Complaint Review: Appliances Connection - Brooklyn New York

We've been ordering appliances from Appliances Connection for the past 3 years.  In 2011 we got a Washing Machine and Electric Dryer (which had to be installed on a second floor!).  In 2012 we got a dishwasher.  This year, 2013, today we just received our most recent order, a refrigerator and an electric oven/stovetop range.  In every case, we utilized white glove delivery and old appliance removal, which services were provided professionally by A&B Trucking (NY area, subject to sales tax).

We've always been happy with Appliances Connection's product selection, customer service (via their website ticket system and delivery/installation by A&B Trucking), and they've always been the best price and had helpful financing available.  However, I will admit the company does seem to have made some changes recently.  This year's order was the first time we had a shipment delay of about a month for items that were supposed to be in stock, much like the original poster here.  That was enough of a wait time that I started googling and came accross the posts on this website about the company, some of which quite frankly made my jaws drop!  But our order did finally come, and while there was some minor shipment scratch damage on the bottom back of the refrigerator (where nobody can see it), the A&B Trucking people actually pointed that out for us before bringing it in and unpacking, and we took photos as this might be eligible for a damage credit claim through Paypal, but otherwise isn't really an issue and could be manufacturer's packing error.

Besides delayed shipments, the other change is Appliances Connection has stopped accepting applications or offering financing plans through their GE Capital/GE Money store card (I'm not sure if they still allow charging non-promotional purchases to existing card holders, but why would you want to do that?).  They used to have 12- and 18-month no interest financing offers through that card, but now instead they have switched to promoting Bill Me Later via Paypal which just offers a 6-month no-interest, no-payments financing plan (which is free to them just for promoting the service).  That change has made this most recent order more difficult, as we are going to have to bootstrap Bill Me Later onto a credit card balance transfer offer to get the necessary 18-month term (and of course we'll have to pay some interest in the form of the transfer fee on the remaining balance after 6 months to do it)

We also did not have the same experience as the original poster with cancelling an order.  In fact, when we originally wanted to order, we were denied credit by Bill Me Later and had to place the order instead with a regular credit card, but 3 weeks later when the denial letter came in, it was just a security block and once cleared we had to cancel the original order and re-order using Paypal/Bill Me Later at checkout to get the financing plan.  In fact, when we called asking if we could do this, the representative cancelled the original order while we were on the phone without telling us even though we had asked not to do that until after the new order had been successfully authorized.  Price actually had dropped slightly since the original order, so this turned out to be in our favor in any event.  Like the original poster, the estimated delivery date advanced when the new order was placed, though maybe that was coming for us on the original order any way.

We had a bit of a communication problem when Appliances Connection sought to process the payment 14 days later once the items finally came into stock, since Bill Me Later again was security blocking the charges again and all Appliances Connection could see was the authorized payment was now being declined, but they did wait the several days and hold the order until we could get in touch wth Bill Me Later (whose offices were inexplicably closed for several days!) and offerred to accept an alternate payment method if we couldn't get the decline cleared.  Once the security block was cleared by Bill Me Later, they were able to process the original payment through Paypal without further incident and we got the promotional financing and credit line increase.

All in all, maybe we've just been lucky with Appliances Connection.  Their policy is you may cancel your order anytime prior to delivery, and indeed they do not charge the card until they get the items in stock and ready to ship.  Maybe the original poster had a $20 fee for requesting the items be shipped separately as they came into stock, but I don't think that is unreasonable at all, do you?

(price actually had dropped slightly, so this was a win-win)