Adventures in Homeownership: The Agony of Comparison Shopping

I promised a little story about the experience we had buying our first major appliance. Let me take you back just a bit. On my birthday in April, we bought a dishwasher. Since Dave does not do dishes (he cooks, and I clean), I was in quite a hurry to replace our non-functioning dishwasher with one that actually worked. 

So, we went looking for a dishwasher. The things we focused on were:

·         Price (we were trying to get one in the $350-$400 range)

·         Energy efficiency

·         Noise (low decibels)

·         Smudge-proof stainless steel

We went to several places – a wide range of stores, small appliance stores to the large “big box” chains – to see if we could find one that would meet our criteria, and each store offered its own unique experience.  We started with the big box stores (we went to three), where we found that the sales people were willing to take time to walk around with us, tell us about their personal experiences with certain dishwashers, share what other customers were looking for, and answer our questions. They were willing to print off information from their website about each model. When there was something you couldn’t tell from the tag (i.e. what the decibel rating was, or if the dishwasher was available in the smudge-proof stainless), they didn’t mind researching that information for us. Since they spent so much time with us, we asked each person if they were working on commission (so we could look for them if we came back), but they all answered “no.” While they would be happy to sell us the dishwasher, anyone else on the sales staff could help us. 

We then went to two small appliance stores in our area (and my opinion is just based on these two specific places). At the first one we went to, no one came to help us, so we walked out pretty quickly. Next, we tried the store where we had bought our grill a few years back. The young man who had sold us the grill did not make commission on the sale, had spent plenty of time with us, and had really told us a lot about the grill, so we decided to try this store again. This time, the sales person in the appliance department was terrible! When we described our list of important items, his response was, “I’m sorry, you won’t be able to find anything in that price range. This one has everything you’re looking for, and it’s a steal at $850!” I then asked about the decibel range, and he answered, “It’s on the tag…” OK, I’m a reasonably observant person, but the reason I asked was because it was not on the tag. Ultimately, he agreed that the tag didn’t have the information, but instead of checking for it, he just said, “All new dishwashers are practically silent. It doesn’t really matter what the rating is, they’re all quiet.”  (While I realize that yes, anything would sound quieter than our previous dishwasher, which sounded like a freight train, I was looking for sound data in order to compare my purchases.) Finally, I asked about commission, and he admitted that he did work on commission.

None of this made us feel good about buying a dishwasher at this store. I appreciate that that the sales person was so attentive, but he didn’t seem to listen very well, and he didn’t leave us alone at any point to discuss between ourselves what we were learning. That was a bit frustrating….

In end, the actual decision was very easy to make, with “black and white” evidence that reassured us that we were getting the best deal. At one of the big box stores we found a dishwasher that had all the bells and whistles we wanted, as well as a smudge-proof stainless finish. It was a display model that looked as good as new. (It was on the second shelf, so it hadn’t been opened and closed very often and hadn’t been bumped into.) We received a discount because it was a display model, and, because it happened to be on sale that week, we were able to stay within our price range.

Even so, before we made our final decision, we went home and read the online reviews. They were about 90% positive; every once in a while you would see that one caught on fire (this seemed to be common among most dishwashers that we researched, could be installation error…), and then there were others that had ridiculously high expectations (like it didn’t put the dishes away, too...)

So, this is what we learned:

1)      Always do your homework. What are the things that you just have to have (NEEDS) vs. things you would like (WANTS)? Go in with some expectations, and make sure to stick to your budget.

2)      Find out who you are working with (commission vs. non-commission) and store policies (whether the store will price match, whether they give discounts for open box items or floor models….)

3)      Read the online reviews. They may cause nightmares, but you should be able to get a feel which are normal down-to-earth problems and which are just rants by a crazy person.…

4)      Ask your friends and family what they like and dislike about their appliances.

Buying our first appliance made me a bit of a “nervous Nellie,” but in the end it worked out great. We now run two loads a week in the dishwasher (I used to do one with our old one), but – since the new model is a water saver – we use less water, and our bill has actually gone down! Plus, we now know what questions to ask when we are appliance shopping and are no longer intimidated by sales people. Win-Win!