I have always thought of Sears as my place to go for major appliances. When I think of the Kenmore name I think of a high quality product. When our Kenmore hot water heater went out the first place I thought of replacing it was Sears. Our closest Sears is located at 3450 W Camp Wisdom Rd, Dallas,Tx. I like to have choices and see what I buy before I buy it. I was surprise to see Sears had ONLY 1 hot water heater ON DISPLAY in an open area, but the size didn't fit my needs. I went searching for a clerk. It was hard determining who was a clerk and who was a customer. Why can't the store identify their clerks? I finally found Sergio who was one of two clerks on the entire floor. He was polite but didn't have a clue about selling hot water heaters. He went to the Web to show me Sears stock ,not my ideal way to buy an item. I selected the Kenmore 57941 40 gal. 9-Year Tall Natural Gas Water Heater for $477. Since I was concern the size of the heater may not fit the closet I asked Sergio whether there was any restocking fee if the heater did not fit. He said the heater could be returned with NO EXTRA FEES WHICH WAS A LIE per the sales envelope I received. Sergio took about 10 minutes registering me for Sears reward program which I DIDN'T ASK FOR. Completing the purchase at the register took at least another 10 minutes as he reentered the same info in the register again and again. A little more training would have completed the sale sooner. When I returned home I reviewed the sales slip #012272950235/#012272950236 dated 10 Aug 2016 and noticed that Sergio had charged me $521.99 rather than the $477 price he showed me. I called the store and got connected to the auto answer service, selected the department but the phone just rang and rang. No one answered the phone. After about the sixth time of hanging up and recalling I finally got to talk to Sergio and explain the error in the price I was charged. Sergio said if I would COME IN AGAIN he would adjust the price. I came in and received the price difference from a different clerk and it took all of two minutes. This clerk was trained.
I completed the Sears survey at shopsearsfeedback.com rated my experience as poor and asked to be contacted at (((REDACTED))). As to date NO ONE HAS CONTACTED ME. Does Sears really cared about the customer?
Our experience with the installer (Concept Facility Services)was not much better. We asked that they include with the installation a WAGS valve since the previous prevented water damage. She said she would ask the installer. The installer gave us a 2-4Pm date on 15 Aug but later called that it would at 4-6pm. Rather having come so late we asked the to come the next day (16 Aug). They setup a new time/date on 16 Aug after 1Pm. At 1Pm they were not here so we called and the clerk said 2Pm. 2Pm they were not here but said it would be 3pm since he had to pickup the WAGS valve. 3 pm they were not here but finally arrived at about 4Pm. The installer team was friendly. After reviewing the present situation he said a FEW EXTRA CHARGES were required. Those included replacing my 3 Flex Supply lines with 3 of his Flex Supply lines (@ $39.99 each) even though my supply lines had never been a problem, were an inside connection and had never been exposed to the elements. His response was it was his company policy to always replace them REGARDLESS THE CONDITION . In addition he said code required a sediment trap for $99 which I agreed to. Likewise the WAGS valve I requested he was pricing at $490 which I question as being EXTREMELY HIGH since a current price on the Web runs about $150-160. He proceeded to install the heater until he ran into another problem. He told me the heater COULD NOT accept a WAGS valve but AS A SUBSTITUTE he would install a Floodmaster sensor. I heard of Floodmaster it was not as good as the WAGS value since it didn't shut off the water and gas but just the water. I asked if he could give me an adjustment and he said he could only give it to me for the SAME PRICE. Floodmaster units are higher quality and run over $200 so I accepted the alternative. He didn't leave me Floodstop documentation on the how the unit functioned so I accepted what he told me. Later after he left I went to the Web and found HE DIDN'T INSTALL a Floodmaster unit BUT a Floodstop unit. A Floodstop unit is almost 100% plastic construction and sells for about $153. It seems if this is a regular installer Sears uses they could of told me up front a WAGS could not be installed on my new heater. As a result I PAID FOR a WAGS that would stop gas and water flow BUT GOT Floodstop with only 1/2 THE FUNCTIONALITY of the WAGS (just water stoppage). In summary I believe the service I received at the local Sears was subpar and left much to be desired. I believe some of the"EXTRA FEE COSTS" i.e ( WAGS @$490 VS a SUBSTITUTE (Floodstop @$153) and new supply lines) were price extremely high in order to add pad the bill.
It seems things have changed with the Old Sears I use to know.