unhappyinNWA

unhappyinNWA: #kenmore_26882 We bought a Kenmore 26882 from Sears in July '06. For the first 8 months it sat in my fiancee's garage on a polished smooth concrete pad specifically poured for a washer and dryer. When we got married we bought and moved into a brand new house and the utility room has Pergo laminate flooring. For the whole time the washer was in the garage and the first 3 months it was on the Pergo it ran just fine, no matter what size load we had in it. At 11 months into the warranty it began making a horrible racket when spinning and we checked on it and it had walked almost 8 inches from the normal spot, and the hoses had marked up our 3 month old walls because the machine walked right into the wall. We thought maybe we just had a very lopsided load, but it did this for the next 4 loads, all of different sizes and distributed as evenly as we cold get them in the washer. So we called for warranty repair, Sears said the guy would be there between 8-5 in 5 days. He showed up, scratched his head, put some grease on a couple of parts and left. 3 more loads later it started back doing the same thing so we called again. Again told by Sears he would be there sometime between 8-5, but this time in 7 days. The same repairman showed up about mid-afternoon, said he had called the corporate service center for help and they said it might be that the feet had gotten smooth and were just not holding it still on the Pergo floor and he had to glue some pads on to keep it from moving. He went out to his van, came back with some kind of pads he had cut out himself and glued them on and called it fixed, then left with instructions not to move it or run it for 30 minutes so the glue could dry. It still shook, but didn't move so we thought he might have fixed it that time. Then a few weeks later it finally broke loose again and started walking around again. And this time our floor was scratched, and one of the "pads" he installed had come off. It was 120 grit sandpaper! He actually put just plain 120 grit sandpaper pads on the feet of the washer which sat on our 4 month old Pergo floors!! So now the washer is officially out of warranty by 2 weeks, but they told had already told my wife if it was a covered repair that didn't work they still have a 90-day guarantee on it, so we called Sears again last week, they tried to say it would be a $50 charge to come out until my wife explained the situation, then they told us they'd send the guy back out, between 8-5 again, this time 8 days out. He's supposed to be here Wednesday. I'm going to Sears today to talk to a manager and take the "pads" the guy installed, as well as pictures of my wall and scratched floors, just to make sure they are properly motivated when the repairman comes out to fix it correctly this time. I even went as far as to bring home a set of 3" square vibration isolation pads from work that are rated for industrial machinery and the washer almost walked right off of them after moving them about 6 inches. If they fix it correctly this time I'll come back here and give them kudos, no problem, if not, they're getting their washer dumped back on their loading dock and we'll buy one somewhere else and see them in small claims court for the damages their repairman caused to our flooring in our new house.
David, Fayetteville, Arkansas, Purchased at the Northwest Arkansas Mall Sears store Aug 6, 07