Making Sears Pay

Ever since I wrote Update on My Sears Elliptical I've been feeling like a quitter. I had given up, rolled over, and simply taken the bad service that Sears has dished out for me. Well, now I'm rested and ready for more -- and ready to make them PAY for refusing to do what any good retailer would do -- take back the malfunctioning machine and refund my money (or at least replace it with a unit that works.)

So what's my strategy now? Make them come out to our house and repair any little thing that doesn't work. Yep. They want to try and cheat me? Fine. I'll kill them in service calls. I'll cost them a much, much more in servicing this machine than what I paid for it in the first place.

How do I plan on doing this? Well, as you may recall, we purchased the three-year warranty when we bought the machine. If anything goes wrong with the piece in three years, they come out to our house, fix it (including replacement parts) and (supposedly) get it back into working shape. So if something goes wrong (which, as we know now, happens quite often), we'll call them and have them out to fix it. I figure a service call costs them at least $75, so if they come out 10 times for servicing alone (not to mention the cost of parts), that will be $750. Take that, Sears!

For those of you following along at home, here's where we currently stand in this battle:

• February 3, 2006 -- We purchase our elliptical from Sears (see this link for details on the next several dates listed below.) We pay $400 which includes the three-year warranty (it was on sale and the sale savings "paid for" the warranty.)

• February 10, 2006 -- First repairman trip. Can't fix machine. They take it back and agree to send me an upgraded model

• February 15, 2006 -- Second trip to our house. They pick up old machine and drop off new one (unassembled).

• February 28, 2006 -- Third trip. They put together the new machine.

• April 14, 2006 -- Fourth trip out. Needs new washers, so they ordered some. I won't charge them for the parts here -- these things were so worthless. Funny how one small part can keep a machine from "clacking." BTW, they sent the washers for ME to install. Yeah, nice repair work, Sears.

• August 9, 2006 -- Trip #5. Diagnosis: the console is bad and the section housing the washers needs to be replaced (because the initial guy put it on wrong.) Parts were ordered at a cost of $253.81.

• August 29, 2006 -- Sixth trip. They repair the machine using the parts we were sent via mail.

• September 19, 2006 -- Trip #7. Makes another repair.

Now we enter the long, cold winter of silence. During this time, I retreated to my trusty old treadmill. It's been going for six years or so and works like it's brand new.

But, then again, I hit the elliptical a couple weeks ago, wanting to use it to cross train versus my cycling in the summer. The back flywheel was rubbing (turns out it needed adjustment.) So...

• June 1, 2007 -- Trip #8. They "fix" the flywheeel (it's still not 100%.) They leave a bill saying it would have been $140 if we hadn't had the warranty/service agreement. Maybe using $75 per trip isn't enough. I hope so.

So, with this tally, I'm out $400 for the machine and the warranty. Sears is out eight trips ($600) plus parts of $253.81 for a total of $853.81.

Obviously, they aren't out this much as the "costs" of these repairs aren't what they pay, but there certainly is some cost to them. And if it's even half of what I have estimated, they are still spending more on the effort than I did originally.

And, as I said, the machine is still not 100%. I feel another $75 hit to Sears coming up. ;-)

Update: Sears tries to make good and I blow it.

Comments

[A Tentative Personal Finance Blog]

What do you expect the outcome to all of this is? If Sears won't replace your machine, all this seems a little petty and vindictive. Maybe it's better to cut your losses and never shop at Sears again.

I understand the principle of it all, but it just seems like a waste of time if nothing's going to get resolved completely.

[FMF]

Petty and vindictive are my middle names when it comes to Sears. ;-)

[Ciji]

Have you tried an Executive Email Carpet Bomb? The guys at consumerist.com swear by it's results. Sears Exutive Email Customer Service: http://consumerist.com/consumer/readers/contact-sears-executive-customer-service-258858.php

How do launch a carpet bomb:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/how-to/how-to-launch-an-executive-email-carpet-bomb-259713.php

[Ciji]

Also, send your tale of woe to them. Their forum members sometimes have great suggestions for people in your position.

[FMF]

Ciji --

Good ideas. I'll check into them.

[broknowrchlatr]

Tentative is right. This is a little petty and vindictive... and they deserve it.

If they do not have a system where they find out where all the service calls are going and "get it" then what they deserve is losing money.

[CC]

Is there a "lemon" clause in the warranty agreement. I just recently bought a new water heater and paid for a warranty agreement and the lemon clause stated it would be replaced with a new one if more than x number of consecutive calls were made in a year.

[RichC]

Keep in mind, Sears isn't the manufacturer, just the distributor. Face it, that model is poorly designed. I would check the warranty and see if you can demand a different model.

[CaliforniaPilot]

First of all, I respect you, your website, and the public stand that you take in favor of giving/tithing, being financially smart for the right reasons, etc.

With that said, I understand your frustration with Sears, but this vindictiveness is not what I'd expect to see from a fellow Christian.
Who does vengeance belong to again? (As hard as that is to accept, sometimes)
I think that you will do yourself a favor if you give up your anger with regard to this, and instead show your readers the difference that having Christ in your life can make.
Maybe this situation was put into your life to teach you something?