I changed my mind about my Sears dishwasher repair. Can I get my money back?

By Christopher Elliot Concern Solved When John Bartolotta s dishwasher breaks down he asks Sears for help in fixing it Then he decides to buy a new dishwasher instead Can he get his prepaid repair fee refunded Q I lately contacted Sears to repair my dishwasher A technician diagnosed the predicament and ordered a new part I prepaid for the repair which included a new part for my dishwasher Sears sent me the new part In the meantime I decided I wished to buy a new dishwasher so I canceled the technician visit and made arrangements to return the part A Sears representative promised a refund in writing But after a month I haven t received the money In the meantime I have also opened a dispute with Barclays Bank to enlist their help Can you help me get a refund John Bartolotta Wantagh NY A Sears should have refunded you for the repair promptly as promised And the thing is you have Sears promise in writing given on an online chat There s no denying that it would refund you So what was the holdup Well one possibility is that credit card chargeback you initiated with Barclays Bank When a company plans to refund you and you place the amount in dispute it can freeze the refund until you resolve the dispute And that can extend the wait As I ve noted in the past a credit card dispute is a nuclear option for consumer disputes Use them diligently In your development I think you might have waited before contacting Barclays Another factor was the complexity of your circumstance It involved a visit by a technician a scheduled visit by a technician a spare part sent to your home and a spare part returned to Sears That s a lot to keep track of It looks like Sears couldn t initiate a refund on its end until the part was back in its warehouse I could see the representatives struggling to make sense of the development in the online chat transcript And by the way nice job of keeping a paper trail If you have to do a credit card chargeback having a refund promised in writing is a slam-dunk The credit card dispute department will often view that as a credit memo and side with you in the dispute I think you could have avoided this situation by diligently assessing your broken dishwasher and its related repair costs You waited until after ordering the part before deciding you didn t want to repair the dishwasher which created this matter Unfortunately several electronics items are disposable which is to say you use them for a insufficient years and then send them to the junkyard Sadly this approach is unsustainable even though it s profitable to the manufacturers But I ll get off my soapbox now Appealing to one of the Sears customer function executives I list on my consumer advocacy website Elliott org might have also helped Executives have the power to untangle even the most of complicated and seemingly intractable consumer problems You reached out to my advocacy group and I decided to contact Sears on your behalf I m in the process of refunding him a Sears representative informed me He might have to send a copy of his dispute showing that the charge was placed back on his account but I am seeing if we can refund without that You received a full refund for the you prepaid for your dishwasher repair Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy https elliottadvocacy org a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems Email him at chris elliott org or get help by contacting him at https elliottadvocacy org help