Buying Appliances Online From Sears.Com
Jul 05 '00
My overall experience purchasing appliances online from Sears.com was good. If you are buying appliances from Sears, you should at least use the web site to do product research and pricing. Then its a matter of personal preference whether to purchase at the store or thru the web site. You get the same service from either.
THE STORY : I recently moved in to a new house and had to purchase a refrigerator, a washer and a dryer. My general approach for big ticket things (I have purchased a car and furniture online also) is to first do a general comparison of the pricing and product availability of online vs local, and then narrow it down to a couple of vendors. I have always liked Sears appliances, so after checking several alternatives, I ended up at a comparison of Sears.com, Sears local and Best Buy. The pricing was about the same at all three, delivery was equivalent and I would have to pay tax on any of them. So it boiled down to product availability and buying experience. I went to Best Buy and Sears local store to look. The difference I encountered between the online and local stores was that online, when I selected models, I could immediately get pricing on exactly what I wanted, including options (such as ice maker) and detailed specifications. At both stores, the specs were more nebulous and the options were generally separate add-ons that were more difficult to figure out. The marked pricing was different between sears local store and sears.com, although my understanding from the sears.com website is that you can print out the online quote and take it into the store and get the same item and price. I didn't try that because I decided to use the web site.
NEGATIVE : The one serious criticism of the sears.com online web site is that it doesn't include ANY warranty information about the products. You have to either email or call to get scoop. That's a serious omission from my point of view and I think they do it because they push the service contracts instead.
CONTINUED : I decided to go ahead with the online purchase. I went thru the web site process, go the final pricing and submitted my order. The web site worked fine and the process was easy and unambiguous. Once the order is submitted, you wait a day and someone calls you back to set a delivery date. Apparently the actual delivery process goes thru the local store anyway as if you had purchased there.
When the rep called, he informed me that one item I selected (the washer) had about a 1 month lead time, so I could either look for another item or wait or cancel. I selected a different model so I wouldn't have to wait, at a similar price and spec.
I got delivery in a week. The delivery personnel were knowledgeable and courteous and did the complete hookup at no extra charge, including installing a metal dryer duct and a nice braided water hose for the ice maker connection.
CONCLUSION : I got the same results I would have gotten in the store but in the store I would have had to deal with a salesperson and dig to get the detailed info I wanted. That is the primary difference between the two alternatives.
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Epinions.com ID:
dmh2000
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Location: Reno,NV
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 1 member
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