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| - We recently purchased a refrigerator and dishwasher from Spencers. Because the dishwasher required a custom wood front panel with a 4 week time frame, we took delivery of the refrigerator before the dishwasher. The refrigerator installation went fine, although I was a little disappointed that the "counter depth" model actually protruded an inch or so beyond the edge of the counter (no fault of Spencers). The dishwasher was delivered a couple weeks later by two installers working for an independent company. It turned out that the dishwasher I ordered was an ADA model, which meant that it was actually a couple inches shorter than a standard height dishwasher. Another issue was that neither of the installers had any experience installing either the front panel or the handle. My Spencer sales rep (Don) did a little scrambling, and arranged a next day visit from Paul to follow up. Paul was great, not only in his skill to install the panel and handle, but also in customer relations; an all-around pro! Spencers absorbed the cost of Paul's visit. Because of ADA size, the custom front panel was not sized correctly for the dishwasher, which created minor issues. I emailed Don twice asking what it would cost to replace the ADA model with a standard model, however, he didn't respond to my question either time.
Overall my experience with Spencers was roughly comparable to Best Buy (aka Pacific Sales and Magnolia). However, there were a few things that I would consider before my next appliance purchase that would probably lean me towards Pacific Sales:
1. I ordered the dishwasher (but didn't pay for it since I didn't know when I would have my front panel). A few weeks later I went in, ordered and paid for the refrigerator. I was surprised to see the dishwasher appearing on the same invoice as the refrigerator. Don explained that it was for my benefit so everything would be in one place, however, to me it confused matters to have the costs combined ("What's the $80 freight charge for? How about the $30 labor/delivery charge?") In the future, I would be careful to be sure that all costs are clearly spelled out before handing over my credit card, so there are no unwelcome surprises. I would also insist on separate invoices for purchases made at different times.
2. I told Don the exact dishwasher model number I wanted, not realizing that it was an ADA model. Actually, I didn't even know there was an ADA distinction between dishwasher models. Although Spencers could make the claim that this was my mistake in giving Don the incorrect model #, this is something I would have expected a sales rep to recognize since they're the appliance expert, that I was ordering a model that was undersized for most homes countertops.
3. The price of the refrigerator was lowered when I pointed out a competitor's ad, however, I'm a little bit cynical about the whole "price matching" strategy. What a business is saying to me is "sure, we'll lower the price if you can prove there's a lower cost out there, but otherwise if you don't know and say something, we're going to charge you a higher price." All other things being equal, why wouldn't I just want to just buy from the company that's freely offering the lowest price to start with? Of course, this practice is not limited to just Spencers.
4. Finally, when I emailed Don twice asking what it would cost to replace the dishwasher with a non-ADA model, I didn't receive any response. Perhaps he felt that Spencers had already bent over backwards enough by covering the cost of the revisit. Still, a reply to the effect of "sorry, but there's nothing we can do; you'll have to pay full price" would have been nicer than just silence. This is where I sense a difference between a large company such as Best Buy and Spencers. Spencers is a smaller company, so the process for dealing with customer issues may be left in the hands of the sales rep, whereas most larger companies typically have a defined approach, and may have a separate group just for such cases.
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