SAN ANTONIO — Rebecca Salazar’s dryer stopped working in December of last year. When Sears Home Warranty couldn't fix it, they paid for a new dryer to be delivered to the home.
Unfortunately, that dryer never showed up.
After calling Sears for nearly six months, Salazar finally called KENS 5.
"I've seen you help people that really need help," Salazar said.
Salazar told KENS five she's been paying for a service plan with Sears for a very long time and the company had replaced other appliances before. She said the company did try to fix the dryer on two different occasions before ordering the new one in March. The 85-year-old told KENS she was, at one point, calling customer service three times a week to find out what was going on but she could never get a solution.
"I called and they said the dryer never arrived at the warehouse. I kept on calling every month and they told me the same thing," Salazar said.
She said customer service would also tell her she needed to speak to a different department and then her call would drop. She had now spent more than 6 months hauling her clothing to a laundry service location which was hard because she had already had surgery on both knees.
KENS 5 reached out to Transformco, which owns Sears, and explained what the 85-year-old was going through.
Escalation Manager Dana Shoulders started addressing the issue the very next day. The manager told the family Sears no longer had that dryer available but gave them several options to get a new one. The company said they were willing to send Salazar a check for the value of the dryer so they could buy a new one right away.
Transformco Senior Customer Experience Manager Eileen Jaffe sent KENS 5 the following statement a few days later:
At Sears Home Services, our top priority is the satisfaction of our customers. We regret the difficulty Ms. Salazar encountered with the replacement of her dryer. Due to the delay in the manufacturer providing the dryer she had selected, we offered to cancel her order and send her a check for the replacement value instead. She accepted this and we are in the process of collecting the necessary signed documents so that she can be issued a check. We apologize that her experience was not what we strive to provide and are pleased we were able to offer her this alternative resolution.
Salazar was grateful a solution is finally within reach. She's also glad she called KENS 5.
"You helped me a lot. I didn't have to be calling and calling. You got a hold of them." Salazar said. "I don't know what you did but you did good. Now we don't having to be going to the washeteria to get the cloths dry."
If you have a problem like this, we want to help you fix it! In our series, Call KENS, we do our best to solve problems for our viewers. The number to call is 210-470-KENS, or fill out the form on this page.