5 replies to this topic

[nicoleautumn]

Ok so I am a Realtor with an e-Pro designation (one of three in a 20 Mile radius) and a Mensa member. You know the type. I am great with a computer, licensed for insurance underwriting in 35 states, worked a million jobs to put myself through college, accomplished in many things none of them appliance repair or common sense. The latter of which compelled me to contact Sears Repair to service my Kenmore side by side refrigerator. The preamble is this. I was involved in a very horrible car accident 2 years, 2 months and five days ago that left me with 5 shattered vertebrae in my neck (mind you God only gives us 7 of them) and 3 in my lower back. I had my neck "fixed" last April and in February I had my 4th and final spinal surgery on my back. I will walk again but not for another 6 months to a year.

 The repair person comes in and before looking at my appliance asks me what it has been doing. I say partially thawing the freezer but in no set pattern for the past few days. finally not working at all for some time up until about 10 hours before he showed up at which point it decided to start getting cold. He opens the empty freezer and says seems fine now must be the adaptive defrost...I'll emergency order it it will be here in 2-3 days and then you can schedule to have me come and put it in. I ask is he sure. Oh yes he is sure. Can I get it any faster? No way. Ok I'll do it how much will it cost? $65 because he came to my house to not look at the freezer, $55 to emergency order the part,$119 for the part, and when he comes to put it in $171 for the labor. What can I say, he is there, I am crippled and my 5 year old will drive me to an early grave with his requests for a cold drink not to mention I am unable to drive or in any way get food for us on a daily basis. So of course not knowing how much it should cost and having no idea how hard or easy this job is  thinking Sears wouldn't rip me off I bought their appliances and my brokerage has an agreement with them to buy gift cards for all of our closings gifts over 1000 Realtors in the tristate area (DE, MD, PA)...so ok I give him the $65 for coming out and the $55 to "emergency" order it. I'll pay for part and other things when he comes back to finish the job

Now 10 days later still no part and no one at Sears can give me any info on how it was sent, tracking #, delivery method, date of shipping. I decide to make 1 more call this time at 11:30pm I get a girl who says" I know you are rightfully annoyed and I don't want to be the one to tell you this but I have no way of knowing if this was even really ordered" You know I am hot I have called 5 other times even speaking to supervisors and had smoke blown up my ass about how they can't get me the part any faster. This girl tells me this is a whirlpool part, this is where they would have ordered it from, gives me their #. I call them the next morning order the part myself and low and behold their part that would be to me in 3 bus days has arrived the very next day. So much for Sears' excuse that they can't get the part any faster" not to mention it cost almost half what Sears was going to charge me.

I email you gurus and get the how to on replacement. Now I know how to switch out a computer part so I do.  . My invalid a** was able to do it in about 10 minutes (I wish I could have gotten paid the $171 for that labor) . You know this part did not fix the problem...clearly this was not the problem from the start. I am giving back my membership card to Mensa; I just don't deserve it after ordering a part based on the opinion of some untrained Sears Tech who didn't spend more than 30 seconds looking at  my freezer from a distance of about 3 feet away. Maybe I can blame it on the pain meds...Maybe I should take more.

[Pegi]

If the freezer partially thawed then quit cooling for some time, then started cooling again sounds like something could be causing the compressor to overheat...I would see if the condensor fan motor at the back that cools the compressor is running and make sure the condensor coils under the frig are not clogged which would cause the compressor to over heat also...another thought is to see if the evaperator fan motor in the freezer is running when it does its melt down and the compressor is running...if the compressor is running both of the fan motors should be also...so many possibilities, let us start with these...Sears makes nothing, is made for them, we need the model number to see what is in your frig...since Sears says it was made by Whirlpool the model number will start with 106.______________

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

The warm refrigerator fire drill might help, also.

[nickfixit]

Sears is now owned and run totally by K-Mart. K-Mart knows NOTHING about service or anything else for that matter. They have made many changes that have made a bad system far worse. K-Mart jacked up the part prices and the labor (job code) rates. They also went to the slowest and cheapest delivery carriers. And, they purged the company of most full time support people.

They have sub-contracted out some of the service calls. Some of these guys are fine, but many of these guys aren't properly qualified. Often, they do not understand the pricing system, or they get a percentage of the service call fees. This guy overcharged you by duplicating some fees. We do not charge extra to emergency order a part for starters. Also, you should not be charged both the trip fee of $65 and the job charge of $171. So, I figure he overcharged you $120.

When a sub-contractor gets the call, the normal system of tracking orders doesn't exist. When you call in, nobody will be able to find any information about your repair. He may have just reported it as a completed call and got his money.

He also failed to do a proper diagnosis. Your compressor could be heating up due to relay or fan failure. And, he didn't do anything that would justify ordering the ADC board. It was just a guess.

I'm really sorry you got hosed, he was wrong in every way possible.

It makes me sad to see a once great company being dismantled by people who know nothing but greed.

Nick

[nicoleautumn]

There is a new happy ending to the story. I called a local appliance company. Family owned and operated in my area. I just figured I couldn't get more hosed than I had. Some kid comes out to my house real polite, probably right from high school...his dad hurt his shoulder so he sent him. This kid ran the gambit on the thing...practically dismantled it. Long story short, he found the real problem, went back to his shop, got me part of mine that was broken. came back immediately and replaced it. When everything was said and done it only cost me $134...a huge bargain as far as I was concerned. The young man was polite and thorough and restored my faith in repair services..their are still at least a few good guys still out there. As a realtor I will recommend their family business to every client I sell to in this area. 

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

[user=7832]nicoleautumn[/user] wrote:

As a realtor I will recommend their family business to every client I sell to in this area. 

Why limit it to that? Post his business information here so others can find out about them. You might be surprised at the number of people right in your home town who've surfed these hallowed pages.