Don't EVER buy an appliance from LOWES and other

[terracore]

Don't EVER buy an appliance from LOWES and other tales of buying appliances on the Big Island. Enjoy your reading:

[Tink]

Congrats on the deal and passing it on to all of us! Keep us posted on the 26-30 day delivery and overall final review. Maybe there is hope for us "do it yourselfers!"

Edit for auto correct error
Community begins with Aloha

[terracore]

I will update. I didn't update the original thread pasted below because I thought the subject matter of this post was different enough to warrant it's own thread but for anybody keeping track....

http://www.punaweb.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20673

p.s. Don't buy an appliance from Lowes.

[leilanidude]

I have a small, portable dishwasher - I believe it does a better job than a full size. I think it was about $325 from Amazon 2 years ago.

[Tink]

Yeah, and that "T" requiring a permit is like a permit is required if you pull a toilet to replace the gasket or snake the line.... ( inside info, don't waste the inspectors time. Retired out now!).

Community begins with Aloha

[terracore]

The dishwasher was delivered today, however the experience was not without some frustrating drama.

A few days after placing the order, the local Lowes store called me scheduled the delivery for April 4, a month after placing the order. Not bad I thought. Then April 4th came. And went. No phone call, no delivery, nothing. I tried calling the store and nobody ever answers the delivery line. If it rings for 6 minutes somebody comes on and asks what you want, then when you say "delivery" it rings for 6 minutes and then they come back and the process repeats. I did this three times. Frustrated, I called the 1-800 corporate help line. Corporate had to put me on hold several times because they couldn't get ahold of anybody at the Kona store either, but eventually they used some magic back door and told me the delivery would happen on April 6 and that somebody would be calling me tomorrow to schedule the time.

At about 4:00pm the next day, I was getting the feeling that nobody was going to call me. So I called the store. Again, nobody answered the phone using the menu buttons for 'appliance delivery'. Having been through this before I called the corporate number and they answered right away. After she made several attempts to contact the Kona store the helpful-sounding lady came back and told me that she had tried every option she had, but could not get anybody at the Kona store. She asked me if this was normal (?). I told her in my experience, that was the only possible outcome. She tried for awhile longer, then came back and told me that the appliances were currently being loaded onto the truck and they PROMISED I would receive a call within the hour! Yay... I thought...

Guess what? Nobody called me. During that call with corporate I also found out that the Kona Lowes store actually had the appliance for a few weeks and never scheduled an earlier delivery because... they don't have to.

April 6: Delivery day #2. Still no idea what might happen. About mid-morning I tried calling the store again. After several tries hitting different buttons for different departments, I found the weak gazelle that would check on it for me. She made several attempts to find somebody who knew what they were doing for appliance delivery then came back and informed me that the appliance was scheduled for delivery that day, however it was not listed as being scheduled for delivery. I asked her to explain that enigma to me. She said that she did not know. I asked her if she could find out? (BTW despite my blood pressure being dangerously high at this point I was acting very calm and polite). She said that she would try and put me on hold. After about 6 minutes we were disconnected, though my blood pressure was telling me that I was hung up on.

Back to the corporate office I go... I explained everything I had been through and she sounded very sympathetic and said she WOULD find out. After more time on hold she came back and told me that my appliance delivery had been rescheduled for the 13th (today). She already knew what had happened up to this point and basically said that I had been screwed and that really sucked. I asked her if this was the way the local Lowes stores normally treated their customers and without a nano second of hesitation she said "UNFORTUNATELY, YES."

I thanked her for her time, ended the call, and called Home Depot. I had the model number I wanted on my computer screen and figured I would order from them since at this point I wouldn't go into a Lowes store if it was on fire and my family was inside calling out my name for me to save them. I've seen movies. I know The Devil's tricks. And I'm not falling for that one. Only a refund from Lowes and getting the appliance from Home Depot could cleanse my soul. I didn't care if it took another month. Even two months!

After about 15 minutes unsuccessfully trying to get ahold of somebody at Home Depot who could help me it dawned on me that The Devil is in the details and that you have to give The Devil his due. I was now in Appliance Hell and Home Depot couldn't save me. Nobody could. I just had to sit here and wait for this to play out at Evil's pace. And the dishwasher was delivered today, on the 13th. I have no doubt that if I made the order back in April or May of 2006, wherever I was at that time, it would have been delivered on 06/06/06 no matter what I did to try and affect that.

Is there a moral to this story? I guess it is that if you order from Lowes you will eventually get your appliance, however they will deliberately make every effort for your experience to be as frustrating and disappointing as possible.

The End?

No... unfortunately I've had to email corporate and ask why I've received no information about my extended warranty, how to activate it, etc. Our first load of dishes are on the heated dry cycle and apparently my soul is baking in there with them.

[Lodestone]

Awesome telling of a horrific tale, TC. Thanks for both the story and the fair warning.

[terracore]

This was the "short" version. I actually got disconnected (hung up on?) many times. But there is something to be said about brevity. Eventually a self-described assistant manager did call my voice mail, apologized, and requested I call him back, however he didn't leave a phone number.

[pahoated]

The reality here on this island is you can get what is in stock and you can get it home if you pick it up. Otherwise, good luck.

Just because a place like Target or Sears or Walmart or any of the other mainland retail stores have things on their website like free shipping to home, doesn't mean it applies here. Amazon is the only one that has their act mostly together and it was a surprise to see them start Prime free shipping here.

The main reason ship to store and ship to home doesn't work here is because none of the big retailers have intermediate giant warehouses like they do on the mainland. Also, when things get shipped to store, they don't have a back room to keep it in until a moving truck is scheduled. I have done ship to store with Sears, and the people in the store will know nothing about it because Sears does have a receiving warehouse here on another street and you have to pick it up there. But they don't call because they are getting their order status from corporate, and they are expecting the store to call them for specifics. So, you have to go to the main store, have them look you up, then they will call the warehouse and your item will be ready for pick up. If it comes in damaged, prepare for many more hours of frustration.

It is just the Hawaii island way.

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"

[kalakoa]

you can get what is in stock and you can get it home if you pick it up

...and bring cash, plenty of it, because inevitably "our internet is down and we can't take credit cards right now".