Sears Appliances: Kenmore
I purchased several Kenmore appliances from Sears about 4 years ago. One refrigerator $700 another 3 door refrigerator $1800 and a front load washer $600. All three appliances broke down within 4 years. I was able to fix the $700 refrigerator which was due to a drain pan which is located above the condenser which was never properly glued down causing it to crack and slip out of place causing leaking. The $1800 one I am working on but if it is the computer, which I suspect, it will be garbage. The frame which holds the drum in place on the washer rotted away and I contacted Sears because the drum has a lifetime warranty; however, they refuse to send me a drum unless I paid $129.99 for them to install it. They also advised that I would have to pay for additional parts which would have to be replaced and they could not tell me how much that would cost. The washer therefore is also garbage. These appliances are very shabbily made and Sears is very difficult to deal with. I would advise anyone considering purchasing any Kenmore appliances from Sears to do so at their own peril.
Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.
May 10th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
To Penciltrick,
My name is Brian and I’m part of the Sears Cares Escalations team. I’m very sorry that you’ve had these problems with your appliances. As the seller of these appliances on the behalf of the manufacturer we provide the service for any appliance we sell. We also hope that the item will not fail because they have our name attached to them but anything that is manufactured has the possibility of failure, be it a refrigerator, washer or a Ferrari. This is why Sears offers extended care warranties once the manufacturer’s warranty ends so that in the event it does develop problems, we can cover the service at no cost to you. No retail organization (or manufacturer) can guarantee the item you purchase will not fail.
All this being said we do value you as a customer and would like to see how we can help with this unfortunate situation. At your convenience, please contact my office via email at [email protected] so you don’t have to continue to be frustrated by this. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the washer and refrigerator were purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. Also, in your email, please provide the screen name (Penciltrick) you used to post on this site, for reference to your issue, and we do look forward to talking to you soon.
Thank you,
Brian J.
Senior Case Manager
Sears Cares
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Just a heads ups.. Sears sells the ceramic glass top stoves knowing there is an issue when you use the self clean oven. The manufacturer doesn’t tell you the frequency to use to clean the oven, and they don’t tell you that when you use the cleaning cycle the fumes will discolor you stovetop so badly it will look used, abused and ugly. I was told to live with it as it is cosmetic and will not be replaced. The venting design is so poor, I can’t use this feature in fear that the next time might burn my house down. I will never buy anymore appliances from Sears or any other item for that matter because of my poor treatment by Sears.
July 22nd, 2011 at 6:44 pm
When you call sears you are dealing with staff at a call centre. Check out your call display and all the numbers will tell you who is working for sears. They do their best but they and sears customers are caught in the system. I am up to 48 days, 48 calls to and from the call centers and a total of over 23 hrs on hold. All this to get a sears washer fixed. And boy are we in trouble, because everything from large and small appliances, along with all our furniture then add our clothes right down to my bras and underpants were purchased at sears. This after 46 yrs as a faithful customer of sears. But I am to darn old to give up so they will get their daily phone call and email until someone can help..you can make sure of that..this broad is mad because according to Marabella, Shirley, Mickel, Sheila, Janet, John, Omar, Ami, Bonnie, and Debra, they have enough parts on order to replace everything on the machine. I only started recording everything after they took the machine and that was after three tech visits and two cancelled service calls..I am hanging in.
May 31st, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Sears sucks and at this point will never purchase anything from them again not just appliances. I purchased a Kenmore Elite Washer and Dryer in Dec. 2011.
I placed a call for service on the washer on May 8/12.
It took them until May 28 to arrive for service as the parts had to come in from offshore. What kind of crap is that? They knew when I called in that my problem was the motherboard. I come to find out that this is an ongoing problem with this machine. I was also told that this machine is the highest rated machine they sell. Well I would hate to have to worst machine. The new motherboard they installed was also defective and this time the door locked and would not open. With the other defective board I could at least do laundry but had to run in and turn it off as it finished the wash cycle otherwise it ran forever obviously increasing my hydro bill. I would put the cycle on rinse/spin only and it would finish. The rinse/spin cycle is on the opposite side of the mother board which allows it to work where the normal cycle will not work properly. This was all explained to me by the technician. He was nice enough to put the old motherboard back in so that I could at least do laundry. He also assured me they would be back this week. I got a call today stating that they would not be back till June 8 as they have to order parts. I have called Sears and am getting the run around. I advised them that I could take my laundry to the laundry mat, charge them for gas from my rural location and my hourly rate (I am highly paid) in order to do my laundry as the original motherboard seemes to be overheating also and may be a potential fire hazard. Still the answer was well we have to wait on parts. I threatened to return the machine to the store while creating a stink as I believe they should replace this machine or give me my money back.
SEARS SUCKS. USE CAUTION WHEN PURCHASING FROM THEM. I HAVE PURCHASED FROM THEM FOR YEARS BUT THOSE DAYS ARE OVER. I will put the washer on a cart and return it and even walk through the applicable mall and store with it decorated up advising others of the issues with this machine. This is wrong. Canadians just let large companies get away with crap.