We recently bought some new appliances. Good sales experience. Then we had to deal with delivery.
The delivery window? All day. (Have these folks not heard of cell phones?)
First problem: Two rather rude individuals arrive, and say they know nothing about a stove, but have a refrigerator.
Then they try to move the fridge in without taking the front door off.
After they leave, we have several bangs in the wall and moulding to touch up. Then we discover a few things that have been knocked off the back of the fridge, little bolts, and plastic thingy, that sort of thing. No idea where they belong.
Very poor response from customer service when we phone to try to locate the missing stove.
Stove finally gets delivered. Again, they want a full day delivery window. Older and wiser, we take the front door off ourselves (as well as putting it back on ourselves.)
Stove arrives, and these delivery guys are at least civilized.
However...
The somewhat better delivery experience does not quite wipe out the unhappy memory.
Our sales guy has apologized, and makes vague noises about "doing something" for us. But nothing happens.
So. We now join legions of others who hate the whole appliance purchasing thing.
Depsite a pretty great sales experience, I'm not sure if we would choose this retailer again.
My take
Profit pressures have pushed things like delivery service down to the cheapest possible option for most companies. The net result is that you get what you pay for -- people who are ill-equipped to represent your brand, and who may actually damage the total customer experience. And they are often the last people to see the customer.
Is anyone doing this better? What have your recent experiences been like?
