It was late, I was tired and my dryer was broken.
I needed a heating element for it, or at least I thought. I’ve not had a lot of experience fixing dryers, but I’m a fairly intelligent person, can follow directions and can fix things if I know what is wrong with them.
So naturally, I think I’ll ride down to the local home appliance store, in my case that’s the Lowe’s Home Improvement store, to get the parts I need.
I waited for the only worker in the appliance section to finish two phone calls, then asked him where the dryer heating elements were, since I couldn’t find them on my own.
He gave me a card and said that they didn’t have them in stock, but that I could order it via the telephone. Looked like a Lowe’s card, I assumed it was Lowe’s since the guy represented it as such.
Made the trek back home and gave the company a call. Ordered the part, which ended up being ~ $65.00 shipped. Seemed high, but certainly was cheaper than buying a new dryer.
In a few days I got the part, replaced it, noticed the packing slip said “Appliance Parts, Albany NY”. Lowe’s is based out of NC, where I live. So I got to thinking, did Lowe’s take advantage of my customer loyalty? I trusted Lowe’s to give me a quality (and the right) part at a reasonable price.
The part ended up not fixing my problem, so as I should have done earlier, I did research online and found out that either the thermostat or the fuse could be the culprit of my dryer problems. And to my surprise (and disgust) Amazon said I can order both WITH a dryer heating element for a total of ~ $40.
I’d been hornswaggled.
I’m still not sure if this is just a subcontractor, since they tried to push other crap at me when I was making my order, or if this is a division of Lowe’s. I’m still researching that.
It’s my fault for not researching the prices online before I purchased it. I was tired, frustrated and wanted to get this ordered as quickly as possible so we could get our dryer up and running quickly.
I trusted Lowe’s Home Improvement – a mistake I will not make again. From now on, I will take the extra time to drive a little farther to Home Depot or Sears for anything I may need, just because of this horrible customer service incident.
Don’t make the same mistake I did.
September 22, 2009 at 12:58 pm
…of course, bad incidents also happen at Home Depot and Sears. I’ve had horrible experiences at all three stores, so I’ve come to the conclusion that since they are all a necessary evil, I will just do my required homework and purchase from the store with the best deal.
September 22, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Absolutely, DYelton. I no longer trust these stores.
That’s why I ordered the two other parts, the thermostat and the fuse from Amazon.com.
September 23, 2009 at 11:52 am
Great post, very well observed. Retailers, in this current climate, should be absolutely bending over backwards to make sure their customers and clients are 150% satisfied. Anything less will definitely impact loyalty and lost loyalty is lost sales.
October 6, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Their customer service attempted to write me a form letter asking me to call. I wrote a letter, told them what happened. They sent me another form letter asking me to call.
I called the number and left two voice mails, but the woman never called me back.
Just going through the motions I suppose.