Sears Canada Inc

BUYERS BEWARE! Terrible Customer Service at Sears Canada

My husband and I recently purchased a portable dishwasher as a gift. It was very important to us that the dishwasher be able to be returned. The sears.ca website states that major appliances may be returned within 30 days so we decided to purchase the dishwasher from Sears. When we phoned to place the order the agent on the phone assured us that the person receiving the gift would have 30 days to return it.

The dishwasher was delivered to its recipient on August 28. The delivery person unpacked the dishwasher and put it in the kitchen. At that time the person being given the dishwasher stated that she thought it may be too big for the kitchen. The delivery person advised her that if she decided not to keep it she had 30 days to return it. He then took the packaging and left. She did not use the dishwasher and after a few days decided it was unsuitable. She then contacted me wondering how she might go about returning it since it did not come with a receipt or any return instructions.

I phoned customer service and spoke to an agent. She informed me that the dishwasher needed to be returned within 24 hours for a full refund or exchange. I informed her that we had been told it was 30 days, and I did not see anything about the 24 hour policy she was speaking of on the sears.ca website. She then asked if it was still in the box. I told her of course it wasn’t as the delivery man had unpacked it and took the packaging. She then claimed that the dishwasher could not be returned because it was not in its original packaging. Sears.ca clearly states that as part of their core delivery service they are to deliver and unpack the item, put it in place, and dispose of the packaging. We were given no indication that purchase of this delivery service for 69.95 could possibly result in the return policy becoming void.

Since we were very unsatisfied with the customer service we had received my husband phoned customer service again the next day. This time the agent informed him that they do not accept returns on major appliances. My husband said that was completely unacceptable and requested a manager. The managr then proceeded to inform him that the dishwasher could not be returned or exchanged after 72 hours and because it was not in the original packaging there was nothing she could do.

We feel as though the employees of Sears are either grossly misinformed about their return policy or extremely deceptive about the policy to their customers. Each person we spoke to gave us a different time frame for returns. The website itself gives misleading information regarding refunds; not to mention the fact that we straight out asked the agent on the phone if we could return the dishwasher and were told it would not be a problem if we returned it within 30 days! We would never have purchased the dishwasher from Sears Canada had we known it could not be returned. We are now out $750. We really regret purchasing this item from Sears Canada especially since we know that there are so many other companies out there that have excellent customer service. I hope this letter stops other consumers from making the same mistake we did. Buyers Beware!!