On 04/13/09 I had Sears Home Repair come to my home to service my riding mower which is just entering its fifth year; naturally my extended warranty had just expired. I was told that I needed a new battery, new starter, and a newly rebuilt engine. The engine alone would cost $1600; this was more than I had originally paid for the mower itself. The problem with the engine was that it needed a new governor and Sears does not repair engines; they only replace them. The "technician" told me that I had to pay $105 for the service call, but he would give me a $99 credit towards the purchase of a new riding mower from Sears. Oddly, this $99 credit was good for only two weeks and could not be used at outlet stores or on sale items. I searched around my area and found a gentleman who does small engine repair. He picked up my mower, repaired the engine, replaced the blades, changed the filters and spark plugs and returned it to me for $330. Sears doesn't fix anything, they simply want to sell you another product.


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1. Written by Seared, on 24-04-2009 16:07

Sears probably doesn't hire enough qualified technicians to do non tune up type repairs.  

 

And Sears probably only wants jobs that can be done quickly so they can do more. 

 

I worked in the stores but you'd be shocked how many customers wound up getting new items that were supposed to be repaired because the service dept didn't have anyone qualified to repair the item. Treadmills,pumps,weedwackers: all these items had repair warranties. 

 

Sears has also been purging the experienced employees including repair techs. The also contract out alot more to companies like A & E Factory repair service. 

 

It's ashame you bought the warranty because if 330 is the largest repair going into the 6th year you probably would have paid less for rountine repairs out of pocket.  

 

They want you to buy new alright but it's not a new tractor.They want you to buy a new tractor AND a warranty.

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