Better than nothing - but not much better

Sears used to stand behind their appliances and behind their Protection Agreements that are supposed to cover repairs after the initial warranty period.

I have several Sears appliances -- some fairly new, some rather old -- all have been under protection agreements since they were first purchased. Over the past year or so I have seen the level of protection offered by Sears drop lower and lower.

EVERY call to Sears Appliance Repair require AT LEAST one full week for the first appointment -- but don't expect that appointment to fix your problem. The technicians (most of whom do not work for Sears) don't bring any parts with them. Not even when the problem has already been diagnosed over the phone and they know what part is bad. Instead the technician will show up, take everything apart, tell you they need to order the part, put it somewhat back together (not usable) and tell you to call Sears to set up another appointment after the parts arrive at your home. And, yes, that appointment is also going to be at least a full week after you call that the parts have arrived.

First I had to pay for a dishwasher repair (they called it "cleaning" but when you have to take the whole thing apart, that is certainly a repair!) The problem with the dishwasher was that it broke a plastic dish and a piece of the dish got down inside the pump assembly. The only way that a piece large enough to block the pump was able to get into the pump was due to a defective design of the dish washer itself. Older models had a strainer to catch anything big enough to be a problem. On Sears' newest models there is no strainer, instead there is a grate with openings about 1/2" by about 5/8" all the way around the center of the dishwasher -- that grate ought to have stopped the broken piece of dish BUT that grate has a nearly 1/4" gap all the way around it - the piece of dish was about 1-1/2" by 2" but it was thin enough to slip right through the gap that Sears leaves around the grate.

Then my gas range started beeping and displaying an error code on the electronic control panel. The code indicated exactly what part was bad. Call Sears, make an appointment, first available appointment is a full week later, technician shows up - code has reset and it isn't beeping when he comes in - technician refuses to even look at the range - tells me that when it starts beeping again, if it shows the same code, I am supposed to tell Sears to order the part so he won't need to make two trips. (Not that Sears ever cares what the customer tells them about an appliance).

Tonight at midnight I wake to the beeping coming from my kitchen. The range is showing the same code again. So I call sears. Guess what? Appliance repair does not have anyone to schedule appointments at night or on weekends -- just a recording telling you to call back later (the recording doesn't even tell you when they are open).

So tomorrow I get to call Sears again for a repair that they already sent out a technician for but he refused to even look at the problem.