Adventures in Consumerland

As I mentioned in my earlier blog my washing machine has died so Mac and I were off to buy a new one today.  I knew what I wanted in a washer, I wanted it to be a top loader, I've had bad experiences with front loaders when we traveled in Europe, I wanted it to be white, I still remember the hideous gold, avocado and rust colored appliances they sold in the 70's and I wanted it to be really reasonably priced.
I'd done a bit of looking on the internet and we'd narrowed the shopping down to Lowe's and Home Depot because of proximity, price, they both give a 10% military discount  and range of product.  We went to Home Depot first because we've done a lot of business with them through the years and thought they'd be a good place to start and hopefully finish.
We were wrong!  No sale's associate in sight in the appliance department, Mac had to go looking for one and finally one reluctantly showed up.  When I showed her the model I was looking for she couldn't tell me how soon they could deliver it until I had said, no I didn't want an extended warranty, yes I wanted them to take away my old machine, yes there were stairs up to my house (and extra $15 charge for that), yes I wanted rubber hoses instead of stainless steel and then my zip code.  At which point she told me they could deliver the machine on October 10 about a month from now.  I laughed!  I told her that people only buy washers when their present one has broken and waiting a month for a new one was a bit unrealistic, so no thanks.  We left.
Drove to the other end of the shopping center where Lowe's was, went to the appliance center where an associate promptly met us.  I asked if I could have a washer delivered tomorrow and he said maybe. I picked one out, he looked it up, said it was out of stock but 2 were coming in this week and they could deliver it Wednesday.  I opted for Thursday and the deal was done.  In under 10 minutes we were out of the store with our delivery set up.
This is the 2nd time something like this has happened and I think that Home Depot will no longer be my store of choice.