- Report: #155835
Complaint Review: Sears - Hoffman Estates Illinois
-
Author Confirmed
Why?
Sears
3333 Beverly Road Hoffman Estates, 60179 Illinois, U.S.A.
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good?
Sears RIPOFF do not use for non warranty covered repairs Hoffman Estates Illinois
On Saturday August 20, I had a service representative from Sears out at my house to repair my refrigerator (which was a Kenmore but not under warranty). The internal water dispenser and automatic ice-maker were not working at all.
After re-connecting the hose, the technician had to enter a solution into the computer to determine price. The one that came closest to the work he did was Tubing, Repair/replace. That solution to my problem ended up costing me $123.00. In the technician comments on the receipt (copy enclosed) he stated that he put the tube back on the water valve.
I am not having any issue with paying for the service call. What I am having an issue with is the cost involved in something simple and quick. It took less than 1 minute for me to describe the problem, took the technician 1 minutes to fix the problem and 3 or 4 minutes to input the necessary information into the computer. The time spent actually fixing the issue in relation to the other aspects (describing and entering information) of his visit were miniscule by comparison. The technician even felt that this figure was staggering because of the work he did. (He also indicated that there was nothing he could do about it because Sears took away all discretion for situations like this.)
My wife called the customer relations and a return phone call was placed by Rita. Unfortunately, she simply told my wife that there was nothing she could do about the charge; that it was set by headquarters based on a survey of current field charges. It appears that you are averaging your cost out amongst all your customers, regardless of actual time it takes for the work to be performed. I doubt any company charges $123 for 1 minutes of actual work (plus computer time). She said our only alternative was to write to corporate, hence this correspondence.
We then wrote to corporate headquarters and received a call opn September 2nd from Linda who told us the same thing, the charge was correct and they would not refund the difference. Apparently you are charged the same amount for the job no matter how long it takes (and reconnecting a hose that's come undone is the same job as having to completly remove and put in a new hose). I have warranty contracts on my washer and dryer, but aside from that I will not use their service for ANYTHING and I am very tempted to never even shop at Sears again.
David
Mesa, Arizona
U.S.A.
After re-connecting the hose, the technician had to enter a solution into the computer to determine price. The one that came closest to the work he did was Tubing, Repair/replace. That solution to my problem ended up costing me $123.00. In the technician comments on the receipt (copy enclosed) he stated that he put the tube back on the water valve.
I am not having any issue with paying for the service call. What I am having an issue with is the cost involved in something simple and quick. It took less than 1 minute for me to describe the problem, took the technician 1 minutes to fix the problem and 3 or 4 minutes to input the necessary information into the computer. The time spent actually fixing the issue in relation to the other aspects (describing and entering information) of his visit were miniscule by comparison. The technician even felt that this figure was staggering because of the work he did. (He also indicated that there was nothing he could do about it because Sears took away all discretion for situations like this.)
My wife called the customer relations and a return phone call was placed by Rita. Unfortunately, she simply told my wife that there was nothing she could do about the charge; that it was set by headquarters based on a survey of current field charges. It appears that you are averaging your cost out amongst all your customers, regardless of actual time it takes for the work to be performed. I doubt any company charges $123 for 1 minutes of actual work (plus computer time). She said our only alternative was to write to corporate, hence this correspondence.
We then wrote to corporate headquarters and received a call opn September 2nd from Linda who told us the same thing, the charge was correct and they would not refund the difference. Apparently you are charged the same amount for the job no matter how long it takes (and reconnecting a hose that's come undone is the same job as having to completly remove and put in a new hose). I have warranty contracts on my washer and dryer, but aside from that I will not use their service for ANYTHING and I am very tempted to never even shop at Sears again.
David
Mesa, Arizona
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
David
Mesa,Arizona,
U.S.A.
Sears RIPOFF do not use for non warranty covered repairs Hoffman Estates Illinois
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, September 16, 2005
Dear Jim - Thank you for your insight into the "Behind the scenes" aspect of running a truck. I understand certain issues with running a business today. I used to be in retailing in Milwaukee and knew what it costs to run a delivery truck, how much it costs to run two men on it to run around and do service calls all day. I also knew with benefits, wear and tear on the vehicle, it costs a heck of a lot of money. The objection my wife and I have is that he was in and out in under 10 minutes. He only un-did 3 out of the 7 screws needed to remove the back panel. He didn't even open up his tool kit. It took no more effort to put the hosing back into the valve than it does to connect the keyboard to the back of your computer. Sears policy is that the service technician is supposed to give you an estimate before the work is done. It should be noted Jim that when the technician was inputting the information into his computer, he said he chose the "closest item he could to the work he actually did." Sears didn't have a category for what we did per se. I understand that nothing is free. Running any type of business takes a huge amount of capital. And what was charged may not be fraud. But that does not make it right either.
Jim
South Elgin,Illinois,
U.S.A.
explanation of charges
#3UPDATE Employee
Sat, September 03, 2005
David , I understand your frustration. Some things you have to consider when you have any service person in your home. These items are all lumped into the labor price. * Truck Lease * Carrying Cost of Parts on Truck * Cost of Gas * Travel Time of tech between calls. (About 45 minutes in Philly). Not sure about AZ. * Technician Payroll - We typically run 5-7 calls a day and complete 75% of the calls on 1 trip. * Insurance Your price was on the high side when compared to small mom and pops, but it was not fraudulent. Unfortunately, Sears high overhead gets passed on to the consumer. Important for all consumers to ask for an estimate BEFORE the work is done. Nothing is free. Hope this helped.
