We bought a washing machine to replace one that began death-rattling, a pedestal for the washing machine and a pedestal for our older dryer. Barry's installers came out and hooked everything up.
Our washing machine began making hideous rattling noises (after only 6 years) and a repairman (independent) came out and told us we had days, weeks, or at best a few months before we had a huge problem that would cost in parts almost what a new machine would cost. So, we started shopping for a washing machine. Hit all the big box stores and hardware stores, and felt pretty annoyed at the service interactions - lots of "can't do" and poor product knowledge. Then we remembered that we'd bought our whole house full of appliances (back six years ago) from a place and we really liked them... but we couldn't remember the name of the store, couldn't find any paperwork to remind us. But we did remember where they were, so we drove over. Barry's! What a total difference from the other places. We had a salesman connect with us immediately. He listened to what we wanted, and then walked us around to the machines that fit what we were looking for. For each one, he explained what he thought were the best features, comparatively, and for each of the brands also talked with us about the next most expensive and next least expensive models. When we joked about our shopping experiences so far, he said "We'll beat the pants off of those other stores' prices." When we said we also wanted a pedestal for our old dryer, he hunted down the information but couldn't confirm the model since it was the weekend and the manufacturer was closed. However, he said he'd get the info Monday and call us, and we wouldn't pay them for that until then, over the phone. When all was said and done, they didn't beat the pants off the other store prices, but they did turn them into cutoffs... They were less expensive overall, by a bit. However, the service attention was WAY better. No hyping extended service plans- they offered, and when we said no, they moved on. They even filled out the rebate forms for us, stapled receipts to them. While we were there, we saw some customers come in to see specific salesmen, and if those salesmen were busy, they'd get one of the guys who wasn't busy to help the customer, saying "No reason for you to wait around if we've got people who can help." They pitched in for each other, putting the customer first. When delivery day came, the two men who showed up got the old washer out and new one in without doing any damage, which is unique these days. We'd wanted to switch the positions of the washer and dryer so the doors would open away from each other, but they showed us we couldn't - our washing machine pan is plumbed into a drain and it would have been a huge task. I wasn't very happy about that, but did agree that it just wasn't feasible, so I'd just swap the dryer door myself later. To my surprise, when they left, they'd done that for me - didn't tell me or make a big deal out of it, but they were paying attention and managed to deliver a nice surprise. We always prefer to deal with local businesses when we can, when the prices are at least comparable, because we feel like there's better service when there's a personal relationship. Yeah, there's really a Barry - and we got a nice thank you for not just this purchase but also for the purchases we'd made years ago. If we'd have remembered Barry's right off, we'd have saved ourselves a few hours of annoyance at the big box stores. We won't make that mistake again.
