The Best Buy nightmare is finally over. We got a refund, and will go elsewhere.

[Faygo Kid]

I started this new group last week after my own ongoing experience with Best Buy and so many posters both giving good advice and telling their own horror stories. I will come here for advice, but first conclude this missive.

We put the Best Buy experience behind us today after another week of abject failure in getting the dishwasher we bought delivered or installed. I won't rehash the earlier story; suffice to say that on Wednesday we were promised - absolutely promised - that Best Buy would get it here on Friday, after 5, with the installers themselves bringing it and finishing the job. Great. Normally, they are delivered and installed separately, which had been the problem here about six times. So, naturally we get a call on Thursday evening, to confirm that the dishwasher would be delivered Friday morning between 9 and noon. Back on the phone I go, for the umpteenth time. Finally get a live person, and I explain that this is not the arrangement we made, and I could not stay home again for it. He offered to have it delivered next Tuesday. No, I said, I was PROMISED that it would be delivered after 5 Friday. So, he cancelled the morning delivery. I told him we had no intention of rescheduling; this was it. So, I leave work early Friday, and to play it safe, get home at 4. Phone message from the morning confirmed that delivery would take place that day between 1 and 4. Sure enough, second message on the phone was from deliverer, who said he was outside the door. Not sure what time he arrived, but it no longer mattered.

Needless to say, the installers did not come after 5. I stayed home all evening to make sure that I was there as promised. As I had done all day the prior Sunday, and the Sunday before that. We went to Best Buy this morning and amazingly got a refund without an argument. My significant other handled the transaction; the dishwasher had been charged to her credit card, and I paced well away from the counter, to be called upon only if necessary, given that my patience was not the greatest and there may have been unpleasantries. So no hassle in the return, and the old dishwasher still runs (if not great), and it looks pretty good to me right now.

Be prepared for a wacky experience if you ever seek delivery from Best Buy.

[SharonRB]

1. I gave up on Best Buy years ago

and only go there if absolutely necessary (like if I have a gift card or something). I've heard so many horror stories and have always felt that their in-store service is really bad. Hope you find a dishwasher at a more reliable source.

I've had pretty good luck at Circuit City -- do they carry major appliances?

[LibraLiz1973]

2. I can't believe it continued on that long!!

I'll never buy for Best Buy.


Did you buy a dishwasher from somewhere else?

[Faygo Kid]

3. Not yet. Been out of town all week.

We're not in a rush; the old one still works. So, probably in September. We will check out the local dealers, and definitely check out how they deliver.

[BlueCollar]

4. I'll recommend Lowes

Every appliance in my home replaced over the last two years has been a completely hassle-free experience...

[spooky3]

5. Another dishwasher story

Don't mean to be a downer, but after 9 repairs in 3.5 years, my top of the line KitchenAid (over $900, I bought it because I was willing to pay more for quality (!)), a highly regarded repairman told me that the motor and pump needed to be replaced again, and he recommended junking it and getting a cheap General Electric, because next my dishwasher might begin leaking and he couldn't guarantee against that. The first 6 repairs, which occurred under warranty, around Thanksgiving when I had company (when do you MORE need a dishwasher?). I then had another repair under an extended warranty in year 2. As I learned from the highly regarded repairman, the warranty company refuses to pay a reasonable rate for repairs and as a result they hire unqualified repair people, and that's why they had to keep coming back. (Yeah, that's a smart way to make money, isn't it?) I let the extended warranty expire because I decided if I had more problems with it, I would get hire my own COMPETENT repairman rather than waste my time with these inept people, and that if the problems were severe, I would count all that time and money as a total loss and replace it. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened.

But that's not the worst of it. The highly regarded repairman told me that he had repaired *20* KitchenAid dishwashers just like mine in the previous 3 months, and some leaked and ruined homeowners' floors, etc. Whirlpool/KitchenAid/Maytag are all owned by the same company, which now has nearly a monopoly. In his opinion, many of their products have serious reliability problems and quality was declining, and as you will see if you check on the internet, many people believe the company just doesn't care that they are losing their reputation and that customers have lost money on their products. The same company's Calypso washer (which I bought for $1300 in the early 2000s and after multiple repairs had to abandon for similar problems) is the target of a class action lawsuit and settlement is in process.

What concerns me is that when consumers have little or no alternative, appliance quality will keep going down, down, down, while prices go up. The market just can't work. Many of us have had to take many days of time off work to deal with this nonsense as well, and there seems to be no way around it. I asked him and the installer for the new GE dishwasher I had to buy, who installs all brands, about Bosch and Miele. One of them said they were no better than the W/K/M products, and perhaps even worse, with regard to repairs, and both said that there is a significant problem getting parts quickly when they do break.

I don't know what the solution is.

[marions ghost]

6. I had a Maytag washer and dryer...

you don't want to hear another tale of woe I'm sure, but enough to say my story is similar to yours. We were completely burned.

We replaced them with a Miele W/D--this was about 5 years ago. Have had no trouble whatsoever so far. I've heard the new Samsung frontloaders are OK, but I haven't had personal experience.

When the old Whirlpool dishwasher gave up, I replaced it with a Bosch. This was also about 5 years ago. So far, no problems. It's also very quiet.

So I don't quite buy the line that they are the same as other brands. SO FAR (qualification--:))
I think they're better. Or at least you get something approaching your money's worth.

This kind of consumer comparison is the only way we can fight back against these lousy products and service.

[Lyric]

7. We bought a nice new gas range from them

about two and a half years ago, and didn't have any problems with the delivery/installation folks getting there on time, but the installer didn't get it right the first time and we had to call him to come back and fix it. (He'd installed one of the burners wrong, and it wasn't working)

It's a nice range, though--we've never had any problems with it since then.