The Problem With Sears
I have a long, deep, dark relationship with Sears. I remember that my parents had a bad experience with them when I was a kid, and we weren’t allowed to shop there. But when I bought my new house and we needed a new washer and dryer, they were just so conveniently located. So we bought them.
And because we didn’t have too much trouble with those appliances, when we needed new kitchen appliances, we decided to go there and get the Kenmore suite. Except, of course, that we’ve had many more problems with those. The dishwasher has gone out of service every year for the three we’ve had it. The refrigerator went on the fritz twice. The door handle for the oven fell off several dozen times before we had the bright idea to put in larger screws than the ones Sears used.
But the biggest issue has always been with their customer service. We paid extra for the “master protection agreement,” which has probably saved us a little bit of money on repairs. But the amount of time wasted on phone calls to customer service and aggravation and working around a broken appliance is far worse. Inevitably, it takes at least a week to get their “service” department to come out (one time we were out of a dishwasher for over two weeks). Often, they send out people who aren’t qualified to repair that particular appliance, or don’t even have the appropriate pieces (they sent a washer repairman for our dishwasher, and he didn’t have a single dishwasher part stocked in his truck).
When I’ve tried to complain, I’ve been told things like, “Time to buy a new dishwasher.” (That was when the dishwasher was less than two years old.) I’ve sent e-mails and letters to the top brass, a strategy that’s worked well when I’ve had problems with Verizon and other companies. Sears is impervious to it.
And so, I’ve chosen to boycott their company, including not shopping at two of their companies that I actually do love: Lands End and Restoration Hardware. Because I choose not to do business with a company that doesn’t treat its customers well. I, too, have learned my lesson.
