pb4uski
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Warning: long post
We bought all new appliances for our kitchen when we remodeled in 2011 and since we wanted everything to match we bought Kenmore refrigerator (made by LG), dishwasher (made by Bosch), stove and microhood.
In February, the fridge wasn’t working. I researched it and knew the one-year warranty had expired and called Sears for service. They offered me a one-year “Smart” Protection agreement for $275 that would cover any repairs up to $500 for one year and being suspicious that the fridge repairs could be costly I took it.
The tech comes and diagnoses the fridge problem as a bad compressor and the total parts and labor are $628 so my cost is $128. About a week later he comes and makes the repairs – fine.
When the tech was here for the compressor I mentioned that the ice maker wasn’t working and he said that he needed to get the fridge working in order to assess that problem, which makes sense.
Last week I called about the ice maker and they shipped me a new icemaker and scheduled a service call for this morning. The same tech shows up promptly at 8am and determines that the icemaker isn’t the issue but rather there is a bad board and the heater that keeps the water going to the icemaker from freezing has gone bad and the heater is not a repairable part so I need a new left side door and board – repair cost $707 so my cost is $207 after the $500 repair allowance.
In the process of doing this I ask him what the part costs are and they are $520. I look up the identical parts on Sears parts direct and the cost delivered to my home are $400 – so $120 of the $207 I paid today relate to what they charged me for parts in excess of what I could order them for directly from Sears. I call and ask why and nobody can offer me a credible explanation other than it is a convenience fee (which I say is similar to a revenue enhancement fee). I am later told that the tech ordered parts include a 90-day warranty whereas if I ordered them they would include no warranty. It seems odd that a part would have no warranty at all but the difference in cost for a 90 day warranty is a rich premium. In any event to get rid of me they offer me a $100 gift card, which I accept and I’ll eat the extra $20 difference.
Then I go back to the compressor repair bill and determine that for that $128 repair that $87 was due the excess cost of the parts over what I could have ordered from Sears parts direct.
So between the two repairs, this scam Sears is running has cost me $207, less the $100 gift card they provided, so $107 net. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much but it is frustrating when the fridge is less than 2 years old needs such costly repairs. I really doubt that I will ever buy Sears/Kenmore again.
End of rant.
We bought all new appliances for our kitchen when we remodeled in 2011 and since we wanted everything to match we bought Kenmore refrigerator (made by LG), dishwasher (made by Bosch), stove and microhood.
In February, the fridge wasn’t working. I researched it and knew the one-year warranty had expired and called Sears for service. They offered me a one-year “Smart” Protection agreement for $275 that would cover any repairs up to $500 for one year and being suspicious that the fridge repairs could be costly I took it.
The tech comes and diagnoses the fridge problem as a bad compressor and the total parts and labor are $628 so my cost is $128. About a week later he comes and makes the repairs – fine.
When the tech was here for the compressor I mentioned that the ice maker wasn’t working and he said that he needed to get the fridge working in order to assess that problem, which makes sense.
Last week I called about the ice maker and they shipped me a new icemaker and scheduled a service call for this morning. The same tech shows up promptly at 8am and determines that the icemaker isn’t the issue but rather there is a bad board and the heater that keeps the water going to the icemaker from freezing has gone bad and the heater is not a repairable part so I need a new left side door and board – repair cost $707 so my cost is $207 after the $500 repair allowance.
In the process of doing this I ask him what the part costs are and they are $520. I look up the identical parts on Sears parts direct and the cost delivered to my home are $400 – so $120 of the $207 I paid today relate to what they charged me for parts in excess of what I could order them for directly from Sears. I call and ask why and nobody can offer me a credible explanation other than it is a convenience fee (which I say is similar to a revenue enhancement fee). I am later told that the tech ordered parts include a 90-day warranty whereas if I ordered them they would include no warranty. It seems odd that a part would have no warranty at all but the difference in cost for a 90 day warranty is a rich premium. In any event to get rid of me they offer me a $100 gift card, which I accept and I’ll eat the extra $20 difference.
Then I go back to the compressor repair bill and determine that for that $128 repair that $87 was due the excess cost of the parts over what I could have ordered from Sears parts direct.
So between the two repairs, this scam Sears is running has cost me $207, less the $100 gift card they provided, so $107 net. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much but it is frustrating when the fridge is less than 2 years old needs such costly repairs. I really doubt that I will ever buy Sears/Kenmore again.
End of rant.
