Seared

In March, we purchased a new dishwasher based on Consumer Reports' recommendations and following that moment, my opinion of Sears and their service has rapidly degraded. Their first mark was for sending incompetent contractors to perform the installation. Ironically, the name of the contractors' company was Quality First. The duo installed the dishwasher well enough and they even tested it for me to demonstrate that it was operational. Not five minutes after they left, however, we discovered that they had neglected to reconnect the power to the garbage disposal. That was strike one for Quality First. Amy called the contractors and reported the error and they insisted that there was no way that they could send someone to fix the mistake for at least seven days. Amy accepted their ridiculous policy, but that was strike two.

The second pair of dunderheads that Quality First sent to fix the mistakes of the first pair arrived as expected and fixed the problem in record time. However, despite the fact that the garbage disposal was now operational, the dishwasher completely stopped working in the middle of the first load of dishes that we tried to wash. The contractors had already departed, of course. This time, Amy called Sears and registered a complaint about Quality First while simultaneously demanding that a repairman come to the house as soon as possible.

The third serviceman to arrive was an actual employee of Sears. It didn’t take him long to find the problem. You may have wondered why I said that the second pair of incompetents from Quality First made their “repair” in record time. It seems that in their rush to attain the land speed record for dishwasher repair they had so lightly twisted the main power wires together as they reassembled the machine that the wires had actually disconnected due to the vibrations of the dishwasher itself. Strike three for Quality First Last. I will never let those idiots in my house again. Of course, we registered our complaints through the proper channels and Sears, in recompense, refunded our installation cost in full and returned about $50 of the cost of the unit.

Following this unfortunate imbroglio, all was fine until recently when the dishwasher began stopping in the middle of its cycle yet again. This was a different problem, however, as electricity continued to flow through the veins of the beast. Thankfully, we were still fully covered under the dishwasher’s warranty. So, we called Sears yet again to have a repairman sent to the house. He determined that it the electronics of the thing had failed, but he did not have the part to fix it that day. So, he ordered the part and had it shipped to the house. That was about three weeks ago.

We finally received the part last week and Sears had its friendly computerized secretary call to remind us that we had a repair scheduled for this past Saturday and could we please call them back to confirm that, yes indeed, we still wanted to have our dishwasher fixed. Sigh. So, Amy called the number that the very friendly machine had left us and confirmed (with a human being) that our repair was still scheduled for this past Saturday between eight and 12am.

Saturday morning we awoke early as we usually do and Amy went out to run some errands while I stayed home and waited for the repairman. She left the house around 8:30am and when she returned at 11:30am, the repairman had still not arrived. Not waiting another second, she called Sears who informed us that they had no record of her confirming the appointment and that we would have to wait another two weeks to for service. We may actually be able to get the dishwasher fixed sooner, but I don’t know what the outcome of that conversation was because I had to leave the room.

Obviously, we’ve registered another complaint with Sears, but really it makes no difference now. They’ve done enough damage to their reputation in one transaction to last me the rest of my life. We won’t be buying any of our major appliances through Sears in the future. I sincerely hope that anyone reading this doesn’t have the same problems with the company’s service that we have. If you do decide purchase an appliance of some sort through Sears, especially if it requires professional installation, I can only wish you luck of a better variety.