Heads Up to Sears Repair Department

Sears
_____________

So, yesterday, after washing a load of fussy whites (socks, undershirts, sheets), I discovered that my eight-year-old Kenmore dryer was dead, dead, dead.

“Ugh,” I thought, considering what to do with the rather large load sitting inside the dryer like a soggy lump.

Having lived overseas without access to a dryer, this was not a big deal, but my very American house is not set up for air drying clothes, and, besides, I was feeling kinda lazy after having shoveled snow earlier.

How to call Sears?

I couldn’t remember where the warranty info was, which was moot, anyway, but I needed to find the phone number and (I thought) all the model and serial numbers.

So I looked on the dryer itself.

Hark! The 800 number (which is 1-800-4-My-Home, by the way), and everything else I needed was right on the front inside, near the door.

When I called, I did get the phone tree, but it was based on voice recognition and only required me to answer a few basic questions, designed to steer me to the right department.

I was then routed immediately to a live operator, who, once she had my contact info, was able to access all the info about my dryer.

I was expecting to get an appointment in about a week or so, but I was pleasantly surprised to be assigned a next-day appointment for sometime between 12:00 and 5:00. She also offered me a $199.99 extended warranty on my machine, which would be retroactive for this repair. Normally, I don’t buy these warranties, but I figured that the cost of this call would be close to that anyway, and I would get a year of additional protection.

At about 2:30, a cheerful Greg arrived and got to work right away. The culprit was a switch, which he was able to replace right away. Had I not opted for the warranty, my bill would have been $177.29 anyway. This way, for $22.00 extra, I have a year of warranty protection on an eight-year-old machine.

By the way, my Kenmore washer is almost 29 years old without ever having one service call, so there is a good chance that I won’t need that extended warranty, but it’s good to know that it’s there.

Thank you, Sears, for getting me back on track so quickly.