Sears Roebuck and

After doing a great deal of comparison shopping, we eventually purchased a set of Electrolux appliances. The price was fine although the lady working appliances was not very knowledgeable about any of the items in her department. Still, that is what the internet is for - don't rely upon store staff for advice. But I wasn't really expecting much either.

If you choose to have your items delivered, Sears will call after 6:00PM the night prior to announce their delivery window. Rather irritating actually, since most people in 2010 have jobs and need to arrange to miss work, and the stay-at-home mothers of the world generally are busy with being mothers. There is no reason that in this age Sears can't announce their large 4 hour window that you must sit around waiting for delivery like the cable company.

Still, the movers did arrive within this enormous delivery window, so at least Sears is keeping with their portion of the bargain, should you choose to purchase there.

However, the chose to arrive with a new white washing machine, with a broken blue dryer. We didn't purchase a broken blue dryer, but were expecting a new white one. All of this isn't the real problem, it just begins here. Calling to complain, the finger point began. "Well, we just deliver them..." "You probably should talk with Sears Delivery Central..." "Electrolux packs the boxes, they did it..." Etcetera.

I finally managed to reach the store manager who again try some buck passing when I stopped here - "Look, I bought the dryer from Sears. Not Electrolux, not Delivery Central, but your store located right here. You are the manager - what can you do for me." "I can offer you free delivery."

"Not good enough - I already have a rebate for free delivery. You delivered a broken dryer on a date that I managed to make myself available from work. Now, I will have to take another day off of work, but I can't schedule it since I don't know when you will manage to get a white dryer in-stock, and you can't even tell me when it will be delivered until after 6:00 PM the night prior. For this inconvenience, please rebate me 10% of the cost of the dryer."

"I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"I'm not authorized."
"Aren't you the store manager?"
"Yes."
"And you can't authorize this?"
"No."
"Who can?"
"I can contact the regional manager."
"There is no one at the store who is authorized to fix things on the spot? Incredible."
"Would you like me to do this?"
"Yes."

-Look, shop here if you like, but realize that either A) the store manager was lying to me and just trying to avoid making a refund, or B) Sears Corp does not empower its managers.

Either way, it is rather disturbing. If you have a problem, keep in mind that no one is empowered to correct problems. Eventually, I did receive my refund, but what good is it having a manager if they can't manage?

Bought a washer & dryer in Dec 2011. The store personnel were outstanding. Good product, great pricing (with price-match guarantee).
The delivery service is AWFUL! Took them 3 weeks to deliver the dryer despite close to a dozen phone calls to try to arrange a date that worked for our household. The phone scheduling system is inflexible and the personnel are unable/unwilling to accommodate customer needs.
Lowe's can deliver NEXT DAY!
The only reason, after all that, they kept my $1000 for the dryer was because the salespeople knocked over $100 off the sales price for my troubles.