When my husband and I moved into our present home 19 years ago, we continued the service contract on the central air conditioning unit the previous owner had with Sears since it was already 9 years old.

Yes, the unit is still running strong after 28 years because I have had it maintained by Sears each year as part of their service contract and it is covered when not in use each winter.

This year when I did not receive paperwork to extend the service contract, I called Sears and the first customer service person told me it was an oversight, but he would put me in touch with someone to complete the paperwork.

The second person told me they could not extend the contract because the unit was too old.   I asked to speak to a manager or supervisor, who then told me the contract could not be extended because the service person who came last year said the unit was abused and not maintained.

I never received this information and to my surprise, it was this service person who told me that the unit looked better than units that were half its age!   They sent another service man to determine if this was true and he told me he would put down that he saw nothing wrong with the unit and would report this.  However, I found out he too wrote down that it was abused.

How does an air conditioning unit that sits outside and is covered in the winter become abused?  Also, if it was maintained by Sears for 28 years, then who did not maintain it properly?  I would think that if the unit has not had a problem in 28 years, it must have been maintained and taken care of properly!

I have spent over $4000 on service contracts and now Sears will not renew the contract!  Why?  Because it will be too costly to repair it if something does go wrong or because they do not have parts for this unit?  I am very disappointed in Sears and will never buy another product from them!

Gloria Desimone, glo7750@aol.com