Complaint Review: Sears Home Improvement - Henrico Virginia

First, let me say that we have no intent on ever doing business again with Sears or any of their holdings know to me such as Kmart. Second, if you choose to do business with Sears, make sure that every personal concern regarding the item or installation be in writing. My recommendation is that you have legal advice prior to signing any contract with Sears.

We chose to contract product and services from Sears based on a false belief that the company stood for customer service and quality. That Sears is a legend, a thing of the past which lives only in memories.

May 12, 2017 - Met with Bernie Lindell to discuss replacement exterior doors and adding 2 storm doors. He advised me that the doors will be custom made and that they will be ready for installation in 2-3 weeks per the contract. Contract was signed for doors, installation, and a discounted whole house warranty for a cost of almost $12,000. Bernie noted that the cost was justified in the fact that the doors would be made “exclusively” to fit my doorways. I should have heeded my apprehension when Bernie’s closing remarks where he asked if I was sure I would not cancel the order within the72 hours provided because he would have “wasted” time.

May 15 or 16, 2017 – My husband informed me that a person from Sears came to measure the doorways but he only measured two out of the (3) contracted for. The two doors that were measured were the side (kitchen) entrance and the front entrance. My husband insisted that he is supposed to measure all three entrances but was told that his instructions were to measure the two entrances.

May 24, 2017 & June 7, 2017 – I contacted the Richmond Sears Home Improvement office and spoke with Steve informing him of the discrepancy and the need to have the third entryway measured. Initially Steve also held that we have an order for two entrances. I referred him to the contract and the “additional instructions” where the remaining portion of the order was carelessly placed. Having lost all confidence in the process, I informed Steve that before they moved any further we wanted 2 things done:  Send someone down to complete the measurements for the third door; and Mail or email us model information and pictures of the doors ordered so I can verify that there are no other errors.

Steve assured Sandra that someone will come to complete the measurements and he will email us with the representations of the doors ordered.

We did not hear from Sears beyond May 24, 2017. Eventually, we contracted with someone else to install doors and purchased doors ourselves.

July 12, 2017 - Just before the doors were to be installed by our new contractor, a representative of Sears, Carl, phoned informing us that that the doors were ready.

July 13, 2017 – I  informed Carl of my last conversation with Sears regarding my instructions for confirmation of the products order before the process moved on and that it was not  honored. Further, the contracted time for installation was long past. Carl would not acknowledge the errors repeatedly informing me that the conversation had not been documented. He reminded Sandra of the contract and gave a general apology for any inconvenience. He asked that we move beyond Sears mistakes and just schedule the installation of the doors.

Ultimately Carl suggested that we assume that Sears did what they were supposed to do and that we should start there. I pointed out that he was suggesting that we are being dishonest (lying) to which he immediately denied. This added insult to injury.

I became emotional and asked what is he suggesting. Carl said they could take off $500 for our trouble. My husband followed up with Carl on the same day and informed him that we would not be doing business with Sears in the future so they could remove the whole house warranty to which he agreed.

Feeling beaten, we cancelled the private contractor and the purchase of the new doors.

A day prior to the scheduled delivery, we received an addendum in the mail requesting out signature as “final offer”.  The addendum correctly removed the whole house warranty from the contract but instead of the $500 discount to the price we were given a $500-dollar credit. Why would we want a credit from this company which we will not do business with in the future and that we will be paying finance charges on. In effect, we were not given any consideration for our troubles other than how to deceive us. We decided that it was time to contact legal help and we turned the installers away considering the new documents.

Ultimately, we wanted to reject the entire project on principle because of their dishonesty but our attorney assured us that Sears is use to winning battles against customers and our efforts towards justice would fail.