
Madeline of Needham, MA on Aug. 28, 2010
On Friday, August 13th I placed an online order with Home Depot for two refrigerators, one a Maytag and the second an LG. Both refrigerators were listed as in stock, and a confirmation via an online chat with Alberto, a Home Depot online appliance specialist, clinched the deal. A delivery date of August 31 was confirmed. On Saturday, August 14, LG, called me to congratulate me on my purchase and to confirm the delivery date of August 31.
On Friday, August 20th, at 12:00 pm I received a phone call from the Maytag Home Depot rep who informed me that my Maytag refrigerator was on back-order and would not be available for delivery until September 16. I contacted Home Depot and inquired as to why the unit, which was listed as in stock the week previous, and for which I had a scheduled delivery date of August 31, some three days hence, would now be back-ordered. The rep had no information. So I called Maytag and was told that the item was never in stock and that Home Depot merely tells customers that items are in stock based on projected sales of particular items. He apologized and confirmed that the unit would be available to be delivered on September 16. He also informed me that since the Maytag fridge was delayed that I should check with Home Depot on the status of my LG fridge.
I then called back Home Depot and told them the information that Maytag had given to me. They told me that the information Maytag had given to me was false, and that since ordering appliances is a live process that sometimes items that are shown as in stock aren't really in stock and therefore get back-ordered. After a lengthy discussion including my commenting that clearly someone was not telling me the truth, I asked to be put through to a supervisor. My call was routed to Mr. **. This is where the story really gets bad.
I explained to Mr. ** that not only was it not acceptable that an item I had paid for on my credit card and which was listed as in stock was now suddenly, 3 days prior to delivery back-ordered, but that now my husband and I would also have to take 2 days off of work, one on August 31 for the delivery of the LG fridge and again on September 16 for the delivery of the Maytag fridge. Mr. ** told me that there was nothing he could do for me, and that since I had refused any conciliatory compensation he could not help there either. I informed him that I had not been offered conciliatory compensation. He offered me a $200 Home Depot gift certificate.
He then continued to reiterate that my only two choices were to wait until September 16 for the Maytag item to arrive or to cancel the Maytag order and order another fridge to replace it. So when I told him to cancel the Maytag order and just deliver the LG fridge on August 31, he told me that he would have to cancel the entire order and that I would have to re-order just the LG fridge as if it were a new order, and that meant that the LG fridge could no longer be delivered on August 31, but would have to be delivered around September 21. At this point I became furious and I asked Mr. ** to make certain that the LG fridge was still scheduled to arrive on August 31 before I took steps to cancel the Maytag order. He told me he would look into it and call me back
Half an hour later Mr. ** called me back to tell me that LG had cancelled my delivery date of August 31 because the Maytag unit was not available and had changed their delivery date to, you guessed it, September 16 when the Maytag unit was scheduled to arrive. Imagine my shock, since the LG fridge was, to the best of my knowledge, ready to be shipped and delivered to my home. Additionally, imagine my disbelief that neither LG nor Home Depot had called me, by 3:30 pm on Friday, August 20th, to inform me that my scheduled delivery of Tuesday, August 31 had been postponed to Thursday, September 16. After all, Maytag/Home Depot had called me three and a half hours previously to tell me that my Maytag unit was back-ordered. I asked Mr. ** if there was a reason why neither LG nor Home Depot had called me to inform me of this change, and he had no response.
He did tell me that he had called LG, Maytag and GE Consumer and despite his pleas on my behalf, no one was able to re-instate the original date of August 31 because other deliveries had been scheduled into my original time slot. I made it clear to Mr. ** that I planned on calling LG and GE Consumer to verify his story and he told me to go ahead and do so. I also told him that I needed to speak with his supervisor, because this was most assuredly the worst customer service I had ever experienced. He told me that his supervisor would call me back. She never did.
In the meantime, I called LG. Guess what? LG told me that Christine from GE Consumer/Home Depot telephoned them at 12:00 pm on Friday, August 20 to change the delivery date to September 16 because Home Depot had called GE Consumer and asked them to change the date to September 16. Why would Home Depot do that? Probably because Home Depot wanted the delivery to be consolidated on one day and not split between 2 days because Home Depot didn't want to pay for two separate deliveries. In fact, the LG customer service rep with whom I spoke had very detailed notes including people with whom he and his company had spoken, the times which they spoke and what had transpired during those conversations, and he assured me that the LG fridge was ready for delivery. He then contacted GE Consumer who not only still had time available on August 31, but who assured me (Yep, I called them myself at 3:20 pm) that my LG fridge was ready to be shipped to the GE Consumer warehouse but that LG had delayed that shipping because Home Dept, through GE Consumer, had told them to do so. Which means that Mr. **'s story that he begged LG to deliver the LG fridge to me was utterly and completely false.
Then I called GE Consumer who verified the story that the LG rep had told me. GE Consumer also told me that it was Home Depot who contacted them and told them to call LG and delay shipment until September 16.
After spending almost 5 hours on the phone, I did finally manage to get LG and GE Consumer to agree to deliver my LG fridge, albeit not until September 3. The Maytag fridge is, to the best of my knowledge, still on back-order and is still scheduled for a September 16 delivery to my home. But let me assure you that ensuring the delivery of my LG fridge was due entirely to my efforts, since clearly Home Depot did everything in its power to delay that delivery.
In summary, here is what I believe happened. Home Depot lied to me about the Maytag unit being in stock and available for delivery. Home Depot also lied to me about the delivery of my LG unit. Home Depot lied to me about why LG never called me to inform me that my LG fridge delivery was delayed, because LG never delayed my delivery. It was Home Depot who made the call to delay the delivery, and then Home Depot never called me to tell me that they had ordered that delay. In fact, it was only the Maytag customer service rep who told me that Home Depot had probably delayed my LG delivery because Home Depot is too cheap to pay for split delivery orders when a promised in-stock item is back-ordered. Home Depot lied to me about who changed my delivery date. Home Depot lied to me about begging LG and GE Consumer to allow the delivery of my LG fridge to remain on the originally scheduled date of August 31. In short, Home Depot lied, lied and lied.
If this isn't one of the worst, most appalling customer service, or should I say lack thereof, stories you have ever heard, then frankly, don't tell me what the worst is. I don't want to know. As a customer, I was lied to from start to finish. I was treated in a rude and condescending manner. While it is true that, by the end, I got angry and raised my voice, I never once used rude or insulting language and, more importantly, I never lied to any of the people with whom I was speaking.
I plan on telling this story to as many of my friends and colleagues as I possibly can. It is a shining example of how to never, ever, ever treat a customer. I have also mailed a copy of this letter to the Massachusetts Better Business Bureau as well as to the Massachusetts Attorney General's office.