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Kenneth Baumer

2750 Vienna Dozier Rd

Pfafftown, NC, 27040

Home: 336-946-****

August 19, 2015

Sears Holdings Corp.

3333 Beverly Rd.

Mail Stop RR

Hoffman Estates, IL, 60179

Dear Sears Holdings Corp.,

The purpose of this letter is not to ask for any recompense for the horrors my wife and I have had to endure dealing with your company over the past 4 years. But I thought you might be interested in a customerโ€™s honest feedback about your companyโ€™s operations so that in the future as Sears keeps losing ground to other retailers you have something tangible to point to and say, โ€œwell, thereโ€™s a perfect example of where we went wrong!โ€ (Refer to case #347**** if you want to see your companyโ€™s side).

If you canโ€™t stand to read another long complaint letter about your company, then here is an abbreviated list of what Sears did to me:

1. Sears sold me an undependable, defective, cheaply-made appliance masquerading as a top-of-the-line โ€œeliteโ€ model. How many refrigerators do you know shell out 2 compressors in 4 years?

2. Sears made me wait WEEKS to get any service done on my warranted appliance. And this happened not once, not twice, but three times in the middle of summer.

3. Sears attempted to appease us with small trinkets (gift cards, points, etc.) but then lied about the most significant oneโ€”a 1-year extension of my MPA.

Interested in the gory details? Ok. Here goes. I remodeled my kitchen in 2011 and we bought Sears appliances because Iโ€™ve had good luck with Kenmore and Craftsman brands in the past. I used to love Sears. My mistake was trusting that Sears hadnโ€™t succumbed to the outsourcing, money-grubbing race to the bottom that other companies have engaged in. Wrong. Case in point is the Kenmore Elite model 795.71053.011 refrigerator my wife and I bought in April of that year. What WAS a fine line of dependable appliances has now become a byword (at least with my household, friends and family) for shoddy, cheap, Korean-made junk. And you need to know that my wife and I have no kids at home any more or any other people in this household, so the โ€˜wear and tearโ€™ on our appliances is minimal and conscientious. However, in August of 2012 the compressor in that 1-year-old refrigerator failed and after calling Sears, I waited 2 days for a technician to come and diagnose it and then another 2ยฝ weeks to return and fix it. No matter that the parts were available the next day if I paid for overnight shipping, no matter that any given company in town I called would have been there to fix it the same day the parts arrived, I was told that no one but a Sears-approved technician could fix the refrigerator in order to maintain the warranty. And that took 2ยฝ weeks.

Then, one month later in October of 2012 the refrigerator wasnโ€™t cooling adequately and I waited 2 weeks this time for a repair technician to come out and diagnose and replace a dryer in the cooling system. Thank god he had the part with him. We lived without a refrigerator for over 4ยฝ weeks that summer and were told it was because it was an extremely busy time and there was a short-term shortage of technicians. That was a lie.

This year in June 2015, my wife returned home from vacation to find spoiled food and water on the floor when ice melted and flowed out of the icemaker because the refrigerator was not cooling again at all. We called and waited another 2 weeks for a repairman who, just like in 2012, diagnosed a bad compressor and then, told us it would be 3 weeks before he could return and repair it! So we lived without a refrigerator this time for 5 weeks in the middle of summer waiting on Sears, when I could have had a technician from a local company out the same day we discovered it, ordered the part overnight express and had it fixed the next day. Thanks, Sears. Sure know how to treat your customers!

Additionally, just prior to this most recent incident, the ice auger fell out of the door in pieces one day when my wife went to dispense ice. And the most recent issue is the door seal which has torn/broken in 2 different places. Again, no one uses this refrigerator but my wife and I. Does this sound like a product of high quality that you are proud to have your brand name on?

I wish those were the only things I had about this experience to complain about. But I must tell you that during those weeks this summer I called repeatedly BEGGING your repair department not to leave me and my wife hanging for over a month in the summer with no refrigerator. However, all to no avail despite being assured I was on the โ€œservice soonestโ€ list. I got a number for the area service manager but the phone number just led me to an answering machine that told me to call another number which no one ever answered. Finally, Customer Solutions attempted to placate me with โ€œshopper reward pointsโ€ and a $30 gift card for Sears. Well, you can probably guess how motivated I am to shop at Sears now, right? But the final kick to my head came when Customer Solutions told me if I purchased a 1-year Master Protection Agreement (MPA) for the refrigerator after it was fixed, they would add another year to it so that my refrigerator would be protected for another 2 years. (The 5-year sealed refrigerant system warranty expires in April 2016). Imagine my surprise (not) when I bought the 1-year MPA for $171 from the Warranty Division and then called Customer Solutions only to have them refuse to honor that promise and say a 6-month extension was all they would do. Thanks again, Sears.

So again, I donโ€™t expect anything from you, but just keep this somewhere so that you have something to show your overpaid, stuffed-shirt corporate masters when they are brainstorming in their strategic planning meetings trying to figure out why the company is following the likes of J.C.Penny and K-Mart into insolvency.

Sincerely (disappointed in your company),

Kenneth Baumer

Reason of review: Poor customer service.

Monetary Loss: $300.

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution.

Sears Cons: Product quality, Warranty service.

Location: Winston Salem, North Carolina

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