How not to sell: Never buy a dishwasher from Best Buy

I just finished one of the most painful non-purchases of my life. Thank you Best Buy.

About 3 weeks ago, I walked into Best Buy with the simple goal of buying a dishwasher to replace the one that broke in my apartment. I found a nice, mid-range Frigidair, and went to purchase it. I conveyed that I wanted the full installation, and the salesman signed me up for that, scheduled the installation, and I walked out seemingly happy with the transaction, looking forward to having a working dishwasher again. But that’s when the fun was just getting started.

The first error was that the salesman actually sold me the wrong installation service. Apparently the “Deliver and Reconnect” service that I bought, doesn’t actually mean “Reconnect”, unless it applies to the trivial and worthless service of plugging in a microwave. It really just means delivery. So now I had to purchase the true “installation”, refund the previous one, and re-schedule the appointment, which requires a licensed plumber in the case of the dishwasher. So, at this point I’m mildly annoyed, but stuff happens.

The day rolls around for the re-scheduled installation, and I hear nothing from Best Buy. Great, getting more annoyed. I call again, talk to a manager, review the process and reschedule for a third time. And they did it again, no call, no show, wasted another installation opportunity. Now I’m really annoyed, but that’s not even the kicker.

I went today to the store to give them one last chance. It’s a pretty simple request: deliver, install, and haul away. That’s it. But Best Buy has different people doing the installation and and the delivery/haul away. The delivery company doesn’t disconnect the old dishwasher, and the installer doesn’t deliver or take the old one. Now I’m completely incredulous. What they are proposing is completely worthless to me.

They are proposing the following convoluted three step process:

  1. Schedule the “disconnecting” of the old dishwasher, with the “installation company”
  2. Schedule the “delivery” of the new dishwasher (and the haul away) with the “delivery company
  3. Schedule the “installation” of the new one with the “installation company”, which will likely be a day AFTER the delivery.

I don’t know who thought this up, but it is ridiculous. I don’t want to coordinate 3 visits with 2 companies to do what should be a simple smooth installation.

As a customer, I don’t CARE what your internal processes are, I don’t CARE what you need to do to figure this out. All I want, is for someone to come, take away the old dishwasher and install the new one in one fell swoop. That’s it. I don’t want to wait an extra day with a new dishwasher sitting around my kitchen because you have set up a broken system where the people installing it are different than the people delivering and hauling away.

They need to spend more time reading Seth Godin’s blog, and less time expanding their product lines with things that don’t work. As for me, I’m off to Lowe’s.