SEARS DOESN'T GIVE SATISFACTION

The tech from Sears came at 4:15 on Thursday. He said that he comes over from Walla Walla once a week to help out here, specializing in "lawn and garden" and "refrigerators."

First, by means of a magnet, he checked the doors and asked if they had been removed during installation. Yes, they had. He said they had not been properly re-attached, and the delivery crew should have checked it for correct operation. With that, I stepped away to let him work.

Then he called me back into the kitchen and told me that there was nothing wrong with the refrigerator. He said the little thermometer we were using was faulty – that actually, the fridge was cooling properly and by means of an “expensive” infrared gizmo, he showed me the actual temp of everything in the fridge. He said those little thermometers are useless. Get only mercury thermometers he said, adding that I should check Goodwill for those.

“But you said the doors were improperly attached,” we reminded him, to which he responded that he was wrong. He had the magnets backwards, he said.

Well, the fridge just hadn’t seemed that cold, we said. The milk wasn’t as cold as we like, for instance. So he shot the milk with his infrared gizmo which showed it at 33 degrees. (Hmmm – that’s nearly freezing, you know.) He said that the refrigerator as a whole was sitting at 33 and keeping it at temps that low would cause the produce to freeze. We pointed out that our produce had never frozen despite the fact that we had the refrigerator at its lowest setting, a response he ignored. In fact, he never gave us any explanations – just kept the dialogue shifting.

He pointed out that the unit, although it says Kenmore, is actually an LG, which we had discovered on our own. Diagnostics he took on the fridge were transmitted to LG, not Sears, he said. I questioned that LG is a good product. He said he wouldn’t have anything but LG in his home. (I've heard that from several sales reps but find plenty of dissenting opinions from consumers online.)

He said the only thing wrong with the refrigerator, according to his handheld diagnostic unit, was that the ice maker is slow because of low water pressure. Yes, the water dispenses slowly, Mike agreed, but was not at all slow in the old refrigerator, meaning we have decent water pressure to the house. So, the tech pulled the fridge out and said that the valve lacked a quarter turn of being fully opened. He declared it fixed. Mike got a cup and tried the dispenser. “No, it’s still slow,” he said, to which the tech did not respond.

The bill for the call was something like $268, for which we were not charged.

“Well,” said Mike, after the tech left, “we’re stuck.” KW