Sears

This morning I called Sears to fix our water heater. They scheduled an appointment the same day and sent a technician named Bill. Bill not only knew his job, but he was downright cheerful about it. He arrived on time despite the fact that it was end of a 12 hour shift. Bill explained what went wrong and then fixed it on the spot, replacing two thermostats and a faulty wire all while humming to himself. Then, he took a moment to give us maintenance tips about the water heater and our heat pump. The water heater is back on active duty and the charge was $ 0, even though the heater is 7 years old, because we bought a service plan. Bill even refused a tip. He restored my faith not only in Sears, but in honest business practices and in taking pride in good work.

I have been going to Sears for almost 30 years but I think I went for my last time, yesterday. After looking up a tire price online and finding a store that had the tires they advertised I went in and was told «we don’t sell tires at the price only the online store does». The manager, when he finally had me come back to his office 20 minutes after I asked to see him, said yes they didn’t honor their online ads. I was told I would have to pay an extra 25 dollars per tire to buy them in the store. He laughed at the idea that his management at Sears might disagree with his attitude. The salesman said, «who do you think makes our policies? If Sears is this shifty about something so obvious how can they be trusted with appliance and other large purchases. Even though I have always bought my refrigerators, stoves and the like from them… they have lost a good customer. Buyers beware.