I had bought from Sears occasionally. My dad told me how much he disliked Sears since whenever he bought a Kenmore appliance it would break about a month after the warranty expired. I had bought their craftsman hand tools (wrenches, screwdrivers etc).
But I gave up on Sears after a problem I had with a lawnmower. I bought a lawnmower and also bought the extended warranty (for 3 years). The only reason I bought it, was that the warranty included a free tuneup each year, (replace spark plugs, sharpen\replace blade etc). Well I got a tuneup on the mower the first 2 out of 3 years. They call shortly before warranty expires and asks if I'd like to extend the same warranty for another 3 years. I decide to do it. Well, a year later, I have a vibration in my lawn mower and decide to bring it in to get repaired and also a tuneup. Well, the lady at the Sears repair ctr tells me my warranty doesn't cover free tuneups. She then said, it has never covered free tuneups. I ask her to look at her records and see if I brought it in before for tuneups. She does as I ask, and she says yes you brought it in 2 years ago and 3 years ago for a tuneup. I agree, then I ask, what does the computer say I paid for the tuneup? she said it was nothing. I told her she's right it was nothing, since it was covered under warranty. However, I still got nothing. So I said fine, just repair the lawnmower for now. Well the give me a claim ticket and the lawnmower would be repaired and back in the repair ctr on Sat the 7th. I go the morning of the 7th to get my lawnmower and I tell them I'm here to pick up my lawnmower. They ask if they had called me. I told them no. Then they ask why I thought it would be ready? I told them, your claim ticket you gave me, said it would be here now. So the lady at the counter says we have another run from the folks who actually do the repair and that truck will be here in 90 minutes. I live a good 40 minutes from this facility, so I hang around town and do a few other errands waiting for my lawnmower. (The grass is high, and I really need the lawnmower).
So I call back to the repair place after the truck was supposed to deliver the repairs. Turns out on Saturdays, they don't have a truck come to deliver back the repaired items. So I wasted time hanging around town waiting for a truck that never was scheduled to come. The mgr of the store apologized, and wasn't sure why the associate said that, then said they weren't sure why my mower wasn't back when it was promised. She'd call back and follow up.
I get a call a few days later, saying they identified the problem with the lawnmower and that it was the main shaft of mower was bent due to probably hitting a rock. Then they told me that wasn't covered since it's considered abuse. I told the lady, wait a minute, the guy at sears when I bought it said it would cover everything. She said, no one at sears would ever say that. It is clear on the paperwork, that this wasn't covered. Well, she was right about the paperwork saying it wasn't covered. But I was positive that is what the guy told me when I bought it.
So, the next day, I went to the same sears store where I bought the lawnmower originally. I asked to buy a new lawnmower. After selecting one, I was asked if I wanted a warranty. I asked them to tell me what it covered. They told me it covered everything. Everything? I asked. Yes, it covers everything. I told them, I use the lawnmower to mow the lawn at my church and the grass goes to the main road and occasionally a rock gets thrown into the grass. What if I hit a rock with the lawnmower? He said it would be covered, no questions asked.
After that, I said I'll buy it, but I'd like to verify something and asked for his mgr. The mgr was near us and she came over. I asked her the same question about the warranty. She said the exact same thing, everything is covered. That's when I told her, I have a lawnmower under warranty sitting at the sears repair center not getting repaired because they said it is not covered by warranty because I hit a rock while mowing and bent the shaft.
At this point, I had the two sears employees and about 5 shoppers looking for mowers all around me as I told everyone in a loud voice how I was being told one thing by Sears sales, then said by Sears repair people that the fine print says thsi isn't so, and I must have been lying. The mgr called up the repair place but she couldn't get them to budge on the repairs. She asked me what I wanted. I told her, I wanted all my money back on the warranty I paid over the last two warranty periods and place that money into a new lawnmower. She at first said she couldn't do that. I told her, fine. I'm going to go to the local news and tell them exactly what happened. I will let them write a story so bad about sears and I will tell them exactly who I talked with and what I said and what you said. I have 5 witnesses here and will ask them all for their names so they could be a witness for the newspaper.
I was able to get what I wanted, it took a little while, but they finally caved. But after that purchase, I vowed to never buy from SEARS again. I was very happy when I learned they got bought out and even happier that the new company is doing poorly. They have horrible customer service.