When Sears.com delivered Leah’s treadmill six weeks ago, the delivery service brought it into her house and a professional contractor assembled it. It wouldn’t start, and hasn’t worked since. Sears has made some attempts at repairing the treadmill, but it now requires a part that’s on indefinite backorder. So why doesn’t Leah just send it back? Because Sears will only take it back if she disassembles it herself, packs it in the original box, and ships it to them.

6 weeks ago, I ordered a treadmill from Sears.com. I was told that it would delivered and installed on the same day at no extra charge. Unfortunately, that was not true, and I was charged an extra installation fee of $180. After the machine was assembled by a professional contractor, it would not start. I have been dealing with Sears ever since. It took 2 weeks for them to send someone to come look at it and determine the consul is defective. A new part was ordered, but it is on backorder and it is unknown when it will arrive.

I’m told that in order to receive credit to my account or a replacement, I need to disassemble this machine, box and ship it myself, then order a new one. I no longer have the box; the installer took it to the curb the day he put the machine together, so where would I find a box? Plus, it is not possible for me to box a 300 pound object, and given that it has been defective from the get-go, I do not believe either of these actions are my responsibility in order to receive a refund and/or a new treadmill. I have called Sears and visited the store many times; last Wednesday, I was on the phone for 4.5 hours trying to receive a resolution to my problem. That is an example of the poor customer service I have been receiving for the past month, in addition to not having my calls returned when promised and being disconnected during the middle of calls.

Since I received my treadmill, it is still not working nor is it in the process of being properly returned, In addition, the charge still lingers on my credit card, and I have wasted 1.5 days of PTO (with more likely needed) to deal with this problem, which does not include the hours I have spent on the phone while at work trying to resolve this problem with Sears. My treadmill should be relieving my stress, not causing it!

The Sears Executive response team is full of nice people who can at least pretend to help, and often are actually helpful. You can reach them at searscares@searshc.com or through Twitter at @SearsCares.

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