Warning about Sears

Last year we purchased a rototiller from Sears. This last fall, my husband was rototilling when the tiller stopped working. I called Sears to make sure it was still under warranty, which it was. A woman at the 800 number instructed us to load up the tiller (no easy feat), and take it into the Sears store (30 miles away) for service. When my husband arrived at the store, he was told that their policy was to have a technician come to our home and they wouldn't take the tiller for service. They acted as if he was lying when he said we were only following instructions from their own 800 number. Finally, they relented and agreed to take our tiller.

That was 2 months ago. We haven't heard a word about it even though they said it'd be ready in December. I decided to call yesterday. Have you ever called Sears? They have the most ridiculous automated calling system. I finally reached a live person who then transferred my call to the wrong person. I called back and waded through the automated system to once again speak to a real person. This guy put me on hold and after 30 minutes, I hung up. I then tried to call the local store which also has the ridiculous automated calling system. After going the rounds with that phone system and ending up with no answers, I called the 800 number again.

The poor woman who finally answered probably didn't enjoy my phone call. I'd been trying to get a simple answer about my rototiller for almost an hour by the time I reached her. She quickly connected me to someone in a back office who wasn't happy that my call had been routed to him. However, he proved to be the most helpful. After being on hold for another 10 minutes, he finally told me that my tiller wasn't ready and wouldn't be until they replaced the transmission. He said they'd call me yesterday to give me an update. Big shock: no phone call from Sears yesterday or today.

So, the new rule at our house is that we will never again buy from Sears. This wasn't our first experience. We had problems trying to get Sears to honor a warranty on a water pressure tank that leaked all over our basement (we couldn't get the part on our own and the only way to get the part under warranty was to pay a certified technician from a city 150 miles away to drive to our house to fix it which was more expensive than buying a new pressure tank) and when our dishwasher malfunctioned (water pump, heater in water pump) the technician they sent (they finally contracted with a local service company) not only did nothing to resolve the problem, he decided, quite rudely, to invalidate our warranty because we have hard water (even though the water had no contact with the self-enclosed water pump). This same dishwasher caught fire in the control panel and could've burned down my house if we hadn't been home to put it out. So, I'm not a fan of Sears, but this is the last time I ever buy from Sears.

You've been warned: if you purchase anything with a warranty from Sears be prepared for aggravation.

Beware of Your Dishwasher

Thursday night my son loaded our dishwasher and started the wash cycle. My husband and I were upstairs when a daughter rushed into our bedroom and shouted, "The dishwasher is on fire."

We thought she was mistaking steam for smoke, but decided to check it out. Sure enough, the dishwasher was in fact on fire. We hurried to disconnect power to the unit and found that the control panel had caught fire and had even melted in places. We have no idea why.

This dishwasher was a Kenmore with a stainless steel tub that we purchased in late 2003 from our local Sears store. If you happen to own a Kenmore, you may want to be careful when you run it, in case it catches fire.

Not too long ago, a house in our area burned to the ground. The cause was a faulty dishwasher. I shudder to think what might have happened had we not been home.

Be careful when running electrical appliances because you never know when something might malfunction and put your home, or worse, your family, at risk.