Sunday, November 08, 2015

Cheaper Than Free

I really don't know how long a hot water heater is supposed to last. Suffice to say our new one will last longer in this house than we do. I'm speculating, of course.

Fearsome did a post a week or so ago on 'being cheap'. And no one knows better about 'cheap' than I do. But I also know when it pays to pay.

And now I should know not to use Lowes.  (our regular plumber was unavailable when our hot water heater conked out, so he suggested Lowes.)

I should have learned this lesson 13 years ago when they screwed us over on a hardwood floor installation that they couldn't do and then refused to return our deposit - even though they did the assessment that they could do said job.

Anyhoo - communication is not Lowes' strong suit. The 4-1-1 they were giving me versus what they were telling their sub-contractors versus what they were telling me the sub-contractors would do was extremely inconsistent.

Still, I ended up coordinating all the work on my end with their plumber. And I had to eat crow with the plumber's helpers whom I chewed out earlier in the day, due to misinformation provided by Lowes. I flew off the handle too early without knowing all the alleged facts or whom was providing them.

What I couldn't foresee - is that when 710 came home, he was upset that they installed the wrong water heater. It is not the one he ordered. And we were not cheap on this - as 710 ordered a DE-luxe model with 12 year warranty.

Lowes refused to take responsibility - and told 710 he had to share in the culpability. I don't get the manager's logic at all - save to protect his employee and her mistake. Saying that 710 did never specified a tank is insane. He is so meticulous about this stuff - with research and looking at pricing and warranties, etc.

But let's say he didn't - so, Lowes is randomly picking the size and price of a tank and length of a warranty (theirs was six years) they think we want or need?  Insane thoughts.

It's like the manager is a GOP presidential candidate refusing to engage in any logic whatsoever.

As compensation, they offered us $500 off on the tank he did want, which would mean having to pay (at our expense) for someone to uninstall and reinstall the new one. That seemed reasonable!

I don't foresee me patronizing Lowes again. I might stop in there to poop, but never purchase anything. As much as Homo Depot can annoy me, Lowes takes the cake. I need to be better about utilizing the local hardware stores and just saying 'fuck you' to the Lowes of the world - since they've effectively said 'fuck you' to us...........twice.




Song by: Stevie Nicks

5 comments:

Bob said...

We've had pretty good luck with Lowe's [Blowe's, tee hee] but then we've never used their installation services ... so maybe that's where the eff it up.

Will J said...

Disciples of the Ben Carson School of Reality Management perhaps?

David said...

Wow that sucks. One word for you when it comes to HVAC. Gorjanc.

Mark in DE said...

Once I learned that Lowes and Home Depot do not have their own employees do the installation, and therefore will not be responsible for it, I decided its not worth it. Better to pay more to get the product and installation by an independent guy who will back up his work.

Blobby said...

Except it was not the installers fault. The picked up the hot water heater Lowes allegedly said we ordered.