Illustration by Dustin Elliott

By Christopher Elliott
Guest Columnist

Yilun Liu canceled her Sears dishwasher order more than three months ago. But the company is still holding her $540. Will she ever get a refund?

Christopher Elliott

I canceled a dishwasher order after Sears repeatedly delayed the delivery and installation. It’s been two months and I still have not received my refund for the canceled order.

I’ve called, emailed and chatted online with Sears, which repeatedly promised a refund in seven to 10 days. Every time the 10 days was up, I followed up because I still did not see the refund. And every time, they gave me the same answer: that they had not processed the refund but would do so “right away.”

I have email and chat records with customer service. I forwarded them to their director of customer experience three days ago, but I have not had any response. I’d like to get my money back. Can you help me? — Yilun Liu, Azusa, Calif.

Sears should have processed your refund months ago, Actually, it shouldn’t have charged you for the dishwasher until it installed it.

But that’s not how it works. Businesses often charge you for goods and services not yet rendered, and in your case it was both a good (the dishwasher) and service (installation). In a perfect world, you would have paid for your Sears dishwasher only when you were perfectly happy with your new appliance.

It looks like you bought your dishwasher online through Sears.com and then asked it to confirm your delivery several times. Sears couldn’t do that, so about a month later, you canceled the order.

I think you did the right thing with the wrong company. You gave Sears multiple opportunities to install the dishwasher. Your mistake may have been buying a dishwasher from Sears and expecting it to be installed within a month. Sears has a long history of delayed orders and has been undergoing a painful restructuring. The bar may have been a little bit high in this particular instance.

You followed all the correct steps after that (I list them all in my free guide to resolving your customer service problems). That included calling, emailing and initiating an online chat. Establishing a paper trail is particularly important. A written promise of a refund may help you later if you need to dispute your credit card charges.

Sending an email to Sears’ director of customer experience was also a brilliant idea. I list the names, numbers and email addresses of the Sears executives on my consumer advocacy site.

Your case is a cautionary tale about doing business with a company that is still struggling to regain its footing after falling on hard times. But it’s also a testament to the power of self-advocacy. I reviewed the extensive paper trail between you and Sears, and I’m confident you would have gotten your money back eventually.

But why wait? After you reached out to my advocacy team, I contacted Sears on your behalf. A representative said a previous sales adjustment caused the refund to stall in its system. Sears processed your refund manually, and you received your entire $540 back.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy (https://elliottadvocacy.org), a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at [email protected] or get help by contacting him at https://elliottadvocacy.org/help/