Hooray for the local store!
I love Amazon. I’m now buying the majoriy of our music (drm free mp3’s and cds) there as well as most things given the choice. Compared to other online stores, they are one of the best.
But they aren’t always the best. At least not for physically large items.
About a month ago, we decided it was time to buy a new gas grill for our deck.
After researching various makes & models, we decided which unit to buy. As luck would have it, it was available on Amazon. Expected delivery was a week later so I clicked the buy button and I was off and running.
But it didn’t come a week later. Nor did it come the week after that. Calls to Amazon’s customer service didn’t help. Three weeks later I tried to cancel my order but they said I couldn’t since the product was en route. Bummer. But they said I could just deny the actual delivery and that would trigger a refund. Okay, no sweat.
Except I still didn’t have the grill.
We live in a small suburb outside of Boston. I called our local hardware store one late afternoon. They said they had the unit in stock and would deliver it that day, set it up plus remove our old one. For free.
Wait there’s more :)
They even gave us an additional propane tank for free as a kicker.
I’m still buying most “commodity” items on Amazon. But this was a score for the local merchant. And that felt pretty good to me.
