Sears Kenomore Stacked 417.97812702 Washer won't spin, progress through cycles

[eyeC]

I have a Kenmore stacked washer dryer unit from sears that we've had for about a year and a half.
It won't progress through the initial cycles.. it'll only progress on it's own once you've manually taken it to the rinse cycle then it'll continue through the rinse and into the spin cycle on it's own.
In each of the initial cycles (15,12,8,4), it will just continuously fill with water. It never agitates or spins to wash the clothes. when you advance it to the rinse cycle, it dumps the water, pours in some more then moves on to the spin (which seems to work fine).
So basically, my family's clothes are never actually getting washed.

Does anyone have any suggestions or opinions on what could be the problem before I break down and call out the repair guys? (Warranties up and with a new baby on the way, we're looking for the cheapest plausible route) 

[tgoods]

Easy one.  The drain hose is shoved too far down the drain pipe.  This is causing the water to siphon out as it's being filled.  There should be no more than 12 inches of hose in the drain pipe.

[eyeC]

We pulled the drain hose up out of the drain pipe. It was down there really far. Going to try it today and will let you know if that helps.
Thank you.