Sears Sucks

Last Wednesday morning my beloved called in an accusatory voice: “the dishwasher is broken!”

Intraoperative picture of the broken widget.

I swear by my honor, I didn’t break it. Although, I must admit, my dirty dishes contributed significantly to the collective weight of the basket that ultimately exceeded the yield strength of whatever part that gave way and broke the camel’s back. Since it is a given in our home, established over 45 years of marital bliss, that I am responsible for anything that goes wrong, I made an emergency housecall to the kitchen. No question, the patient was gimpy. The middle drawer leaned suspiciously to the right. A short diagnostic survey quickly isolated the problem: a broken widget!

“Widget”, in fact, is just a familiar pet name. Its offical name is: “Rack adjuster wheel shaft”. Having thus identified the culprit in an internet line-up, I called Sears Appliance Service. Webster’s Dictionary lists 22 definitions for the term “service”. The most appropriate definition seems to be number 18: “anything useful, as maintenance, supplies, installation, repairs etc. provided by a dealer or manufacturer for people who have bought things from him.” We bought the dishwasher six years ago from Sears. Six years is not old age as far as brand name appliances go. Our dishwasher is in its prime.

After winding my way through Sear’s automated phone service, I got to talk to a nice lady. But she didn’t share my confidence in the vitality of a six year old dishwasher. “No”, she said, “unfortunately, this part is no longer being manufactured. You have to order a new rack adjuster assembly for C$ 249.- plus tax”. I thanked the nice lady with strained civility but declined her generous offer.  I shouldn’t really blame her. After all, she didn’t make corporate policy – she is just executing it.

The time had come for surgery – plastic welding epoxy to the rescue. I won’t bore you with the gory details of the operation. It succeeded; the patient is hale, the basket straight and my beloved happy – the world is in order again. But is it?

Further search on the internet led me to a supplier that will sell me a “rack adjuster subassembly” matching my dishwasher model for just C$ 35.82 plus tax. I may just get one. As the little picture shows, the “rack adjuster wheel shaft” shows signs of early atherosclerosis. My surgery probably just bought us a few more months. But why can’t I just get the little wheel assembly by itself? True, it would require some more complex parts logistics. The little widget, that probably cost no more than a penny to manufacture, could be sold honestly for 5 or 10 dollars to pay for the opportunity cost of maintaining stores. But that is apparently not enough for the business model of Sears. The little widget has become a victim of the “just-in-time” philosophy so prevalent in today’s corporate world. But it is about more than just money! Just think of the environmental impact if you discard $50 worth of parts unnecessarily for every $1 that needs it.

Selling customers assemblies for 250 dollars instead of widgets for 10 dollars does wonders for a CEO’s bonus. But I didn’t buy the assembly. Hopefully, more customers will wise up and boycott the sharp practice of Sears Repair Service and its ilk. This way, in the end, many CEOs will only get their golden parachute instead.

Oh, I almost forgot, maybe, Webster’s should append a 23rd definition of service: “a method of squeezing even more money out of people dumb enough to buy from you in the first place.

Postscript

I should have done this before: A Google search for “Sears Sucks” returns 2180 hit!

Final Postscript (Dec. 11. 2012)

I didn’t expect it, but the success of the  desperate surgery had lasted for over two years. The widget is still whole. But last week our eight year old Maytag dishwasher developed terminal whooping cough. In fact, it sounds like our snow-blower that hadn’t been in operation last season at all. But a dishwasher shouldn’t sound like a snow-blower. So we had to finally place it on the “Do not resuscitate” list. Right now it is crowing its swan song. Tomorrow, the men from Miele will come and take it away to its final resting place.

We are looking forward to its sparkling, whispering, and hopefully, healthier successor.

Post Final Postscript (Dec. 10. 2021)

There still is justice in this world: Sears’s Demise!

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3 Responses to Sears Sucks

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  3. scott says:

    Oh my God Sears deserves to hang itself. At the very least, I wish the company would quit taunting the public with the belief that Sears might be a good choice to buy a product. A year ago I purchased a high-end Kitchenaid slide-in range, for a fair sales price with a new Sears credit account to take advantage of their 18-month’s zero interest offer. Except for the almost three weeks delivery time, the rest of that transaction has been beautiful and the Kitchenaid product has been as terrific as I expected.

    Then, fast-forward about 11 months later to the week before Thanksgiving 2013, and I found myself frustrated with the lack of space available in my very nice Kitchenaid refrigerator. I looked around online for various styles of fridges and discovered “freezer-less” fridges by Frigidaire. This would be a perfect auxiliary garage fridge.

    The discovery of this product was made on the Sears Web site. I spent some time deliberating and also discovered Sears was again offering zero interest, this time for a period of 12 months, sold somewhat at a sales price compared to the normal listing price.

    So I placed my order. And, the really exciting thing happened when I discovered I could have the new thing delivered the very next day. I did it! And Sears delivered late the next afternoon. My God how exciting!

    Well when the delivery crew of three (Really? Efficiencies require three delivery people?) brought the product into my garage and removed the box, we found a big old dent in the upper portion of the right face of the fridge. The lead delivery person said I should contact Sears and I will probably receive a rebate in the form of 10 percent-off coupons on future purchases or something like that. Well that didn’t sound terrific to me, one because the machine could be affected internally somehow and two because I didn’t pay $1,600 for something that arrives damaged-on-delivery.

    Regardless, I slept on it, filled the fridge with loads of beer, wine and leftovers, and then decided I didn’t really care about the dent. Thanksgiving happened. Then it was Black Friday. I curiously checked Sears’ site to see if they were marking that model down. And, indeed they did by about $77.

    I printed my purchase receipt and the sales price and went to my local Sears store where I showed the appliance sales people how the price had changed in less than 48 hours, fully expecting to get a $77 refund. I was met with an incredibly rude attitude and the response that Sears corporate instructed all employees that there will be no honoring Black Friday sales prices for previous purchases. I asked for a manager, for which one was rudely offered, and he curtly provided the same attitude and answer.
    On the way home I called the number given on the Sears Web site, through which the same response was provided. When I escalated my question to a manager, a woman of whom I could barely understand, one with loads more attitude and rudeness than I had experienced in the store, sang the same song.

    I told her I wanted both she and Sears to clearly understand that unless they honor the sales price and refund the measly $77, I would return the product all completely, dent and all, and they could just eat the whole $1,600.

    Sears apparently operates on a business model that I am way to stupid to comprehend because that fridge was picked up Sunday afternoon, following Thanksgiving, and the full refund was on my account within 24 hours, including delivery charge.

    I now own the exact same refrigerator model, purchased form an online appliance vendor, both tax-free and free delivery, and for less than the sales price at Sears, saving me a total of $491.

    Incredible journey to keep $500 in my pocket but I see no future in bothering with Sears, ever.

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