Thought y’all might be interested in this update that Rebecca sent me on the outcome of her washer repair ripoff dilemma:
Hi there! Thanks for your reply.
In response to your post, I called Sears and spent another 2 or so hours on the phone with various (surly) people in a number of departments. I finally reached someone reasonable and had the opportunity to explain this whole fiasco. Long story short, we will not be charged for the parts – including the one we already paid for! Big shout out to the nice lady at Sears who finally listened to us and straightened out this whole fiasco. Sears has been redeemed.
Anway, thanks a million for your post!
In my not-so-humble opinion, Sears hasn’t redeemed anything! You should never have had to go through such an ordeal to get the service you hired them to do. 
The Sears tech should never have charged you for the bogus repair in the first place. If he screwed up, or needed to order a different part, or was simply confused, he should have told you that up front and assured you that he was going to make it right.
I’m glad you stuck to your guns! 
Samurai and Rebecca: 1, Sears: 0. BOOYAH! 
