I think I'm in love... with Sears.
Hi all,
hope you're doing well this evening.
I'm diggin' the warm days and cooler nights. That's the way summer should be.
So I was doing my monthy exercise on the treadmill and while I'm doing my fast walk, I hear a loud CRACK. I wasn't quite sure what it was, cause everything was still working. But I start to notice that the belt (that you run/walk on) is slowly shifting to the left.
I figured the rollers were probably out of alignment, so I stopped using it. I wasn't going to spend time and troubleshoot just then, so I thought I'd leave it till another day - I was sweaty and am usually low on patience when I'm that way :)
Anyway, so I took a look at it today, and saw what had cracked - The plastic part that secures the roller at the back of the treadmill (farthest away from the motor) had cracked on the left hand side. Why is it plastic? I have no idea. I'm sure there's some physics or engineering reason for why, but whatever.
I tried calling the friendly people at Sears and the people on the phone said that it would be about $90.00 just to have someone come out. That didn't include parts or labor.
Come on.
Ameriturd (my former phone company) used to charge $68.00 for a service call! I don't get it.
So for shits and giggles, I decided to go online and poke around. Apparently, Sears has quite the robust site for parts for stuff that they sell (parts is parts).
As long as you hae your product's model number.
So I had to hunt around for this crazy thing. I only knew the brand of the treadmill, and that was it...
But then the light went on (ding!) the owner's manual!
Luckily, I still had it - It was exactly in the same place I left it when I first bought the treadmill 4 years ago (heh).
So whaddya know - Those crazy model numbers do mean something - I mean come on, what else could 831.299470 (I'm not making that up) mean? In Sears-speak, it corresponds to Pro-Form 745CS.
So the love affair starts...
I've marvelled about this before, but I'm doing it again because I must have forgotten - Like the garage door opener trouble that I had however long ago, I found that I could buy pretty much any replacedment part of my treadmill that I wanted to.
They even had these swank line diagrams to help me find exactly what part I needed.
I'm so geeked.
So I just ordered the part today - So hopefully it'll ge here soon, and my "regular" monthly exercise routine can start back up again...
So now, whenever I need to buy householdey type stuff, I'm going to Sears. I appreciate how they service (or help you service) what they sell, instead of the current "replace it" mentality that goes with a lot of electronics these days.
-Kirk
posted by kirk @ 10:23:00 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Let me bend your ear (or eyes) about Sears...
It's almost 4pm and I'm still waiting for Sears to come a 'tkae a look at' my treadmill. Yep, I purchased the 5-year dilly deluxe maintenance agreement. Here's what my money has gotten me so far: A treadmill that sticks when I walk on it. (No, I'm not 300 lbs) and a lot of phone calls. Purchased it over a month ago. The soonest anyone from Sears could come out and inspect my lemon... I mean, treadmill was today. 3.5 weeks later. I was given a window of 8a-12n. So, I rose early. You see, I am excited to begin using my treadmill as it has been rainy weather and I cannot run at the track. I received a phone call at 10am informing me that the technician was on his way; that he was 30 minutes away. Cool! I can slip out over to Starbucks for some coffee. Well,... 12 minutes and a latte later I come home to a note on my door informing me that Representative #846345 had stopped by at 10:15am and had missed me. So, I hopped onto the phone to get him back here. 30 minutes later - because I was on hold that long- I rip into some customer 'service' rep in the midwest. Who apologizes and say that the technician will come back out and he will personally have someone call and tell me when he's coming back. Yep, 1.5 hours later still no call. So I call Sears again. hey, good news! Only on hold for 15 minutes this time! This time a woman on the other line tells me that it doesn't look like anyone's coming back out to me, but that the ticket is still 'open'. She again takes my phone number(s) and types 'directly to the technician' to call and let me know either way if he's coming back or not. That was at 1pm. It's now 4pm. What do we think my chances are? I'm sitting here with the manual searching for any possible fix that I may have overlooked in my efforts to already resolve the stickiness and stopping belt, but in about an hour, I'm loading the whole thing up and taking it back to Sears. Don't purchase the maintenance agreement EVER at Sears. Really, it's a big waste of money. Money that once is received by Sears creates a void of any memory of 'me' and my value to Sears. Aren't I the customer? Aren't I the one that they should be making happy? Not the technician who wants to cut out early?? The way I see it is that the customer is what keeps Sears alive. I pay this technician's paycheck, right? What is wrong with this picture? Thanks for reading my vent.
Post a Comment
<< Home