Edward in Toronto

Sears Appliance Repair gave me a window of 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon on Sept. 8 for repair of a dishwasher. When the repairman failed to show up or call, I called the service desk shortly after noon. I was told that the repairman was just leaving his last job and would arrive shortly, and I was promised compensation for the delay. More than an hour later he had not arrived; I called again and was told that he would be there in 10 minutes. He arrived 20 minutes later, repaired the dishwasher, and charged me $198. I called the service centre regarding compensation and was told that they would only give me a $50 gift certificate. I only shop at Sears for appliances and have no use for the certificate; in addition, as I told the service reps, I had had to cancel a doctor's appointment with less than 24 hours notice and was charged $30 for this. The Sears reps that I spoke to were, to say the least, unhelpful.

This was the worst move of my life. The estimate bore no resemblance to the final cost, which was twice as much. The packers worked efficiently enough, but ran out of paper towards the end of the day; they could not get more because the office had closed and the next day was Sunday, so I had to provide them with towels, facecloths, etc., to complete their job. My clothes were packed in over-used, collapsing cardboard wardrobes. Towards the end, material was simply dumped in boxes, resulting in some breakage (discovered later) and damage from a bottle of bleach. After this, the pickup was sufficiently well-managed, but the delivery was a disaster. The box labels (kitchen, bedroom, etc.) were ignored half the time, and tables were stacked on top of each other, tabletop to tabletop, resulting in scratches from grit. I was told that the broken-down wardrobes had to be emptied immediately or I would be charged for the price of NEW wardrobes. There was an additional charge, beyond the extra time required, because my new apartment was at the end of a long hall. Phone calls after the move were usually not picked up, and my messages requesting a call-back were ignored. When the phone was answered, I was told that the person who could help me was out but would call back. This never happened. There are some positive reviews of this company on the site, but my experience was completely in keeping with the very bad experiences in the most negative reviews.

I hired Peter to build bookshelves and cupboards around an existing fireplace in the living room. I knew what I wanted and sent sketches; Peter added some design touches that I liked and he explained every step of the process before he started. The result was a beautiful, solid set of shelves and cupboards that fit in seamlessly with the fireplace. There were no surprises except that it looked even better when finished than I had expected. The time-line and the cost were as promised. Peter is an artist as well as a craftsman and I would recommend him and CSR to anyone.