Warning about Lowe's and appliances!!!

[Cindy B]

AHH electrician cannot to my knowledge cap the gas line. I think it needs to be a plumber and I think there needs to be a tag hanging from it that gives the time and date it was done as well as the name of the person who did it. Better double check for safety and insurance liability

We have the tag.. and the date. Maybe we got lucky and he was certified in both?

 

[ncbyrne]

We have had two horrible experiences with Lowes. The worst was the storm door with installation. They ordered a door that was too small. Instead of reordering, the subcontractor who installed it did such a bad job that we took photos and presented them to the store manager. It took almost another month before they got someone else. And then, instead of giving us a new door, they actually built up the door jamb to make it fit!!!! I will N-E-V-E-R deal with Lowes for anything other than cash and carry items.
Also had another botch job done on carpeting by Home Depot. I have learned my lesson well - I will always go to a professional, local service that deals in quality merchandise and service and stands behind their product. It's never THAT much more expensive for peice of mind!

 

[Oreo Cookie]

I posted in another thread that we bought a new clothes dryer at Lowe's yesterday. They arranged to deliver it today, for which we paid $65.00. They showed up a couple of hours ago and the guy comes in to check the location and says, "Did they tell you that we aren't allowed to disconnect the old dryer or hook up the new dryer?" Well, NO, THEY DIDN'T TELL US THAT AT ALL! The delivery guy says they're not allowed to touch gas lines. If I disconnect the old one, they can take it out, and they can bring in the new one, but that's it.

I managed to get the old dryer disconnected but the flexible line needs to be replaced and I'm just not messing with that. I'm pretty handy but gas and electric are two things I let the professionals handle. So we were all excited that we'd be able to start catching up on the laundry backlog tonite but no such luck.

I just went over to Lowe's to give them hell. On my way there, I stopped at Home Depot just out of curiousity to see what their policy is. Sure enough, they deliver AND hook up the dryers. They were surprised to hear that Lowe's doesn't. Next I went to Lowe's. I spoke to the store manager and he said they don't hook them up and we should have been told that when we bought it. In fact, he said nobody hooks them up. I told him Home Depot does and he didn't believe me at first until I told him I had just walked out of there with all the information. Finally, he said, "So what would you like me to do? Do you want to return it because we can't hook it up?" I thought about going that route but figured it would be more trouble than it was worth. So instead I asked him to refund the $65 delivery fee. He agreed to do that. So at least now, when I pay my plumber to come over and put in a new gas line, I won't feel like I wasted quite as much money.

Sorry for rambling. I've still got steam coming out of my ears.

Sorry to hear about your experience with Lowes. We are in need of a new washer/dryer and we were thinking of going to Lowes (our dryer is gas too), so now I will not waste my time even looking there.

I agree with other poster, Sears is where we will go!

 

[LisaNJ25]

Your lucky they even showed up on the day they said they would. Home Depot and lowes here both have a habit of not coming on the day they say they will.

 

[Oreo Cookie]

I live in the same county and state as Steve. When we had our new dryer delivered (Sears) they told us that only a licensed plumber could do the gas connections.

Perhaps Home Depot subcontracts to local plumbers who do the actual install?

Thanks for posting this information. I don't know what county you live in, but I'm in Bergen County. I guess I will ask before I purchase about the installation of the gas dryer. If I'm paying for a plumber to install, than I will be trying to get the delivery fee waived. It doesn't hurt to try, but they may still say no.

 

[LisaNJ25]

And to everyone reading this Thread or WILL BE reading this Thread....

What is UP with all this RE-STOCKING "crap". I bought a $1000.00 refridgerator from Home Depot...they delivered the WRONG one. I called and said this is NOT the one....no problem we will pick it right up and deliver the right one....

Next thing I notice is the RE-STOCKING fee on my BILL....Noooo, do not EVEN go there...went right back in to the store, spoke with Customer Service and after speaking to MANY, they REMOVED the HIDEOUS re-stocking fee...

SO PEOPLE, if you are buying LARGE APPLIANCES and they need to be returned for whatever reason....they will get you on that re-stocking fee!!!

This is also common with electrical items at other stores.. not only appliances .

 

[ceecee]

We just had a 56" TV delivered last Saturday (from Rex, local I think). The deliver fee was only $35.00 (5 miles away) so they drop it off and start to leave, I said the paper says you're supposed to plug it in, so they plugged it in! DH asked them to carry our 34" TV downstairs so they did for $10.00 extra. We went out to leave an hour later and the box (really big) and packing were left in the driveway! We even asked if they were taking the box and they said "well, we can but it gets in the way of our next delivery, you can put it out for your trash". We asked if they would go ahead and take it since trash day was Friday and they said okay. Guess they forgot!

 

[pjshaff]

pjshaff: thanks! Any idea how I can get the name and contact info for my RVP and Dist Manager?

You should be able to get the Dm's name from any associate that works there. I'd prolly call the store first and ask whoever answers the phone. Then I'd call a couple of close by stores and ask who their DM's are as well. Sometimes the districts are "drawn up" wierd and you'll have two stores close by but have different DMs.

Where are you located in the country? That determines who the RVP will be.

 

[disneysteve]

D.S. are you SURE that the person you spoke to at HD was correct. They would not hook up a gas drier for me

I'm positive. I spoke to the 2 sales people who were in the appliance department. The one person wasn't certain of the charge so she went to the register and rang up a gas dryer. The list of options that came up on the screen included "deliver" "gas dryer install" and some other options. I was standing right next to her and saw that "gas dryer install" was an option for her to check off and add to the invoice for the $39.99 fee.

 

[NMW]

Actually, it's my understanding that no appliance delivery person can unhook a gas dryer/stove. We had a gas dryer that died in April and we had to hire a plumber to come out and unhook it-we were converting to electric so we didn't need him to hook the new one up. The special outlet was already there for the electric one, so the appliance dealer we bought the elec. dryer from hooked it up for us since the gas one was already detached..... they are not licensed to touch the gas lines (or insured for that matter)

My DH owns a corian/solid surface countertop company. People get mad that he won't unhook/rehook the sink/plumbing, but he's not a plumber and not licensed or insured to do so.

Plumbing and electrical work should be left to those licensed to do it IMO.... we are fixing numerous mistakes by the previous owners of our house because they tried to do lots of electrical/plumbing work themselves and much of it is not up to code

Sorry you had a bad experience... hope your new dryer works awesome!

That's not true here. When we moved in (new construction) Sears delivered our washer/gas dryer and fridge with ice maker line. They hooked everything up..gas dryer...fridge..ice maker...they even had me test everything before leaving. There was a rebate on the delivery fee too.

I replaced my gas dryer with an electric one a few months ago. Our house was wired/ready for both. Sears came, unhooked the gas dryer, hauled it away and hooked up the electric one. The only thing he could not do was cap the gas line, only because he didn't have a cap with him. He did turn it all the way off. He apologized for this like 3 times and was really nice.

I called our gas company -UGI and they came and capped it for me. They did charge me for that though-I think $75

We did have Corian installed in our kitchen in March. They would not unhook the plumbing. We had our neighbor do that. After the Corian was installed they didn't hook it back up for us either. We switched from a single stainless steel sink to a double Corian one (which we love BTW) and had a plumber come and hook everything back up...gabage disposal...dishwasher...double sink. I think they charged me $325, including all the parts. The other counter top place we got an estimate from would have unhooked the plumbing, but not have hooked it back up. I think there must be different codes for different areas.

 

[NMW]

we were looking for a new stove (electric) and we noticed

that after the price it said cord $25.99!!!!

so we asked

the clerk said they dont come with plugs!!!!

what?!!! an electrical appliance that doenst come with a plug!!!!

when I asked why she said that some homes have 3 prongs and some4 so the delivery guys need to know which one to bring!

come on these are stoves cords---couldnt they just bring both out and use the one they need?

After we left her--we just glanced at refride

the guy was explaing everything I asked if it came with a plug?!!!

he looked at me stupid until I told him what happened with the stove

even he couldnt answer why the stoves dont come with plugs!!!!!

We bought a new stove from Sears and had the same thing, we had to buy the cord. The wanted to know how many prongs our outlet had. When we went home to check we found out that our builder had hard wired the dryer! We called Sears back and they said their delivery person could not unhook a hard wired appliance. BUT, they would send a certified electrician to install the stove for us and they would deliver it and hook it up. This cost extra...I think it was $95 for the electrician, but Sears billed me for it. It was installed no problem and the electrician put in a new outlet and got rid of the hard wire.

I love Sears! They said the reason ovens don't come with cords is that some homes have a 3 prong thing and some have a 4. One is newer than the other, can't remember which one. By not attaching it to the stove, a person can buy any stove and just buy the cord that is right for their house.

 

[NMW]

Sorry but my experiences in PA are totally different. We have always had to have a licensed plumber come in and do a gas line hook-up. We have purchased from several different appliance stores (the big ones as well as mom and pop stores) and they have never never been able to do gas line hook-ups. Also, we always were told to remove our old machine before delivery. Most delivery people won't even plug in an electric appliance.

Sorry, they weren't more clear with you. I have found that most of the time when we have bought appliances they were straight forward with us and what would and wouldn't be done but some figured that it was a given that we knew the guidelines.

It must vary not only by state, but by county or even township. Sears hooked up gas dryers for us in both PA and NJ AND removed the and unhooked the old ones. It didn't matter if it was gas or electric. They wouldn't leave my house until I tried the washer and dryers and made sure they worked (gas OR electric).

They did have to subcontract an electrician for that hard wired stove deal (see above post) but they let me know that upfront and I payed the $95 electrician fee when I bought the stove.

 

[barbeml]

Like the OP, I live in NJ.

When I bought my house 12.5 years ago, all the appliances (gas) were delivered and installed by Silo (which no longer exists).

I'm grateful for this thread...next month we are buying a new gas range plus a few other items, and we were going to get them all from Lowes.

 

[graygables]

We bought a fridge from Lowe's that had to be ordered, so they called us with a delivery date/time. I cleaned out the old fridge into ice chests/basement freezer, etc and delivered it next door to my FIL then waited. and waited. and waited. Finally, 2 hours after the delivery "window", I called Lowe's only to be told that my fridge actually never made it to the store and would not be delivered that day. I had hundreds of dollars of food lying around my kitchen, I don't *THINK* so. I finally was able to get a manager after several "well, that's just the way it is" responses. He located a similar model and had it delivered to me that evening, but only after I really let him have it and threatened all kinds of things.

BTW, we have never had a problem with either Sears or Home Depot for appliance delivery, hook up, and removal even of gas appliances. We switched from a gas stove to an electric this year and they only required that the electricity be available (I guess some people expect them to wire or plumb the hook up ) And, we had to buy the stove cord, b/c each one is different, so you have to get the one that's right for your unit.

 

[Gillian]

Thanks for the information Steve!

We had a new stackable gas washer & dryer delivered & installed by Sears a few years ago. They also do the haul away here.

Unfortunately for us, they did the install totally wrong. The two pieces were not attached, they just put the dryer on top of the washer and were not balanced, so they "walked" and the gas dryer could have fallen off the washer, pulling out the gas line. It ruined the washer, but did not blow up the house, so we were thankful. I believe Sears was as well, because they replaced the washer without charge and made sure everything was done correctly.

 

[Tinkmom]

We had a new stackable gas washer & dryer delivered & installed by Sears a few years ago. They also do the haul away here.

Unfortunately for us, they did the install totally wrong. The two pieces were not attached, they just put the dryer on top of the washer and were not balanced, so they "walked" and the gas dryer could have fallen off the washer, pulling out the gas line. It ruined the washer, but did not blow up the house, so we were thankful. I believe Sears was as well, because they replaced the washer without charge and made sure everything was done correctly.

This is an example of why I would always arrange my own installation of a gas appliance. Unless I was certain that the store was using a professional to install it and not a delivery person who sort of thought they knew what they were doing! "Yeah, I saved $30 bucks on the installation, but it was offset by the damage after the explosion!"

 

[beachbunny]

pjshaff: Hawaii

 

[MrsPete]

I posted in another thread that we bought a new clothes dryer at Lowe's yesterday. They arranged to deliver it today, for which we paid $65.00. They showed up a couple of hours ago and the guy comes in to check the location and says, "Did they tell you that we aren't allowed to disconnect the old dryer or hook up the new dryer?" Well, NO, THEY DIDN'T TELL US THAT AT ALL! The delivery guy says they're not allowed to touch gas lines. If I disconnect the old one, they can take it out, and they can bring in the new one, but that's it

I think they were lying to you. I bought a new washer and dryer from Lowe's in April, and they removed and hauled away my old things, and they installed my new ones. We have electric, not gas, perhaps that's the difference.

 

[Gillian]

This is an example of why I would always arrange my own installation of a gas appliance. Unless I was certain that the store was using a professional to install it and not a delivery person who sort of thought they knew what they were doing! "Yeah, I saved $30 bucks on the installation, but it was offset by the damage after the explosion!"

We had our own person there to help the second time, and we actually did the stacking & attaching ourselves.

It's a good think I like to read the directions, or I might not have noticed that they didn't do it right.

BTW, it also dug a hole in our brand new floor, which the delivery company paid to have replaced.

 

[disneysteve]

I think they were lying to you. I bought a new washer and dryer from Lowe's in April, and they removed and hauled away my old things, and they installed my new ones. We have electric, not gas, perhaps that's the difference.

Yes, it was because of the gas. Had it been electric, there wouldn't have been a problem.