So what is going to happen with Sears repair services A&E? We've been hiring more techs, and loosing some as well out of fear for job security. There's also been wage increases 2 weeks after the BK filing to keep techs. My thought is that cross country home warranty or American home shield will buy us off eventually. We generate very good revenue everyday and they know it, which is why they're staying away from Chapter 7 as long as possible I think. Gonna definitely be interesting and maybe even a good thing for us in service. I could never work retail, the pay is a slap in face for what they want from you. They say our jobs as field service technicians are unaffected in the entire BK proceedings, we'll see...
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@jpend+Wb0jEaF This thread is from 2018. 4 Years ago. During the last Presidential administration, and during the last Decade.
Literally, why are you bumping it with a post that has zero to do with layoffs?
They have done good by me. I had a brand new GE dishwasher fail under warranty. They came out which took 2 weeks (busy is not their fault) and diagnosed the issue. Part came in...they came out and fixed it. It broke the next day...another 2 week wait (again they are busy) this time they figured out what made it fail and replaced both. The techs were professional, polite and did a great job. No billing issues with warranty etc.
They are the only option up where I live so frankly I'm grateful they are still around.
Hey look..hate to be the voice of reason here...but your in fantasy land if you think a third party home warrenty company or a major retailer is going to purchase A&E service...they have a bad reputation nation wide...why would they take on all the liability and overhead this involes..when there struggling themselfs..forget about it and move on..its over just the end clock ticking! Besides local repair services are able to perform this task faster and in most cases better than Sears! WHICH BEST BUY AND LOWES USE WHETHER YOU BELEIVE IT OR NOT! WITHOUT THE 3 TO 4 WEEK WAIT ON PARTS! HOW THIS COMPANY IS STILL IN BUISNESS IS ASTOUNDING! GET OUT BEFORE YOU GET THE 5 MINUTE NOTICE TO TURN THE TRUCKS IN!! HEY JUST TRYING TO HELP OUT HERE...A REALITY CHECK..SO TO SPEAK!
I worked for A&E. Absolute joke an absolute scam. They lie about training you drive 200 miles a day. They promise you 40.+ and slowly cut you down to sometimes 1 hour a day. They lay you off before Christmas so the big wigs can get their bonuses then hire you back and cut your hours . Oh and if you quit because they expect you to live off of 10 hours a week they have the nerve to make you pay back the sign om bonus lol screw you i am not paying you scammers
What a company of liars. When we singed up they made themselves out to be good people, but what a wake up call when you need them. Our GE refrigerator broke on 12/21, called them 12/22, 1st available appt 12/28, the tech was here 1/2 hr and said he had to order part and we should get it by 1/5, and he would be back on 1/8 to install it. I called on 1/6 (their call center is in the Philippines, not in the US and manned by people who do not speak English well) and they said part is on order with no know ship date. After numerous calls I finally reached someone who know tells me I should get the part about the 14th, then I should call for the install and will get the new appt for around 1/22. A whole month without a refrigerator during the holidays - REALLY?? Later to find out Amazon had the part in stock and I could have got it shipped the same day the technician was here. Were switching to another company for service for our appliances. DO NOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE!!!!!
I am actually happily retired from Sears Home service (A&E Factory Service) I retired at fifty nine years old because I could no longer keep up the pace that they demanded of us. A eleven to fourteen hour workday was the norm, sometimes six days a week. Our job next year depended upon our numbers this year. Can you imagine not knowing, if you were going to be employed next year based upon your first time completed ratio's. What that consisted of was the truck stock inventory they gave you, the number of calls given to you and the travel distance between calls, the kind of work orders. For example to replace a motor on a washer took a half hour or less. Whereas a compressor install on a refrigerator or freezer could take up to two and a half hours. (still counted as just one call completed). I would start my route at 7:30 every morning and by ten AM many times our routing office would completely rearrange my day by changing the work orders assigned to me. We could not go home at 5:PM or even 7PM, if all of our work=orders for the day were not completed. Many times we had a fifty to sixty mile drive home after finishing our routes. The first twenty years working for the company was great. The last fourteen was awful with a lot of stress and anxiety, which is why I left at fifty nine years of age. Many many times technicians skipped breaks and lunch in order to get home before nine PM. Toward the end of my time with the company they even dictated when we could and could not stop at a station and fill our gasoline tanks, which we had to do everyday. All the techs that I worked with were well trained and did excellent work. However, it was our management that prevented us from preforming at our best.
I made a BIG MISTAKE and used them. The workers were very nice however i know more than they do and all i know is how to open the fridge door. It was leaking water he came out said he fixed it in less than 1hr it started to leak again, he never would return my call and they said it would be 3 wks before he could come back after he already took my money. Came back said he didn't know what was wrong best go get another fridge. Called someone else and they fixed it right. Been trying to get the money they were gonna refund me but they are all overseas. STAY AWAY FROM THESE CROOKS
I have a house full of Sears appliances over 20 years old and some of them never been worked on so to the comment about Sears selling junk it's hard to find good junk like that anymore! Go bury your head in the sand now!
A&E appliance repair service is just badddddd medicine .Hell I know I work there. No raises in over 6 years have to cheat the numbers to really look good. I don’t and won’t be there much longer...nuff said.
Service Live is the new direction
Did LG buy A & E
Sears sells alot of junk In turn they need repaired all of the time. I guess they planned it that way.Also the warranty work is a joke,as they do not stand behind the customer when they should.
Look this is easy .when a sears contract is sold now after 30 days it goes to cross country.Cross country is a nation wide company with 40 thousand servicers.cross country will own these service contracts.The old AE trucks are leased they will be turned back in.
A&E will be bought by someone else, Some one like Cross country home warranty or American home shield, Also Amazon or Lowes could be the buyers, We do a lot of work in store and at homes for Lowes! Ace hardware has even been rumored. You may even see it bought by GE or Whirlpool, but if that happens I think it will be split into two with some one like Briggs buying the Lawn and Garden side! I think it will be more likely Lowes or Amazon. Only time will tell, but one of the above will be the new owners!
This summer is my first interaction with A&E and I can say without qualification that this is a company that has very serious problems. I can't say anything too bad about the technicians, but their corporate communication is completely broken.
I have called to make appointments several times and I never get one less than two weeks out. With a broken refrigerator, that's too long. I've had A&E call me back at least twice to offer to reschedule my appointment but that has never worked. The schedule is either lying or grossly incompetent. Either way, before you buy a new appliance, check who provides service. If it's A&E, you're screwed; keep shopping.
It seems the comments in this thread warned of this outcome months ago and they were right.
A&E is dead. They'll still jack you around and take your money, but they do not provide service.
VoTec. Instructor of Major Appliance and retied A&E/Sears in-home service technician.
The Sears retail problems stem from an out dated brick and mortar business strategy.
A&E Factory Service and Sears Service engagement failures :
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Service managers are not technicians, but Sears business sales people.
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Technicians are not rewarded for first time complete and lowest number of recall, but rewarded for technician sales.
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Appliance Warranty contracts are too low to cover the cost of sending a technician into a home. The average technician must make 7 first time completed warranty repairs a day to be profitable.
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The variety and stultification of to days appliance market makes it difficult to keep replacement parts on a single service van.
Whats is good is their dedication to technician training. The appliance industry technical changes on a daily basis. The greatest tool the A&E/ Sear Service Technician has is their laptop and their link to technical assistance center. Between the field technician and T.A.C. has resolved more issues than the manufactures anticipated. T.A.C. is the most valuable asset after the technicians that A&E has. Qualified in-home appliance service technician are in hi demand. A&E technicians will not have any trouble finding employment. The challenge is recruiting the technicians that are needed to day right now! What people are angry about is not waiting weeks for a overwhelmed technical service company to make a manufacture warranty repair, but of poorly engineered and manufactured appliance.
So Sears has 5% of the market share but 10% of the techs? Nice job, Sears. Doubly overstaffed but still leave customers hanging for weeks.
Several years ago Sears and A&E was estimated to have between 5-7% total appliance repair market share nationwide. That was during better days. Now that Sears has lost multiple OEM and 3rd party contracts and actively employs contractors to supplement/replace internal staffing, that market share has undoubtedly fallen.
There are roughly 50k appliance techs nationwide and recently Sears employs between 5-6k during peak season. That's only 10% of the available technician market. Add the fact more and more competitors are generalizing techs (i.e. HVAC techs performing appliance repair work) it could be argued Sears only employs a fraction of a percent of available technical workforce.
Some of the reasons Sears has been unsuccessful in selling off Home Services over the years is the antiquated technology (Tech Hub is too little, too late), employee overhead including unprofitable tech pay models, under-performing contract obligations due to poorly written pricing models, abysmal brand reputation and service ratings, and ESL/Eddie Lampert refusing to relinquish control over key parts of the post-sale portfolio.
No one except the board knows what lies ahead for Home Services but reading the tea leaves I would suspect liquidation. There just isn't enough value in the brand itself to offset the contractual debt and reputation. The infrastructure is worthless so the only value is in the market share itself - something Home Services cannot provide through a brand sale. Any provider looking to move in on that measly 5% market share could do so fairly easily by simply advertising - something Home Services has never done.
I've seen it written here before - but I would recommend working with a recruiter now who can pair you with a competitor before you're vying for the same jobs as your fellow techs when Sears liquidates. Your job isn't going away, your market share is. If you move right now to a competitor that absorbs your market share, you won't skip a beat - or a paycheck.
In a world that Amazon and target can get a item to my house in two days. There is no reason to wait weeks for a completed service call. My managers have tried so hard to grow the a\e business in our area just to have the rug pulled out from under them. Our reputation precede us.
@1cyl If their vans don't get repo-ed with all their tools still in them!
Outside of the sears’ rating system, the national rating for A&E is one star.
A&E is a division of Sears and Sears is in chapter 11 bankruptcy soon to be chapter 7 (complete liquidation). Do you truly believe it will survive?
SHLDQ has been triing to sell A&E for years with no success.
A list of company’s specifically targeting the division of A&E per prime clerk:
• the lease company of your vans (vans are leased)
• fleet management (maintenance of vans)
• cross country home warrantee
I give servicemaster, the company behind AHS (american home shield), < 10% chance of A&E ownership.
The best option for you would be the break up of A&E allowing the techs to become independent contractors, otherwise look for the end of January to be the start of liquidation and the end of March to be the end.
Last time I needed my appliance repaired, it took a week for the tech to get there and another 3 days to get the part, and then another week to get scheduled for it to be fixed. All with a MPA (at that time)! My guess is the system hasn’t improved, which makes me wonder how valuable the business actually is. The tech was great, but “wow”, the people who put that routing system in place really hurt them.
If A&E survives but remains under sears it'll be cut and hacked until is near worthless. Then he can sell it to one of his other business units cheap and know how to ramp it back up.
Only problem is the publics perception. Look how that worked for the parent company. Can't do more with less and lost way too much purchasing power.
There are lots of companies that do what A&E does. The grass is definitely greener outside your current world. Just do it. Just go. Then bring friends :)