Choosing between big box stores for appliance purchase?

[pinkytoe]

The refrigerator we have been considering is finally on big discount at three big box stores - Home Depot, Best Buy and Lowe's - for the same price. Any advice on which to go with or does it really matter? All have free shipping and a small charge for taking the old one away.

[SteveinMN]

IMHO, no.

My choice of those three would be Best Buy because it's a Minnesota company.

I'll just say, though, that when we bought our fridge a couple of years ago, a local mini-chain of appliance stores offered the same model and services (delivery, remove old one, hook up water) for the same price as Best Buy and Sears -- and I got them to bump up the compressor warranty for free to 10 years (instead of 2? or 5). I don't know if that would have been possible at the big stores.

[nswef]

I wasn't impressed with the washer installers from Home Depot...they didn't want to level it....my husband had the level for them to use and the shims to do it! They acted amazed that leveling was part of installation (in a basement). That said, we did use a local small appliance store and are replacing our 6 year old broken dishwasher bought from them with a new one, from them. You just never know, so my input is not very helpful.

[sweetana3]

I have never been 100 % happy with the outside services at Lowes or Home Depot. We used Best Buy and were happy with all aspects of delivery and installation. I wonder if BB has their own inhouse staff?

[Rogar]

By my experience and talking with others the three are probably similar price wise, but differ in service from one town to another and I'm not so sure any of them are that good. If your installation is anything but very routine, I'd look elsewhere like maybe a handyman or appliance repair place for installation. My neighbor had one of the big three deliver a refrigerator, but because the door of the frig needed to be removed to get through the doors in the house, the people who were to install it refused and pretty much just left it sitting outside his home.

I'm shopping to replace a dishwasher right now. The prices of the three and the brands they carry are pretty much the same. Even their special sales seem similar. My old dishwasher was hard wired rather than having a plug in which is not that unusual for older homes. At least Home Depot will not do their free installation because of that little complication.

Something to consider or ask questions about anyway. I imagine most refrigerator installations are easy and basic and would not cause problems.

Our utilities provider is offering a rebate for people upgrading refrigerators.

[SteveinMN]

I imagine most refrigerator installations are easy and basic and would not cause problems.

Sometime in the 12-14 years between when Whirlpool made our old refrigerator and our new refrigerator, they changed how the water line from the house connects to the fridge. The people who delivered our new one did not realize this and could not connect the water during the installation. They had to make a second trip.

Which is exactly to your point -- delivery people who expected to just drop the appliance in place often cannot deal with situations like that. I also will note that some localities require some appliances (ranges, hardwired connections, etc.) to be connected by qualified techs, not "just" delivery people.

[pinkytoe]

Thanks, Rogar. I checked and there is indeed an appliance rebate here. Luckily, DH knows how to connect water lines under the house and will take care of that part of install. We tried the little guy here and they kept trying to steer us to a more expensive model and also have a delivery fee so looks like going with BB.