Life in Guelph Ontario Canada

Summary: I wouldn’t recommend anyone to buy or order appliances from the Brick in Guelph.

While the sales staff is very friendly and supportive prior to a sale I have a little story to tell you about my personal experience. I ordered a fridge and stove from the Brick store in Guelph and paid for delivery and paid extra for the setup. The salesman explained to me the setup fee was extra as they would setup everything other then plugging it in. So great don’t mind paying $50 for someone to setup this for me.

So the delivery day arrived and the first thing that was off is the delivery driver called and said he would be at my house between 10:30 and 12:00 so I took a couple hours off work and headed home during that time. Well come 12:30 they hadn’t arrived and I called up the Brick to see where they where. The switch board couldn’t reach the driver and they said just for me to wait longer. So I waited and 15 minutes later they arrived, maybe my mistake to think that a delivery would be more important then their lunch.

Anyways so they came in put the fridge in its spot and right away the delivery guy said, “oh going to need to adjust the feet on the fridge” as it was sitting at about a 10 degree angle as the front feet where fully extended while the back feet where not. Not an issue I thought as that’s what the setup was for. Next the stove came in and well it had a lot of tape and other things all over the front and top it was also put in the spot for the stove.

Next thing I expect was for them to remove the packing/shipping material and adjust the fridge so that it was level, put the handle on the fridge so that it could be used. Well this didn’t happen, the next thing they did was ask me to sign approving the delivery. I said but the setup isn’t finished and I can’t even see half the stove as it is still covered in packing/shipping tape and other shipping material. They looked at me and said oh we don’t do any setup services. So we called the Brick here in Geulph and asked the sales person and while I did pay $50 for “setup” it turns out they only call removing the item from the box as a setup service. Removing packing tape, making sure that the item has no scratches, making the fridge into a useable item with door handles and doing anything else has nothing to do with setup in the Bricks eyes.

So the lady on the phone at the Guelph Brick store said that they never actually setup anything for customers that all they do is remove something from a box and no further packaging/shipping material remove. She also said that they refuse to do anything else and she would have the drivers take the items back if I didn’t want to do all the setup and the further unpacking myself.

So of course I said good idea you can have the items back and I will do what I can to ensure that other people in Guelph understand the level of after sales support you provide. Which is why I am adding this entry into my blog, using my knowledge of Google ( http://www.google.com/search?q=the+brick+guelph ), and also why I wouldn’t recommend anyone buying appliances from the Guelph Brick store, unless of course you don’t care about after sales service and if that’s the case might as well save yourself a bunch of money and buy from any of the online retailers who don’t lie about the no service aspect of the products they sell.

Here are some other options for furniture and appliance in Guelph:

Far East Clearance
http://www.fareastclearancecentres.com/
I’ve bought my sofa set from them and had really good service and after sales support as one special screw in the sofa came out and the owner’s son himself came and reinstalled one for me.

Shuh Appliance Center’s
http://www.shuhappliance.com/
While I’ve never bought something from them they do have a very large selection of appliances and will be one of the places I look at as I still need a fridge and stove.

Acker's Furniture
http://www.ackersfurniture.com/
What a homegrown store, this family run business is very personal touch. The owner of the store personally delivered my table and chairs. This place is most defiantly worth a look over as they have a little bit of everything.

Sears Guelph
http://www.sears.ca/
While not something I highly recommend they do have a selection of appliance. The only problem is you won’t be getting any nice before sales service as the sales people within the appliance department are not too friendly and come off as used car salesmen.


I’ll add in more options and if I get any news back from the Brick I’ll post an update here.

Follow up on this story:

Actually this story written above wasn’t put online till today as I wanted to get the response from salesman at the Brick. He wasn’t working till today which is why the delay. I went into the Brick this morning and funnily the manager of the store and the salesman where having a meeting about me and I joined them. The manger of the store said and I quote “nobody setups the appliances for customers” his reference to nobody was in that not only does the Brick never setup things for the customers that nobody in the industry does.

Well I didn’t mention it to him but the day before I went to Shuh Appliance Center’s with my receipt from the Brick and they sold me the same items at the same price and defiantly ensured me that they setup and have everything in working order before they leave the customers house.

The manager never apologized for this he simply went on about how customers seem to misunderstand that when they pay for a setup it only means that they will remove the box. He also made it clear to me how much they lost on this deal and how upset the driver was and at the end he added, I am sure that this was an inconvenience to you also. It sure was, but I did get an apology from the salesman he’s a good guy stuck in a bad situation. He couldn’t say anything with his boss standing in front of him and only when he left did he apologize and I could see he felt bad.

To add salt to an already open wound this next thing is so shocking it even got the fraud department at my bank calling me. Since I returned the good to the Brick they where to refund my credit card. Didn’t think much of this until I got a call from the fraud department at my bank as there was some unusual activity on my card. It turns out the Brick refunded my card and then charged me again for the stove and fridge. Add to this the charge from Shuh (which was authorized) and my personal banker flagged it and had the fraud team investigate. Sure enough the Brick did charge me again for the stove and fridge as when I went in today the lady at the counter had thought that I still had the stove and fridge at my house.

It turns out on the same day that I returned my stove and fridge another customer with the same issue with the “setup” fee/service asked for a refund. This customer got his refunded but the Brick had decided to actually give him the setup service that he request which was to actual setup his appliance. The lady got this person and me mixed up and charged my credit card again rather then the other persons. Good thing my bank watches my credit card charges as more then likely the Brick would have just kept my money.

While this is just my opinion and my experience, I think you all would understand why I give caution to anyone buying appliances from the Brick in Guelph.