home depot versus lowe's

I spent most of the day on the phone with Home Depot and Lowe's, in search of our new water heater. I was going to call up one fo the local companies but decided that with a national chain I might get a better warranty service. Plus I know that I can raise hell with a big company like Home Depot should disaster strike and probably get some resolution. I also wouldn't have to worry about verifying that their installers are license, insured and/or certified for the work at hand. I also like to be able to look at the products on their websites before I buy. Call me spoiled in a true American consumer fashion.

I started out at the Lowe's website, since I also had a $20 off coupon. They had a couple of water heaters that would have worked for me based on the limited space in the closet. Their website also states that they can install same day if ordered by noon. It sounded promising, so I called their 800 number to order my water heater and schedule the installation. I was happily surprised that the phonecall took me directly to the "water heater" service line, and I didn't have to fumble over a bunch of voice recognition software. The customer service person was very friendly, too. Unfortunately, both of the water heaters that would have worked for me were out of stock. Seeing as I didn't want to have to wait seven days or more to start taling hot showers again, I figured that I better try Home Depot.

Home Depot only lists two water heaters on their website, both by GE and varying based on the warranty. One has a six year and the other has a twelve. No prices were listed. I went ahead and called their 800 number. After routing myself to the right service department by talking to their answering machine, I was finally connected. The customer service person was friendly, but the call seemed to take forever as she didn't have immediate answers to any of my questions. After about thirty minutes, she had finally gotten all of the details in order and I now had a purchase order for a new water heater and installation. I gave her my credit card number, and she gave me my order number and said that the installer would call me in the morning to schedule a good time to do the work. Everything seemed to be under control.

Unfortunately, six hours later I received a voicemail from the local Home Depot store indicating that they do not do water heater installation and that they were canceling my order. Needless to say, I was just a little bit upset. This is yet another example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Don't you think it would have made sense for them to check with the local store before placing the order and taking my payment information. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was when I received another phonecall from Home depot letting me know that my payment should be refunded to my credit card within the next three business days. I can't believe that they went ahead and charged me the money before they knew if they could even do the service. Let's just say that I'm glad that my credit card limit isn't much lower or I'd be waiting three days to get the water heater from someplace else.

I decided to go ahead and call the local Lowe's store to see if there might be a chance that, like their Home Depot brethren, their national service line may not know what the local stores could or couldn't do. I was on the phone with the salesman at the local Lowe's store for about twenty minutes as he tried to get my order processed. It wouldn't have taken as long if he wasn't putting my on hold every time an in-store customer would walk up. As luck would have it, he eventually found a suitable replacement and I am now expecting a call within 48 hours to schedule installation. So much for the same day installation promise.

All in all, I am fairly disappointed with the service from both of these chains. The total price for parts and labor was about the same ($775 versus $750), but the included lifetime warranty at Home Depot would have been nice. I only get nine years from Lowe's. That's about the life of a typical hot water heater. Finding the right water heater and checking availability shouldn't have been so difficult on their websites and with their telephone service reps. I can probably blame myself for trying to do something like this over the phone with their national service centers, as opposed to visiting my local store, but isn't that what they are there for? It's too bad that both stores are about an hour away or I would have placed my order in person.

Now I've got my fingers crossed, as I fear the next phonecall that I get from Lowe's will be to let me know that they can't install it after all, or that I'm going to be without hot water for another week. I guess I should have just called one of the smaller local companies.