349 views
New Reviewer
5 comments

I purchased a Kenmore Elite Trio fridge 3 years ago. Needless to say, this fridge has been terrible and most recently a fire hazard. The ice maker on the fridge failed after 6 months. Tech was sent out and ice maker was replaced. Shortly after, it failed again and was again repaired.

After 1 year, I received a check from LG, who manufactured the fridge for $60 because they falsely tagged the item as energy efficient. In fact, it was not only not energy efficient but used twice the advertised energy!

Shortly after that the ice maker failed again. This time the service tech said I would have to pay $400 to replace it. I told him absolutely not because it was never actually repaired under warranty. Customer service, of course, had me on hold for 30 minutes and offered no resolution.

The biggest issue was this morning, when my wife saw smoke coming from the fridge. I opened the door and saw that the two lights had malfunctioned and stayed on all night and subsequently burned the inside of the fridge, multiple tupperware containers and spoiled all of the food. This light was so hot it was actually burning food.

I looked on the internet and there were literally pages of the exact same complaints of fire hazard and actual fires. This is a device sold to consumers for their homes and families and Sears will not take responsibility. I contacted an 800 number on a forum and the person said they are aware and there is a service flash. They said I had to pay a tech from sears to come out and then get reimbursed. Sears will not come and diagnose or even acknowledge this problem unless you pay them first. INSANE!!!!

Needless to say, Sears says they know nothing about this and will check it out. Since this company is inept and selling garbage, I have begun talks with a consumer protection attorney in hopes that I can begin litigation to straighten this garbage out.

DO NOT BUY ANY PRODUCTS FROM SEARS UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR HOME BURNED DOWN.

Location: Charlotte, North Carolina

Do You Have Something To Say ?
Write a review

Comments

chat-icon

Please avoid publishing any personal information and promotional content

You will be automatically registered on our site. Username and password will be sent to you via email.
Post Comment
Guest

My ice machine caught on fire in April. It is now August and they are still trying to just replace the ice maker.

Common sense would tell sears there is something wrong with this ice machine and do a recall on it but to this date is has not been done. What is it goi h to take someone dying to do a recall. So far I have read about at least ten people that has had this happen to them two of which their home caught on fire. I will not allow that ice machine to be put back in.

I am under warenty and they will not replace the whole refreg it's called keeping your old customers. But after this experience I will no longer shop at Sear even for a socks. When you do get them on the phone you get passed around to 5 departments some of them you can't understand because they are from a different country. And by the time you finished you have gotten the run around.

Now my doors can't close I have duck tape on it to keep it closed. And a part has to be ordered for that what else is going to happen??? They need to take this mess out of my house. And put one that is safe and works.

And by the way it is a Kenmore Elite side by side. BIG MISTAKE BUYING THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-854801

Sorry I did this on my phone auto correct changed some words

Guest

The ice maker in our Kenmore refrigerator, purchased from Sears less than 2 years ago, caught fire on February 5, 2011. The fire was actually blazing in the freezer compartment.

Fortunately, we were home at the time, and were able to put the fire out. We also have an extended warranty on the refrigerator, which is not worth the paper it's printed on, as far as I'm concerned. We called Sears immediately, and it took them 3 weeks to send out a technician to look at our problem. We spent all of Super Bowl Sunday taking everything out of the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment, trying to clean the smoke, burned rubber, and melted plastic smell out.

There is hole burned in the side of the freezer compartment, with insulation showing. When the technician came out, he said that it appears a wire shorted out in the ice maker, and although there's a fuse that should have blown to keep the fire from occurring, it didn't. He says he can fix the problem by installing a new ice maker and plugging the hole in the side of the freezer with epoxy. We have no idea if the wiring leading to the ice maker is intact, as it's never been checked.

So now I guess, in addition to having smoke, burned rubber, and melted plastic scenting everything in the refrigerator and freezer, we will have the smell of glue, too. We have complained to our Sears store, to the folks who sent the technician out initially, and to a complaint line with Sears that our store gave us. We have been good Sears customers for years (every kitchen appliance we own is Sears Kenmore brand), not to mention the washing machine, dryer, and a snow blower purchased this year as a Christmas present for my dad. This is the last purchase we will make from Sears, since they won't stand behind their products.

With the cost of the parts the technician ordered to fix our freezer, the cost is 2/3 what we paid to Sears for the new refrigerator plus the extended warranty. So, in other words, they could have replaced the fridge cheaper than fixing it.

I would be very interested in any information on class action suits being brought against Sears for their failure to acknowledge problems with their products and replacing the ones that are unsafe. Hope they have lots of money....if the ice maker catches fire again and burns our house, they may be paying at lot more than the cost of new refrigerator.

Guest

Dear Mspargo,

My name is Scott and I'm part of the Sears Social Media Support Team. I found your post here and I'm truly concerned by what I have read here. Sears has always stood for the highest levels of quality and service; I know we have deeply disappointed you. Of course, Sears does not actually manufacture the appliances we sell, but we do back them and support them. I'm also sorry for the lack of support & service you've received thus far from our service departments. We'd like to help. At your convenience please contact my office via email at smsupport@***.com so that we can assist with resolving this issue. Please provide us a contact number and the phone number the fridge was purchased under and we will call you at your convenience. In addition, include your screen name (Mspargo) in the email so we can reference to your case.

Thank you,

Scott J.

Sears Social Media Support

Guest

We had a problem with a Kenmore refrigerator with Sears a few years ago, although not the same model you are referring to and not a fire hazard - yikes! But they messed with us, ruined our Thanksgiving and Christmas because we had no frig and they never made good on the warranty.

It was an incredibly frustrating experience from the repair department to customer service. I have joined a class action against Sears and their corrupt practices.

If you are interested in joining, email me at cab5053@***.com. Something needs to be done about Sears' outrageous conduct and we should be compensated for the money we have lost and all they have put us through!

Sears Reviews

  1. 1827 reviews
  2. 607 reviews
  3. 362 reviews
  4. 109 reviews
  5. 41 reviews
Sears reviews