Sears "Service"? A Joke delivered defective fridge; refuses to fix it Nationwide

I've never bought an appliance anywhere but Sears. A few years ago we had some delivery issues with an item; very, very frustrating dealing with overseas folks who were reading from a script and robotically kept repeating the same standard customer service phrases over and over. But my recent ridiculous negative experience with Sears has turned me, a 22-plus-year customer, into someone who will never patronize Sears again for anything.

It wasn't just the hours and hours I spent on the phone (being disconnected over and over again, so many times that I thought I was on a "Candid Camera" type show to see how much a consumer would put up with). Or waiting at home for a repairman FIVE times and not ONCE did any of them show up even close to on time. It wasn't just the often rude customer service people or the ones who were completely unable to be helpful, even as they admitted that this was an absurd situation). It wasn't them telling me to call LG beause LG manufactured this Sears fridge and when I did call, they literally laughed in my face and said it was Sears' problem, not theirs. Ultimately, it was that Sears betrayed my trust in a company that I actually did trust; a company that I, in the past, patronized automatically. Sadly, that "old school" trust in a company is clearly a foolish and misplaced sentiment in today's world. Right and wrong doesn't make a difference. Customer service doesn't make a difference. I got sold a defective fridge three years ago, it was not repaired correctly and Sears refuses to stand behind it or make things right. They don't have a philosophy of superior customer service and they're willing to alienate customers and apparently don't care about the thousands of negative reviews or similar-sounding stories that I've read online.

I bought Sears Kenmore fridge three years ago; door defective/broken. First time with a double door type of fridge. Delivery guys (not repair) show up, put new door on and door is not on correctly...higher than other door, "flapper" doesn't close unless you do it manually. Call again and they say it should be fine. Door never works right; has to have door alarm on at all times; sometimes even when door doesn't shut tight the alarm doesn't go off, so frequently have issues of temp issues or food quality concerns (get up in morning and door not closed tight so not sure if food is okay and alarm never went off). We're not big complainers and we just learned to live with it. Even bought another fridge (not a Kenmore) from Sears for our work location elsewhere.

One day about two months ago, come in and find water all over the floor. Freezer defrosted, all food ruined. Call for service, told someone will come in a week. Explain that my dad's insulin is in there so they send someone in two days. Compressor shot, has to be ordered. Wait a week, compressor comes, it's defective. Order another one. Change Thanksgiving plans and  uninvite guests since we don't have a working fridge; repair guy says he can fix the bad compressor. Now three weeks with no fridge. Fixes fridge, but when door is pointed out, he agrees it's installed incorrectly and tries to fix it. Says maybe we can get some epoxy and glue it ourselves. (!!)

Call Sears, arrange for someone to come evaluate and give cost estimate at no charge. Called night before to say we'd be first call of the day (8 am). By 10:30, no call, no repair guy

. Then he calls and says he won't walk in the door unless we pay $95. Call Sears; they take this guy off the job with us because of his nasty attitude, reschedule, new guy comes, says part is no longer available and door is no longer available. Schedule appointment to have someone try to glue it. Local repair supervisor calls and says they won't try to fix it because they "don't do glue stuff." He cancels appointment and says basically, that it's my fault because I didn't call enough when it first happened (!!) Spoke to several managers, no luck. "Sorry ma'am, I agree this has been terrible. They never should have had delivery guys try to fix the door, but the only thing that I can do is offer you a 10 percent discount on a new fridge."

So...tough luck, customer, why don't you just buy a new one from us? Otherwise, you're stuck.

Having a door that never closes right and has to be checked frequently throughout the day, constantly throwing out food or medicine due to concerns about whether the door was open all night long, or listening to a door alarm pinging 5-10 times a day is very very frustrating. It's not world hunger or other really earth-shattering problems, but for this one family it's a huge inconvenience that affects us every single day.