ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Monica and Lamar Huddleston’s sense of humor is intact, but their patience is shot. Last September, the ice maker on their refrigerator broke. The unit is covered by a master protection agreement with Sears Home Services.
“They sent the tech out and, sure enough, he came three times. The fourth time was a no-show,” Monica Huddleston said. “So that’s when we called customer service, argued back and forth, and they said, ‘OK, we’re just going to replace the refrigerator.’ I’m happy. So I thought.”
When the delivery crew came with the new fridge – problems.
“One guy kind of dropped his end, and it banged against the railing. There’s a nice little dent and scratch in the very front freezer door. Too visible to say, ‘It’s ok, we’ll take it.’” Huddleston said.
“Well, they sent two guys again. Those two guys didn’t even try to deliver or take this one. They said, point blank, ‘We can’t too this. Too much. Too big. You need four guys for this.’ They sent another two-man crew and that two-man crew said, ‘We can’t do this. We need four people.’”
If the manpower issues weren’t enough, Huddleston said Sears Home Services was adamant it must retrieve the damaged fridge before delivering its replacement. That wasn’t going to work for her.
“We will send you a check for $115. You go and get you a portable refrigerator or you can go to Rent-A-Center and rent one. To which I almost can’t even tell you what my response, but it was, ‘No, we’re not going to do that. You are going to bring me a refrigerator and take this one, same day. That’s it. That’s what’s going to happen.’ She said. “Told me point blank, ‘Can’t do that. It’s against our policy.’ I said, ‘Okay. I’m done. I’m calling Channel 2.’”
FOX 2 made calls and sent emails to Transformco, the company that operates Sears Home Services. While our inquires went unanswered, they didn’t go unseen.
A day after we interviewed the Huddlestons, they got some answers. And after months of waiting, the Huddelstons’ damaged refrigerator was removed, and their new unit was installed this week. They finally got a delivery crew who could handle the job.
“We are so grateful, so grateful to you for helping us out, because we had been dealing with this for literally six months. From September to the end of March, until you stepped in the picture,” Huddleston said. “When you called, magically, we got this call the next day and stuff started rolling.”
