Sears carries some wonderful product lines, including Kenmore, Craftsman and NordicTrack – but its customer service is spotty to say the least.
Just ask Heather Lodini of Cromwell, who spent $1,800 last month at the Meriden Sears store on a high-end NordicTrack Elliptical machine.
After she got it home and assembled it, the machine worked fine except for one critical part — the sensor that connected the machine to programs, allowing users to follow their progress.
Lodini contacted NordicTrack customer service and was told that a technician would arrive in 10 days with a new sensor.
On the 10th day when the sensor had not arrived, she called NordicTrack again and was told this time that the sensor was on back order. She was told it would take as much as six weeks because the sensor was being manufactured overseas and had to go through quality testing. As a consolation, she was told her warranty would reset to the day the new sensor arrived.
Needless to say she was not pleased and demanded that NordicTrack pick up its machine and refund her the $1,800. No dice, she was told, NordicTrack does not accept returns, she had to deal with the seller – Sears.
Sears was not helpful.
She was told by Sears that she would have to return the NordicTrack and they would give her an exchange or a discount on a higher-priced item. She finally got them to agree to a refund, if she got the 6-foot tall machine back to the store.
It was then that she turned to me.
I contacted Sears and NordicTrack.
All the sudden, with the possibility of a public light being shined on the companies, a solution was found.
A sensor was removed from a NordicTrack machine in a warehouse and shipped to a technician who installed it in Lodini’s machine yesterday (Friday). Its working fine now.
That will solve Lodini’s problem but too many others have complained to me and to the state Consumer Protection Department about poor customer service, not only about issues with stores supporting the products they sell, but about delivery issues.
State Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. told me he has had at least 12 people contact his office in the last year complaining about newer Kenmore appliances breaking down and saying that Sears refused to respond if the warranties had run out.
Farrell said he is looking at the possibility that Connecticut’s implied warranty law might be used to force Sears to stand behind its products for what should be their useful life once the one-year warranties expire.
One tip to readers, Sears seems sensitive to Better Business Bureau complaints. If you have a problem that Sears won’t solve, you might want to file a complaint at BBB.org.
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[...] Author: admin April 17, 2010 Sears, NordicTrack Need To Improve Customer ServiceConnecticut Watchdog (blog)Sears carries some wonderful product lines, including Kenmore, Craftsman [...]
George……you may not want to put “wonderful†and “Kenmore†in the same sentence. A Kenmore electric range we purchased was shoddy at best and died in two years. Our Kenmore refrigerator lasted four and a half years. In both cases Sears Customer Service was contact by phone and by web. Yes, they do have customer service issues.
The range, beyond oven and burner failures, had a melted 220 volt terminal that could have electrocuted someone. The web response to notification of this hazard was that someone would contact me “as soon as possibleâ€. They never did.
When the high-end refrigerator turned our ice cream to soup we scheduled a service call. At the end of the service window we called to ask when the tech would arrive. We were told that “Sears never schedules same-day service†and that there was no record of our service call. According to the call center agent we were “Premium Customers†and an appointment could be scheduled in 3 days. A follow-up submitted to their web site didn’t elicit a response at all. We bought the replacement elsewhere.
Our personal strategy for dealing with their product and customer service issues is to no longer shop at Sears. I’d suggest that other customers who have had similar experiences adopt that strategy as well. Poor quality and poor service shouldn’t be rewarded.
I stopped shopping at Sears at least 10 years ago. The stores (locally, anyway) are unpleasant, with overpriced and shoddy merchandise.
What happened to Laurie and Marc of Enfield, Conn’s complaint last December. We have a Kenmore refrig that blew its circulator fan 3 years ago for about $ 275.00 Guess what has broken again this weekend?
Am waiting for a response from Consumer Protection – please send me an email specifying your issues and I will send that also to Consumer Protection
To George Gombossy and other commenters on this site,
My name is Shayne and I’m part of the Sears Cares Escalations team. I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had these poor experiences with your Sears purchases and Sears Service. Here at Sears, we do value all of our customers and it is disturbing to hear that you all have experienced the problem that you have. We would like to opportunity to speak to each on of you and see what we can do to assist each and every one of you. At your convenience, please contact our office via email at searscares@searshc.com. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and we will call you directly, and we do look forward to talking to you soon.
Thank you,
Shayne W.
Senior Case Manager
Sears Cares