Sears Canada (Square One)

Turns out "standard" delivery of a washer and dryer from Sears no longer includes installation. It just means they dump it on the floor, with no apology for showing up two hours late after I sat around waiting for them from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. as requested. When Ipourted out that, as a 5'4" woman, I could not lift the dryer and install it on top of the washer in the space-saving stacked position that had made are buy the wore expensive front loaders in the first place, it war suggested that my "husband can do it." When I said I didn't have a husband, they shrugged and told me to sign for the delivery.

It wasn't until they were at the truck already that I noticed the big dent in the top of the dryer. Something very heavy had obviously been dropped on it while it was still in the box. The delivery guys had to have noticed it when they unpacked the dryer from the box, but they brought it in, dumped it, and drove away.

I called the store to tell them that I needed a replacement. I was offered a $100 discount instead. When I suggested that the dryer had such a big dent that it may have been damaged, the sales rep was clearly annoyed that I was insisting on a new, undamaged machine.

A few days later, a new dryer arrived. This time, at least, I got it installed on top of the washer. After the installers left, I opened it and, to my surprise, found it dirty and full of dead bugs. It had obviously not come straight from the manufacturer.

Suspecting that it had been used and returned to Sears, had sat in an unsealed box in a warehouse for awhile, and then had been repackaged and sent to me as a "new" dryer, I called the store again.

I was told by an annoyed salesperson that the dryers were on backorder and I would have to wait at least 10 days to get a new one. I had to do laundry, so I cleaned out the dead bugs and used the dryer. I quickly found out why a pervious customer had returned it: it would run for awhile and then stop. The only way to start it again was to open the door to reset the cycle and start over again ... and again, until the dryer finally decided that it would keep going.

When the third dryer finally arrived, I was called and given a delivery time. When I came home from work a half hour before the scheduled delivery, I found the truck setting in front of the house. It turned out that they had arrived early and had been banging on the door for the past half hour, driving my dog into a barking frenzy, and driving my tenant living in my basement apartment crazy.

The third dryer had all of the packing materials from the manufacturer still inside, contained no dead bugs, and had no dents.

Three weeks after I ordered a new washer and dryer, and after being treated like a royal pain in the neck by the sales staff and delivery people for insisting that I get what I paid for -- a brand new dryer ... that's What I finally got.