I hate Sears



For those of you who have been following this blog for a long time, I have a post script for you on the astounding story of Sears colossal screw-up regarding the stove I bought from them when I moved into my house in August of 2009.

Without reliving the details, what you may remember was that the problems began with my ordering 5 tiny replacement parts that would change the flow of gas to the burners on the range.  I was converting from propane to natural gas and needed these tiny brass parts in order for the new fuel to work.  searspartsdirect.com and their phone-in service started by charging me a small fortune for the parts, and then, it turned out, sent me one that wouldn't work and refused to replace it with one that would.  It took something like 6 months to resolve and the resolution Sears came up with was to buy me a new $4,000 range rather than replace the part that they had incorrectly supplied.  I was, at the time, so frustrated with their deceit and ineptitude that I promised myself to never shop at Sears again.

Unfortunately the meat probe that came with the range needed to be replaced and the only source for this part is searspartsdirect.com.  With considerable trepidation I contacted them by phone on January 3rd and ordered the replacement part from a very nice man who answered the call and who had access to the list of appliances I have purchased from Sears since they started keeping records.  He informed me that I would have the part by January 10th at the latest and took all the information as well as giving me a quote for the part.

He also promised me an order confirmation that would be emailed to me, which never came.  This didn't come as a huge surprise and fortunately I had started a note on my computer with all the information he gave me including the model number of my range and the order number for the part.

You can imagine my surprise when I got home this afternoon to find that the part had been delivered.  What you cannot imagine is how livid I was when I opened the package to find that not only was the part they sent me completely different from the meat probe that works in my range but there was a note saying that in order to use the device they sent me I would have to remove the wires and connect other wires with a ceramic nut.

I called customer service to express my extreme displeasure to the poor woman who answered my call.  After about 6 or 7 minutes on the phone we determined that they hadn't even sent a meat probe at all. . .it was an oven temperature sensor.  I now have ordered yet another part, that is considerably more than twice as expensive, have to return the incorrect one, and will have to wait until they receive and "process" the return before they will credit the price back to my account.  I did ask Angie, the operator who was helping me, to be sure to send me a confirmation via email.   Needless to say it never arrived.

From time to time I read about the financial distress in which Sears continues to find itself.  Surely they cannot be surprised.  4 years after the previous disaster with them they still cannot get a simple replacement part order right.  I have no idea how long this particular battle will go on, but I caution all who read this to never venture into a Sears store, never deal with them online, and in fact, try not to live in a city or county where they exist.  They have an aura of poison about them that infects everything they do.