Maytag & Home Depot "Customer Service"

We just bought a house in the Cornelius, NC area.  Over the period of a few days, we went to Home Depot and bought a number of things including a new Matag washing machine and dryer.  The sales people at Home Depot were very helpful and actually more professional than the ones at Lowe's.  This Wednesday the Maytag washer and dryer were delivered.  I happened to be out and it was probably a good thing.  The delivery men set up the washing machine and it made so much noise that it was impossible to stay in the same room.  My wife tried to get them to put the machine back on the truck and bring us a new one.  They refused and told us to call the Maytag repairman.  Of course I immediately did that  when I got home.  I was pretty irritated but the best they could do was to say that we should wait at home all day until a Maytag repairman showed up.

That led me to get in the truck and head to Home Depot and seek out a manager.  Unfortunately his first comment was that it was Maytag's problem.  That was the wrong answer.  I bought the product from him, his company delivered a defective product to me.  There is no other way to look at it.

I used to hate the policy that Apple had which stated that a Dead On Arrival computer had to be repaired instead of shipped back.  I don't know about everyone else feels, but I for one think I deserve a new functional product when I buy one.  If there are dangers in delivery then someone should be there  to fix it at delivery.  The delivery people told us to go ahead and use the machine, that there was no danger.  So what if it caught fire or causes some other fire? What company pays for the problem?

I argued with the manager at Home Depot until he agreed to make some calls.  It turns out that Home Depot has Matag drop ship most products so there was no new product that they could turn around and deliver to us.  That is a pretty convenient arrangement that allows each company to hide behind the other. I guess the calls did a little good since we got a repairman before 5 pm.

Sometime around three o'clock the Maytag repairman showed up and fixed the machine.  The motor had slipped off its brackets or something.  It doesn't matter that it was fixed, Maytag and Home Depot aren't very high on my list anymore.  I would have been fine if the delivery men had immediately called a repairman and gotten him over to the house instead of leaving us to the mercies of yet another corporate phone tree.

Is it any wonder that only 33% of the country has any confidence in our government.  Corporations can do practically anything and get away with it.  Corporations got a huge tax gift this past fall, but I don't remember one for normal individuals. If they want to revive our economy, our legislators should make certain that quality products are delivered to customers and that companies have to stand behind what they make. It just might restore some confidence in American products.

Seems like I remember the time when buying a new car in America meant a number of trips to the dealer to get everything working correctly.  Then folks found out that they could buy Japanese cars and skip all those trips to the dealership to get all the production defects out.  American auto makers have never recovered.

Are appliances the next place we will lose our American manufacturing skills?  Is the pressure for quarterly profits so great that corners are cut so that consumers end up with a bad taste in their mounth. I know the next time I buy a major appliance, I'll consider some other brands and make certain that we do what we did here in Roanoke which is buy from a company that sells and services the products.  Since one of our friends in North Carolina had an even more frustrating experience with Lowe's, I don't think buying there is a solution.

Keeping the American dream alive is hard enough without worrying about products that don't work out of the box or break within a year or two.  How about government holding companies' feet to the fire instead of trying to stuff their balance sheets with cash?  We found another corporate giveaway in North Carolina.  It turns out if you get a speeding ticket that is greater than a certain amount over the speed limit, you end up getting an immediate insurance surcharge.  You don't have to have an accident to get the increase. Of course the insurance companies can just point to it being a state law.  That's a nice cozy arrangement, but don't expect it to get you out of the increase in your insurance it you also have an accident.

So when do CEOs start getting seats in the House of Representatives?

Comments

[Sean Pecor]

After having a relatively new Kenmore washer fail on me twice, I bought the Bosch Nexxt series washer and dryer units. I've remained a Bosch power tool fan for years due to their reliability and durability. To date I haven't had a Bosch product let me down, so I'm a loyal customer. The same goes for Miele. You know, the makers of the $2,000 coffee maker that currently resides in the kitchen of my dreams ;)

I too have been frustrated by big box stores. They draw their customers with a large inventory and somewhat lower prices. But in my experience, this discount is offset by the time I've wasted when the product or service purchased fails to perform as advertised. So when I can I buy products from smaller dealers.

I'm an audio/electronics enthusiast, and I try to avoid buying electronics from the big box stores. Often they'll negotiate a deal with a major manufacturer to receive their own special model with a unique designation. This unique model gets "dumbed down" electronics (example: a cheaper lower quality digital comb filter in a TV) so the unit cost is less. Since the typical consumer can't distinguish a Widget TV Model KP46 from a Model KP46A, the two appear identical and the consumer's perception is that the big box store has a lower price on the same product. The added bonus for the box store is that their unique model number, on a highly desirable product that may face stiff competition from smaller dealers, cannot be offered at a lower price by anyone else (forcing them to have to match it) because they are the only shop in town with that model. Genius!

I look at the slightly higher cost of buying from a smaller dealer as peace of mind insurance. First, I help the local economy, and next, when things go wrong, I have one vendor contact who will go the extra mile to solve my problem.

Sean.

[ocracokewaves]

We've been very successful finding smaller dealers here in Roanoke. I think the problem gets worse when you live in fast growing places like Northern Virginia and Charlotte. Most of the smaller dealers are squeezed out as the big box stores compete for the big pieces of the pie. As the areas mature there is a chance for better service providers to work their way back into the mix.

The confusing model numbers work on everything form mattresses to televisions. Sometimes it is even impossible to compare using Consumer Reports because of all the weird unique products.

We have actually had pretty good luck on standard washer and dryers. I think it would be a major victory for us all if they would design these things to be repaired instead of junked. We looked an impressive washer and dryer from New Zealand that used magnets instead of belts but decided the cost was too high.

I'll look forward to trying a cup of coffee from that $2,000 coffee maker.

[John H]

I am having the identical experience with Maytag and Home Depot indifference and buckpassing. My Admiral washer has a wobble in the basket (cheap plastic basket). A repairman from Maytag came out and looked at it and said it worked better than most and that I should just use it. It shakes so much that it can only be used at the slowest speed. The only way I can return it to Home Depot is to hire a mover for $240 (quoted price) they (HD) refuse to come and pick up their junk and refund my money. I am writing and calling every corporate and local source I can find. No luck yet.

[Don Wenzel]

Year after year the Home Depot sends out a press release on how they are going to spend millions of dollars on customer service. I have a news flash for the Home Depot "It is not working" When I signed my contract on 9-14-05 the Home Depot was full of promises and now they can not seem to keep them. Now almost 14 months later and problems still are not corrected you can see the Home Depot just does not care about its customers. They will lose one customer at a time and end up like the old HQ. You can visit my web site at http://www.freewebs.com/myroof to see the destruction.

[kris]

I to bought a maytag dryer from home depot after 5 months use it quit working so I call maytag they send me to their repair people here on maui and won't service my dryer at my house, I live in lahaina 22 miles away and they won't do it and they never tell you that upon purchase. home depot sucks so bad but here we have only them and lowes and they both suck. aloha kris

[JL Ames]

The fact of the matter is that the alternative products you mention like Bosch or any other European products are going to put cheap American crap like Maytag to shame. They're built with product precision and personal pride because to Europeans, product loyalty still means something.

I still remember when my parents were "Ford People". They were "Ford People" because my grandparents were "Ford People". And when I turned 16 and got my driver's license, I was, yes, you got it, a "Ford People." Of course my first Ford was a '69 Mustang Mach I, a muscle car compared to other cars, except of course the Chevy Camaro in which case it became semi-muscle car which is why the Ford engine and tranny came our along with the rear end and when it all went back together, I was still a "Ford People" but I was also an Edelbrock People, a Holly People, an Accel People, a Centerline People, an Isky Racing Cam People, an M&H RaceMaster People and the list goes on. The point is as American products went downhill, new after-market product companies were born to capitalize on a new market. That has become the American way. CEOs build crap, sell them to the masses, make millions in salary and bonuses then invest in the aftermarket companies and make more money. Needless to say, I am, thanks to alot of hard work and sacrifices, no longer a Ford People. I'm a Porsche People because I sat down one day and calculated what it took to make American crap reliable through aftermarket products, figured in the aggravation similar to what all of us have been through, the cost of phone calls, warranty service, down time and on and on and on and when I was finished, it came out to be about what I paid for my Porsche that's dependable because it's built with personal care and quality and pride because they know the value of product loyalty. So now I'm a Porsche Person...and a Bosch washer and dryer People and, well, on and on and on. And I'm extremely loyal... to Bosch and Porsche and a few others (coffee maker not included!) And I'm extremely American. I just refuse to be thought of as an idiot, American or otherwise. And, thankfully, I see I'm not alone.

[JL Ames]

The fact of the matter is that the alternative products you mention like Bosch or any other European products are going to put cheap American crap like Maytag to shame. They're built with product precision and personal pride because to Europeans, product loyalty still means something.

I still remember when my parents were "Ford People". They were "Ford People" because my grandparents were "Ford People". And when I turned 16 and got my driver's license, I was, yes, you got it, a "Ford People." Of course my first Ford was a '69 Mustang Mach I, a muscle car compared to other cars, except of course the Chevy Camaro in which case it became semi-muscle car which is why the Ford engine and tranny came our along with the rear end and when it all went back together, I was still a "Ford People" but I was also an Edelbrock People, a Holly People, an Accel People, a Centerline People, an Isky Racing Cam People, an M&H RaceMaster People and the list goes on. The point is as American products went downhill, new after-market product companies were born to capitalize on a new market. That has become the American way. CEOs build crap, sell them to the masses, make millions in salary and bonuses then invest in the aftermarket companies and make more money. Needless to say, I am, thanks to alot of hard work and sacrifices, no longer a Ford People. I'm a Porsche People because I sat down one day and calculated what it took to make American crap reliable through aftermarket products, figured in the aggravation similar to what all of us have been through, the cost of phone calls, warranty service, down time and on and on and on and when I was finished, it came out to be about what I paid for my Porsche that's dependable because it's built with personal care and quality and pride because they know the value of product loyalty. So now I'm a Porsche Person...and a Bosch washer and dryer People and, well, on and on and on. And I'm extremely loyal... to Bosch and Porsche and a few others (coffee maker not included!) And I'm extremely American. I just refuse to be thought of as an idiot, American or otherwise. And, thankfully, I see I'm not alone.

[hanamint]

The perception in the marketplace, according to research, is that customer service is declining. Whether consumer expectations have increased or services have declined over the last few years is debatable. The fact is, perception is truth, in the consumers’ eyes.