Sears Air Conditioners Consumer Reviews - Page 2

My parent's home has suffered from severe water damage in the walls and wood floors of their home. The source of the problem is the central A/C and Heating unit installed by Sears. Sears had placed the wrong type of valve in our system, which caused an overflow of water. About three weeks ago we saw puddles of water shooting up from our wood floors as we attempted to walk through our home. After recognizing the damage, we contacted Sears to get a repairman out to fix the problem. A Sears's representative told us to simply cut the unit off so that the water could stop spilling.

No A/C in a 100 degree (100 plus with humidity considered) south Louisiana climate was not an option. The unit continued to spill for about 2.5 weeks and we were left with bare concrete floors. Our insurance company sent a restoration company out to help with the drying of the floors. We had to sleep with about five small industrial fans blowing very loudly and a humidifier (added to the heat). Sears has been very slow in their response to our damaged home. They eventually sent out a repairman and he replaced the valve. Now the unit does not cool our home at all. Our thermostat reads at about 86 degrees all day and night.

Sleeping has been miserable because of the unit's inability to cool off our home. To this day we still have bare floors and industrial fans in our home. My family and I have been dealing with busted floors and we are still waiting on a Sears's repairmen to come out and fix the problem. I would not advise anyone to use the services that Sears provides. This has been financially and emotionally straining for my family. Being a Louisiana resident, I feel as if we are without lights in the midst of hurricane season. Please don't choose Sears, if you would like to have great customer service and functioning appliances.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- My husband and I wanted to install central air and heating in our house, so I called Sears to get an estimate. I was told that a salesperson would call me within 24 hours to set up a time to meet me at our house. A man called within the hour and said he could come out at 10:00am on Friday, which was fine. Then Thursday at around 6:00pm he called to say that his car had broken down and he wouldn't be able to make it. Could we reschedule for Monday at 10:00am? I said okay. Monday rolls around, and by 10:30am, still no salesperson.

I call the salesperson's number (his cell phone, which he'd given me), and he says, "Oh, I thought we said 11:00am. I'll be there a little after 11:00am." So I wait until 11:00am, and by 12:00pm, still no salesperson. I call him back on his cell phone, only this time he doesn't answer at all. So I call the 800 number for Sears and tell the woman who answers the problem - they tell me the "district manager" will call me back. By 1:00pm, still no phone call. I call the 800 number again, explain the whole story again, and the idiotic woman says "so why do you want to talk to the district manager?"

Finally she puts me through to him, where I explain the story AGAIN. He apologizes profusely and tells me he'll get another guy on it, who will call me with a new appointment time. The new guy calls within the hour. I tell him I can meet him Tuesday at 10:00am. He says "will your husband be at home?" I say no, he works during the day, so it will just be me. He says "Oh. I just like to talk to everyone in the house. It's not because you're a woman or anything. It's just a lot of information." Before I can think to be angry about this comment, I say well, I can see if he's available to come home.

Then he changes his mind and says, "I don't want you to have to mess up his schedule. I'll just talk to you and then if he has any questions he can call me." If he had been talking to my husband he would NEVER have asked "Is your wife going to be home? If she has any questions, she can call me." This guy knew nothing about our household, about who makes the financial decisions, or that both of us are the breadwinners - he just assumed that my husband would make the ultimate decision, and I was just a feeble-minded intermediary who was not to be trusted with any kind of basic information.

I don't know what they're training these people to say, but it's basically turn-of-the-century misogynistic sales techniques. Needless to say, I cancelled and complained (in answer to which I received profuse and meaningless apologies). In the future I will avoid their store and services and go where my business is wanted.

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- Two new units last October. Did not heat the house in winter. Unit downstairs did not cool for six weeks. Sears did not repair it. I finally got a local repairman. Service out of San Antonio is lousy. Bubba is rude and unconcerned about getting the unit to work. I do not recommend units or Sears service.

LONGWOOD, FLORIDA -- Hello. I am beyond DISSATISFACTION with SEARS and the people working in their "customer relations" that I decided to Google and see what comes up and my family is obviously not the first they have come into contact with. On December 17, 2010, SEARS installed a new "energy efficient" HVAC unit in my home that we are residing in.

On January 27, 2011, we received a utility bill in excess of $1,000.00 (YES, ONE THOUSAND). We promptly called SEARS about the issue and they tried to tell us that this is "normal". After phone calls and phone calls, I filed a BBB complaint and then finally someone contacted me. This complaint was officially filed 2/24/11.

A R. ** contacted me to tell us that someone would come out to check the installation of the unit. Nothing happened for weeks. Now all of a sudden, he is no longer on our case and it has been assigned to R ** and T **. As of today, 3/31/2011 NO ONE has come out and we have been forced to turn our heat completely off because we have $1,900 in utility bills for only 2 months. We have 4 children and this is absurd. R ** had the audacity to tell me that has "been a rough Winter for everyone".

Excuse my language, but I don't give a damn because no one else has the spiked usage we have had ONLY after installation of this unit. We live in a simple ranch style home with only 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Last winter, our usage was nothing of the amount, so this Winter would be no different. I am fed up with SEARS and their lack of action and nonchalant attitude. I even went as far as to contact the Operations Manager of our City and have him email them about our average usage and the apparent spike that occurred.

All R ** does is send out stupid emails and not act on a damn thing. I will continue to file with the BBB until an actual resolution is reached and not empty promises to even START on the issue over a FREAKIN month later. I see now that we are dealing with a person who has not done anything in the past for other people except "see what she can do". How about "seeing" an ACTUAL RESOLUTION?

PAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND -- I had a part fail on my central ac unit that was installed by Sears. It released all the freon refrigerant gas into our duct work and house. On June 14 2008 I had a Sears technician come out to fix the problem, however they could not do anything. The technician stated he would have to order the parts then they would be back to fix the unit.

Today is July 7th 2008 and on three separate occasions the technicians have come to fix the unit but still do not have the right parts. I have been mailed 3 different shipments of parts in the last 3 weeks an each time I get the same exact parts. Not to mention some of them have nothing to do with the original problem. I have called their customer relations departments on several occasions and only get transferred around to departments that have nothing to do with the service.

When I finally speak to someone they tell me they are still waiting for the part to come in. Being a HVAC service company wouldn't you think they would have the part in the truck. Or at least know what they need to order. I originally paid 9700.00 to have this system installed, so I decided to get a second opinion from an outside company at my own expense.

What I found out was that the original company that installed the system went out of business a while ago and that they installed the wrong parts to start with. Even the airhandler isn't sized correctly for the condenser unit. As of today I am still getting the run around and I even contacted their national customer relations dept., but still get the same answers. My advise is do not ever purchase any type of service from Sears.

MEDFORD, NEW JERSEY -- Would you believe that I just had the worst experience ever with Sears ? I called for a service appointment on my central air on 6/6 and the soonest that Sears could do it was today the 15. That is bad enough but needless to say Sears called me back at 1:15 this afternoon to cancel the appointment...something about a tech calling out... who's problem is that? After talking to 7 people the soonest that Sears could "Fit" me in was Tuesday the 21st... ummm not to customer friendly... and the "service manager" could not even promise that Sears could make that.

Now I am asking myself why in hell did I go to Sears to install my central air and why in hell did I pay $500.00 for a Master Protection Plan what are they protecting. My house has been over 90 degrees with very high humidity , my wife and 2 year old daughter suffer from allergies so it has been a fun time in South Jersey. My next letter will go to the CEO Alan Lacy. Not that I think I have a snow balls chance in hell, (Ah a snow ball would feel good right now) in getting any satisfaction other than Sears will NEVER get any of my business again.

I understand that Sears needs to adhere to their business model and this is an unfortunate situation. From what the service manager told me if they "moved up" my appointment then they would have to bump someone else and they as a company made a business decision not to do that. All fine and well but what about MY BROKEN APPOINTMENT, what about doing something to satisfy me after all I have spent thousands of dollars with that company. As I told the "service manager" I work for a very large corp located here in South Jersey and it will be my obligation to let all of my fellow co-workers know how this situation turned out all 6000 of them. Thank goodness for company electronic message boards.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND -- Prior to my most recent experience with Sears appliance repairs, I've always been favorably impressed. I've purchased many Sears appliances from refrigerators to the central air conditioning unit that leads me to this complaint and have never encountered a problem. Prior repairs were made professionally and to my satisfaction. Now, however, I've found out how little regard Sears has for its customers when things go wrong.

I called Sears after the air conditioner leaked. They sent a technician, who said that the problem was a too-thick filter that blocked air flow and caused the coil to freeze. He replaced the filter, checked the freon (which he said was okay) and left. The air conditioner, however, continued to leak a large amount of water, flooding the unfinished portion of the basement and damaging furniture stored there and leaking into the finished portion, where it soaked the carpet, leaving it a sodden, smelly mess. Naturally, I called Sears the early in the morning the very next day so that someone could come to complete the repair properly.

I was told that no appointments were available until three days from my call. I explained that large amounts of water were leaking out and damaging my home, but Sears refused to send anyone, claiming it was impossible. When I asked to speak with a supervisor, my Kafkaesque experience began. I was transferred to a variety of people, all of whom were very polite but completely unhelpful. I explained that if Sears could not come that day, I wanted them to cover the cost of retaining another repair company because the situation was emergent. I was transferred around and around, and eventually was cut-off.

I called back and got the same rigmarole ending with a transfer to an office that was closed. I called again, this time simply to cancel the repair that was scheduled and was met with the same run-around. When asked for why I was cancelling, I explained the circumstances, was transferred to yet another polite but entirely unhelpful person, placed on hold for twenty minutes and then cut-off.

I called again to cancel and had the same experience, leading me to conclude that this is a deliberate tactic that Sears employs when it wants to get rid of what it regards as an annoying customer. Meanwhile, I am out nearly two hundred dollars for a completely useless service call and the damage to my property mounts. I am done with Sears. I will never purchase another item from this company nor will I ever use their repair service again. I advise all who read this to follow my lead. Give your business to a company that finishes what it starts and makes good on its promises. That definitely is not Sears!

LANTANA, FLORIDA -- First repair appointment was on 7/11. Repair man told me we needed parts, it would take a week and he would be back the next Friday. That following Thursday 8/17, I was called by the service center stating they were checking with me to verify if the parts had arrived; they had not. This went on for 4 weeks. On 8/6 their service center called asking if the parts had arrived; not yet and the appointment was rescheduled (again) for 8/8.

Finally the parts arrived on 8/7. I called on 8/7 to verify the appointment on 8/8, I was told the appointment was changed to 8/12. I was not notified of this, I cannot take off work any more for these bogus service calls. I tried to call to make a complaint with Sears and I got forwarded to different departments who would not give me their location so I could have an address or phone number to follow up with.

The last phone number I called I spoke to a rep who forwarded me to Service Recovery but she would not give me their phone number direct. She said it was only for "corporate use". The person I talked to in Service Recovery stated the same thing the other service call stated; my appointment is set for 8/12. Unfortunately, no one will be here. We have tried several times over the last 4 weeks to resolve this with the company and all we get is ignored by the promise of a return phone call, being put on hold, or being disconnected all together.I WANT AN AIR CONDITIONER THAT WORKS. THAT IS WHAT I PAID FOR.

I LIVE IN SOUTH FLORIDA AND IT'S REALLY HOT IN AUGUST!!!!! I want them to honor the service agreement that I paid for. I want them to make an appointment and stand by it. I want them to NOT put me on hold for over 20 minutes and then cut me off. I want all of this waiting time added back into our service contract. I want them to pay for the extra amount that was on our electric bill for having to run smaller window units as a result of the main unit not working. I have turned my complaint over the BBB and our Florida Attorney General. We have also canceled our 30 year old account with them as of today!

NORTH RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS -- Racism and deception at North Riverside - I entered the store and purchased an air conditioner, returned home, strained up a flight of stairs, removed the old one, installed it and found it was 220. Clerk had to re-ring the purchase because she had no pick up slip - (double purchase on a debit card). Wrong kind when I returned home. Returned to store and talked to sales associates. Tried to find an adaptor to fit the 115 power range for the 220. After going to several stores, no foreign adaptors. I returned home and called Sears. I was told to return it as soon as possible. They had sold over 20,000 and won't have anymore if I didn't hurry.

My daughter and I removed the old one. I went to purchase another one. I was told to return to the desk because I had FORGOTTEN the pick-up slip. I specifically asked for a 110. I was given a void and then charged for a new conditioner(but the debit card shows 1400 out of account) The clerk had to keep my receipt for the original bill( she had to keep it for her records). When I returned home, wrong air conditioner, 220. I found this out when I got it up the stairs and opened the box. Back to store, I requested my receipts back.

Since the clerk(DIANE) wanted to credit me, she had to have my receipt. She took the return receipt and lost it AFTER they placed the TWICE- OLD air conditioner back in storage. I was asked what I did with the receipt. I yelled "I handed it to YOU". I was promptly told she was going to call Security. I yelled back " I want a store manager". I told the manager about HER keeping all the receipts and that I wanted copies. She shuffled through her packages and couldn't find anything but kept putting tickets in her pocket. The manager looked through the originals and found all of them. SURPRISE!!!!! I wished I could have looked in her pockets.

She made one copy of one receipt. Her mistake was leaving the originals on the desk, I took them. She could keep MY copies. Why can't I keep hers? Needless to say, my debit card is minus 2000 dollars and I don't have an air conditioner. She rudely interrupted her transactions several times to talk to SPANISH people and ignore me. She even walked away to talk to other sales associates about who gets the COMMISSION and on what previous sale. I know the sales people live on their commission but do you have to rob a teacher to get?

HARRINGTON, DELAWARE -- Purchased 2 HVAC systems (one for 2nd floor and one for 1st floor) in Dec 2004 for $18975. June 2005 2nd floor system quit working. Sears would not service and claims they have no record of system being installed even though it's clearly written on the sales contract. 1st floor system would not produce sufficient heat or hot water from day one.

Filed a complaint with Delaware Attorney Generals Office. Rep from Sears stood in our dining room and told the Investigator from the AG's office that he would have no problem returning our money per the contract's "Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back" statement. This was in Oct of 2005. No heat/ac for 5 yrs for 2 disabled people.