide (diameter). The water heater I originally wanted was the Power Miser 9. However, she told me that this item was not available in my area but that a more expensive model, the Power Miser 12, was. She also mentioned to me that the water heater was one inch taller than the one we currently have in the condo, but she said the installer would take care of that. It should not be a problem, she said.

I proceeded to place the order and she then began to add charges to the water heater price, including installation (normal), and removal. I asked her what the total amount would be when she finally charged my credit card and she gave me the price of $789.96. This was just the beginning of a big nightmare with Sears, a company that our family has been faithful customers to for over 50 years. We have always trusted Sears for their high quality and customer service.

Kathy also mentioned that water heaters are usually installed in 24 48 hours and that the installer would call me in a couple of hours to let me know when he was coming. She gave me the reference number 1220048. A couple of hours passed but the installer did not call. My husband and I contacted Sears again to obtain their name and number in order to track them down. We left a couple of messages for Affordable Plumbing until they finally called us back indicating they would deliver the water heater on the following Tuesday, May 5, at 11:00 AM.

My husband and I drove to Virginia from Florida to be there by 11:00 AM in time for the delivery. Upon arrival we received a call saying that there was a delay in the delivery and that they would be there as soon as they could. We told them we had a commitment at 3 PM and needed them to arrive before 1:00PM. They arrived at 2:30 PM and proceeded to remove the old water heater; they also noticed that the new water heater would be 1 inch taller and said that they would take care of it. Everything else looked fine and we left the installers in the condo to do the installation while we went to watch our daughter defending her Masters thesis. When we returned at 5:00 PM, the installers were still in the condo. We found out that the new water heater was wider than the one that was there before and it could not be positioned in the corner as the other had been. Therefore, the new water heater was pretty much sitting in the middle of the pantry, the only place where it could fit.

It turns out the water heater was 22 inches in diameter instead of 20 inches. Why was it that Kathy did not mention this to me? Why did she knowingly sell us a water heater that was wider than our old unit? As I stated above, she told me about the height difference. She never mentioned the difference in diameter. The installer also failed to tell us that the water heater was wider than the original, something they should have noticed earlier when they told us about the difference in height. After all, they are supposed to be regular installers for Sears.

My daughter handed me the copy of the invoice she had received from Sears so we could call customer service, and to my surprise and astonishment I saw the charge of $912.45. That was $122.49 more than the original charge Kathy had given me over the phone when I first ordered the water heater. I just could not believe this! On top of everything else, the installer was surprised that Sears charged extra for installing a heater on a 2nd floor because they are not paid for that.

I called customer service and complained to a supervisor. It turns out they do not sell 20-inch wide water heaters. Why did they sell me something different to what I had requested without telling me? She also mentioned that there were charges for out of area. Again, why did they fail to mention all of these extra charges? They made me upgrade to a Power Miser 12 because they did not have the #9 in the area and it would have had to be ordered. I think they ordered the #12 too, because I had to wait 4 days for it! Did they just want me to pay more? I wonder. I cannot believe a water heater priced at $450.00 turned out to cost me more than double. That is quite appalling.

I asked the supervisor to take the water heater back since it was not what I had ordered in the first place. She said that because the water heater was already installed, I would need to pay $319 to return it. She also wanted me to take responsibility for the error since I left the installers in the condo to complete the installation. I disagreed with this for two reasons. One, the installers had my cell phone number and could have contacted me at any time, and two, if they had arrived at the correct time (11:00 AM), I would have been able to remain with them during the entire installation.