Our Sears extended warranty

So I stayed home today to make sure someone was here when the Sears repairman showed up to have a look at our treadmill, for which we purchased an extended warranty.  He arrived about 7:45 this evening, so I torched the leave for nothing.

This is not his fault.  I quite liked him, actually.  He was a kindly, 60ish gentleman, as witty as he was dexterous, and he solved our problem.  I don’t think he was here 15 minutes.  Plus, he did a hell of a Donald Duck voice for the boys.

He’s deployed in a system, though, that couldn’t even give us a general idea of an appointment time.  You know how the cable people or whatever tell you “sometime between 9 and 1″ or somesuch?  Nope.  That can’t happen with Sears treadmill extended warranty repair people.  You get a specified day, and that’s it.

Moreover, this day—March 25—was five weeks and change out from Lea’s initial call.  Now my extended warranty paperwork makes no mention of when service will be provided, but I think most of a month and a half later is excessive by any reasonable definition, particularly with a daily use (stop laughing; I don’t, but Lea’s legs are like cast iron) item like a treadmill.

I am pleased that we’re finally getting the service we paid for.  Until our repairman called (apologetically) about a quarter to five and explained that he was going to be late, I was all set to call Sears in the morning and get our $149.99 back.

(I’m doing all right, but that’s still a lot of money to me, okay?)

I have a soft spot for Sears.  I don’t do a ton of business with them, but to me, they are the quintessential American retailer.  There’s something vaguely…I don’t know, comforting? old school? conservative? about them.  I think I shall, from that rhetorical position, write them a polite letter pointing out the shortcomings in this experience, and invite them to correct them.

By the way, when our repairman went back to his truck to get something, I checked to see if all of his tools were Craftsman.  They were.

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