On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 02:51:03 +0000, carl mciver wrote:
I'd have a sit down with the store manager (or better, the owner) and
explain why you did what you did. I suspect he'd be a little upset that his
store lost a sale because someone was being delinquent. If both of you,
after looking at the circumstances, come to the conclusion that the delay
was inevitable, he should still work with you to keep your business, because
he will understand your course of action. You are, after all, his paycheck
and it behooves him to keep you as his customer. These days you can buy
anything you want on line and completely skip the local brick and mortar
stores, and they know it all too well, especially with your recent purchase.
If he still isn't interested in keeping you happy, kindly explain that all
it takes is one unhappy customer to tell ten more who will no longer be
customers. Those ten more tell ten more. I'm sure as a business
owner/manager he's heard these rules before, but it may not be for his
benefit, it might be for the benefit of the employees who cost a sale.
Besides, as warranty work, he gets paid by the factory so there's
absolutely no skin off of his back.

That's my biggest peeve--warranty work should be warranty work. They
should be at risk for losing their factory-authorization for postponing
warranty repairs because they were purchased elsewhere.

Well, when I went back to drop off the welder, the manager was standing
there at the counter with the counter person and we discussed the issue a
little bit. I basically told them that I realize I am being made to wait
since I bought it elsewhere (the counter person agreed), and I could live
with that (like I had a choice), but in my defense I did try to get a
request from their shop first and didn't receive a timely response. At
that point the manager did become interested in the conversation.

Unfortunately, the counter person quickly stepped back in giving excuses
for why it took so long to get a response. He was blowing smoke up my @$$
at that point talking about how it takes so long for the message to go
through Miller's central office and then sent out to the store (like
there's some guy manually retyping the requests, looking up addresses in
an email book, and then forwarding them on only from 9 til noon, 4 days
a week or something). Rather than argue with the guy and remind them that
I received an email from Miller several days later asking if I had
received a reply yet, a day before actually getting a reply, I thought it
best to hold my tongue if I ever wanted to see my welder work again.

Also unfortunate, was that the store is part of a small chain so the
owner(s) is/are more than 200 miles away, and they have no competition for
over 40 miles around. Yes, the manager did seem to be concerned that he
had lost the sale of a welder, but I got the impression that he wasn't
going to lose any sleep over it.

Live and learn. My next big purchase may be semi-local. I definitely won't
purchase a welder over the internet again, but if the repair of this
welder takes 2 weeks or more, I won't be giving them any business (not to
mention that if this Miller breaks again 20 minutes after I get it back,
I'll be looking for a different manufacturer anyway).