I purchased a Whirlpool Stainless Steel Kitchen Package, without installation and paid in full amount of $2100+. I had a really awesome general contractor who has been doing my entire kitchen/bath remodeling who is independent from Abt and included was my Whirlpool appliance installation. Since I'm a busy working professional who has to travel for my job, I hired my friend, a project manager/design consultant to help me manage the project.
On Tues, April 19, Abt came towards the very end of their delivery timeframe at 3 p.m in a 12 n.n. to 3 p.m. window and said that they were going to drop off the appliances. My PM knew that I had already paid them in full so she let them in and assumed whatever they were doing was included in the pay. My contractor challenged the delivery guys and asked if they were installing because he was the one who is supposed to install? They showed the 2nd page of the invoice that had $429 as installation charges which I never saw or approved. The 1st page still said that the customer installs and both pages said drop off only. It should be noted that they never showed these documents to my PM.
Since I was not home, my PM was in/out and the contractor was busy doing other stuff, they didn't see that the Abt folks did more than just to do their free delivery without authorization. They were in/out of my apartment in less than an hour and then asked to be paid. The waterline to my fridge and the dishwasher are still not hooked up but they charged me a full installation charge of $429 which was already posted to my AMEX without my permission. What happened next was even worse. After getting nowhere with Dan yelling at my PM and I on the phone, I asked for it to be escalated. For several times, I asked him to stop yelling at us so we could just understand what was going on. A man named Cosmo called and offered to let me pay $300+ as a compromise and then he would get me a rebate for $125 so it would only be $175 out of my pocket for the incomplete installation services that I never authorized.
I told him that I appreciate his efforts trying to resolve the matter but the fact that I would be charged for something I never authorized was illegal. It shouldn't matter that they half-installed it since I never asked for the installation in the first place. Dan sent 2 invoices to my PM and did not give me a copy. One confirmed that it was a Customer Install and both pages said Drop Off Only. 1 minute later, he sent her a reprint which she assumed was a duplicate with Added the Install. She assumed that the 2nd email was a resend or a duplicate since there was no notation that anything had changed in the invoice. I was never given a copy of this email. Cosmo and I finally talked to the store owner and he agreed that the only way for me not to be charged is if they came back to uninstall everything. We then agreed to do it at 8:30 a.m on Wednesday, April 20. Then it just got ridiculous.
I got a call from someone named John **** who claimed that he was the General Manager of the store. He said that they were not coming to uninstall the next day but they were coming to take away the appliances that I had already paid for. They were also going to refund the appliances but still are going to charge me for the installation services which I had never requested. I told him that they kept trying to give me the stuff that I didn't ask for and that they were not listening again! After I put him on speaker phone so that 2 of my friends and lots of people at Bed, Bath and Beyond could listen, he tried to accuse my PM of authorizing the installation. She just helped me negotiate for my contractor to do it including the remodel. He said that it was her fault.
He finally came around and said that he would not come to take back my appliances and will give me a full refund of $429 but I will never be allowed to be back in the store at Abt and that I will not be on a Do Not Sell To list. I told him that it was a gross discrimination and that as a minority Asian female, he could not limit my rights as an individual. He said that because I said it, he was going to put the charges back. He also told me that I should just go and shop at **** , said bah-bye and hung up on me.
All I can say is wow! Rudeness, poor business practice and unauthorized charges are what we can expect from Abt who is supposedly great at customer service. Just for your information, I have an excellent credit and make very good money as an executive but it's the business practice that I'm arguing here. Simply, we should not get charged for services we do not request. Don't bother, maybe we should all take John's advice and shop at ****! I will be posting this along with copies of the invoices that clearly state Customer Install, Drop Off Only to ****, Better Business Bureau, ****, Angie's List and Facebook.
