Well, I thought the day would never come, but it's finally over -- Sears came Tuesday and put together our elliptical machine. To catch all of you up, here's what transpired:
Friday, February 3 -- We purchase an elliptical machine from Sears.
Saturday, February 4 -- I pick up the machine, take it home, put it together, and the inside mechanism is broken (it won't turn correctly).
Monday, February 6 -- My wife calls to have a Sears' repairman come and look at it. They schedule an appointment for Friday, February 10 (yes, five days out).
Friday, February 10 -- The repairman comes, says he can't fix it and good luck getting Sears to pick it up and/or put together the new one (since we picked it up and put it together ourselves). My wife calls Sears and after some initial hassles, they agree to pick up the old one, drop off a new one, and put the new one together. A day or so later Sears even calls and says they don't have ours in stock and that they'll upgrade us to the next highest model for free. I'm happy, the world's aglow, and I post on how great Sears is.
I have someone comment and say "don't count your chickens, Sears strung me along for weeks." I respond to his comment and promise to hold Sears accountable, giving them until Friday, February 24 (which I thought was plenty of time) to deliver the machine, complete assembly and still be in my good graces.
Wednesday, February 15 -- Sears delivers the new elliptical (in the box) and takes away the old one. Now the saga begins.
My wife spends the next week and a half on the phone with the Sears installer (who she was referred to by Sears) who is an independent contractor (the best I can tell) assigned to put the machines together. She calls almost every day and keeps getting the runaround -- they haven't received the paperwork, they'll get back to her, etc. My wife says they are "very nice," but there's clearly no progress being made.
Friday, February 24 -- My wife finally calls the local Sears manager and says she can't get the installer to even commit to a date to come and put our machine together. He apologizes and says he'll handle it. That evening (7 pm), an assembler calls us back to schedule an appointment to assemble the machine. I wrote this update the next Monday.
Tuesday, February 28 -- 25 days after the whole thing started (which, BTW, is 25 days after we paid for the machine), the installer shows up and puts the machine together. Our hassle is over. I work out on the machine and it is GREAT. The upgraded model is MUCH better than the one we paid for.
Now, here are two perspectives on what happened -- you decide which is right:
My wife is "happy with Sears" but disappointed with the company they used to put the machine together. She feels Sears did everything right when they were asked to (making it right in the first place, getting the installer to commit to a date at the end) and the problem was with the poor follow-through by the installer. (BTW, my wife is the kind and forgiving one in our family.) ;-)
My perspective is that Sears is to be held accountable for the entire situation. We bought the machine from them and they were responsible to make sure we had it at our house, assembled, and in working order. Yes, they outsourced part of that effort to another company, but that doesn't exempt them from making sure it's taken care of. If anything, they're to blame because they selected a poor installing company. I view this situation as one where Sears initially had a great customer service victory, then let it slip into an overall "ok" situation at best, but below average when compared to my expectations.
So, what do you think? Is Sears to blame? Did they do their job and the blame should go elsewhere? How do you view the situation?
Update: It's not going well. See Elliptical Wars: My On-going Struggle with Sears.
You are right, the seller is to blame, (Sears in your case). I am in the appliance repair business so have knowledge of the other side. In my opinion this is probably what happen. The independant company (the repair company that finally came to your house) was contacted by someone at Sears without proper authority to authorize the repair. What this means to the independant is that they will not get paid or it will take a major hassel to get any $. Because the independant has made that mistake before,they will wait for the seller to get their act together and send the proper paperwork. By the way, the selling company pays less that fair market value to the independant, so your job is not at the top of the list. Repair companies get into these arrangements because the "benefit" of having customer exposure pays in the long run because customers will use the service again in the future. Ha!
Your story is exactly why my appliance repair company is very picky about which companies we agree to do contact work for. That your wife is unhappy with the repair company and not Sears means Sears successfully passed the buck.
Posted by: Nancy | March 02, 2006 at 12:03 PM
In our contracts where I work, Sears would be held responsible. We require Vendors (sears) to fully warrant prompt performance of subcontractors in a fully complete, competent manner. Also, failure by the subcontractor does not relieve the vendor of its obligations to make complete timely delivery of products or service. We also ask that vendors pay extra attention to warranty and/or installation services performed by subcontractors. Ultimately it was Sears who chose this particular installation company and it is Sears who is responsible for ensuring that they do their job.
Posted by: kassy | March 02, 2006 at 12:38 PM
I'm with you on this one. While the bad installation experience isn't necessarily their fault (at least not directly), it is most definitely their responsibility. And they clearly dropped the ball.
Posted by: raising4boys.com | March 02, 2006 at 06:07 PM
Was this a Free Spirit elliptical? I received one on the 19th of May, it didn't work, made a load metallic grinding noise. I sent it back and received a replacement. It makes the same noise. I am so ticked off. I just want my money back so I can get a decent one.
Posted by: Rick | May 26, 2006 at 10:52 PM
Mine is a Pro-Form elliptical. Since I wrote this, we've had them back once for service and may need it again. Good thing we got the warranty -- looks like we'll need it.
Posted by: FMF | May 29, 2006 at 08:43 PM
I believe Sears is to blame as they are the ones who sold it. Intially it appears Sears has righted the ship but have they given away to much to get there??? I purchase all my appliances through Sears, recent we purchased a washing machine with no payments for 6 months, then three months later purchased a new dish washer with no payments for six months. Now six months is up and we pay off the washer and much to our surprise the put half the money on the washer and half the money on the dish washer. Guess what, its in the terms of the agreement buried in small print that they can do that. Now you don't get the six months on the dishwasher and you actually have paid for most of the second purchase in three months... Seems like false advertising to me.. Secondly Sears does'nt cnotrol their own credit card and can't do anything about it!!! My answer don't shop at Sears!!!!!!
Posted by: CHRIS FINCH | July 07, 2006 at 09:26 AM
well, wish I had found this website before going shopping!!!! I to bought a freespirit elliptical trainer from sears. I bought the first one on march 3 2005, picked it up from the depot a few days later, and after a friend and I spent about 2 hours setting it up, it was ready to go. So I plug it in to use it and the computer doesn't work, yet the book says it has to be plugged in, so I unplug it, thinking that perhaps it is not connected properly, and as soon as I unplug it the computer comes on. hummm I think to myself thats weird, but atleast the computer is working. So I go on my merry way and continue to use it. After about a month of use the footpedal comes loose, so I tighten it and it won't tighten, so I phone up sears they won't return it but will exchange it. So I take it all apart and drop it off at the pick up depot and pickup my new one.... get it home and set it up again, and go on my merry way. Then in March of 2006 during a workout the pedal drops right out of the flywheel, thank god I didn't break an ankle. So I call up Sears again, wanting to return it, well to make a long story short, after going through every manager there, I finally agreed to them coming out to fix the problem at no charge( see I didn't buy the extended warranty or service, I'm thinking for almost $500.00 the thing better not break down) So they fix it. Well now we are in July and I get on it the other night to use it, hear something go clunck and the tension won't adjust on it, it feels like its set a t about a 4 or 5 tnsion and no matter whether I hit the up or the down button the tension doesn't adjust. So back ont he phone to sears, guess what.... the very most they can do for me is waive the call out fee, so I'm still stuck paying for parts and labour on a machine that is a year and a half old, not to mention that this is the third problem I have had with this piece of crap. Well I will be cuting up my Sears card and never shopping at Sears again.
Posted by: alex | July 17, 2006 at 02:47 PM
I will never shop at Sears again! We purchased a Washing Machine from Sears a year ago. The face plate broke almost immediately, but we put off calling it in because it is just cosmetic. Two weeks ago a spring broke and now the machine is not working. I called and scheduled an apointment for repair. They came out several days later. A repair man looked a the machine for about twenty seconds. I said he would order the parts. My husband and I questioned him to make sure he was ordering the correct parts and he looked at us like we offended him and stated of course I am. Well, the machine is under the 1st year warranty, but according to their records we purchased the machine when I was nine years old. But I did purchase a 12 gallon water heater in 2003 (which I didn't). We received the parts on Monday, and suprise, suprise they did not order the correct parts. So I called sears again on Monday night. That lady could not even access the information on our washer because the product number on the machine is not in their system. Apparently, we purchased a machine over 20 years ago that did not exist. That lady could not help me and said their customer service would call me the next day and provided me with the number. Anyway, they never called, so I called the number and got yet another "account manager". She stated all they could do was schedule another person to come out and reorder the part. Which I stated was unacceptable. She then scheduled an appointment for this morning. She said they would then overnight the part to me and someone would come of Thursday between 8-12 the 20 to fix the machine. My one request was do not send the same repair man. Well this morning the same repair man called this morning. When I called again to try and get a new repair man. They said that the message was written, but that the routers don't get those messages. So they will send a new one out between 8-5. So now I sit at home all day, waiting for the machine to be repaired, which I am not hopefully will be resolved anytime soon. I am finding that the only person you can talk to is the account managers, and I am finding that they are worthless when it comes to getting any resolution. Moral of the story is don't give your money to Sears.
Posted by: Gretchen | July 19, 2006 at 12:19 PM
we had a contract with sears for termites for a period of 12 years including previous owners. they came out every year for inspection and said everything was fine. we came home one day and the house was full of dead termites i called them they sent an inspector, who did infact agree they were termites and inspected the house. he found the problem in the kitchen ceiling (he was good and honest, also got fired right after that.) repair people came out to repair the ceiling. they wanted to just replace a tile that was not available anymore i refused so the whole ceiling was redone, of course the contract fee went up the next year. the next year inspection was done and of course no termites, oh yeah came home again to house full of dead termites, called them they sent an inspector and he said they weren't termites, i told him they were and i would take a sample to the university then they suddenly became termites. more repairmen we fired the first one he had no tools, had to use ours and didn't have a clue on what he was doing the termites were in a beam in the kitchen he tore the beam out with a crowbar and proceeded to wreck a brand new cabinet tore up a brand new floor by armstrong. second repairman put in the new beam crooked repainted my cabinets with a roller with some left over paint from another job and got paint all over the hinges. we fired him called wonderfull sears again they came out were suppose to have floor replaced redo the beam so it was straight they blamed the termites on faulty installation of aluminum siding funny because sears installed it. haven't seen or heard from them since and that has only been 5 years ago. needless to say we dropped our cotract which did go up again. we redid the kitchen at our own expense. we wouldn't purchase a spool of thread from sears.
Posted by: lois | August 13, 2006 at 08:31 PM
I have a free spriti treadmill that is only 1 yr old which was bought from Sears. The treadmill has not been used much and yet the controller has gone twice and now the walking belt is worn out. It's a $3000 treadmill and I have had to put in at least $800 so far. On the Sears receipt is states satisfaction guaranteed, well I'm not satisfied and they are not standing behind their product. I will not shop at Sears again. I am very dissapointed in the product as well as customer service.
Posted by: joey | January 23, 2007 at 04:35 PM
Sears doesn't care. They're no longer even really a retailer - they've moved to a very Berkshire Hathaway-esque model where the stores are just vehicles to generate cash which they then turn around and invest.
So you can complain all you want, or you can go shop at a store that still cares about your business.
Posted by: Matt Spong | March 02, 2007 at 04:14 PM
I have had such great luck with Sears; fridge,stove,microwave,tv. Now I could be faced with a "new" image of Sears or ICON as it maybe. I recently purchased an elliptical. We put it together and realized the resistance was not working......at all.
I called ICON, the number on the front of the manal, and they passed me off to Sears service. Sears service said that it is an "in shop" warranty and if I have a problem with that to call Sears. I called Sears and told them that if I have to dis-assemble the elliptical and bring it in for service.......I am bringing it in for a return.
I am presently waiting for a call. (15 03 07-10:05AM)
Posted by: Blake | March 15, 2007 at 10:09 AM