I'm sorry about your nightmare experience with Sears. My friend had a similar problem with delivery (only a mattress, though) and when she raised hell and threatened to cancel the sale they compensated her generously. I think she ended up paying only 400 dollars for a 1000 dollar mattress because of her bad experience.

I would not have slept if I was experiencing that same thing. Our appliances were delivered early as well (whole house reno) but we were dealing with a local independent store and they were easy to deal with.
Like you, we couldn't check on the condition of the appliances and so they waited until they were ready to be unboxed and installed and they dated the warranty from the date that we moved back into the house, not the date of hook-ups which was earlier. Have to hand it to those independents - may not always have the selection or the best pricing but negotiation with them is so much easier.

As an aside - a friend of mine bought a bed frame from Sears last summer (we were living in her rental while the house was being renoed) and no matter how hard we tried to put it together and follow the instructions it was not happening. She phoned them to take it back and they were going to charge her a 25% restocking fee on a $90 queen bed frame because it was a special order!!!!!!???????. She kicked up a fuss and they did eventually waive it because nobody had told her about this being a "special order". She has had a couple of other little issues like that with them and won't shop there anymore.

That's just ridiculous.

I've always had good experiences with Sears delivery. I ordered a mattress from them recently and they were a little annoying with the constant robocalls confirming delivery (with a nice narrow window). They may have different delivery services in different areas but yeegads.

Ridiculous!

Not all Sears stores are the same. I couldn't be happier with the service I received.
I gave them a list with model numbers of what I wanted, they came back with the prices. I told them when I would need them, if all went right and they told me to just call when I wanted delivery. They even told me when I should buy the appliances to receive the best pricing. Since most of my appliances were at fixed prices, they had me come in when they could give me gift cards and save the most.

They called when everything came into their whse and double checked model numbers. At that point again, they just said to call for delivery when we were ready. My total was around 15,000 also.

The only thing I did different was to actually pay for the appliances about two months ahead of taking delivery.

The Sears franchise in my town has an excellent reputation and I wanted to purchase locally, if I could. They have their own delivery truck, people and all service is through them. :)

Nancy

I think the dumbest thing we did was to pay early we paid in September with a check which they cashed right away. I was hoping for an experience like yours Nancy, sadly Sears service here was not the same.

omg, that does sound like a complete nightmare! Good for you for sticking to your guns and getting the appliances removed now before something could happen to them.
We dealt with our local sears for our range and dishwasher, but we picked them up (didn't want to pay the $70 delivery fee). and we only spent about $1800 there.
If I were in your shoes I would've done the exact same thing.

XC, you might need to start complaining up the ladder. I've dealt with enough different stores to know that isn't typical.

xc60, definitely take your concerns up the chain! My nightmare was with car service, they didn't put oil back into my Chevy Suburban when they did an oil change! The engine seized when they pulled it out of the service bay! My car only had less than 10,000 miles on it and they wanted to only pay for a reconditioned engine. My dealer had a new engine in stock and we were supposed to be leaving on a vacation in 5 days! I had to go above the store manager's head to get them to put a new engine in my car. This was 11 years ago and that car has been traded in, but I stuck in there and forced them to make it right.

I hope your appliances are picked up tomorrow. Did your salesperson ever give you a reason as to why he suddenly scheduled the delivery out of the blue? I hope you're able to sleep by the weekend!

You need corporate to hear about this. Make it clear that you are part of GW and others are waiting to hear the outcome. This sounds like you were treated entirely wrong from several people in their employ. If I were the top dog there, I'd want to know.

I wonder how I talk to corporate, should I call the store and ask to speak to the head manager? They keep trying to pass me off to a salesman in appliance or if I insist the appliance manager who has not helped too much so far. Or should I call the customer service number and ask for a manager there. I am so worried about the theft risk each night they sit there at the house.

Oh, my goodness, what a nightmare for you. I hope this all gets worked out to your satisfaction.

We also purchased our appliances from Sears, except for the microwave drawer. So far the service has been great. We did have to take delivery early because we were told upfront they could only hold them for so many days...seems it was 90 days...but I honestly don't remember. And we knew the warrantly would start when they were delivered. We knew this all up front, but we got such a great deal on all the appliances, we felt it was worth it. Our salesman even went back and readjusted our prices when a better sale came up before they delivered them. Appliances are currently sitting in our builders warehouse. We should be ready for install first of April. We've been very pleased with the personal attention we've received from our salesman, even after the sale, and with the delivery service. I know this is not the case with all GWers.

I'm surprised they're installing tile in your house when there is no heat.

oh no, I'm so sorry! What a nightmare!!! We bought our Bosch fridge from a sears outlet. It was in perfect condition in the store (not even a display, just extra inventory). Well, when the delivery guys came, there was a long scratch along the whole side. The guys insisted it was like that when I picked it out. I was an idiot and signed off, mainly b/c the scratch is thankfully on the non exposed side, and it's completely covered by my cabinets. When someone at the store called me about the service I received, they were going to follow up about this. Many calls to the manager said that the shipping $$ would be refunded to me, it's in process & will be done soon, and then they said they didn't have the authority to issue any refunds, even though they'd supposedly been working on it for a month.

Dh was more angry about it than I was, but we probably wouldn't have bought it if it hadn't been in perfect shape (the kicker is that the price would have probably been the same though, so I didn't feel I had too much ground to argue anything and gave up).

I hope they actually show tomorrow!

Well I called the Sears corporate number and the lady there was once again putting the blame on me.

She said they had to have a delivery date on my receipt when they placed the order. Then she said if Sears did not hear from us to reschedule before then they would deliver on that date. I looked my receipt and it said delivery 12/31/2010. And then asked her how the appliances were not delivered back then if that was the case?

Then she said well the date was changed on the day you ordered right after the receipt was printed to Feb 15th. Funny, the other customer service rep said it was originally set for the end of Feb and my salesman just changed it recently.

When I asked the corporate rep this she denied it. And said I should of called to reschedule and I didn't so it was my fault. I said that's not what the salesman told me, he said to call a couple weeks before and they would hold them till we called. That it was his mistake and he should of told us they would be sent out on the 15th if we did not call.

So she said the should be there to pick them tomorrow for sure. I think I'm way too nice.

The sad thing for Sears is we still had about another $10000 of other appliances and furniture we planned to buy there in the next couple of months. Not anymore.

I am sorry this happened to you, I am frustrated at Sears just reading it! In this day and age the best way to get somone to help you is to post on Sears facebook page. I guarantee you will be put in touch with someone willing to actually help you if you do, just a thought.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sears Facebook

A few years back someone posted here about a similar problem with Sears and a customer care rep logged in a promised to personally deal with the issue. I do hope you get in touch with someone who will start telling you the truth and help deal with this issue.

They certainly should have called the day before to confirm the delivery and there's no excuse for blaming you for this at any rate.

Can you return everything, cancel your order and buy from a better store?

What marcolo said.

I also hope this all gets worked out to your satisfaction.

My experience was the same as joyce_6333. I ordered my appliances and gave a delivery date 2 months in the future. I pushed the delivery date back twice in the process and even though I paid in advance, when the end of model year came I went back to the store and got discounts on my undelivered appliances.

They called the night before delivery to verify and to give me the timeframe for delivery and then called again in the morning when they were on their way to let me know they would be at my house within 15 minutes.

Right, I remember someone from what was called Sears Cares logging in and trying to resolve the situation. Maybe try to reach them?

I'm so sorry to hear of this.

XC,

I'm sorry to read about your Sears delivery/customer service disaster.

I was fortunate to have the same, pleasant experience as Wizardnm.

I purchased my appliances several months prior to my delivery date and paid in full on my AmEx credit card. I had to set a delivery date at the time of purchase but I could change it as needed. I think I changed the delivery date four times and for the actual delivery date, specified the time window I needed (as I live in a hi-rise and have very strict delivery rules.) There were a few robo-calls but not an annoying amount (and they were expected) and I was glad of the reminders even though I had a numerous notes to myself to evaluate the delivery date in time to change it.

Appliances came when promised. The guys were neat and tidy and courteous. I tried to inspect the appliances as well as I could without completely unpacking them as we were not ready for the actual install.

Side issue: I had a small snafu trying to obtain my delivery charge rebate but with one call to the Appliance Department Manager (very, very nice guy), I had my rebate automatically credited along with the appliance removal fee since the DelGuys didn't remove any - my DemoGuys did.

I've yet to have them installed...hopefully that will happen as soon as I am back home (the first of March). And if there are hidden problems, then I'll have to deal with them then.

Pepper
~ fingers crossed!

We once had a side by side refrigerator deliver by sears. They sent out one young guy to deliver a big 36 in refrigerator. He, had to come around the back to our patio door's. Where he, almost drop it in the swimming pool. Than when he, tried to get it in the door, he, dropped it. Putting a big ding in it. He, just left it out side. I, called the store, and they could not believe only one man was delivering it. It had to sit out side all night. We, than got a new one, with a nice discount. But this sear's store manager, was real good about it. Here is a guy you can send a email or letter to. Scott Freidheim, Executive vice president, operating and support Sears. He, is in Chicago. You will have to get his information.

I've recently had frustrating dealings with Sears. I will never buy from them again (I said the same thing 14 years ago this past December when a salesman sold me a fridge to be delivered before Christmas - not. Wish I'd listen to myself) One small example of Sear's incompetency - having a surprise delivery because they have been calling my disconnected landline. Did I use that phone number when I placed my order? Of course not. As a business it is a giant octopus and one arm has no idea what the other is doing. They are trying to survive but are doing so badly.

To xc60,

My name is Dianne and I'm part of the Sears Social Media Support Team. I found your post here and I wanted to reach out to offer assistance. I'm terribly sorry for all the trouble, inconvenience and frustration you've endured and would like the opportunity to investigate this matter. Sears has always stood for the highest levels of quality and service; I know we have deeply disappointed you. We are a single point of contact for problem resolution within Sears Corporate. One of our dedicated and personal case managers would oversee your case from start to finish. At your convenience, please contact our office at smsupport@searshc.com so you (and others) don�t have to continue to be impacted by this. At your convenience, please send us an email. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the item(s) were purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. Also, in your email please provide the screen name (xc60) for reference to your issue and we do look forward to talking to you soon.

Thank you,
Dianne D.
Social Media Support Team

XC60, I was glad to see a response from Sears and am curious about how it's going.

Update- Sorry for the lack of recent updates I have just wanted to forget about Sears for a while.

I also did not see the response from Dianne above until now so did not contact her about my Sears experience, so not sure what could of be done differently. Thank you Dianne for your response.

Well Sears did come out and pickup the appliances the next day about 10:30, so that went well.

The manager at the store said they would be stored in their local warehouse in our city so they would not be sent back to the main warehouse in other city and have to be re-ordered again. We set up a date for them to be re-deliverered on March 29th to our home.

I was happy with this agreement and though all was fine. The important part was that they would be here in the local warehouse and not be backordered........

On Friday I picked-up my mail and to my surprise was a check from Sears refunding our money!?!? What ?!?! Last I heard they would be delivered on the 29th.

So I decided to stop in a Sears store closer than the original Sears store and ask what happened. They looked up our file and said that the last information in the system was our appliances were dropped off. It showed nothing about them being picked back up or the new delivery information. Nothing.

If I decided to re-ordered them the earliest we would get them would be March 31st. They said to call the manager I dealt with at the other store, so I did. He then told me the local warehouse could not and did not store our appliances as agreed and they were shipped back to other city. He would get my salesman to redo our order and call me back right away within 30 mins (still have not received a call 2 days later).

So then the local Sears store said they wanted to have my business, maybe my experience with them might be better, and unfortunately not many stores here sell the brand we wanted.

All was well until I asked if they would take a check as the other Sears store did, they said no checks. I then offered to get a bank draft for them, once again they said no. They would accept only major credit cards or a Sears card. I said I do not want a Sears card and do not have a credit card I could put over $10,000 on.

He said it was because of the possibility of check not clearing before we received the appliances....... me and the other salespeople explained the appliances would be delivered weeks after the check already cleared, he said no. I told him the other store took my check and he went on and on about how the other store does not follow policy all the time and how tired he is of it.......... I said it was quite obvious Sears did not want my money, one of the salesladies said yeah we're definitely not making this easy on you, and I walked out.

So I went to another compeditors store and was able due to a new promotion save $1500 off my order compared Sears so I'm pretty excited!!! Plus the wall canopy vent fan we originally ordered was now discontinued and we are getting the fancier newer model cheaper, yay!!! Hopefully we will have a better experience this time, fingers are crossed, lol.

Thanks for listening again, sorry to everyone else who has shared their bad Sears experiences and so happy for those who had good ones. :)

You are lucky you got your money back so quickly. Sears took 10 business days to refund my cash money. It was mind boggling and it totally affected my kitchen renovation. It was funny to me that they could double charge me for an item and in a day reverse the charge when I pointed it out to them, but to give me back my money for items that they did not deliver for weeks because they were calling my disconnected number - the number that I did not give them! - well sorry, you have to wait 10 days.

One other thing that really peeved me was talking to a customer service rep with an accent that I could not understand who ignored my request to speak to another rep.

My last rant about Sears. I'm so done with them.

It was a total of 14 days, the worse part is I never knew they were refunding and canceling our order so I did not order our appliances elsewhere sooner. So we won't receive them till after our possession date. :( I'm hoping we don't go too many days without a fridge, stove.......

I'm so sorry you had another bad experience as well, it's just not right.