Sears Home Repair: NEVER again!

So the man came to repair the fridge. It did not make the noise while he was here, but he watched the video on my laptop and agreed it was the fan motor. Never took the back off the fridge even, just ordered the part, and proceeded to tell me our total would be $290.19.

$290.19 - which included a discount on the trip charge ($32.50 versus $65) since we'd had two appliances serviced. The part would be $109.46, the labor would be $180.73.

When I asked him how long the job would take he told me FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. $180.73 for forty-five minutes of work. I told him I thought they charged about $65 an hour, like all the other repair people we've hired to come to our home, but he said it was a 'national average', that it didn't matter where we lived, it was based on a job code. The part would be shipped to our house and we scheduled him to come back out this week for the repair. I was so overwhelmed at the injustice of the system I stood there thinking, 'don't cry in front of this man'.

After he left I emailed Sears and complained about their rates. They emailed and asked me to phone them. I did. The girl I spoke with told me that they don't charge an hourly rate, rather it's based on a job code, and jobs fall into groups. It doesn't matter if the job takes 15 minutes or three hours, but if it's that code that's the price. Changing out the compressor was lumped into this code, which takes a lot longer, so we were paying for a 45 minute, change the fan, job as if it was a three hour, change the compressor, job. I told her I assumed she was paid an hourly rate, that most of America is paid an hourly rate, that I thought most repairmen charge an hourly rate, as do attorneys and accountants and when I broke that $180.73 down into the 45 minute job, it came to $226.00 per hour, but then they don't charge by the hour.

So the part arrived yesterday, I opened the box and saw that it had a motor with a shaft, a string of electrical wires encased in plastic and a little plastic plug in. When I showed it to Don, he opened the back of the fridge, never having looked at it, and had the old part out, the new part in, and the fridge put back together in under FIFTEEN MINUTES.

so we paid no labor. Instead of paying $290.19, we paid $143.91 - for the part and the 1/2 trip charge.

Looking online to find the part, I saw if we'd known what part we needed, we could have ordered it for prices varying from $25.00 to $65.00, the average being $34.95. They charged us $109.46 for the part.

We could have done this repair for $35 instead of the $143.91 we paid, and instead of the total $290.19 they were going to charge.

Never again - never, ever again will I call them to repair anything in my home. When the girl taking the calls tells me, "I agree, our prices are very high" there's something very wrong with this system. When we get gouged at $109.46 for a part that should have run about $40, and they charge us as if a job would take three hours, but tell me it will take 45 minutes start to finish, there is something really, really wrong. And this is Sears - an American icon.

Did I mention when the part arrived by UPS it had been shipped from their parts store 1 mile from our home? I don't even want to know what we were charged for that. Live and learn.

Did I mention the man was obnoxious, stood so close to make me uncomfortable, and when I handed him my debit card to pay the charge, used it to scrape his beard as he stood there poking my arm with his finger. Absolutely charming guy.

And yes, quite possibly, my husband is for hire. Just call 1-800-MY-FIXER.