Sunday, May 15, 2011

Great luck getting appliances (eventually)!

Picking appliances was THE HARDEST thing I had to do when I was picking things for my kitchen. There are so many types! There are so many brands! They're expensive!

I browsed the web, checked consumer reports, and went to stores trying to figure out what appliances I wanted to buy. I wanted to get all of the same brand because then all of the handles would match. It seemed like the best options for all black appliances would be to get the GE profile series. My contractors were able to get a pretty good discount through one of the vendors they know, so I just needed to decide which ones to buy (i.e. 5 burner stove vs 4?). I swung by a Bray and Scarff store because I was told they carried the brand. They had some of the products in stock, but it was still really difficult to decide.

Well, I ended up getting REALLY lucky. I was given tickets to a home and garden show, so one of my friends and I went. There ended up being a Bray and Scarff booth there and I noticed they had displayed a GE profile dishwasher, so I wanted to show her the handles so that I could show her my ideas for cabinet pulls later. The manager of one of the stores, being the sales person that he is, asked me if I could use some help and I mentioned I was interested in the GE profile appliances. He proceeded to tell me about the deal that they were running (yeah, yeah... I know that sounds like a "sale line" but this post proves that it is worth hearing them out). I already knew that GE was having a $500 rebate on 4 GE profile appliances - and I needed (1) oven, (2) fridge, (3) dishwasher, (4) microwave - so that didn't impress me much. Then he told me that Bray and Scarff was doing their own $500 rebate... he got my attention. $1,000 rebate sounds good... but would it just end up being a wash with the prices that I already had been quoted? I kept listening... "AND if you make put down a deposit today you'll get the deal that we're offering until 6pm tonight of 20% off." (I know what you're thinking... "sales people, they always have a 'limited time only' deal to force you to make a decision." Keep reading). He continued with "the deposit is 100% refundable." No catches?! Wow! He also told me that most of the delivery costs would be refunded through a rebate. Seriously. It gets better though... We started to pick out the potential appliances I would like and he gave me price quotes right there on the spot... and he took off even more than the 20%!!!

Being the cautious person I am, I was racking my brain for a reason not to put a deposit down that day. The only thing I was concerned about at that point was that I wasn't quite sure what dishwasher and oven I wanted. The manager continued to assuage by fears and said that I didn't have to make the decision that day. He just needed the 10% deposit (that was entirely refundable if for some reason I didn't want an awesome deal) and that I could tell him my final decisions when he ordered them.

Ok the post is getting pretty long, but here are the bullet points of the rest of the reasons this manager at Bray and Scarff is amazing:
1. He called me to let me know about the upgraded oven that I could get for the same price as a different one he had quoted me. I got a convection oven! Fancy!
2. When I didn't get my receipts in the mail in enough time to do the rebates before I left for vacation he did them for me. Let me say that again, he filled out my rebate forms for me! I mean, THAT is customer service. It was probably a mistake on their part that the receipts hadn't been sent earlier, but he made up for it 150%. And I have already gotten all of my rebate money.
3. The handle of the oven has a slight defect and they're ordering a new one for me and will set up a time for it to be replaced when it gets in.

It's refreshing to work with someone who goes out of their way to help. Readers in the DC metro area, contact me for information about this Bray and Scarff store\sales person.

No comments:

Post a Comment