A Comedy of Errors (minus the comedy) June 4th I ordered a new gas stove from a certain department store. I just finally got the delivery completed August 10th. I've written a timeline breakdown of how my efforts played out. I think it reads reasonably well in a trainwreck-y sort of way, and so it's inside if you care to read it.→[More:]

Timeline of stove purchase and delivery

June 4: Selected, paid for, and arranged delivery of a new stove from company store with the assistance of sales associate Chris P. The delivery order included instructions to take my former kitchen stove down to the basement apartment of my house, and to remove and scrap the old stove from the kitchen of the basement apartment. The delivery date on my receipt reads June 12, but this was later changed by the company to June 16.

June 16: Not having realized that I needed a licensed gas fitter to disconnect a gas stove, I wasn’t able to disconnect it myself the night before as I’d assumed I could do. When the deliverymen showed up to make the delivery at 9:55 p.m., I explained the situation to them and they told me I’d have to arrange a new delivery date with the store. Within the next few days I spoke to Chris by phone and told him I needed to book a gas fitter to disconnect the stove, and that I would call him when I had the stove disconnected. He informed me this was no problem, that the company could have the delivery a day after I called him back to give him the go-ahead.

I ended up having to book July 6th off from work in order to get my two stoves disconnected, so Chris and I arranged for delivery on the evening of July 6. During this phone call, Chris said that the stove had gone on sale in the interim, so he would credit $100 to my credit card.

July 6: Stoves were disconnected on this day, and new stove was to be delivered that evening. Then early that evening Chris called me and explained that even though he’d put a “hold for delivery” tag on the stove, it had been returned to the manufacturer, so it was going to take another week to get a delivery. He apologized profusely for the delay and, when I reminded him that I would be without a working stove for this time, said he would credit my credit card bill for the amount of the gasfitter’s disconnection bill to compensate me for the inconvenience.

July 13: Deliverymen showed up to make the delivery as planned but did not have the new stove with them. The delivery man told me we could do the delivery the next night, and assured me there was “no need to call the store”. He asked me what time they could come by, and I said, “After five o’clock.” He said, “Not before five?” and I said, “No, it must be after five.”

July 14: Arrived home to find a “Sorry we missed you” tag on my front door, with a time of 4:30 written on it. Called the number on the tag, and was told the “after five” direction wasn’t noted on the work order. The delivery was rescheduled for July 16.

July 16: Successful delivery of new stove. But it was found that the old stove could not be moved to the basement, nor the non-working stove removed from the basement as arranged because there was a countertop beside the back doorway to the kitchen that made the doorway a few inches too small for maneuvering a stove through it. The deliverymen told me they would need three or four men to be able to safely lift the stove up and over the countertop. They put the new stove in its place and left the former kitchen stove in the middle of my kitchen floor, and instructed me to call the company and arrange for a four-man moving team to complete the delivery. I called the company that day and requested a four-man moving team.

July 17: I received a phone call from a female employee of the company who informed me that the company would have to charge me extra for the four-man moving team. I explained that given that the company had messed up several delivery dates, I thought I should not be charged anything extra, and asked for stove moving date. The woman said that I would receive a call to set up a delivery date.

July 27: Having not received any word from the company since July 17, I called the appliance department and asked to arrange for a four-man team and a moving date. I was told to call the manager of that department, Linda, and arrange for this. I called her and she said she would have someone call me back. Someone did, later that day, a male, who said that I needed to call Linda again and tell her what my window was for delivery.

July 28: Called Linda and left an irate message on her machine expressing my frustration with how long this delivery was taking and asking her to please call me back promptly and make this delivery happen.

July 30: Having received no response from Linda, called her again, this time getting her on the phone in person. We arranged a delivery date for August 3. I was very careful to confirm all the details with her: when she initially said we could do the delivery August 2, I reminded her that August 2 was a statutory holiday, so she said we would do the delivery August 3. I asked if it was to be a four-man moving team, and said about three times that the delivery needed to be arranged for after five o’clock.

August 3: No-show by the company. At ten I found I had a voice mail message from a company delivery man who said that he needed a confirmation call from me in order to make the delivery. I called him back at that point, and he said that he had never been told to come by after five. He had come to my home at three and of course found no one home.

I explained the situation to him and he said he’d talk to his boss and call me back the next day. But he never did call me back.

August 5: Called the the company appliance department and spoke to Andre. He set up a delivery date for after 6 p.m. on August 9.

August 9: No-show by the company.

August 10: I remained home from work on this day due to illness. In the morning I got an unscheduled and surprise phone call from the company deliveryman asking if they could come by to move my stoves. Of course I said yes, and two deliverymen – not four, as the July 16th deliverymen had insisted were necessary - came by and moved my stoves with brisk comptence, finally completing the stove delivery. And one of the deliverymen asked me out.

In summation, I spent over a month without an operational stove, and nearly four weeks with a stove sitting in the middle of my (not large) kitchen floor. I had to make many phone calls and arrange a number of my evenings around being available for deliveries that ended up not happening. I was prevented from renting my basement apartment for August as planned, which meant lost income. And I suppose I needn't add there was quite a lot of aggravation involved. So this company is getting a detailed complaint letter. Let's see how they respond....