Shopped in person, buying online
Yesterday, Tracy and I bought a new house in Fairport, NY. Over the past two years while we have been living up here, we’ve been saving money in case we needed to do upgrades to the house before we moved, rather than after we got settled in to the new place.
After the closing we drove over to Henrietta, NY with our checkbook in-hand and visited Lowes, Home Depot, Sears and Best Buy to buy a refrigerator, double oven and microwave. (We could have been talked into a cook-top stove too).
We spent at least four hours shopping.
Tracy had a folder with fliers, brochures and printouts from the computer of all of the items she had picked out. We walked the aisles and rows of appliances comparing items and cross-checking with all of Tracy’s paperwork, finding the things she wanted to buy.
We moved from store to store comparing sales offers and prices throughout the late afternoon and into the evening.
We ended up not making a purchase but not really because we didn’t find everything…
Not one store associate or salesperson offered any help. None of them said, “Hello”, and believe me, after that long in several stores, we saw at least ten employees in those sections doing “something”, though I’m not sure it was “work”. We weren’t the only shoppers in the sections either and only at Best Buy did I see one of them getting assistance.
At Sears, where I believe the sales associates are on commission, three of them were sitting on the washing machines across from where we were browsing!
When we got home, we went online to do more comparison with the data we picked up during our trip and we’re now ordering online and having everything shipped directly to the house.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Congratulations!
As for your experience in the stores, unfortunately, I’m not surprised. Service is a lost art (perhaps even a lost word!) in most retail establishments. It’s a shame, but it’s entirely under their control, so it’s hard to feel too bad for them…
July 19th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Well, actually, after further thought, I decided to try the good old fashioned local appliance stores. I am happy to report 2 out of 3 were ready to help me when I walked in and were very knowledgeable about there products and services. They were also eager to match any price. They were actually lower than the box/department stores. I did end up deciding to order through Netzmans of Webster. I hope they come through for me!