Sears = Satan

Ladies and gentlemen, Satan is alive and well and is CEO of Sears. Seriously. The Prince of Darkness is, at this very moment, denying returns left and right and sending out his minions to break your appliances. How do I know this? Funny you should ask...

I have had the WORST day today. In fact, I've had the worst couple of days. And it's all Sears's fault. Stupidly I decided to purchase a washer and dryer from Sears. Thursday rolls around and the machines I so anxiously anticipated are delivered. Delivered by the world's dumbest delivery guy. He dented, scratched, and chipped my brand new washing machine. He didn't install the dryer right at all, and he screwed up the wiring. Dryer doesn't work--big surpise. Couldn't ask him any questions, because he doesn't speak a word of English!! Who hires a delivery guy who can't even talk to the customers??! Sears! So now I have a dented banged up washer and a dryer that doesn't work. But it's under warranty, no problem right? WRONG!

I call up Sears and explain all of this. They set up an appointment for a qualified technician to come out and fix my dryer. Hey, no problem, I have a qualified repairman coming to my house. Joy, oh joy. However, the super cool repair guy can get here today on Saturday. Well, today is when we were supposed to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. My house is buried in laundry all needing dried, so I agree to get my dryer repaired today, thus missing out on the birthday celebration. I was scheduled from 8 to 5. Isn't that just considerate? They might as well just say "Yeah, we'll come fix your stuff. Just hang out at your house all day and stare at your driveway. We'll get there whenever we feel like it." Now, if the guy comes out in the morning, I still have a shot at making it to the celebration. So of course, you've guessed it already, he comes out at 4:00. He walks in, dressed all nice, looking ever so knowledgeable. Hooks up his fancy cool computer to the machine. He turns and looks at us....oh boy, he's gonna tell us what's wrong! "I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I have no idea what's wrong with your machine." WHAT?! WHAT THE--

So here I am, on a Saturday, having wasted my whole day waiting for this guy and he tells me he has no freaking clue what's wrong with it. He prints off a receipt stating it's broken and to get a new one. Then he just leaves. That's it. He's gone, machine's still broken, and we've missed a birthday celebration for this crap. So I call Sears. Takes at least 6 tries since the phone system keeps hanging up. My next plan is to salvage my Saturday. I tell myself I can make this Saturday worthwhile still by getting a new machine here NOW. So I plan to deliver broken dryer myself to any Sears store or warehouse and pick up a new machine. After many agonizing phone calls later, a couple things are determined. First of all, our machine isn't available anywhere, it simply doesn't exist according to these people. Also, no one at Sears knows where the warehouses are or what their phone number is. So I guess the warehouse just uses their psychic powers to process orders. At this point I decide to refund washer and dryer and wash my hands of this whole mess. I'm told to go to store where I bought it to get my refund. Fine.

So now I'm at the store. Saleslady is helpful and gets on the phone to get the ok to refund me. Cue the screeching brakes sound. She hands me the phone and I talk to the world's biggest jerk. He tries to convince me to let another tech come out and fix it. I told him no. He insisted. Told him no. He insisted. I screamed at him to stop. He tries to tell me I can't have refund. I threaten to get police in store, he decides I can get a refund. Then he wants to charge a restocking fee for washer AND dryer. I told him dryer is broken. He says it's not verified it's broken because the repair guy didn't put it in the comment. I say I have a receipt he gave me that tells it's broken. I scream at him lots, he puts me on hold for 20 min. Then he transfers me to someone and it hangs up. (The irony of being ON HOLD on the phone while AT A SEARS STORE is just insane. I came to the store to avoid this!)

I go to saleslady and demand store manager. She comes out and calls up mean jerk and informs him that NO WAY are they charging me a restocking fee on a BROKEN dryer. So he puts her on hold for 20 min! What the heck?! So after being in Sears for over an hour and me screaming and scaring off customers, the store manager finally is able to get the stupid Sears processing center to start the refund process without restocking fees on either item. So they'll call tomorrow to arrange a pickup to take away their hateful machines. Then the amount will be refunded.

I HATE YOU, SEARS!

Now for the silver lining....

While dealing with this, we made a stop in Best Buy to see if maybe we could get machines from there after refunding the Sears machines. A very kind and knowledgeable employee named Chris helped us right away. We chatted and told him just a little of our story. He felt really bad for us, said he'd help any way he could. Then, he asked us if we would like some drinks: some water, sodas or something. HUH?! Kinda stunned I said sure and before I knew it, this kind man went to the front of the store and brought back drinks for the whole family. I insisted on paying for them, but he waved me off and said don't worry about it. He then proceeded to price match Sears exactly (we bought the machines at good sale prices) and make sure we get the machines ASAP. (We pick up on Monday). Folks, you won't find this often at all: someone who actually takes pride in their job and enjoys helping other people. Customer service is as extinct as the dinosaurs. This man was so sweet and kind. I'd love to do something nice for him. Now to think of something.

I can't stress enough the importance of avoiding Sears at all costs. The salespeople there are ok, but support is non-existent. What's the point of buying something with no support and guarantee behind it?

And did I mention...

I HATE SEARS! I HATE SEARS!