Yesterday was the big day. I had the day off and my brand new Harman P61A was at the dealer, so I made the 30 minute drive to get return the older stove in exchange for the new one. When I got there, the dealer 'thought I had already come and picked it up'. What?! When we got to where the new stove was, I asked him how old the other was and he didn't think it could be more than a year or two old. This is where things started to warm up and get interesting. I told him that Harman said it is a month shy of 5 years old and he blew it off and he reply was that age didn't matter because it was only a demo stove and was still considered new, in his opinion. I then pointed out that I don't know anyone that would show up at the car dealership and pay top dollar for a car that had been sitting there for the past 5 years; it doesn't make sense. At this point, he's starting to get irritated with me, but I'm keeping my cool. He mentioned that it doesn't matter if the stove sits in Harman's warehouse or his for years, it's still a new stove. At this point, I told him I was feeling uneasy about the prospect that some form of fraud was involved here. "I can get you the number to the state attorney general if you'd like!" I told him that I already had the number in my pocket (along with the local PD, BBB and newspaper), so that wasn't necessary. "Then file the claim!" I just want to swap stoves and avoid those measures.
We then got into a discussion of how the age of the stove was unknown until I contacted Harman because I noticed that the label didn't match the one pictured in the manual that shows a mfg date. He tried telling me that date was on the label of the stove I initially purchased and that the label has been the same for the past 20 years. It obviously wasn't and I told him that he can just look at the one on the stove in the back of my truck to verify. That just tee'd him off and he started huffing about let's just get this over with. I agreed, but not before finding out how old the new stove was. He guaranteed that it was probably a couple years old, as well, because they make these things in advance. I mentioned that if it was, I'll ask for my money back. "Fine, I'll just give you your money back now!" Can I open the box first? Shortly after this, he discovered that the tag on the box stated a mfg date of Aug 2013. Great, I'll take it.
We went inside and he double checked all of my information, along with informing me that the stove would be registered electronically. After one of his employees loaded the new stove with the fork lift, I went back inside to make sure we were all square. The dealer walked over to me, shook my hand and sincerely apologized for the whole ordeal in front of his employee and another customer. I appreciated that and told him that if he's interested in selling the stove that I brought back at a much discounted price, let me know because I'm interested. The free ton of pellets stayed free, as well.
My take: I went to a platinum dealer that has a pretty busy stove department in his True Value branded store. He's an older guy that probably needs a couple more employees running around to help him out. I've employed over 60 15-22 year old individuals in my business, so I'd like to believe that I'm pretty good at reading people and deciphering whether or not they're lying to me. In my opinion, this dealer really didn't know how old this stove was and wasn't trying to outright hose me in the deal. I believe that he is so busy that he isn't keeping track of details very well AT ALL. He didn't even check to make sure I brought the old stove back (
), for instance.
This really makes me question the qualification requirements for becoming the second highest level of a Harman dealership. This dealer gave me advice and opinions that were in direct contradiction to the owners manual. I hope that this dealer is a reflection of the minority of dealers out there.
Hopefully, my experience helps my fellow pellet stove newbies in their future dealings with dealers for what to look out for, questions to ask, etc.
We then got into a discussion of how the age of the stove was unknown until I contacted Harman because I noticed that the label didn't match the one pictured in the manual that shows a mfg date. He tried telling me that date was on the label of the stove I initially purchased and that the label has been the same for the past 20 years. It obviously wasn't and I told him that he can just look at the one on the stove in the back of my truck to verify. That just tee'd him off and he started huffing about let's just get this over with. I agreed, but not before finding out how old the new stove was. He guaranteed that it was probably a couple years old, as well, because they make these things in advance. I mentioned that if it was, I'll ask for my money back. "Fine, I'll just give you your money back now!" Can I open the box first? Shortly after this, he discovered that the tag on the box stated a mfg date of Aug 2013. Great, I'll take it.
We went inside and he double checked all of my information, along with informing me that the stove would be registered electronically. After one of his employees loaded the new stove with the fork lift, I went back inside to make sure we were all square. The dealer walked over to me, shook my hand and sincerely apologized for the whole ordeal in front of his employee and another customer. I appreciated that and told him that if he's interested in selling the stove that I brought back at a much discounted price, let me know because I'm interested. The free ton of pellets stayed free, as well.
My take: I went to a platinum dealer that has a pretty busy stove department in his True Value branded store. He's an older guy that probably needs a couple more employees running around to help him out. I've employed over 60 15-22 year old individuals in my business, so I'd like to believe that I'm pretty good at reading people and deciphering whether or not they're lying to me. In my opinion, this dealer really didn't know how old this stove was and wasn't trying to outright hose me in the deal. I believe that he is so busy that he isn't keeping track of details very well AT ALL. He didn't even check to make sure I brought the old stove back (
), for instance.This really makes me question the qualification requirements for becoming the second highest level of a Harman dealership. This dealer gave me advice and opinions that were in direct contradiction to the owners manual. I hope that this dealer is a reflection of the minority of dealers out there.
Hopefully, my experience helps my fellow pellet stove newbies in their future dealings with dealers for what to look out for, questions to ask, etc.
) to myself, but I would double check with Harman and make sure the stove was in fact registered properly, which it probably was.
