This is the Good Life! (Our Sears Ordeal)

Okay, so I am a LITTLE behind. But not too much. Just been Busy! I have had something going EVERY night this week and just haven't been home! Last night was "tag class" at Jessie's where we made Christmas Gift Tags. It was fun. Wednesday was husband's birthday, and we did better. We actually went to Sears to pick out a new freezer.

Of course there was a freezer like alot like our old one, with the cheap new plastic baskets instead of the wire coated, but it was not frost free, and our old one was - so the next sized bigger ones were HUGE and we didn't want one, in fact we really wanted an upright. Well, we got this fabulous appliance salesman named Bill. Now Bill was going to bat for us, the customer. We saw an upright, but it was just around 7cu foot and the old freezer was 9cu foot, so that meant going smaller, although into an upright, but we weren't cool with that, and neither was Bill.

So we were headed for the 11 cu foot upright, but the Kenmore in that size was not frost free and had coil shelves, which we didn't want. So then the comparison was an 13.7 cubic foor Frigidaire. But the Frigidaire ended up having only three shelves, plus no bottom basket under the last shelf, while the comparable 13.7 cu foot in Kenmore had FOUR shelves, door shelves, a tilt-out bin, and the bottom wire basket. It was like the cadillac of upright freezers, at $498.00- and We DID have a Kenmore frost free before. - So Bill said we could pay the price difference between the upright Frigidaire and the upright Kenmore.

Well, then he had to go get his boss, who came down and decided to put a squash on our fun. Bill's boss said that he had to call Sears and get the original price that we paid for the old freezer, which Evan and I believed to be $299 or so. That was 4.5 years ago when they made a 8.8 cu foot Kenmore. So Bill has to get on the phone, on hold, transferred and disconnected, all to discover that Sears has no idea what we paid for that freezer, because it isn't in their computers anymore because we bought it in the Princeton Store, which is now gone. They know it's under warranty, and the model and serial number, but NO CLUE about the price. So they gave him another number to call, but the business hours were over. So here we had driven for 30 minutes, spent like 1.5 hours in Sears, and poor Bill was told that he needed to tell us to come back again after he made the call.

Well, Bill decided to make copies of our paperwork, and Evan and I decided on a couple of options for freezers, and when Bill came back, we were going to give him our choices so that he could call us in the morning, and Bill was all smiles, had gone up the ladder, and was going to give us the freezer that we wanted, the $498.00 model, as an even exchange AND deliver it to our door AND pick up the old freezer. So you see about now, Bill is looking like the awesomest Sears employee ever, and Evan is all happy because I have this "I just got a new freezer" grin that only a happy wife understands.... (or a relieved husband) and then as Bill is trying to ring it up, the computer won't take it.

It wants the numbers for our old freezer the "exchange" but because the freezer is no longer in the computer system, It won't let him exchange. Poor Bill. He had to call for a Supervisor overhead THREE TIMES before they actually showed up.... and then even they had a heck of a time. So finally, after about 35 minutes of fighting with the register, and ringing it up about 7 different times and 5 different ways, they got it. So Bill gives me an 800 number to call in the morning to schedule the delivery, and his number to call if I have problems or questions, and we skip happily out of Sears.

On the way out, Evan buys me a giant blue bow and a giant gift tag to wrap my office door at work like a present (SEE PHOTO AT TOP). Then we go to Red Lobster for a celebration dinner because we just got a kick ass new freezer- and it is being delivered! FREE! So we are so happy and we go on and on about Bill, and about Sears. We own ALL Kenmore appliances- Microwave, Dishwasher, Fridge, Freezer, Washer, etc.... the only non-kenmore is an old tappan stove I bought for $25 at an auction, and the Whirlpool dryer that matched the crappy Whirlpool washer that crapped out when 5 years old. Which will be replaced by a Kenmore as soon as necessary. We love Sears, and We love Kenmore.

Then comes Thursday. Meagan tried to call Sears in the morning. "We're sorry maam, we have no record of a purchase" - I give them the sales check # from the receipt, still nothing. So Evan calls that afternoon and they tell him that they can see the salescheck but that it isn't their problem to deliver the freezer, it's the store's job. So Evan goes round on the phone and gets nowhere (like only a husband can) and Wife steps in at 5:30pm to put the smack down on Sears. She calls sears and discovers that the delivery number says that each sears store is to schedule their own deliveries for warranties. This phone number that Bill gave me is only for NEW appliance deliveries. Not warranties.

SO I call poor bill, and he decides that he will hash it out with the deliveries because it isn't my problem (which is incredibly nice of him) and I wait to hear back from him. On Thursday night he calls and he needs an RC number from my receipt, and there isn't one ON my receipt, and I read the entire thing to him. Poor Bill. Just a pawn. So Bill tells me that it was rung up incorrectly (which we knew, but the computer wouldn't take it correctly) so it had to be redone or they wouldn't deliver it. So thankfully Bill hashed it out for us. The last thing that you want is to have to go all "angry wife" and call Sears and climb the ladder until you get to someone with some power. Evan told the lady at Sears that if she didn't help him, he would put the freezer in the back of a truck and show up at the Sears store with it, not leaving until they sent him home with a new freezer. She told him that wouldn't be necessary.

So if you want a Sears Appliance, go see Bill, he's a great guy and he deserves a pat on the back for dealing with our freezer fiasco. Currently, Bill's manager is working on re-ringing the freezer and getting delivery scheduled, and he is supposed to call my by the end of the day today.