My recommendation to you, do not purchase Home Warranty from Sears, find someone else.
No one at Sears showed any kind of concern regarding the status of my claim.
Before going on with the story, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
1. ON EVERY CALL, Sears couldn't find my account by phone number, I had to give them my address, sometimes my service request number, sometimes the contract numbers... each one worked at different times, and on one of the calls neither worked. I don't even know what to think about this. On Saturday, after 5 days, they apparently fixed it for real.
2. On every call, I made emphasis on the fact that me and my family are having to take cold showers everyday in TX cold weather. I also have family visiting this weekend so I need this replaced ASAP.
On 01/04:
Water heater stops working, I called Sears Warranty Services and opened a claim. I am told to contact the service provider (K&G Services) to get a time slot for a visit.
I called K&G Services, I'm asked to dial 1 for Houston, 2 for Corpus, I dial 1 (I'm in Houston). I get a voicemail. I leave a voicemail. After a few hours, there is no call back, so I called again and again I get a voicemail.
On 01/05:
I called K&G and again, exact same thing: voicemail. I may have left another voicemail. Later that I day, I find an email from K&G from the night before saying they can't get a hold of me. Through email I give them my number, and they call me. Because we didn't connect the day before, the best they can do is send someone the next day 01/10. I'm not happy about this, but so be it. Oh the best part is the lady explained to me that if I had dialed 2 (for Corpus) I would have gotten her instead of voicemail. Make your own conclusions.
On 01/06:
The visit window was 11am-3pm. I stayed home from work. The window came and went, no one showed up. At around 3:30pm I get a call from the technician that he is 15 minutes away.
He did show up, inspected the unit, recommended a replacement. He says I will have about $600 worth of out of pocket expenses, not at all what I was expecting. He claims that he will put in the report with Sears within the hour. He will call me to let me know it was submitted.
2 or 3 hours later there is no call to let me know, I reached out to Sears, they don't have the report. I called K&G dispatch, and they say the report was submitted and they send me a bill via email for the out of pocket expenses, $800 dollars. I hang up and call Sears, and once again I'm told they are waiting for the report.
On 01/07,
I called Sears and there is no change, they are waiting for the report from K&G. I called K&G, they claim the report was sent and they are waiting for approval. I call Sears and I try to get an explanation as to why am I having to chase both Sears and K&G, trying to get them to connect... It was like talking to a wall, I simply heard over and over, we haven't received the report, we emailed K&G, we left a voicemail, etc.
01/08
There is no change, Sears is still waiting for the report. I ask to talk to a Supervisor and I'm told one will call me. I called Sears multiple times... spoke to multiple people, 2 of them hung up on me, I guess as decent and polite as I was, I was too direct? The day went away and I never got the promised call from a supervisor.
01/09, Saturday:
Called Sears and there was no change, I told the story a couple of times but my focus was really get my situation escalated, after insisting quite a bit, I was finally transferred to a supervisor. He seems to understand the gravity of the situation and shows some concern but basically tells me to wait until Monday, if I don't hear back from them by Noon, call again. Apparently they can't take charge regardless of how dire a service call has become. I have to initiate every call?
01/10 Sunday, nothing to do.
01/11 Monday...
No one reaches out to me, at around 2pm I called Sears and NOTHING AT ALL has changed. Oh, they told me about how I was asking questions regarding the out of pocket costs, which I did ask ONCE when I talked to them the first time, but they completely ignored the real much bigger problem, which I drilled every call, every day since Wednesday: that after almost a week they are still chasing their tails with K&G Services on where the report is, and there is no telling how long this will continue for.
After talking to 3 or 4 agents and getting hung up twice, someone takes my contact information and says I will get a call from a manager soon.
01/12 Tuesday,
The manager called me. She basically repeated the same same everyone under her said so far: They are waiting for the report from K&G. She adds that once they get the report they will review and make a decision, if approved, there will be a 3-5 business delivery window for the unit, and then I will talk to K&G about installing it, etc. She also clarified that they got a "partial" report from K&G the night before. They need the full report that includes the out of pocket expenses before reviewing my claim (... so no real progress?).
I specifically asked her if after hearing my story, is this how Sears handles Warranty calls? Her answer was simply, the events fall within what Sears has outlined for a service call... so yes.
She kept on asking me if I had any other questions, seemed in a hurry to hang up. Then I asked, if I cancel my service now, will I get all of my money back, given the fact that the warranty doesn't meet reasonable expectations. She simply offered to transfer me to whoever handles memberships.
The next lady simply ignored my question regarding getting my money back, she gave me a cancellation number, after repeating myself about 3 times, she opened a claim regarding getting the money back. I'm not holding my breath.
Conclusion:
I had a pretty amazing experience with Sears in the past when I purchased warranty coverage for a Fridge, they were very attentive, always came when they said they would, I didn't have any communication issues and at some point after 3 attempts to fix an issue on the fridge, they replaced the unit. This is why I decided to purchase the home warranty, it was more money, but covered most important stuff. Needless to say things were not what I expected.
To me the worst part is the fact that no one at sears (Or K&G) ever showed any real concern, or seemed willing to do anything to escalate the situation to bring it to resolution... all I heard from all parties was literally the same, they apologized and proceeded to tell me I had to wait.
Not having a water heater in the winter is bad as it is.
Not being able to reach the service provider at the number they provide is bad.
Dealing with Sears saying K&G hasn't provided the report, and K&G saying they sent it already, and going back and forth between the two is bad.
But the worst part is dealing with Sears CSRs, talking as if everything is fine and dandy. Apologizing but not doing anything at all. Not escalating the issue. Not committing to anything. Just giving the same answer 100 times = We are waiting for the report and there is nothing we can do about it.
I could not believe the attitude the manager had today. I mean, within reason I was expecting to see a more hands on approach, a commitment to bring this to a resolution soon.
I didn't want (or care) for anyone to apologize. I wanted for someone to open their eyes and see how poorly this whole thing was being handled, and to do something to fix it.