Excuse the use of the forum for a personal rant.
I bought a Sears Kenmore HE4 Dryer last year along with it's companion washer. Cool HiTech machines with every feature known to man. Same basic features as the Bosch units but with the Sears cosmetics.
We specifically told the salesperson that we would be operating it on propane (cause we live in a semi rural area). Of course the dryer came set for natural gas. No big deal you think. Just order the propane orifice and be on your way. What happened was a 2 month customer service nightmare. No one at Sears (or Whirlpool that made the unit) had any idea that the manual and the sticker on the unit said to use one part number and they kept sending us a different one. Of course the one they kept sending us was correct but no one would own up to it. Finally we received a fax 2 months later saying that it was ok to use the part. Now we had been using our old dryer all along and this was just an annoyance not a fatal issue. Fact is that the new dryer sat unopened in our garage for 2 months.
Last week the dryer stopped working. Hilda made an appointment with Sears to have it looked at as I was on a cycling job. A couple of days later it suddenly came to life again. She postponed the service call. It then died for good.
I opened it up upon my return. Checked that the main circuit board was getting power, etc. Figured it was the main power board as I could not seem to get any voltage out of it to the control panel.
Called Sears and rescheduled the appointment.
The Sears tech came is his van. The van is equipped with a satelite uplink and a lan connection to the technicians Toughbook. Pretty cool mobile setup actually.
The tech played with the dryer for about an hour and declared that the problem was not in the main power circuit board but in the control panel.
Then the nifty technology came into play. He was able to query the entire system from the Toughbook in the house. He then came up with the wonderful news that it was going to cost $565.00 to repair the dryer (new cost $1050.00). He was able to print out an estimate from the nice thermal printer in his kit.
Now bear in mind that the dryer sat unused for 2 months after being purchased. Net operational time 10 months before crapping out.
I told the tech that we would get back to them. I paid the $65.00 visit fee (which was fair) with a credit card that was authorized and my receipt printed on the little Seiko printer.
I then pulled the file and gave Sears a call. the people were of course nice enough but the bottom line was that they were not going to cover any parts. They did offer to cover the remaining labor charges for the repairs. They could not cover the initial visit as we had already paid for that. The fact that their people had delayed the use of the dryer for 2 months was not entertained. Policy you know.
Why does a keypad cost $445.00? I don't know yet. Perhaps the replacement will come in a walnut box with velvet liner. Crap! These guys have the customer (including us) over a barrel. The dryer is installed and they know that it will take more time and effort to replace it than the average customer will take.
I am keeping the dead one and finding out why it died. Probably some wave soldered part that let go.
Of course the Sears people will tell you that you should have taken the extended warranty. Those are the biggest ripoffs going as well. I don't know what the plan was when we bought the units but it probably was a moneymaker for Sears.
So I have a new perspective on prices for parts and labor. The costs of S4 main circuit boards and faceplates aren't so bad on relative terms. And at least you can UPS a timer.
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