Best Buy really is the best buy when it comes to appliances!

The compressor on our 15-20 year old refrigerator was getting loud and after letting it go for a few months we decided we better get a new one before we came home one day to spoiled food.

PPL Appliance Offer:
I saw a write up in the flyer which comes with our electric bill saying that PPL (our electric company) would come haul the old refrigerator away at no charge, recycle it, and give us $50. Sounds great! Going on the PPL website for further details revealed the downside to all this: you have to get the new refrigerator then find a place to store the old refrigerator for several weeks until you can get onto the PPL pick-up schedule which had very limited time slots requiring taking time off work (if you work a 9 to 5 job).

However, the website also indicated that PPL had an agreement with Best Buy to haul the refrigerator away immediately while still allowing me to qualify for the $50. Although we haven’t bought many appliances recently, our gut reaction was to go to Lowe’s. I’m not even sure we realized Best Buy sold appliances. But, since the Best Buy in our area is right next to a Lowe’s we thought …what the heck…let’s check it out…what do we have to lose?


Best Buy versus Lowe's:
It just so happened that Best Buy was having a big sale the weekend we went in. And, although they don’t have as large of a selection as Lowe’s, it was easy to find something we liked. In fact, the prices were so good (10-35% off) that we started to think about getting rid of our 20+ year old stove and 15+ year old countertop microwave in exchange for a matching set of stainless steel appliances.

Still, we went over to Lowe’s hopeful that they could do better. We had spent well over an hour looking around at Best Buy, but we left Lowe’s within minutes. No sales…and big price tags compared to Best Buy…there was no new stove or microwave in our future if we decided to buy at Lowe’s… not to mention the PPL hassle.


Delivery:
We went back to Best Buy and bought our matching appliances. They were delivered the following Saturday during the window of time we were told they would arrive and the delivery people were very conscientious …no scratches or dings on the appliances or the floor. But here comes the best part….


Price Matching and Google's Product Search:
We were told that if within 30 days the prices on any of our new appliances dropped we could ask for the better price. We went in to Best Buy two weeks later and asked the sales associate in the appliance department if any of the prices had dropped. He looked it up on the computer and told us “no” but he cleared up a misconception I had…it didn’t have to be the Best Buy price that dropped …if I found a better price in any store I could get the reduction!

Google has a beta site for product searches. Click “shopping” in the upper left-hand corner and then enter the model number of the appliance in the search field. A list of stores offering your appliance and the price they are asking comes up. We found better prices on 2 of the 4 appliances we purchased so we printed out the retailer’s webpage and took them in to Best Buy.

I expected a big hassle…things like this usually are. I went to customer service counter and within 10-15 minutes I was walking out of the store with $455.80 refunded on my MasterCard. Wow!

Then, I found an even better price on one of the appliances I’d already gotten a price reduction on…there is no way they are going to reduce it again…right??...wrong…they gave me a second price adjustment with no hassle.

I am a believer…Best Buy really is the best buy when it comes to appliances!