Do NOt purchase a Sears Hot water Heater!

Most people don't realize this, but it generally takes much longer to replace a new water heater than it is to repair one (not to mention cheaper, which helps keep costs and prices down). The job of the service side is to solve problems as quickly, simply, and cost-effectively as possible. Repair is generally the fastest, simplest, and most cost-effective way (doesn't require rescheduling an installer, ordering and delivering a water heater to the store, having the installer pick it up and deliver it prior to installation, etc.).

I understand you may not have realized this, as most people don't understand how the distribution systems work versus repair services. Getting het up under the collar, however, usually only ends up in getting you steamed, and does little, if anything, to solve the problem.

I don't know who Clark Howard is (my guess is some local investigative journalist), but generally more flies are gathered with honey than vinegar. Most managers at the stores are happy to help if asked nicely. Did you ever call the store where you purchased and ask if they could help you with your situation?

This happened with my Wash Machine too - they installed it and the next day I went to use it and it didn't work. They wanted to repair it - We laughed we purchased it brand new and I either wanted a brand new one or I would return it. Needless to say after talking to a Manager we got a brand new one 2 days later. Have you tried to talk to a Manager. You purchased a new one you should receive a new one in return like we did.

To lhall,
 
I apologize for the problems you are encountering with the water heater. Typically, the Customer Care representatives will offer the choice of repair, which is generally quicker and in most cases a very minor problem such as a loose connector that just needs to be plugged back in or something to that effect, or replacement with another new appliance when it is still within the original 90 days of purchase. We certainly don't want you to think you had to have the repair on this, it is just an option. My name is Brian and I am part of the Sears Cares escalations team. If you'd like, please feel free to contact my office via email at searscares@searshc.com and we can talk further about this. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the water heater was originally purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. Also, please provide the screen name (lhall) used to post here for reference to this issue, and we do look forward to talking to you soon.

Thank you,
 
Brian J.
Senior Case Manager
Sears Cares

What a  joke Sears' position that repair of a faulty new product can be a better option than replacement.  A few years back, I bought a washer from them that stopped working after 2 loads. Called for service and had to wait 3 days.  The service man had to order the part.  I could not schedule a return repair visit until the part was delivered to my house. that took 5 days. I scheduled a 2nd repair man visit, had to wait several more days. The 2nd repairman said the 1st guy ordered the wrong part! So again had to wait several days for the correct part to come, and wait few more days to schedule a 3rd repairman to come. So for almost a month I was without a washer!  And that was not the end of it!! Besides each appointment required me to be home for half a day, as Sears schedules appoinments as 8-12 or 1-5, so you just have to wait up to 4 hours for the guy to come.  But wait, I had to go through all this with a 4th repair man to replace the damaged face of the control panel the last guy scratched all up. So after 4 half days waiting for repairmen, and no washer to use, Sears offered me a few dollars credit towards my next sears purchase!  What a joke, I don't plan on buying anything from them. 

Boy... It took a long time to get my new Sears Water Heater installed (code issues).

I can certainly see the logic of NOT tearing the beast out of the laundry room to get some hot water (having gone through the process already).

If a "part" can repair a BIG appliance... Great!

   What YOU don't realize is that the most important thing is accomodating the customer. The customer may not know much- but they know where they'll spend a buck next time they need a product or service.

   Here's what would accomodate the customer who has made a purchase in good faith but finds themself with this situation through no fault of their own; Get an identical or better unit off the shelf that is in stock from the nearest location and get it headed out to meet the contractor who has begun the installation. Get it installed and working, then figure out what YOU want to do with Your faulty unit.

  I love Kenmore appliances, but Sears' service needs help. Quality control practices may also need better management. Either way it isn't the consumer's fault. Explaining, condescension and excuse making are what keeps it on a downhill slide. Sears' competitors are listening, streamling and improving.

So, the Competition has mobile support trucks - with on demand, INSTANT replacement appliances?

Wow!

We bought a Kenmore gas hot water tank in 2004 and installed it ourselves. I do not recall the model number. It works great. We can take two long showers at the same time and not run out of hot water, and it's energy efficient.  But this is when it works. Within a year and a half after we bought it. It quit working. I found out the hard way on a Monday morning when I needed to take a shower to get ready for work. I was livid! It was still new after all! First problem, I called customer service (number off the tank) about 7 times starting at 6:30 a.m. and no one answered. Recording stated their hours are from 6:00 a.m.  I guess everyone was late getting in. I finally got a customer service from the phone book and spoke to a woman who was just an answering service, but unfortunately she got an earful from me and I'm sure I ruined her day. At this point, I was beyond livid. To try to make a long story short, I took a cold shower, my husband had to stay home and keep trying to get customer service, got them and got a service guy out. We had to pay $75 service fee for this guy to clean the friggin filter. This is the filter that traps dust, which is a lot since it's in the basement. Now, this is something that needs to be done every few months.  Otherwise, it won't kick on. Could it be as easy as cleaning or replacing a filter on a furnace?  It could be, but it's not. The tank is designed so that you have to have a special attachment to a vacuum in order to get to the filter to clean it. It's extremely difficult to get to by the homeowner. So, of course, you have to call their service, take time off work, and pay him for vacuuming off a filter. From the first time, my husband, who is a contractor by the way, has tried his best to make do with what he has to clean that filter - a hanger with a Swiffer tied on the end and run it in the small slot, which is located at floor level, and swish the Swiffer around, while laying on the floor at an odd angle, while holding a flashlight, and, a mirror so you can see what you are doing. Then he manually kicks it on. It runs, BUT, if he didn't get it good enough, it won't kick back on automatically.  I'm writing because this whole scenario happened again this past Saturday morning.  My husband has cleaned the hell out of that filter, from what he can tell, but two days later it still won't automatically kick on. Ignitor has probably gone out. We called service who will be out Wednesday. Until then, we have to manually kick it on ourselves.  We have no choice but to pay the service fee for this guy to come out, but if he racks us to replace the ignitor (or whatever), then it's going out to the curb and we'll get a new one - but another brand. I say that every time it shuts down.  It's only 5 years old for God's sake!  Whenever we do pitch it, the next one will definitely not be a Kenmore.  This is sad because in 27 years of marriage, we've mostly had Kenmore appliances, which are numerous.  I hope Kenmore products don't disappoint like Craftsman products have done.

 To WestJ

 I am sorry to hear of these issues with your water heater. As the retailer and servicer of appliances purchased from us, we hate to see things like this occur. We always try our very best to supply the highest quality appliances from the top manufacturers so that problems if they happen are minimal. As with anything that goes through the manufacturing process, no matter what brand it is, there is always a possibility of failure. That being said, we are concerned about this and would like to look into it to see what we may be able to do for you. My name is Brian and I am part of the Sears Cares escalations team and we would certainly like to talk with you more in detail about what's happening here. At your convenience, please contact my office via email at searscares@searshc.com. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the water heater was originally purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. Also, please provide the screen name (WestJ) used to post here for reference to this issue, and we do look forward to talking to you soon.

 Thank you,

 Brian J.

Senior Case Manager

Sears Cares

Oddly enough, these incidents don't seem isolated. My in-laws bought a huge side-by-side refrigerator-freezer from Sears a couple of years ago, and have had it repaired 6 times, and it still doesn't work as advertised.  The first two repairmen argued about what was wrong, and the third through sixth tried their best to sell an extended service contract that would cover a part that was supposedly already under warranty.  

My last experience with Sears was when I was looking for a freezer.  After looking for a salesperson for over 30 minutes, the young lady told me and my wife she guessed the freezers were "good enough, but I wouldn't buy one." We walked out.

Maybe the mystery Associate wouldn't be in-the-market for a stand alone Freezer?

Don't call CLARK!

Isn't that a pest-control outfit?

Just how long has this thing been not working?

So, what is needed in a formerly mentioned "dusy" basement is a self-cleaning hot water heater...

:)

Maybe an electric one, that doesn't USE an ignitor?

Sears carries them heaters, too.

A special vacuum tool?

How special?

The Master Protection Agreement, Sears offers for sale, includes a yearly preventative maintenance service call (cleaning).

If you get another gas powered heater, from anywhere, you'll end up with very similar service issues.

Sounds like 5 years, considering the environment/ with no cleaning, was a long... time for the unit to stay in-service.

I agree that it is a big problem when a water heater or other appliance does not work especially when it is brand new, but I also think that it is a problem that can be worked out. It seems reasonable to me to allow the Sears technician take a look at the item to see if it can be fixed. . 

I have been without hot water for 8 days now and I still have to wait another 3 days for someone to come and replace the parts on my SEARS hot water heater.  I have a 2 year old son that I haven't been able to bath for a week but aparently Sears doesn't feel as though no hot water is an emergency.  I can't get the routing phone # from anyone.  They don't have a phone # for corp to call and voice my complaints (strange when I can get one on the internet but a Sears employee doesn't have one).  Even the managers in scheduling sound like recordings "your appointment is scheduled for Monday 8am to 530pm".  Someone help me!!!!!

My sears new (1 month old) hot water heater runs out of ot water in about 8 minutes, and then its luke warm for a long time.  I called today September 20th to get service, the earliest date I have soemone looking at it is October 11th.

I bought this thinking seras great service, but to wait 3 weeks is very poor business.

Hi inverness!  I just left you a message on your Home page to get you directly in touch with SearsCares to discuss this further with you.  Check your inbox on your page or your email.

Look at the warranty paper work that came with the water heater it should have a 1-800 # on it for repair. Dont call sears they dont fix them, they just sale them...

We rely on subcontractors that we hire.  They work for us and answer to us if there is any difficulty with installation or repair.  Contrary to what you believe, Sears does fix them and your receipt, operating manual and other handouts do list the number to call for service. I understand that 1-800-4MYHOME is way to difficult for some people to remember.  If you can't recall the number you may want to try the newly invented phone book or Sears.com. By the way, it's SELL not sale.

Sears commitment to customer service is atrocious!

We have a 9 year old water heater with a 12 month warranty, and it has been over five years since we had to request any service for any Sears appliances.  When our water heater began to show rusty water last week, I checked for solutions on line, and read the many negative comments about Sears’ service on various web pages.  But our experience had always been positive, so I called Sears for service. 

After talking to 8 different people in Sears’ customer service and tech support on 3 separate days, our appointment for service is 13 days from the first call.  The errors include people who made promises they could not keep (“yes, I’ll make a note so that the service truck will have the parts you need” – no, it didn’t); people who did not know what was covered by the warranty (“all parts are covered” - except the anodes that I needed); people who were polite but who did not have the authority to solve the problem (“there is nothing I can do to speed up the appointment”); to an arrogant process that seems indifferent to the unacceptable delay in servicing a fundamental appliance.

I even called Sears’ corporate headquarters and talked to the ‘Office of the President’ and was told by the service rep that there was nothing he could do and that there was no one else I could talk to.  He gave me the name of the interim CEO (Bruce Johnson) but refused to give me Mr. Johnson’s phone number. I suspect this poor man’s job description is to just take the heat from many outraged callers and apologize without any ability to solve the problem.  Sears would be better off hiring more service technicians and fewer apologizers.

Sears used to have a reputation for quality and service, and I used to think of them first when we needed a new appliance.  I certainly will think of them first in the future, but probably not in the way Sears would prefer.

      BTW, I am replying to a person who lives in Berkeley Heights NJ.  I live in the next town of Warren.