Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Spin Zone

Today I officially own my clothes washer. They can’t come and foreclose on it . I got three things in the mail, one was my bank statement, one was my last bill for the clothes washer and the other was a notice from Shrub letting me know he sent me some cash - Which I all ready knew because I read my bank statement first. Maybe it should have come with a spoiler warning.

Now that the clothes washer is officially mine and I have some money burning a figurative hole in my pocket, I am now in the market for a Dishwasher. So I went to the market to look at dishwashers. I went to Home Depot because I am still sore with Lowes over the whole clothes washer installation nightmare. I did a lot of shopping around for the clothes washer and it was a waste of time and gas and now that gas is even more expensive, I’m not going to drive around wasting it and my time.

I went to one place and I found my dishwasher, I’m done. I think. I read an online review where the writer said something about calling his local Maytag store and how he got a really good deal from them. As it happens, there is a Maytag store right down the street from me. It’s verysmall though, it may actually be sarcophagus for some long dead-from-boredom Maytag Repairman.

But my gut says to just buy the machine from Home Depot and be done with it. I’m tired. I won’t get it right away but I don’t need it right away anyway, the old one still works - In a very energy inefficient, water wasting way and while I disapprove of this, I can’t say it doesn’t work or that it will kill me to wait. I just want a machine that is a better citizen. I hope the guy I spoke with - And again despite wandering around the appliance section with my checkbook in my hand, I still had to go up to the front to ask for help giving them money - Which is why I bought the clothes washer from Lowes in the first place. If Home Depot had better Costumer Service I could have avoided that whole nightmare. Now, I am mad at them both Lowes and Home Depot!

And then when they did finally send someone to help me, he knew nothing about the machines. He “helpfully” read me the tag. I knew what was on the tags before I asked for help, it was why I asked for help. If the tag had everything I needed to know, I wouldn’t have had to go to the front of the store and stand in line at Customer (HA!) Service to request customer service in the first place. I just would have grabbed the floor model and a trolley and been on my way.

I asked the guy to print out the specs for the two models I thought I wanted, one was the Amana 24 In. Energy Star® Built-In Tall Tub Dishwasher AKA “the right one”, and one was not the right one, it was the cheaper one but it was not as efficient. Again, the gut spoke and I listened. My gut should not have sold me the machine. Home Depot should have sold me the machine. Anyway, the guy couldn’t figure out how to print the specs. I hope to Gawd he isn’t an installer. But I bet he is.

I took down the serials and went to look them up on my own. And on the way out, I bought some green worm poison. And Yes, I do hate it that I am spending my Stimulus check instead of hiding it under my mattress. I feel so brain washed and dirty Maybe I’ll take a spin in my new dishwasher.

5 comments:

Cat said...

If you haven;t given them your money yet, you should basically print out all your blogs about Customer Service and Installation with Lowes and with Home Depot, and send it to both parties with a nice note about how you finally decided to buy the appliance at Sears.

Anonymous said...

Yeahbut--isn't Sears more expensive than anybody else??

Anonymous said...

Not necessarily, and they do have sales. Sometimes the only place you can find what you want is at Sears. My vote, though, goes to Maytag. Definitely the relevant blogs need to go to Home Depot and Lowes. (You see, if you send the blogs, you will be e-m-p-o-w-e-r-i-n-g yourself as a consumer!)

Cat said...

Hear hear!

Tony said...

I remember reading that some of the big-box retailers have been getting rid of experienced staff to hire new people at lower wages.

I think Home Depot was one of them (and Circuit City? I don't know, my social conscience only works from my gut). That could explain things.

So, really- send a copy of the reciept from buying the dishwasher elsewhere to the Home Depot and Lowes with a letter explaining to each of them how you actually did buy it elsewhere instead of just threatening to (cc to corp). Picture it up on the cork-board in the staff lounge.