Two thumbs up for AJ Madison
Written: Dec 20 '04 (Updated Dec 29 '04)
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I just read the reviews of AJ Madison and to say the least I am very concerned with the low marks that many people have given them on customer service.
I have just placed a large order and wonder if I should cancel my order, but I think I will give them the benefit of the doubt and record my experience here for all to see as it happens.
Background:
I found the AJ Madison site by doing some shopping for appliances via retail stores and then searched for lowest prices on pricegrabber.com. I was thrilled to find AJ Madison as they seem to have an extensive selection and had the 4 specific models I am looking for and they have great prices and no sales tax!!! (I am in California, so this is a big deal). The freight to cali was very very good. We are remodelling our house and told both my kitchen designer and general contractor about their site as it appears they have a section for contractors, I assume they have attractive pricing for them - as they do many kitchens they are very interested in what we found on prices and like I said particularly the lack of sales tax.
Experience so far:
Dec. 20/04 (as I will update this as things happen I will put dates here)
So I phoned through to place my order and the lady apologized that only one of her systems was up and took my number and promised to phone back when it was up. She did phone back within half an hour. I found her to be very friendly and helpful and I ordered 3 GE appliances (side by side fridge, double oven/microwave wall unit, electric stovetop with downdraft) and fisher and paykel two drawer dishwasher. She added the 5% discount for the sale I saw on their website they hand on the weekend. My total order is just under $7,000.00.
She told me all items were avaialble and in stock from the GE warehouse which was close by and the fisher and paykel dishwasher was in stock. (this happened on Dec. 15). She indicated that the items would come from GE to their warehouse by friday Dec 17 and they should ship anywhere from that friday through to Dec. 22 and explained it is Christmas week and they are very busy so there may be some delays. All seems ok to me. She also said when it ships this will take approximately 5 days to get to me.
After my order is placed I receive an electronic confirmation sent to my email address. I click on the links provided and find my order online, correct with a status of pending.
Update - Dec 20/04
No sooner did I finish writing this review, even before I had my epinions account confirmed, I received an email from AJ Madison that my order status has changed and has shipped! So far so good! Last piece to check is delivery time and goods received with no damage. Full marks so far.
Update - Dec 22/04
I clicked on the link in my shipment confirmation sent by AJ Madison. In the email there was a link to track the shipment. This link went directly to the Daylight transport site and showed the status of my shipment. It left their depot at 11:45pm last night with an estimated delivery time of Dec 27, showing 4 pieces were shipped. So far everything is going fantastic with my order.
Update - Dec 23/04
Received a call from Daylight transport to arrange a delivery time on Dec 28 between 10am - 2pm. This is going like clockwork!
Update - Dec 28/04
The delivery truck came at 11:30 am, in the delivery window promise. I don't know about you but I can't remember the last time I got a delivery in the window unless it was one of those 8 hour windows. The truck had a hoist and all the boxes were in good condition, we opened the boxes and no damage - flawless from time of order to receipt of goods.
Concerns:
1) the number of negative posts on here, particularly how poorly they get rated on customer service. What makes this more concerning is the long time period this has occurred over and more importantly that people from AJ Madison have responded to the comments (which is a good thing) but that they still, it would seem, haven't addressed the customer service perception by a number of posters.
2) that some posts are blatant posts by AJ Madison personnel posing as customers, to what looks to me to "bolster" their image, this comes off too cheezy and they shouldn't do that it's too obvious, and as there are a lot of good comments from real customers it is not necessary.
Optimism:
They obviously sell a lot of appliances and it would seem must have a very good business. In business, you don't always get things right and some customers expectations are not realistic, some of the most venemous comments I've seen against AJ Madison have come from people who have ordered $50 items. My view is they must be doing most things right to do the volume they do as no one will stay in business long on ticking all their customers off, they must have repeat business and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt....fingers crossed (funny, I shouldn't have to say that from a business that has taken customer service to heart), the rest of my experience with AJ Madison will be as good as I've received so far!
Post Mortem
My experience as written above has proved to be excellent and the price savings I received were significant. My advice can only be based on my experience and I would encourage you to use this company in spite of some of the posts below that are quite negative. To balance them out, some appear to be very insignificant in $$$ terms and for each negative post it would appear to have a credible response from AJ Madison.
To AJ Madison staff, thank you for the products and service delivery and pricing. My advice to you, if you haven't already done so is to seriously address the customer service issues in the reviews below. Specifically, answering emails and phone calls promptly and courteously. Don't give people the run around if you have supply problems and cheerfully refund people their money. Make this the mantra of your organization. As you can see from my post, I almost cancelled my order after reading the posts. If I read them first, I may not have ordered and I would have missed out on your great service and prices. However, I wonder how many others have read these messages and have made the decision not to buy from you.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Kitchen Appliances - 3 GE, 1 Fisher & Paykel
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Epinions.com ID:
canwi
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Reviews written: 1
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