The Sears saga, the final chapter (I hope)
Dec. 6th, 2009 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nlbarberI'm overdue for an update of the Sears freezer-repair saga...as I'm overdue with the rest of my Disney posts, several food/eating posts, and other topics that have flitted through my brain over the last few weeks. However: Sears.
At the last update, the damaged-in-delivery compressor was to be re-ordered, the missing part ditto, and all this would probably arrive while I was at Disney World. Sure enough, I got a call from a tech as I was headed into an Epcot attraction to say he was on his way to my house. It being a little far from Orlando to Atlanta to go meet him, I agreed I'd call to re-schedule. You see, the auto-scheduler calls my house number to tell me about an appointment time, and just leaves a message without wanting a response. You can negotiate these, if you call, but not much....not that appointment times mean much, anyway. The tech, on the other hand, wants to know if someone is home, so he will call the house number and the cell number, and won't go if he doesn't get hold of someone.
Toward the end of my Disney week, a member of the "Sears Cares Escalations team" posted an LJ comment to an earlier episode of the saga, and offered to help. I sent off an email when I got back from Orlando giving an update, and requesting a replacement freezer as the cheapest (for them) and best (for me) solution, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tudorpot suggested--I found out there is a replacement for this model of freezer, after all. A day or so later I got a call from "Edwin" on the Escalations Team, who apologized, explained he'd now be my sole point of contact for this issue, set up the next appointment, and explained that all I needed to do to get reimbursed for the food loss was to get an itemized list with prices and hand it to the technician who came to do the repair.
The appointment was that Friday from 8-12. At 12 (no technician, natch), I called Edwin, who wasn't there. However, the person who answered the call dealt with it--she called me back by 12:30 to let me know the tech was delayed and would be there in about an hour. And he was, and he repaired the freezer. He also took the list of spoiled food, went out to his truck, and came back with a claim number and the info that they would mail me a check for $107--which did indeed come in.
He also warned me not to put any food in the freezer for a couple of weeks. The first repair failed after a week, after all. I did put things like flours and grains in, then in the Thanksgiving fridge crush put more in and checked it frequently. It's now been a little over the 2 weeks and I think I can consider the freezer fixed. The whole process was very painful and extremely inconvenient for me, and the extended warranty, now that I know there is a replacement model out there, was a bad deal. They usually are...
I almost forgot: in the first conversation with Edwin, he obliquely said they wouldn't replace the freezer because the replacement parts were already at my house. Had the Escalation Team gotten involved after the first repair failed, I think that might have been a possibility. It would have been cheaper for Sears by far--one round of the parts and installation charge was about the retail cost of a replacement. They did that twice, plus the cost of the damaged compressor, which I didn't get any feel that they'd try to claim damages for from the shipper.
So, Sears did finally come through, and the freezer is working.
At the last update, the damaged-in-delivery compressor was to be re-ordered, the missing part ditto, and all this would probably arrive while I was at Disney World. Sure enough, I got a call from a tech as I was headed into an Epcot attraction to say he was on his way to my house. It being a little far from Orlando to Atlanta to go meet him, I agreed I'd call to re-schedule. You see, the auto-scheduler calls my house number to tell me about an appointment time, and just leaves a message without wanting a response. You can negotiate these, if you call, but not much....not that appointment times mean much, anyway. The tech, on the other hand, wants to know if someone is home, so he will call the house number and the cell number, and won't go if he doesn't get hold of someone.
Toward the end of my Disney week, a member of the "Sears Cares Escalations team" posted an LJ comment to an earlier episode of the saga, and offered to help. I sent off an email when I got back from Orlando giving an update, and requesting a replacement freezer as the cheapest (for them) and best (for me) solution, as
tudorpot suggested--I found out there is a replacement for this model of freezer, after all. A day or so later I got a call from "Edwin" on the Escalations Team, who apologized, explained he'd now be my sole point of contact for this issue, set up the next appointment, and explained that all I needed to do to get reimbursed for the food loss was to get an itemized list with prices and hand it to the technician who came to do the repair. The appointment was that Friday from 8-12. At 12 (no technician, natch), I called Edwin, who wasn't there. However, the person who answered the call dealt with it--she called me back by 12:30 to let me know the tech was delayed and would be there in about an hour. And he was, and he repaired the freezer. He also took the list of spoiled food, went out to his truck, and came back with a claim number and the info that they would mail me a check for $107--which did indeed come in.
He also warned me not to put any food in the freezer for a couple of weeks. The first repair failed after a week, after all. I did put things like flours and grains in, then in the Thanksgiving fridge crush put more in and checked it frequently. It's now been a little over the 2 weeks and I think I can consider the freezer fixed. The whole process was very painful and extremely inconvenient for me, and the extended warranty, now that I know there is a replacement model out there, was a bad deal. They usually are...
I almost forgot: in the first conversation with Edwin, he obliquely said they wouldn't replace the freezer because the replacement parts were already at my house. Had the Escalation Team gotten involved after the first repair failed, I think that might have been a possibility. It would have been cheaper for Sears by far--one round of the parts and installation charge was about the retail cost of a replacement. They did that twice, plus the cost of the damaged compressor, which I didn't get any feel that they'd try to claim damages for from the shipper.
So, Sears did finally come through, and the freezer is working.