In Paula’s letter to Consumerist, she said something unusual that caught our eye. She sincerely wished that she had ordered her new dishwasher from Sears rather than Lowe’s. What makes a person express such crazy desires? She had assumed that the “delivery date” displayed for shoppers on the Lowe’s site stood for the date that the appliance would be delivered to and installed in her home. Not quite.

My dishwasher caught on fire a couple of weeks ago and with two sick kids under the age of 4, I could not get out to the store to buy a new one. I elected to order one from Lowes.com because they had the best price on the one I wanted. (Consumer Reports top rated choice, I should add!) The website indicated that the delivery date would be 3/27/12. I just contacted Lowes to confirm and they told me that the dishwasher will get to the STORE on March 27th and then the store will deliver it at their earliest convenience to me.

I find this delivery date very deceptive. Nowhere on their website does it indicate that the delivery date is to the store. I would have gone with Sears.com even though the dishwasher was more expensive if I had known. I think Lowes is purposely misrepresenting their delivery date because they are so much slower than their competitors.

Also, there is another lesson in this: NEVER run your dishwasher unattended or even over night.

Both solid consumer tips. Thanks, Paula. But to be fair, it’s not like their competitors are all that speedy with the deliveries, either.

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