To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this email regarding my recent experience in the Greenville North Carolina Best Buy retail store. On January 11, 2013 I purchased three appliances: A Whirlpool refrigerator, a Whirlpool oven, and a Whirlpool dishwasher. I had recently had a water leak from the ice maker line in my previous refrigerator so I thought that it made the most sense just to replace all of the appliances since they were getting up in age anyway. Plus, I wanted them all to be stainless steel anyway.
I have run home the day of the appliance delivery on my lunch break. The oven arrived to my home with a large dent in the side of it. When I told the delivery person that I would consider keeping it if Best Buy would offer some sort of compensation for it, he calls the store and is told that that is not an option and if I didn't want the oven with the dent in it that I would have to send it back to the store and re-order another one and could not be given a time frame for when it would be available. The refrigerator is delivered and brought into my home, and the oven is taken back to the store. The dishwasher has had to be ordered and I will be "notified when it is able to be installed." When I get home that evening I am looking the refrigerator over and notice a large ding in the side of the pull out freezer drawer. I contact Best Buy here in Greenville and am told that I can exchange that one for another one however, that model has been DISCONTINUED. DISCONTINUED? It was just delivered four hours ago?
I go into the store that night to begin the search for another refrigerator that will fit the specifications for the space in which it is going. Unfortunately, that model was the only one that was stainless steel and had french doors like I wanted. I am helped by someone who says that in fact that model has NOT been discontinued, it just has to be ordered. I do the paperwork for the exchange and am currently expecting delivery of both the refrigerator and the oven on February 8, 2013.
I receive a text message on Friday evening (1/18/13) at 10:54 PM from an unknown number stating that my dishwasher installation will be the following day between 1 and 5 pm; though the email I have received from Best Buy says that the installation will take place on Monday, 1/21/13. I make arrangements to have someone at my home between 1 and 5 for the install. No one ever calls, texts, or shows up between those hours. I receive a phone call from an installer who I believe's name is Robert at approximately 6pm stating that he and another installer are leaving Raleigh (approximately an hour and 15 mins away) and he wants to make sure that I already have the dishwasher AT MY HOUSE. I tell him that I don't and that I was told by Best Buy that the installer would be bringing it with him. He say's "ok but just know that often when I have to go to the store to pick these things up they tell me that it's on backorder. I just wanted you to know that they may not have it in." Installers arrive at approximately a few minutes after 7 (remember that installation was to occur between 1 and 5). He removes my current dishwasher and takes it outside. As I turn the corner into my kitchen to clean the area where the old dishwasher was and the new one is going I see water going all over the floor due to the water line that goes to the dishwasher not being capped. I have laminate wood flooring in my house, and this flooring also goes into the kitchen and connected laundry room. Half of this flooring in the kitchen has already been lifted due to the water leak from the refrigerator. We were leaving down the other half that wasn't damaged for practicality reasons and were just going to replace the wood that had been damaged by the water. When the padding underneath laminate wood gets wet, the floor has to be lifted and dried with fans and a dehumidifier (as I know this because of what I've just been through with the water line from the refrigerator two weeks prior). Water has now made it's way to the flooring and padding that I was trying to salvage in the kitchen due to the water line not being capped when he removed the old dishwasher and left my house with it laying on the floor gushing water.
I go outside after having gotten up as much as I can to tell the installers what's happened. They come back upstairs and Robert tells me that it's MY FAULT that the water came out of the hose because I moved it. This is getting ridiculous. I ask him to go to his truck and get the cap that should have been placed on the line to begin with, which he does. My mom is also at my house seeing all of this and doesn't feel comfortable with him installing the new dishwasher and asks him to just bring the old one back up and to return the new one to Best Buy and that we will have different installers bring it back to install it. The installers leave my house, load up BOTH the new AND THE ORIGINAL dishwasher into what looks to be a personal vehicle (a Grand Cherokee maybe?) and LEAVE with no explanation. At this point I'm considering filing a police report because the installers have essentially just committed a robbery.
My mother gets on the phone with Courtney here at the Greenville Best Buy location after being on hold for quite some time and she tells her that both of the dishwashers have been brought to the warehouse here at the Greenville Best Buy store at the direction of Robert's manager Natalie at Optima. Natalie was who apparently sent the text the previous night so late and also who I had been trying to call while the installers were at my house while all of this was going on and I couldn't get an answer. I left her a voicemail and sent a text. No response.
Today is Thursday, January 24, 2013 and I am still without a dishwasher. My old and new dishwasher are still in the warehouse in the Greenville Best Buy warehouse. I have a brand new refrigerator with a large ding in the side of it, and an oven and a replacement refrigerator that is on order due to it being so damaged upon delivery. I have yet to speak with the store manager of the Greenville store yet so I call yesterday (Wednesday, January 23, 2013) at 10:57AM. He says that he has "heard something about some water damage but hasn't had a chance to really talk to Courtney yet" about it. I go through the entire situation with him and make him fully aware of what has happened firsthand. He says that he is going to talk to Courtney as soon as he gets off of the phone with me and will call me right back. Over SEVEN hours pass and I still haven't received a phone call back. I call Doug back at the store to see what the next step is in resolving this (as I have not heard back from him) and am told that he is "busy". I leave all of my contact information with a sales representative and ask to be called back by the close of business. I still have not received a phone call and it is now the following day.
Over the years, I have spent and incredible amount of money in this store via the purchase of TV's, three computers, sound systems, and appliances. I have NEVER had service and complications what the last three weeks of my life have been while dealing with Best Buy. The way that I have been treated is completely unacceptable. When it is all said and done, it will have taken a MONTH of multiple re-orders, deliveries, and installations to purchase three appliances. I am totally disappointed in the service that I have received with this store and with the installers at Optima. My floor is damaged, and I am still without a dishwasher.
I am sending this email in hopes that you will give me better service than what I have been able to receive here in Greenville. I have been completely ignored and made to feel that this situation was somehow my fault and it's not. At all. I have been a faithful customer of your company for as long as you have been in Greenville and have lost a lot of respect for the company due to how I have been treated.
I live a very hectic life and keep a super busy schedule and I really don't have time for this. In short, I'm fed up. I am keeping a detailed log of every thing that has happened with dates, times, and who I have spoken to, etc. I don't want this to get into the media, however if this isn't resolved soon I feel that I will have no other choice. There is a television station directly across the street from Best Buy in Greenville and I know that they will have no problem covering this story with all of the evidence that I have collected (which includes pictures and a video).
To rectify this situation, I want Best Buy Corporate to get involved first hand with the remainder of this situation and make sure that the appliances that I have already paid for ($3000 worth) have been delivered and installed into my home and are in perfect condition. I want compensation for the damage to the flooring due to the installer's negligence, and I also want a store credit in the amount of 50% of the retail value of the appliances that I have purchased ($1500). If this situation is not handled to my satisfaction within FIVE (5) business days from today (January 24, 2013) I am going to have a news crew cover it in the parking lot of the Greenville store, as well as take them into my home to allow them to get first hand footage of the damage.
Thank you very much for your time and I have faith that you will do the right thing.