Sears Repair Puerto Rico is Lame

The appliances we purchased for upstairs were the Kenmore Elite and for the laundry room, the Kenmore H2 series. We have had the sears repair guy out for our oven upstairs and after charging us $125 for showing up didn’t even go into the house, he just said that an F-11 error meant we needed a new computer motherboard for around $900. Did we want to order it. I sent him home and unplugged the oven for a few hours. It has worked perfectly ever since.

The second experience we had with the sears repair guy in Puerto Rico was when they showed up to work on our Kenmore washer. He took the back off, found a dead mouse in the body and said sears policy is that he can’t work on the washer. I cleaned out the dead mouse, bleached and he still wouldn’t work on the washer. He just left. After waiting another week for the next repair guy to show up, the sears repair center apologized for the previous repair guys attitude and told me it wasn’t policy. So, as I suspected, he was just lazy and didn’t feel like working on our washer at the end of his day.

Now, a few months later, our dryer stopped getting hot. The first step was to check that we had propane and when that was confirmed we had to call for a repair appointment. I was on the fence on whether I should call sears repair or a local guy, but I went with sears because I don’t know anyone local and since we have friends staying at the house, I didn’t want to make them do the extra work. Well, sears repair in Puerto Rico has once again proved that they are so lame.

They were supposed to show up for an appointment 2 weeks ago but pulled a no call no show on us. Now, in order to get that appointment in the first place, we had to wait 2 full weeks! After waiting two weeks, and them not showing up, I called sears repair back and they told us that no one was there and we would have to reschedule. Do you want to guess when the next appointment was? Two weeks. Uuuuuhhhhhhhg. Ok, I’ll play along and book another appointment for two weeks out, but in the meantime, I got the number of a local appliance repair guy. Unfortunately, he was dealing with a family emergency so he couldn’t help us out and I still didn’t want to put our friends through the process of qualifying a local appliance repair guy in Rincon so we stuck with our sears repair appointment.

Here we are, almost a month after my first phone call to sears repair and they still haven’t shown up to the house to fix out dryer. I called to check up on the appointment and they told me the repair guy should be at the house between 12:45 and 1:45. Yesterday the told me between 8:00am and 5:00pm…so basically they want me (or Tony and Meghan) to take the full day off from work for a repair and just keep our fingers crossed that they are actually going to show up.

Man, sorry for the rant, but I’m super annoyed with Sears Repair in Puerto Rico. This is just ridiculous and my opinion of them is around an 8 out of 100. Lame.

After calling around and asking around, I had the job narrowed down to a few local businesses. I narrowed my choice down even more by price point, brand names and professionalism.

The Air Conditioner Units I wanted were the new Inverter type units. They save over 30% in electricity than their predecessors and considering Rincons Electric Bills just went up 30% last month, that is quite a bit of savings. I also wanted to get units that were strong enough to cool all of downstairs when all three splits were run simultaneously.

After research and due diligence, I decided I wanted to buy the Daikin brand split units.

Our two offices and the spare bedroom/gym are about 12ft wide by 18ft long with 10ft ceilings. Our great room downstairs (between the offices) is 40 feet long by 20 feet wide. I decided that the 24,000 BTU split inverter units were the right ones for the job. Keep them turned low for the offices and once we finish up the media room and new entrance downstairs, we’ll be able to keep it all cool by cranking the units in the three rooms with our interior doors open.

The company we used for the job was Aguada Refrigeration and Air Conditioning. They were here when they said they would be, installed everything professionally (centered, sturdy etc) and gave us a 5 year warranty on the installation and the split units and compressors.

If you are researching for an Air Conditioning company that services Rincon, use the business I used, they were rock solid on all levels. Tell them Stefan from www.ca2pr.com sent you to them and they will give you a discount AND give me a finders fee.

Here is their contact information:
Aguada Regrigeration and A/C
• Office Telephone Number: (787) 868-3936
• Cell Phone Number: (787) 614-0412
• Alternate Cell Number: (939) 640-3693

So, here is the skinny. Summer and I bought a very nice set of matching Kenmore Elite Appliances from Sears in Mayaguez back in July. So, in less than 10 months, our microwave is trying to transform me from Bruce Banner to The Incredible Hulk! I am going to call Sears today and see what’s up. My concern with all this (aside from turning green when I get angry) is that we built custom cabinets over the stove to fit the Kenmore Elite Microwave / Exhaust Fan. Considering our experience trying to get doors, appliances and furniture on the island, waiting for a replacement microwave MAY yield us a new Kenmore elite microwave EVENTUALLY, but I would be more inclined to think that they are going to try to replace it with a different model (hopefully the microwave convection combo model is the same size and in stock).

Jump in shower. Turn on water. EEEEKKKKK. Scrubscrubscrubscrub. Jump out of shower. Sigh.

The tankless water heater is pretty cool from what I’ve experianced so far. Plus, you never run out of hot water since it’s heated on demand. The only thing that is slightly negative is that I love to take SCALDING hot showers and while the on demand tankless water heater does heat up the water to a nice hot temp, it’s not scalding enough for me at times .

When my dad built the piping, etc. for the hot water heater, I learned how to turn off the hot water to the house, where the hot and cold water bibs are and I learned about P/T valves (pressure/temperature values). Essentually a P/T value will release the water if it gets too much pressure or heat. So we can go away and not worry about the house exploding (at least not due to the hot water).

Everything we ordered we had delivered…all of which came in on different dates. Before delivering, Sears has an automated messaging system call you and tell you the delivery date about 3 days away from delivery. The day before delivery, the same automated messaging service calls back and gives you a three hour window of delivery along with a number to call if you have any conflicts with the delivery time.

All of the deliveries have been pretty accurate until this last one. The delivery of the dryer never showed up on Monday between 12:00 and 3:00pm and I have not heard anything from Sears. I am going to have to make time today and get them on the phone….”Where’s our dryer!”

I really wanted to have tank less propane hot water heater but don’t know too much about them. I have been doing research and reading customer reviews of On Demand Hot Water Heaters and think I found the one we are going to purchase. If any of you know anything about Propane On Demand Tankless Heaters….please speak now before we make this big purchase!

Rheem Tankless Water Heater RTG-74PVP-1, Indoor Use
Rheem tankless water heaters combine new technology and functionality in an innovative way to heat water. The result – you now have a greater choice of award-winning Rheem products designed to give you comfort. Our tankless water heaters are designed to enhance your lifestyle, utilize advanced technology for energy efficiency, and supply a continuous flow of low cost hot water whenever and wherever you need it.

Rheem Tankless Water Heater RTG-74PVP-1, Indoor Use Features:
• UMC-117 remote control is included and can be set from the out-of-the-box 120 degrees – up to 140 degree maximum
• EZ-Linkâ„¢ cable connects two tankless units or operate as one – now available for high demand applications
• Guardian SBT™ sensing burner technology
• Gardian OFW™ overheat film wrap
• Two high-altitude options – up to 6, 560 or 9, 840 ft. elevations above sea level
• All Rheem tankless models are third-party certified by GAMA
• All Rheem tankless models qualify for up to a $300 federal energy tax credit
• All Rheem models can be linked in up to 20 unite manifold installations by using the optional MIC-180 and MICS-180 manifold control assembly
• Continuous hot water
• Energy saving design
• Compact design saves space.
• Intelligent electronic controls designed to increase energy efficiency and safety.
• Self diagnostic program
• Built-in electric blower
• Uses Catagory III stainless steel vents and vent horizontally or vertically
• Supplied with a 120 volt power cord
• Enviornmentally friendly Low NOx burner meets SCAQMD rule 1146 requirements
• Digital display shows temperature setting and maintenance codes
• 10-Year Limited Warranty on Heat Exchanger, 3-Year Limited Warranty on Parts
• Optional additional remote controls are available

Rheem Tankless Water Heater RTG-74PVP-1, Indoor Use Specifications:
• Uses Propane
• Type – Indoor
• Gas Input BTU/HR – 19,000 – 199,900
• Temp. Range – 100° to 140°
• GPM @ 77° Rise MAX – 4.3
• GPM @ 45° Rise MAX – 7.4
• Connection – Water 3/4″, Gas 3/4″
• Height – 25-3/8″
• Width – 14-7/8″
• Depth – 11-1/8″
• Vent Diameter – 4″

Proper gas pressure must be ensured to supply tankless gas water heaters – up to 118,000 BTU for RTG2-42 models, up to 145,000 BTU for RTG-53 models, and up to 199,900 BTU for RTG-74 models. (Consult your gas supplier)

I feel poor now . Appliances are quite expensive, but Sears was having a 20% cash back deal, if you bought 3 appliances priced over $399. So we bought the stove, microwave/hood, refridgerator, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and an airconditoner. We spent $7500, but we get $1500 cash back. So, $6000 for (fairly) top of the line appliances, isn’t too bad.

We bought all of our appliances at Sears today (summer is going to post pictures later) and met with our cabinet maker to tie him down to a price and time frame. More to come….