Sears Dishwashers Consumer Reviews - Page 4

MASSACHUSETTS -- I purchased a dishwasher and a stove on September 14, 2009 with a promised delivery date of 9/21/09. I told the sale clerk I could only be available in the morning on that day. I was told that they could not guarantee a time of delivery and that Sears would call me after 6:00 pm the day before delivery and they would give me a 2 hour window for delivery. They called me with a delivery time of 2:45 to 4:45. I call to tell them I would not be available and would have to reschedule. Everything was automated so I pressed other options for a live person.

I don't know why they bother to have live personnel because all they can do is reiterate what the computerized message says. That was very frustrating. When I was persistent for an answer about morning delivery she lied to me by saying that she would have someone call me in the morning so I agreed to keep the delivery date thinking I would get a call in the morning. I missed work for two hours that morning with no phone call from Sears. By 9:00 I called the delivery line to get the same recorded message that said my delivery time was 2:45 to 4:45 (no change and no phone call).

I rescheduled for the next day which is today taking a chance that it would be an afternoon delivery since I could not be here in the morning. I thought I was in luck. My new delivery time for today was 1:45 to 3:45. This fit into my schedule at work so I felt I was all set. I took time off from work to be here leaving work at 1:00 missing a very important meeting. Here I sit at 5:22 and the delivery has not arrive. I did receive a "courtesy" call at 4:30 (but only after I called to see where they were at 4:00).

They said they were running late and they they would be here about 5:30. If I knew they were coming this late, I wouldn't have missed any work. This is ridiculous. People are busy and have other commitments. You should be able to work out in advance what time of day you can be home to accept delivery. Now it is 5:30 and they are still not here.

VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON -- I bought a Sears Kenmore elite dishwasher about four years ago. It cost about $850. I have had it serviced numerous times over those four years, each time a tech from Sears coming out and fixing it. This last year, a tech had to come out 3 times for one issue. To the tech's credit he mentioned that with the # of service calls that I had and this problem in particular, my dishwasher was a lemon and should be replaced. Under the terms on the extended warranty I purchased, I received a credit from Sears towards a new dishwasher; which I picked out and it was under the credit amount. It took them a month to get it here - problem # 1.

Once it did get to my house it took the installation guy (who was not with Sears as I come to find out) another two weeks to set up an appointment - problem # 2. After the installation guy doesn't show up for his first two appointments, he makes the 3rd - problem # 3. He comes out looks under my sink without removing anything and says the installation will cost me an additional $40. Why, I ask, because he's not sure if the connections will work - does he do installations for a living or not? Since the installation should have been a part of the warranty, I told him to take it up with Sears.

He said take it or leave it and leave it was the option I chose. I called Sears about this and had to speak to five (5) different people (on one 45 minute phone call) who kept transferring me to other departments. It first started with One Care, then to Installation customer service, then to Rapid Response, then to Customer Care and then back to One Care. Each person did not know why "they" were being contacted, "apologized" for the inconvenience and sent me off again. To me, apologies only mean something if they are sincere or there is at least some attempt to not do it again - Sears missed on both accounts.

At the end of the phone call, they said it was up to the installer if they needed to charge for extra parts and did not get involved - for a warranty replacement of a lemon they sold me - now it's my problem again. I do not have any plans to ever buy from Sears again. Their customer service is awful, warranty service worse and now they use independent folks who care less.

I used to buy a lot of stuff from Sears, large power tools, lawnmowers, vacuums, clothes washers and dryers, dishwashers (obviously) and had more and more problems with them over the last few years. Enough is enough - they have earned their poor financial performance with poor customer service. I would not buy any stock in that company.

DECATUR, ALABAMA -- I purchased a Kenmore dishwasher about three years ago and it stopped working in February of this year (2008). I purchased the warranty offered to cover the repairs and the tech came out and fixed my dishwasher. Two months later it ceased working and again I called for repairs. The service tech came out on June 16, couldn't find what was wrong and ordered parts he hoped would fix the problem.

The parts were not in the next week but were promised by the 3rd of July. They didn't come in. Company was searching for an alternate part source and I was assured the parts would be in by July 28th. The parts were not in and again, after a number of phone calls and emails to the company, I was given a due date for the parts of August 25. When that date rolled around, still no parts. I again called every number I was given and sent several emails to the company asking for the dishwasher to be replaced under the warranty I'd purchased.

I was told the dishwasher could not be replaced without a technician declaring it couldn't be fixed. The catch there was, no repairman would be dispatched because the parts were on back order. I was finally given a due date of September 29th. I spent over an hour on the phone earlier this week explaining I wasn't going to wait four months for a part that wasn't guaranteed to be in and that I planned to purchase a new dishwasher and sue the company.

I received a call from Sears two days ago offering to refund the price of the warranty I'd purchased for the repairs. I took the offer because it's about the only thing I figured I'd get out of them. I spent several hours on the phone and sent over a dozen emails trying to resolve the problem and all I got was one gigantic runaround. I will never buy another Sears product. I strongly suggest anyone thinking about buying something at Sears do so with caution.

On August 7th we reported to the Service department that the dishwashers is not working and in need of service. I was advised that the technician will come out on August 15, 2008 between 9 am - 4 pm. At the same time the telephone operator had our account on the screen and said would like us send a filter for fridge at the same time with technician. This would save shipping charges.

On Friday at 4:00 I called the service department inquiring the whereabout of the technician. I was informed that he is working until 4:30 and should be on his way. No one showed up and I called again, this time I was told that since the technician did show on Friday he will be there between 8:30 and 12 noon on Saturday.

Saturday August 16, we received a call from the service department advising us that the technician will arrive on Monday since the filters for the fridge had not arrived. A long discussion followed between the service detachment and my wife regarding the filters and the fact that we have been washing dishes by hand since Thursday waiting for the service technician to arrive and why wait for the fridge filters which has nothing to do with service order.

I called the Service Department toll free number asking to speak to a supervisor and cancel the filter order that is holding our service call. I was advised that the filter will arrive on Monday and we have to wait until Tuesday to have some look at our dishwasher.

Tuesday August 16th the Service technician arrived, checked the machine, and advised us he need to order a new kit to stop the fuse from heating. Wednesday August 27th we are still waiting. To wait almost three weeks for a service call is not an acceptable level of service.

I am also frustrated with Sears. Last night my wife ordered a stainless steel replacement door panel for our dishwasher. We've changed our other appliances to stainless and that was just a cosmetic change. The representative took the model information and ordered the part for us. About 5 minutes after placing the order, my wife realized that the rep. didn't confirm her color choice. So she called back and got the ubiquitous "phone tree" picking the option "to check on a current order".

The next rep answered and when my wife checked the color, she was told that the first rep made a mistake and ordered some sort of sound deadener. My wife asked to cancel the first part that Sears messed up and reorder the correct part. She was told that she couldn't cancel the order. This is 5 minutes after placing the order.

It seems that evidently when you place an order, a track star employed by Sears tightens the laces on his shoes, races into the warehouse, packages the part, throws it on a truck, sends it on it's way to somewhere where it sits for 7-10 business days before you get it. Anyway... the rep says since we've already had our account debited for $150+, we can wait for the wrong part to arrive (7-10 days), call in for a return authorization, arrange for a pick up or take to UPS, wait for it to go back, wait for it to get processed, and than get our credit. What 3 or 4 weeks at best. But he would be more than happy to send us the part we actually ordered... for a charge of $225!

What is wrong with this picture??? A $50B a year corporation won't send out the correct part that was ordered but wants me (little guy) to finance their mistakes for an order. So I called the parts depot and have, as of today spoken to 9 different people who assure me that Sears does not have a policy for customer satisfaction, that the ONLY way to get the correct part is to pay for their error, AND for the correct part, (assuming that they have ordered the correct part this time).

As an economics teacher, I can assure you that every student who takes my course will learn of the Sears example of how NOT to treat a customer. Everything is wrong from not having a procedure to cancel an order, to not caring about satisfying the customer when THEY made the mistake. Mistakes happen... have a policy to pick up that dang (insert your own expletive) phone and call somebody and say hold on, I didn't mean to order that part. So here I sit, out $400, waiting in vain for satisfaction. In my opinion, run as fast as you can, to another retailer to buy. Your money is good everywhere, customer service is not available everywhere.

HAYWARD, CALIFORNIA -- For the last month I have been without a working dishwasher. I received a notice for a part recall on my 5 year old Maytag dishwasher about five weeks ago. Please note that my dishwasher WORKED PERFECTLY when Sears (also known as A & E Factory Service) came to put in the part. I called for service because the letter from Maytag said the dishwasher might catch on fire. To make a very long story short, I endured four visits from four different technicians (misnomer--they can't fix anything.)

Believe it or not, they spent a total of 11 1/2 hours over the four visits working on my dishwasher. It never worked for one minute! They replaced the control panel three times and the motor once. I made numerous calls to A & E (Sears) during this time. They have the most useless, rude, so-called customer service personnel I have ever encountered. THEY DID NOT DO ONE THING TO HELP ME. I realized those people could not personally fix the dishwasher, but I believe they could have assisted in the getting the parts expedited (each time they said it would be 7-10 days) or priority service (each time about 5 days wait after the part came.)

I did receive some help from Maytag on the part issue, but I believe they could use some improvement in their customer relations dept. as well. Yesterday, after technician number four (2 hours at my home) said he would have to order ANOTHER new motor, Maytag finally said no way and they would send me a new dishwasher. Of course, it will be at least another two to three weeks before, I can receive it and get it installed. Moral of story, DO NOT EVER CALL A & E FACTORY SERVICE (SEARS) FOR REPAIR. They are the worst company I have ever dealt with.

COON RAPIDS, MN, MINNESOTA -- I ordered a dishwasher from Sears on the 15th of September and they told me that it would arrive in three to five days. On the fifth day after contacting them they told me that they did not get enough of them to give me one and that ours would come in around the 30th and said if we wanted to cancel we could. My wife and I then found another one that we could get right away and purchased it so that we could have one, and canceled our order on the 25th of September. They then told us that we would receive our refund in 3 to 5 days.

I called on the 4th of October and asked where my refund was and was told that it would take 3 days more to get my refund. I then called on the 11th of October to see where my refund was. I was told by the rep after putting me on hold to do some research, that the refund was entered wrong and I would receive it in 5 days. I then asked for a supervisor and was told he was wrong, and I would receive my refund in 3 to 4 weeks. I then said I believe the first call and he was lying, because I was notified by Sears that my dishwasher was ready for pick-up. Why would I get a call if it was cancelled?

I want my money back from Sears, only because it was a debit card that I placed my order on, and when asked they do not pay me interest. If it was a credit card I would have had to make an interest payment on it, and they are not going to refund me that. I have been a loyal Sears customer, and will never shop there again, and will tell everyone not to shop there. K-mart has ruined Sears. One thing to add is that I emailed Sears, and received an ad in return. After emailing back two days ago with no reply I decided to write this.

BEAUMONT, TEXAS -- SEARS – worlds worst service department. I purchased a Kenmore dishwasher for my 83 yr old mother one year and two months ago. It quit working of course. The repairman sent out by Sears Houston dispatch to the Beaumont area was an obnoxious cretin with personally bypass. He looked at it, said a bug shorted the power board and it would cost $275 to repair the $350 dishwasher. After numerous discussions with the local store manager as well as the national customer service department, I was told Sears would repair the appliance free of charge.

The same myopic service group in Houston sent the same cretin to do the repair. He refused to repair it stating he would not because the house was roach infested, which was a complete lie. He was irritated and did not want to do the work so he convinced the simpletons in Houston not to do it, even though customer services and the local Sears manager said it would be done. After numerous conversations with the 4th grade service employee manager, it was obvious they were not going to honor their warranty or promises of their store people.

Their weak claim of service repair refusal was lame and obviously motivated by the local special ed repairman they sent out. They refused to send a different serviceman and instead insisted that they would not do the repairs because the house was infested. To placate them and to get the appliance repaired, the house was sprayed, even though it had been sprayed several months earlier. Still they refused, rudely. Another serviceman was called by my mother to look at her 4 yr old Sears refrigerator which was also on the fritz. He repaired it, and had no problems with bugs, but Sears (Houston) will not budge from their arrogant uneducated stance.

HBG., PENNSYLVANIA -- Last December my 2 1/2 yr old Kenmore dishwasher started to have multiple issues. The dishes weren't getting clean, there seemed to be no water pressure, the top wash arm wasn't spinning and it was taking 2 1/2 hrs for a cycle to complete. Even though it was out of warranty (and we hadn't bought the bogus 'maintenance agreement') we called Sears to fix it.

A Sears service tech came on 1/3/06. He cleaned the food chopper and replaced the top wash arm. He thought that should fix all the problems. It didn't and that service call cost $140.00. It washed better but the spray arm still wasn't spinning and it was still running 2 1/2 hrs per cycle. I called to have someone else come since Sears guarantees their repairs for 90 days.

The next Sears tech comes, pokes his head around the inside and calls the Sears home repair headquarters. 30 minutes later he informs me the long cycle is due to a "heating pause" which is normal. I tell him it never did that the first two years. He said we must have lowered the water temp on our water heater recently, causing the dishwasher to 'pause' a long time to heat it.

I asked him to take the water temp at my sink. It was 140 degrees which is actually too hot for household use. Realizing he had no more excuses for that one, he tells me the wash arm is spinning, it's just coming to a complete stop when I open the washer door to check it. I asked him why my glasses are not getting clean, then? He blamed it on my detergent not being fresh. I showed that guy the door and called to have yet ANOTHER tech come, hopefully one who could fix the dishwasher, not tell me I'm imagining the whole thing.

The next tech comes, takes one look at it and says "your control board is shot." A new control board is $135.00. With steam coming out of my ears, I pay for & order the part. Yesterday another one of Sears finest comes to install it. Now the dishwasher doesn't work at all. When I tried it out last night it ran for 31 minutes and stopped. I can't even get it to turn on now.

So far, I have spent $275 to fix a 2 yr. old $500 dishwasher. I called the service center and they acted like they were doing me some big honor by getting another tech out tomorrow. I have told everyone I know about this, we've decided we're going to shop our local family owned appliance stores in the future. I have learned the hard way that service after the sale is priceless and I'll pay a little extra for the appliance to get it.