A funny thing happened on the way to the appliance store…

…or a funny thing happened to the appliance store on the way to my house. We bought a nice Sony 65″ widescreen last week as a christmas present to ourselves (and to replace our dying television). Delivery was scheduled for Sunday December 22nd (yesterday). They were supposed to call between 6 and 7am to give us a delivery window. Six became seven, seven became eight, eight became nine. The store opened at nine, so I called to find out what was going on. I was told to call a different store (where the warehouse was located). I called, was put on hold, then told to call back the original store where I purchased the tv and and talk to the saleman. I knew the salesman wasn’t there (sundays being one of his days off), so they put me on hold again. Minutes later, they tell me that the store manager will call me back in 10 minutes. Fine, I say. I wait. Ten minutes pass, and no call. By this time, I’m understandably concerned, so I call back, not wanting to wait any longer. I ask for the manager, and the person who picks up the phone tells me that I was told that I was told they would call me back in 10 to 15 minutes, and then silence. I hung up, and waited. I was pissed off.

Twenty minutes later, the phone rings. It’s the manager (different than the one I had previously spoken to). He says, “By now you probably know there’s a problem with your t.v.”. Yeah. He continues and explains what went wrong.

They had three 55″ Sony TV’s and one 65″ Sony TV in stock. They sold all four. Someone mistakenly delivered the only 65″ Sony TV to someone who had bought a 55″ Sony TV (all delivered on the same day). Apparently no one called to tell them they received the wrong TV, so they didn’t have my TV any more.

By this time, I’m smoking mad. I’m ready to cancel my check and tell all my friends about it. Then the manager does something that that makes me take back all of the bad things I had thought about his company. He doesn’t want to ruin anyones Christmas, so he makes me an offer. To replace my now out of stock TV, they will give me a massively upgraded Hitachi 65XWX20B. Same size as the Sony we had picked out, but with much more advanced features. When I did my shopping, Hitachi was recommended hands-down as the best widescreen projection system available, and this is their top of the line. HDTV receiver built-in, lots of expandability, and lots of other cool yet-to-be-understood features. I accepted their offer, and he had it on the next truck leaving the warehouse. They arrived that afternoon. Now, coupled with a new stereo receiver, we have achieved multimedia bliss.

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