Went to sears in Edmonton, Alberta and purchased 2 leather couches and a freezer, then the nightmare began. Instead of saying the exact same things that are in thousands of sears reviews, i would like to post a few of the things that i have learned from this experience.
* If you have been shopping at sears for decades, know that the once dependable store that took care of it's customers is no more. Customer service is not even a joke now, it's a full blown nightmare if their are any problems with your order. Problems can be anything from getting your order delivered when expected to there is something wrong with your purchase.
* They have a no refund policy until the item has been proven that it is not repairable, a process that could take many months and that sears hides this from customers very well. I am not sure if this is just appliances or if it affects other purchases as well. Make sure you are clear on the return/refund policy of sears if you make a big purchase there.
* All phone calls to sears customer service in any category are answered either in the Philippines or in India. They are not friendly, and you can't believe anything they tell you, especially dates that repair people or delivery trucks will show up. Really great when you have to take 3 separate days off work for a delivery that does not show up and on the phone they are telling you the truck will be there in a couple hours. Costed me 3 days lost wages + 80.00 to get my order delivered. Sears did nothing for me after this.
* Good luck on being able to talk to a manager, especially in person. Went 4 times to sears, and was told 4 times that there was no manager in the store. Also read this in many reviews of sears.
* These next two comments are VERY IMPORTANT:
* If you get your delivery and there is a minor problem with a product, and the delivery guy tells you how to fix it, pay attention. The couch i bought was missing half of the little rubber things on the legs that prevent the floor from being scratched when the couch is moved. He told me to go buy self adhesive heavy duty felt pads, trim them down to size and put them on. It worked like a charm. I was upset at the time that my 2200.00 couch was missing these, but in the end the fix took less than 30 min including driving time and 4.99 to purchase the pads. I seriously doubt that it would have been that painless to go through sears for the fix. I guess i owe that driver a thank you for making it easy on me.
* the other important thing is if you have a problem and you go to sears, and you get lucky enough to find an employee that seems smart and is trying to help you, be nice to them. They don't have the power to give you a refund or credit in any way, but in the end, they will definitely take you the farthest in getting your problem resolved. Sears and their management has gone to the dogs in my opinion, but they do still have some great employees that will do their best to help you in their stores. You just got to find ones of these employees and work through them. This is how i finally fixed my delivery issue.
What i have written here today comes from my personal and last experience with Sears. Also from countless reviews and the odd news story i have read about this company. There are probably many happy customers that shop at sears, and things go as they should. But beware, if there is any problem what so ever with your purchase, just don't be surprised when the snowball effect kicks in and things get real ugly. Mine was so bad that i wrote this review, which is the first review i have written in my life.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $2,800.00