Thanks Lowe's for Canceling My Order

The other day my daughter reminded me that I had created this blog site -- she was sure that what I was ranting about to her would be of interest to lots of people.  The topic of that rant has not yet been written up -- Amazon gives us everything today but is going to leave us with nothing...

BUT, today I would have had to recant.  Today, in my love-hate relationship with Amazon I'm feeling  the love.

I have a rental property and the tenants needed a new range and so I suggested they go and choose one and let me know what they wanted.  Last Saturday after weeks of study they let me know and I ordered a new 4.9 cu ft Whirlpool electric range in white from Lowe's  for $419 using their 1-800 number.  I was pleased at how easily the order was placed and gave a good review when I was automatically taken to a survey at the end of the call.

On Saturday evening I received a phone call from their automated delivery system saying the range would be delivered the next morning between 9 and 11am and was told I'd be kept up to date via text on any status changes.  I was quite impressed and let the renter know what to expect.  I was feeling very good about the state of retail in the USA and thought that maybe Amazon wouldn't put everyone out of business after all.

But, unfortunately, this is that was the end of being impressed...

When I had not heard anything by 2pm on Sunday I called the 1-800 number and was told that the person would check on what was happening with the order.  After sitting on hold for 20 minutes the person returned and told me they'd have the person at the store look into where the truck was with my range and call me right back.  Some time later in the day a man called me from the store saying he was so-and-so at Home Depot -- quick correction to at Lowes (what a bad mistake to make...).  He said that in fact the range was not actually available at their store and was going to be shipped from the distribution center to the store within 3 to 7 days and then they would send it to me.  His only explanation for why I'd been told to expect it on Sunday was that the system shows the item to be in stock in the store when it is actually at the distribution center and available to the store but that that doesn't actually make it available to them to deliver to me.  Well, this did not make me happy since my renters were expecting the stove that day so I told him I'd have to think about whether I wanted to leave the order in place.  In the end I decided it was the deal I wanted so I would just wait.

Then, the next Tuesday I received a call from Salem, N. H. store manager saying they didn't have the range and she was going to cancel the order.  I asked her why I was getting a call from Salem, N.H. when it was ordered from the Woburn, MA store.  She said she didn't know why it had been ordered form there but it had and they didn't have it so she was canceling the order and that was the end of it.

I was shocked at her lack of concern for loosing a sale but was so confused and did want the range so I called the manager at the Woburn store from which it was supposed to have been ordered.  I talked to Luke, a store manager at that store and he was apologetic and expressed concern for my inconvenience, which sounded more like the customer service one expects.  He agreed to look into the situation and call me back.  An hour or so later he called back and said that he didn't understand why but the range had indeed been ordered through the Salem, N.H. store and the best he could do would be to cancel that order and re-place the order through his store.  I asked how soon he could get it to me and was unhappy when he told me it would be 7-10 days.  I asked if there wasn't something he could do to make up for the inconvenience and he said no but if I wanted him to re-place the order he would be happy to.  I told him I had to think about it and hung up the phone.

I called Home Depot and was told they don't have any ranges for sale on the floor so there would not be anything they could get to me any sooner than a week.  He suggested maybe calling Best Buy -- what a surprise that was!  I took him up on his suggestion and called the largest Best Buy store around.  Again I was told that it would be over a week and to get the one I wanted they had to order it form Whirlpool and it would be delivered in 2-½ weeks.  I hung up in shock and dismay.  I sat and pondered what to do and finally called the renter and asked how quickly they needed the range.

I explained what had been going on and how frustrating the experience has been.  We talked a bit about how retail is basically all moved on line even if you are interacting directly with a store and how far downhill customer service has gone and I bemoaned the birth of Amazon as the cause of all of our woes.  At that point the renter suggested that maybe we should check Amazon.  I begrudgingly agreed to look so we logged on and quickly found that the closest thing to what we were trying to order was a 5.3 cu ft Whirlpool electric range in white for $469.  This one was higher rated than the original and has a self-cleaning oven, which the other did not, AND could be delivered in two days!  We selected the delivery time right on the website and clicked to pay using my Amazon credit card (5% discount) and viola, we were done.  Three clicks and five minutes on Amazon accomplished the task.

So, yes, thanks Lowe's for canceling my order.  I'm sorry you couldn't see that what you were doing was going to force me to Amazon, which in the end is probably going to put you out of business.  Sad as it makes me to say it, one begins to wonder why anyone would shop anywhere else.