Sears & Roebuck Maintenance agreement breach of contract Hoffman Estates, Illinois

For several decades we purchased an annual whole-house maintenance contract (under a variety of names).  All was well until about 2 years ago, at which time Sears began using subcontractors, rather than its own service network (we are 60 miles from Nashville, so not exactly remote).  The June 2011-2012 contract year was a disaster.  Despite repeated calls for service, NO actual service was ever rendered.  Toward the end of the year, a covered refrigerator decided 45 degrees was cold enough.  We were told that we would have to find our own repairman and have him bill Sears (good luck!).  Certainly not what we had bought!  Spent more than 6 hours on the phone trying to get some action (none) or a refund.  Sears absolutely refuses to refund the contract price ($749.99 for 20 covered appliances).

Bottom line:  Don't call on Sears for service, or expect them to honor any in-home service warranties.  Don't buy appliances from Sears.  Find a trustworthy local appliance company & deal with them at least in that case if there are service problems you can find a real live person (not just endless hours of call transfers and time on hold) to deal with.

The failed dryer (critical in a household with an incontinent 95-year old Alzheimer's patient) which Sears could not/ would not service or replace over a period of a month of phone calls was replaced by a new one from a local appliance dealer within 12 hours.  The refrigerator is still struggling along.