Quality Service - Dirty Dirty "Lowes" Down

"Lowes" Hits a Low With Me

My wife recently bought seven light fixtures for our house, rather expensive ones I might add. She hired an electrician to install the fixtures. It was determined two of the seven were defective (missing parts, shorts in wiring).

We decided to take them back tonight to get a refund and express our displeasure that we had to pay the electrician per fixture and because the two were defective it cost more because of the hourly rate.

When explaining this to the so-called Customer Return Specialist she said rather loudly that we should report the electrician and his company to the BBB. When I explained that Lowes should be responsible for having defective products on their shelves she again said loudly that "Lowes has no control over that!" I responded by asking how would I know if there were any missing parts when I go to buy the next two and she replied "Your guess is as good as mine."

I was now ready to teach a lesson on Quality and Customer Service. After all if 2 out of the 7 fixtures we bought (all by the same company - Portfolio and style family) were defective (28%) is a bad rate. Why would Lowes not have some sort of customer supplier agreement going on with Portfolio?

I walked away and left my wife to deal with the Customer Specialist. I guess it's like the old Quality saying that many dissatisfied customers will just go away and tell ten other people. In my case it will be much much more.

When we went to pick out the replacement fixtures my wife became concerned that what would we do if there were parts missing out of these boxes? You see "ALL" the boxes had been taped, perhaps someone does do a check to make sure all the parts are included. I decided to cut the odds and the box with my pocket knife to determine if the inside contents had been disturbed.

Luckily they had not and we purchased two more fixtures hoping that these would not have shorts. My wife became nervous when an employee approached my while cutting. I looked up and said "Do you have a Problem with me checking to make sure all the parts are here?" Ah, no sir and he walked away.

I can tell you now two days later the fixtures are mounted and working fine, and oh yes I had to pay the electrician to come back again and no I'm not calling BBB.

What I will do is be much more selective in the places I shop and the suppliers they deal with for obtaining their products.