Lowes - amazing customer service
We bought a new Fridge/Freezer, Dishwasher and Double Oven from Lowes last week, primarily because a) they had demo's for every model we wanted to buy (can't underestimate the ability to test the product before purchase) and b) he was a nice guy.
Seriously, a nice guy.
Sears? On commission. Smarmy, untrustworthy, unhelpful and - if you can believe this - one person could not help us with all three items. There's literally a line on the floor over which the Fridge/Freezer salesmen cannot cross into the oven/dishwasher dept.
They may have been cheaper at Sears - I think there was a 10% discount if you opened a Sears card, so that would save us a few hundred bucks. Maybe. Everyone has different deals, mail-in rebates and it's deliberately hard to compare between stores.
But I left Sears and went back to Joe at Lowes to make the deal under no pressure and with one (as I said, nice) person. He even stopped off at the checkouts on his way out of the store where we were paying and asked if everything was going ok; that the customer service people didn't have any questions that he could help with.
Anyway, that was a couple of weeks ago now. On returning home Tara starts filling in the many mail-in rebate forms that no-one expects you to fill-in. We ALWAYS do.
I guess we're cheap - but mainly we're just not dumb shits. I'll fill in forms for 30 minutes and make a few photocopies to earn a $500 check most days of the week.
But, one of the Lowes forms - worth $300 - didn't include our Fridge/Freezer on its list of 20 or so model numbers. We weren't qualified for the rebate because we chose the one item in the store that was a Lowes-specific special model. Tough banana's, right?
Except we're cheap bastards as I've said, plus Tara used to be a small company bookkeeper. If you've ever been in business you'll understand that small company bookkeepers are scary people. They deal with pissy suppliers all day, pay the wages when there isn't enough money in the bank account and call people for payment.
I'm totally convinced that men couldn't do this job; we're too nice. And I'm sometimes thought of as being a little on the "aggressive" side myself sometimes.
(sorry, I'm blathering)
Anyway, Tara gets on the phone and complains loudly that we were promised this KitchenAid rebate and now find ourselves unqualified. Strictly speaking we weren't promised this rebate, and it's a KitchenAid deal, not a Lowes thing so I figure we'll get a polite "sod off" from management. They say they'll get back to us.
Yesterday I get a phone call from Joe, and he's still apologizing for the mixup. He says that unfortunately there's nothing they can do about the rebate, but if we could possibly pop back into the store he can give us $300 in cash - from Lowes back pocket.
And I don't mean a check - we literally received $321 in large bills today. (I can only assume the $21 was some tax rebate, but remember we were only due $300 from KitchenAid).
Lowes, you rock. You get this whole customer experience thing. Purple Cows all over this place.