DO NOT SHOP AT SEARS

******!!!Warning!!!****** 

Before you make a large purchase from Sears, you NEED to read this warning. Sears sold me a defective snow blower and they will sell one to you too. Furthermore, their "customer service" team is a nightmare. I have spent the last two days on the phone trying to straighten out this nightmare of a situation.

At the end of October 2012 I purchased a brand new snow blower from Sears. I had it delivered and there was a problem with the delivery, so it had to be pushed back. I got my machine in November. The first plowable snowfall happened this past Friday. It was blizzard Nemo, and it dumped about 3 feet of snow on my house.

It shouldn't have been a problem, since I had my brand new $600 snow blower. It is a 24 inche, dual-stage snow blowing beast. I should have been able to get my wimpy 6 car (smart cars) driveway clear in no time. 

Lies. I put some freshly purchased gas into the snowblower, which was already set up with oil and ready to go and attempted to turn it on. Fail. Tried the electric start. Louder fail. Took out the spark plug... it looked fine. I had no idea what was wrong with my snow blower.

As I sat trapped in my house with two young children I called Sears. After an hour on hold, I finally got to talk to a real person. I told her my brand new machine was broken. She gleefully informed me that my return period had passed as did my exchange period and all that I could do was bring it in for repair. The repair would be covered under warranty. Just toss it in your car and bring it on in she said.  Um... did I mention that there was 3 feet of snow in my driveway because I couldn't clear it with my snow blower? How pray tell should I "bring it on in"? **Transfer to technical support**

The nice Indian woman on the other end of the line asked me to hold my phone up to the snow blower while I tried to start it. Awesome, she is some type of snow blower whisperer. Fail. Her attempt to whisper sweet nothings at my machine and coax it into working didn't work. She told me it was the carbeurator -- they go all the time she said.

Your carbeurator should not need repairing the first time you use a machine. That's a good indicator that something isn't right to begin with. Just throw it in the car and come on in. I explained to her that unlike rain, you can't just drive through snow. I'm stuck.

Numerous calls and chats later, I got the same answers. We wound up very slowly shoveling ourselves out. I called to speak with these snow blower repair gurus at my local Sears to confirm they can fix my machine. I called. I held. I was hung up on. I called again. I held and I finally got a hold of someone. The young man on the other end of the line seemed confused. No, we don't do repairs. None of the Sears do. Why would they tell you that?  Why indeed.    

It turns out that I can push/pull/drag/drive my snow blower in to my local Sears and they will ship it out for repair. Depending on what's wrong it may or may not be covered under warranty. Since it never worked, I would assume it would be covered, but who the heck knows what those delivery guys did with it before it got to me.

So now, as I watch my local weather man orgasm over the prospect of another snow storm, I have to find a way to get my snow blower - which is now full of gas BTW - into my car (hahahahahahahahahaha) and get it to a Sears to be shipped out for God only knows how long. After they get it back, I get to repeat the process to get it home, once I pay any fees for the repair of my BRAND NEW snow blower that didn't ever work to begin with.

No returns. No exchanges. Apparently we chanted, "black black no trade back" when I bought it. Who knew? Not me. But now you do.

So with that I say, avoid Sears. Ever since they did the nasty with K-Mart they have been going down hill. Their products are shifty at best and their customer service team apparently consists of the people who were fired from Bank of America for being bad at their jobs. That's right, Sears customer service is worse than Bank of America.

Just in case that wasn't strong enough - AVOID SEARS. DO NOT SHOP THERE. They are thieves. They are liars. They are cheats. They are unethical baby stealing puppy killers on their way to an anti-woman, anti-christian rally with their closest relatives that they go to the Westboro Baptist cult with. That's how horrible this company is.