I am finally posting a complaint forewarning all about Sears PartsDirect after many experiences of similar poor performance in getting parts for Sears Kenmore appliances. It is my guess that this outfit is in fact a separate contractor used by Sears and other retailers to peddle their repair parts on the web. I say this as I am on my third event now where PartsDirect have not delivered as promised and when you call to complain, they immediately put you over to "Sears Public Relations" at another location. It has been my experience with these other people (if indeed Sears people) that they are just as bad (or good if you like) at "promise more, deliver less."

I have a huge Kenmore side-by-side refrigerator about 8 years old. The evaporator fan motor has become noisy which is nuisance to listen to but more importantly, if it fails then the whole system fails and you come home to a big puddle of water. I looked the parts up I wanted online at PartsDirect and placed the order on 4/18/2008. All parts were noted as "in stock" but I got a notice a few days later that the evaporator motor was on backorder until May 9th. I did receive the replacement fan blade and was told the mounting grommets had shipped but never received any tracking info. By May 12th I had not received the grommets nor had I received notice that the motor backordered for May 9th had shipped.

I called PartsDirect and learned that the motor was backordered again this time until June 9th and was told that the grommets showed as having shipped by UPS and were probably in transit (2 weeks later?). They could not give me a tracking number but said that I could get it at their website which I couldn't. Tracking for every item said "pending".

So I called to complain again and was put over to their "Customer Relations" department which is just a way to get problem calls off the parts line and over to a black hole with a mouth that tells you something to quell your upset. The mouth that spoke to me was "appalled" at these events and would investigate this. Someone would be calling me back in 2 to 3 days.

It is now 5 days later and no one ever called back. In the meantime, I went to RepairClinic.Com and ordered the motor for a bit less than Sears PartsDirect. It was in stock, was shipped the same day on three day delivery and arrived in two.

This is the last time I will deal with Sears PartsDirect and also I've purchased my last item from Sears. There has been a lot of speculation about them going out of business and I can see why when they have been producing poor quality goods for the past few years and providing such poor service. We have a house full of their stuff and are sorry to see the change but I expect most it will be replaced by other manufacturers' equipment over the next five or ten years.