Responded to yesterday's email from Edwin C. a Sears Social Media Senior Case Worker. phone # 1 800 573 8431 Central Time Zone.
Case # 3753107
Edwin explained my options.
Option One: Pay a fee of $129-$135 to have a repairman come out and diagnose the problem, order the part and come back and repair the problem without knowing the PRICE OF THE PART
(which does NOT have to be the same price as Sears quotes on their SearsDirect Parts website.), so you are at the mercy of BOTH Sears AND the Repairman and have YOUR MONEY paid UP FRONT and then have Sears and the Repairman able to screw you further by not keeping appointments or properly fixing the problem or OVERCHARGING YOU for the part, all complaints found on the
CUSTOMER SERVICE SCOREBOARD Sears customer service complaints, reviews, ratings and comments Read more:
http://forum.appliancepartspros...post517806#ixzz1W9GeIN9m http://forum.appliancepartspros.com CUSTOMER SCORE CARD WEBSITE LISTED on my previous post above.
Option Two: Sears waives the $129-$135 fee, the repairman comes out, diagnoses the problem, orders the part, I PAY THE REPAIRMAN the price he wants
(which does NOT have to be the same price as Sears quotes on their SearsDirect Parts website.), and Sears 'refunds' up to $150 of the cost of the part the repairman charges. All which, once again, leave you open to the SAME PROBLEMS as listed in Option One.
Looks to me like Sears uses far too many 'crooked' repairmen who simply come out to get paid 'another fee' or make a profit on over priced parts and who either don't keep appointments, causing customers lost wages when they stay home to wait for the repairman to arrive 'between the hours of...' which they never do keep, or who send a voice mail to the customer saying they will be late by 30 minutes only to arrive over two hours late or make the customer reschedule another appointment at least a week or two in the future only to repeat the sequence of problems.
The repairmen Sears uses apparently have NO CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION to use SearsPartsDirect PRICES or have any 'real' affiliation with Sears other than being a 'local' repairman that Sears can contact to come to your home and take advantage of you. Far too many repair people are CROOKS nowadays due to the economy and LOST INTEGRITY of business people in today's crumbling America. CAVEAT EMPTOR (BUYER BEWARE!)
Sears appears to be running a scam on their customers.
I would suggest that you NOT PURCHASE any products from Sears unless you are prepared to have them NOT HONOR their warranties (a commonly listed complaint) or have them charge USURIOUS PRICES for their parts which seem to fail far too early on their Kenmore products.
Read CUSTOMER REVIEWS online of the products before you buy them either online or in the store. You will be amazed at how many complaints they receive over their shoddily made products of all types (lawn care products, snow machines/plows, etc) all of which I have purchased.
DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING Sears employees tell you about what they will do for you either during your purchase or especially AFTERWARDS, if anything goes wrong with the product.
ABOVE ALL...DO NOT PAY SEARS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY SERVICES TO BE RENDERED. Far too many complaints about customers having paid thousands of dollars for their products then having to wait TWO WEEKS OR LONGER for their refunds when they demand to have the product taken back after getting NO SATISFACTION from the repairman or delivery personnel on taking away old units, etc.