Sears & Sears Home Central leaves their customers in the cold with no heat. Ripoff! Chicago Illinois

When you go into the HVAC business, you know it's not a 9 to 5 job, you're on call 24/7. You work hardest when the temperature rises or falls to extremes. During those extremes, you might have to pull 36 hours straight (just like the interns at your local hospital), and you should be happy to do it because that is when you make your money. During temperate periods, you might sit on your butt with nothing to do (and no money to make) praying for a heat wave or cold snap. Too bad Sears uses the slackers who either failed in their own business or are just starting out and willing to work for the peanuts that Sears throws them until they get their own business off the ground. Twenty-four hours is too long to wait when the nightly temperature is going down to single digits. If Sears can't provide the service, they should get out of the business. As for J in Philly, you should get yourself a few DeLonghi oil-filled electric space heaters for insurance just in case. They are very safe unlike the exposed wire-type heaters. One in the basement, one in a bedroom and the third in the bathroom should carry you through any cold snap and keep your pipes and your family from freezing.

First off, we do care and understand that you have no heat and we would be upset if we were in the same situation. Unfortunately we do not have technicians that want to work 24 hours a day nor can we force them to work 24 hours a day. We will try to get a tech out to you as quickly as possible but sometimes the techs get booked up.

There are other people we service besides yourself. Also, a furnace/boiler not heat is the #1 problem we get calls about, more than any other problem that can happen to a furnace/boiler. Again, unfortunately, we cannot schedule every "no heat" call for emergency service, otherwise we would have no time for any other service.

Now the managers at the call centers cannot do anything more than the associate that you were previously talking to could do. That's why they sound parrot-like. The next person for you to talk to in the "chain-of-command" would be the service unit in your local area.

A call center is not set up like a normal business, we do not have supervisors here that can help you. If you want a supervisor you have to talk to a different location. And if you called in "after hours" then no, there was no one at the call center over that supervisor available.

For the comparison (sp?) of you not having heat to someone in Arizona not have A/C is a very real comparison. All she was trying to tell you is that she understands you situation. Of course it's not going to get down to 20 degrees in Arizona, just like it's probably not going to get to 130 degrees in Philly! She was just trying to make you feel better, obviously didn't work, but you could be nicer about it.

And finally the "service contract" does not guarantee sooner service, it says so on the contract. In fact before wasting anytime and money with legal problems, I suggest read that contract at least 5 times.

Did you know that it states on there that we can cancel your contract, not refund your money, and refuse you service? It's in the contract! Now we won't do that but it is possible. My advise is be completely nice with every representative you talk to, because no one wants to help a person who's being ignorant and cussing them out without knowing all the facts.

We know you have to work, surprisingly, so do we! And so do our techs. You wouldn't want to work anything other than 8 to 5, niether do our techs! They want to go home and relax as much as any other hard working person.

First off, we do care and understand that you have no heat and we would be upset if we were in the same situation. Unfortunately we do not have technicians that want to work 24 hours a day nor can we force them to work 24 hours a day. We will try to get a tech out to you as quickly as possible but sometimes the techs get booked up.

There are other people we service besides yourself. Also, a furnace/boiler not heat is the #1 problem we get calls about, more than any other problem that can happen to a furnace/boiler. Again, unfortunately, we cannot schedule every "no heat" call for emergency service, otherwise we would have no time for any other service.

Now the managers at the call centers cannot do anything more than the associate that you were previously talking to could do. That's why they sound parrot-like. The next person for you to talk to in the "chain-of-command" would be the service unit in your local area.

A call center is not set up like a normal business, we do not have supervisors here that can help you. If you want a supervisor you have to talk to a different location. And if you called in "after hours" then no, there was no one at the call center over that supervisor available.

For the comparison (sp?) of you not having heat to someone in Arizona not have A/C is a very real comparison. All she was trying to tell you is that she understands you situation. Of course it's not going to get down to 20 degrees in Arizona, just like it's probably not going to get to 130 degrees in Philly! She was just trying to make you feel better, obviously didn't work, but you could be nicer about it.

And finally the "service contract" does not guarantee sooner service, it says so on the contract. In fact before wasting anytime and money with legal problems, I suggest read that contract at least 5 times.

Did you know that it states on there that we can cancel your contract, not refund your money, and refuse you service? It's in the contract! Now we won't do that but it is possible. My advise is be completely nice with every representative you talk to, because no one wants to help a person who's being ignorant and cussing them out without knowing all the facts.

We know you have to work, surprisingly, so do we! And so do our techs. You wouldn't want to work anything other than 8 to 5, niether do our techs! They want to go home and relax as much as any other hard working person.