Sears ruined my floor

OK So we were bought a new Kenmore dishwasher and the Barrio boys came and installed it and now a month later I noticed a weird stain on the floor and I clean it up, no big deal. Then I notice one of my laminate floor boards looking a little warped by the dishwasher and I though to my self. I wonder if the dishwaser is leaking, but how would I tell. Well Saturday night I walked into the kitchen before going to bed (dishwasher had been running for about a hour) It was a swimming pool in my kitchen. Looks like Barrio boys messed up some things, My floors from my kitcen sink to past my fridge are all warped. Sears is fixing this big time, replacing my floor, and fixing any damage that had been done.

What has this got to do with a job at Sears? My experience working at Sears has been that when there's a problem, they fix it. Not always easily or perfectly but they usually do the right thing. You've got to remember that Sears also gets abused. There has always got to be accountability both ways. Sounds like Sears is doing the right thing for you. So, a mistake was made. What's the problem?

Super Barrio Brothers.

Was the problem a defective seal in the dishwasher? I bought a dishwasher from Sears three months ago. It has a broken seal. When we finally figured out why the laminate looked warped we discovered water pouring out over the motor.

Did you have any trouble getting Sears to repair your floor?

Thanks!

annonymous in Beltsville, Maryland said: OK So we were bought a new Kenmore dishwasher and the Barrio boys came and installed it and now a month later I noticed a weird stain on the floor and I clean it up, no big deal. Then I notice one of my laminate floor boards looking a little warped by the dishwasher and I though to my self. I wonder if the dishwaser is leaking, but how would I tell. Well Saturday night I walked into the kitchen before going to bed (dishwasher had been running for about a hour) It was a swimming pool in my kitchen. Looks like Barrio boys messed up some things, My floors from my kitcen sink to past my fridge are all warped. Sears is fixing this big time, replacing my floor, and fixing any damage that had been done.

Any tips on how you got sears to take care off things, turns out our dishwasher (still under warrenty) has a cracked tub and has been leaking out under the floor, floor is warped and ruined. We just discovered it was the dishwasher today.

I was advised by Sears not to pull up the floor until a Claims Adjustor could see the damage. I waited several days, and finally decided if I didn't get it pulled up so it could dry, there was going to be a huge mold problem. It took almost a month to get a Claims Adjustor Assigned.

I am still trying to collect for the damage to my floor. They have been screwing around for two months. Now it is in the hands of the manufacturer Fridigare (Electrolux). They claim they haven't received the report from the Claims Investigator. He told me it would only be about a week. That was three weeks ago. He hasn't returned my calls.

Sears has fixed my Dishwasher under the warranty.

I am beginning to think that I'll have to go to Small Claims Court or turn it over to an attorney to try to collect. The Sears Service Repairman told me it was a defective part.

I have heard that there is a way where you have your home owners insurance pay the damages and then they go after which ever company to get the money back? Has any one done it this way? I know our entire kitchen and entry floor will need to be replaced I think it will be worth it even if our homeowners goes up or we have to meet a deductable.

I think your Homeowners Insurance will pay it, less the ddeductable. However, if you get a couple of claims, they will raise your premium, or cancel your policy. They don't care whose fault it is, it is still a claim against you.

I was advised by the Sears Repairman to contact the the Loss Prevention Department at the Sears store where I had purchased the dishwasher.

They told me to get two or three estimates from licensed flooring stores, plus good photos of the damaged area.

They forwarded it to a Claims Processing Center in Chicago and gave me a Claim Number. From there it was forwarded to the Manufacturer of the Dish Washer. They sent a Claims Adjustor (or fact finder) out here. He said he needed to take pictures and measure the damaged area. He claimed that he hadn't received the photos that I orignally provided sears.

He said that I would hear directly from Electrolux in a short period of time.

I haven't heard from them yet, but I think they will eventually pay for my damaged floor replacement. As of last week, Electrolux claim that they haven't received the report from the guy they sent out here.

Since it's so confusing when the manufacturer is different from the brand, ie Whirlpool makes Kenmore dishwashers, but so does Bosch, and who knows who else, it's really helpful, if you include model numbers, how old the appliance is and if it's under warranty. Personally, I'm having a terrible time with Sears over a Kenmore Elite #13782, I bought recently.

It cleaned the dishes beautifully but a few weeks after I had it installed, the door wouldn't stay closed. The latch has been replaced, but the problem wasn't solved. It's really a design flaw. Two months later and I still don't have a dishwasher that works, and Sears is also telling me that they require four visits before they would replace it with something else.

I had a bad experience with them least year when I tried to buy a Bosch range from them. Two hours before the scheduled delivery, they called and told me that it wasn't available and I would have to wait a month!

Also, a friend of mine had a horrific time with them with her fridge. It stopped working, and the repairman set their brand new wood, kitchen floor on fire. It took over a month to fix. Imagine, a month in mid summer, with no refridgeration and a six year old kid and husband to feed.

I have had the same problem with a leaking dishwasher,a flooded floor, and months of being jerked around by sears. Nobody wants to take care of the problem . Meanwhile my floor is destroyed since october.The only thing I can do to make me feel better is tell everyone I know about how bad sears customer service is And never ever shop at sears again and encourage my friends and coworkers not to either.

I was advised to turn my damage in to my home owners. I refused, after three months, an adjustor finally showed up. In the meantime I had three estimates from local vendors, and had paid for the repair myself. I figured they would really jerk me around, but I had plenty of pictures of the damage to the floor, and the estimates and was prepared to go to Small Claims. I was surprised, Electrolux paid the low bid, less a small depreciation for the original flooring. The only thing I had to do was sign a release.

The other thing I would advise would be to print out a copy of the replies to this chat group to show that there is a big history of faulty dishwashers purchased through Sears that you can use as backup if you should end up in court.

The other thing, is to KEEP the faulty part, until you get the settlement. You might need it as proof that it was the manufacturer and not the installers, and Electrolux told me that they would not settle any claim without the defective part.

hi: had a d/w leak which ruined my laminate floor. got the leak repaired along with my floor. found a unique product on the web.
a pan that fits under your d/w & catches any leak you may have & brings it to your attention before it ruins your floor. its called a "floor saver pan" www.floorsaverpan.com looks like it should prevent any floor problem in the future.

Although home ownership, pride and upkeep are a very important thing, everyone needs to settle down. The reality is, these products all come from the same manufacturers no matter who the retailer is that you buy it from. Sears actually handles these situations 1000 times better that if you have to deal with Home Depot, Lowes, or (heaven forbid) Wal-Mart. It is one of the only companies left that has not only the customer's best interest at heart but also high demands of if its product quality. If we continue to hold it to a higher standard that the "big box warehouse" stores just because it's been around longer, we will lose it and continue to sink into a world of mediocre products and services.

when our dishwasher problem first came up I was worried because there was no way I could afford to replace my damaged floors my self. So I did some research on how sears handled claims. Well guess what, all the folks out there who had a bad experince go and yell it from every mountain top and like the stats say tell more people than those who have a good experince. So I was very nervous and careful handling my claim, but Sears was GREAT, they never questioned anything they paid, or I should say that the dishwasher manufacture actually paid but sears helped connect the dots and made things easy. Every company has problems but its how they handle them, and in my situation it was handled perfectly. As a customer I followed through, filled out the forms in a timely manner and kept good records I documented everything and let everyone I talked with know I was doing this, I was always polite, and let them know how I wanted the problem solved.