Like many Americans, William thought that Sears was a solid, reputable retailer. After all, they’ve been in business for a century and it seems like everyone had Kenmore appliances in the vaguely defined past. Then a customer like William, who has vaguely positive feelings toward the brand, goes and actually makes a purchase from Sears. That’s when everything all goes to hell. In William’s case, Sears wants him to eat the installation fee on a dishwasher they delivered to him that never worked.

We ordered a new Bosch dishwasher. When it arrived, we had the Sears authorized rep hook it up. When he turned it on, it failed to run. We contacted Sears Service and repeatedly were assured that someone would get back to us. No one from Sears has ever phoned us back. We
requested a new machine, they couldn’t get us one for over three weeks. We requested a refund, after 4 hours of waiting on phone as were passed from one depaertment to another, they finally agreed but we would have to eat the loss on the installation fee. It cost us $160 to install a machine that never worked.

I will never buy from Sears online again. I have contacted the Attorney General’s office in my
state and requested that they review this transaction. I have also contacted the Better Business Bureau in Texas, which is where I think Sears Online is located. I have also contacted Bosch and made them aware of this problem and asked them to intervene.

How is it that a reputable company like Sears has allowed its Service department to slump to such low levels?

The relevant place to send a complaint is Sears Holdings Corporation in the suburbs of Chicago.
To be fair to Sears, the installer is a separate company, and it’s (most likely) not their fault that they brought a defective unit to William’s house.

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