Sears Has Me Upset

Sears Has Me Upset

An email I just fired off to Sears:

A few weeks back, I called the Sears store in Boise concerning a treadmill that needed repair: the belt had torn, and needed replacement. I was told that I could bring it in for repair. After dropping it off, I was told, no, the store's repair center could not repair it--only a home repair technician could do that. I was also told that if all that was required was a new belt, that would cost about $190-$200 to replace. If it was more expensive, and I declined the repair, there would be a $90 service call charge.

So I scheduled a repair at my home. The technician estimated $300 (or most of the cost of a new treadmill), and said that the store's repair center had no idea what it actually cost to fix treadmills.

I understand that it is hard to know what it is that it is broken until the technician arrives and looks at a repair. In this case, however, what was wrong was well understood: a belt needed replacing. The store's repair center should not throw out a repair cost estimate for a known problem unless they actually have some idea what the cost is. I would never have set up a service call (and the $90 that I paid for it) if the store's repair center had not told me that replacing a belt would be under $200. "We have no idea" would have caused me to scrap the treadmill, and not waste $90 on a service call.

I am very disappointed with the store's repair center.

When I was young, Sears was something of a paragon of competence. They weren't generally cheap, but it was a pretty competent organization. That seems to no longer be the case.