This is a combo Rant/Banter and HHJJ!

So I am just going to put it in a separate thread! I will do this in a few posts so it isn't so overwhelming!

When we ran a gas line to our grill the plan was to hook up Natural gas to it so we didn't have to make sure we had enough propane. However, when we hooked it up, we discovered that the grill was not compatible with Natural Gas! So in order to not make the cost of running the line a total waste, we decide that now we have to get another grill.

First order of business, talk to Walmart about returning the one we bought a month ago. Told them the whole story, they say that's fine, bring back the old grill (even though we've used it a lot) and they will just defect it and refund our money. That is a $250 grill.

Second, go to Sears and find a grill that will work with both kinds of gas. Find a nice one, and it is on sale for $399 (regular $469) with free assembly. So I go home to research it on Consumer Reports and it turns out it is a CR Best Buy. Done deal, I'm getting it. I order it online for merchandise pick up because they won't deliver an assembled grill. But there is nowhere to tell them I want it assembled, so after I order it, I call and talk to someone who emails the store manager, gives them my order info and tells them I want it assembled.

Also, ordering it online gave me another $25 off, so now it's costing me $374 plus tax.

I get a call Friday saying it is ready to pick up. On Saturday morning I think I better call to make sure it is assembled before I go get it. Turns out it it is still in the box, no one read the email! So I tell them that someone dropped the ball and I want it assembled today (yesterday) so I can pick it up later in the day. I wasn't going to wait another 4 or 5 days for them to assemble something that already should have been done!

The guy says he would call me back on a phone that he could connect me to the store manager in a couple of minutes. 10 minutes go by so I call back and get the manager on the phone. He says that he found the grill and it had been assembled and to come on by right now and I could pick it up. After I hang up with him, the guy I talked to earlier calls back and says he was told to assemble the grill and to come by in an hour to pick it up. RED FLAG! I tell him I just talked to the mangaer who told me to just comme by. What does he want me to do, come by or wait. He says come on over.

So Jacqui and I get in the truck and head down to Sears to get our brand new, assembled grill. We get there, and the first thing I do is go to the floor to make sure the floor model is still there. It is not, which means I am probably getting the floor model. No problem, I'll just ask for another 10% off.

I meet the manager and he said it had already been assembled, but the guys in back didn't know where it was. I ask him if I am getting the floor model. He tells me no, I am getting a new one. After mentioning that I went and looked and saw that the floor model is missing, he tells me somebody bought the old floor model and he had this one assembled on Thursday, and that in fact I was getting the "new" floor model. So I tell him I expected to get the floor model price. After some hesitation he decides I am right and starts working on getting me some refunded.

In the meantime, they are bringing the grill out to load in the back of the truck. The guys wouldn't let Jacqui look at it real good and lift it up and put it in the back of the truck. Jacqui asks why the door wasn't closing right, and they said it's ok, it's just because the propane hose was in the way. After they put it in, she climbs up and looks at it, and the left door has a dent in it and it just looks, worse for wear. Still totally functional but defintiely older than two days.

She comes and gets me and tells me to come look at it. I head out and the manager follows. As soon as he sees what it looks like, he knows the is screwed. I say, you did NOT put this together on Thursday. This is the floor model that has been out for MONTHS! I say I need more taken off the price now. He goes to work to see what he can take off. Jacqui and I decide we want about a third off since we have been lied to about the whole thing.

He comes back and says he can sell it for $289. I say I want more ($289 is under 24% off the $374 I paid online). He writes down some figures and he says look, 30% off is what he was offering. But he doesn't know I am pretty good at math. I say no, it's less than 25%. SO he looks a little more and says that's as low as he can go. I say I think you can go down to $265 (another 24 bucks to save the sale and face, since customersare now kinda listening in to what's going on). He says fine. $265, and has a salesman write it up. $265 is about 29% off, the item is functional and will probably look like it does now in a few months of use anyway. So it's not one-third, but I can live with it.

We do the deal, and I take it home, get it set up and we are going to cook steaks last night on it. And use the side burner to cook the asparagus. I get the grill going and take the steaks and pan of asparagus out. throw the steaks on and go to light the side burner.That's when I notice it has no grate to set the pan on! So we cook the asparagus inside, eat our meal and I head back to Sears to get the grate and the instructions which I didn't get earlier.

After an hour there, I walk out with what I want, but they originally wanted to just print me out a manual and try to guess which grate I needed and take it off one of the grills on the floor. I finally convince the night manager that they need to open the box that was supposdly mine to pick up earlier in the day, take out the instructions and give me the grate.

What a bad experience. It's the first time I had a bad experience at Sears, EVER, so it's not going to keep me from going back. But I sure was disappointed in the way I was lied to by the manager. I won't pursue anything but if I get a customer satisfaction survey on this purchase, I think I will copy and paste this whole post into it!

Now I just need to go to the Sears Service Center, pick up the Natural Gas conversion kit and change out the orifices.

Wow, what a nightmare. You showed more restraint than I would have, along with the smarts to get a good deal out of it. I'd have told the guy what he could have done with the grill and then went somewhere else that cost me twice as much, lol. Glad you got it figured out.

Thats crap he lied to you. I would have been wanting half off for the lying then the dent in it and floor model discount on top of that. Then he tried to screw you on the math part to. O well at least you got it now.

Pictures?

Here's the link: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_07116657000P?sid=comm_sears_productpg

And now I guess I can start ranting again because it's $349 online now! lol

I had a natural gas grill setup like that on my deck many years ago living in Missouri and loved it. I went from that to a little Weber charcole grill, lol. Talk about a rant, thats what a divorse will do, haha.

Heck of a story Smalls, like Duey said , you showed more restraint than I did. I am glad at the end of the day you got what you wanted and it works for you. I think I might of bounced the grill off the manager's head after al the lying.

Wow! I would have just walked away and let them refund me. You do better at haggling than me.

White Rhino said:

I think I might of bounced the grill off the manager's head after al the lying.

Click to expand...

That could have been the excuse of having a dent in the door.

Just ordered the conversion kit. (Gotta do that after everything else, since that's the whole point of changing grills!)

$88 bucks shipped to my door. More than I wanted to spend but what are ya gonna do?

smalls, you are way more patient than me. i would have lost it when he said this is the "new" floor model.

Dang smalls, I woulda straightened the dent by slamming the door on his head...

aggro said:

Dang smalls, I woulda straightened the dent by slamming the door on his head...

Click to expand...

You learn to pick your battles. I chose to make the best of a bad situation and get as much off as I could. They still made money on the deal or he wouldn't have gone that low. He just made less on his commission.

Plus it is put together which saved me at least an hour of frustration at home! I just spent that time in the store!

i need a new car soon... will you come with me? pleeeeeze

I do like to haggle. Shoulda seen me in Hawaii! LOL Of course, there, I probably didn't do as good as I thought I did since they live to haggle! It helped though that a lot of vendors thought I was a local boy!