It was one of those limited-time-only appliance sales at Sears, and Donna Wolfson and her husband, Jack Silverstein, took advantage of it.

The couple, longtime Sears customers, used a debit card to pay more than $4,000 for a refrigerator, a dishwasher, a stove and a microwave for the remodeled kitchen in their Monroeville home.

		Listen in Lawrence Walsh interviews Donna Wolfson, who says she's entitled to an $817 rebate from Sears, but Sears disagrees.

They said the main reason they bought all those items was the 20 percent rebate Sears offered on the purchase of three or more appliances priced at $399 or more. The rebate totaled $819.

They made their purchases on Jan. 5, the day before the end of the sale, and sent in the rebate form with copies of the receipts well before the Feb. 6 deadline.

Later that month they received a form letter denying their rebate, ostensibly because it didn't meet the requirements of the offer. It said the purchases hadn't been made with a Sears credit card.

But the rebate form, which they downloaded from the Sears Web site, said the appliances could be purchased "with any form of payment."

Ms. Wolfson, 59, an employee benefits paralegal for a Downtown law firm, called the toll-free Sears number. She spoke to a customer service representative who, along with his supervisor, agreed that any form of payment could have been used to buy the appliances.

The service rep said the rebate request would be reprocessed. He also said she could monitor its progress on the Sears Web site within seven to 10 days. When she did and learned that Sears still refused to honor it, she called the toll-free number again. A woman said the rebate would be in their mailbox by March 31.

It wasn't.

Ms. Wolfson called Sears again. Another woman said she didn't qualify for the rebate because the appliances had to be ordered online at www.sears.com.

Wait a minute, Ms. Wolfson said. Look at the fine print at the bottom of the rebate form where it states: "This offer is good on qualifying merchandise purchased on or within the start and end dates listed above (Dec. 25, 2006 to Jan. 6, 2007) from Sears, excludes outlet stores."

Ms. Wolfson said the appliances were purchased at the Sears store in Penn Center in Wilkins, which is not an outlet store. She was told to return to the store and have the salesman write on the rebate form: "OK to pay as Sears.com price match."

She did, the salesman did and the rebate form was sent to the Sears Redemption Center in El Paso, Texas. Two weeks later, the center denied their rebate request in one of those maddening one-size-fits-all form letters that said, in part: "Some or all of the product(s) you have purchased do not qualify for this rebate. The product you have purchased is not in a valid division for this offer, or we cannot determine your product division number from your receipt."

What?

Tired of jumping over more hurdles than they would have to at a track meet, Ms. Wolfson and her husband contacted me.

"We feel we have been given the run-around and that Sears is looking for any excuse not to refund us because of the size of the rebate requested," Ms. Wolfson said. "It is too late to have these appliances returned to the store."

I called Chris Brathwaite, a spokesman for Sears Holdings in Chicago, and forwarded a copy of the e-mail Ms. Wolfson sent me. Mr. Brathwaite forwarded it to the company's top customer service staff and said someone would call the couple. For more than a month, despite several more calls to Mr. Brathwaite, no one did.

He appeared to be as puzzled as I was by the lack of a response when we spoke yesterday. He transferred me to a number where I left a message. A woman named Nicki left a message on my phone asking for more information. I called back and left it.

I'll keep you posted on a problem that might have been avoided if the in-store and Web site offers were identical.