I was going to post the exact same question. My husband is pretty adamant about buying locally, but when you're talking savings upwards of $500, it is hard to resist. The local guy we talked to was so helpful, I'd feel pretty bad if I went on-line and bought, but then used them for service! The whole idea of making such a large purchase on-line does make me a little nervous. But I know people do it all the time with good results...
Re. prompt delivery; my local guy could get it in as little as two days. After all this time of thinking about it, I want it now!!

We bought our Thermador cooktop online and never had a problem - received full warranty service & the savings was substantial. We bought it from Distinctive Appliance out of Fla.

We didn't like US Appliance because we could never talk to anyone who would confirm they had what we wanted in stock. This added to our anxiety about doing it. We bought our matching venthood at Great Indoors, but there seemed to be a bit more risk involved, including we didn't know if we could get it to fit in our kitchen. It would have been easier to return to a store in town than to an internet supplier if that event had occurred.

3 years later we bought our Wolf double oven off Ebay & it looks good & works great. It wasn't exactly what it was advertised to be, but that worked to our favor (it's actually an unframed instead of the framed model if you were wondering). I would be very careful of ebay, I see a lot of incorrect advertising which may be intentional, and there is a lot of fraud. We were fraud targets a couple of times & so now we'll buy our appliances from reputable sources backed by BBB (which I think all the vendors mentioned in here, so far, are).

I am struggling with this myself. My issue isn't the fear of buying online - shoot, I can save over $1,000 doing so. Its I really don't need it for a few more months (and to get the savings I need to buy and have delivered now) and while I can store a 500+ pound range, I am worried about how they will move it from my garage to the kitchen when they need to. They will have to go over to separate tiled floors to do so.

So I can buy now, store it and hope my kitchen contractor can move it easily without damage to the tile - or I can wait and let the local appliance store deliver it when needed (and I am sure since they deal with moving these things every day, the risk of damage is less).

decisions, decisions. Any thoughts?

I'd do a google search on each and see what feedback you can find. We did this when considering online purchase. You have to weed through the feedback to get an overall vibe as it were and don't base your decision off of just one site (who knows who actually runs the site, maybe a competitor??). We found some online places that basically were stealing peoples money and not getting them the product and then all of a sudden there would be a group of great feedback. Once you see this pattern you realize the firm was posting their own glowing reports to counterbalance the acutal customers bad feedback for them.

You might also consider printing off the items from the sites that have lower prices that the retailer at least seems to be on the up and up. Then take those print outs down to the local store and explain that you would really like to purchase in town to support local businesses if it was affordable to do so.

We did this when looking at a range and although the in town dealer could not match the exact price he did take the price down to what they called the contractor price for us which made it only about $100 or so difference.

We ended up with different appliances in the end and bought our range locally for the same money or in some cases less than the online vendors were selling at. For us it was worth it to do so either way. Sure they could close, but we felt better that if we had a problem we could just go down to the store (been open since the 1970's) and get resolution.

Best of luck with it! Cheers

Most people don't know that it is actually cheaper to purchase a (High End) Vacuum in store than on the internet. It's one of the few mom & pop businesses that can compete with the box stores and the net! Most retailers who are Authorized service centers can save you $20-$100. They just can't advertise it. On a cheap vacuum they probably can't save you anything but may match a price to develop customer satisfaction.

We ended up buying our refrigerator from Abt Electronics, but waited until our kitchen was just about done delivery so we didn't have to worry about moving it more than once. I was quite pleased with their service--it was months and months of quotes and questions with Megan (my rep) as I was making the decision over which frig to buy--and it all went smoothly. Plus, we saved over $500 over buying locally, which made it even better. The frig was sent to a local distribution center and then *they* worked with me to arrange the delivery time/day so that was no problem either.

I have done a combination of local and online. My online purchases were from US Appliance and included the dishwasher, refrigerator and advantium. All transactions went smoothly and the savings were substantial. My range I purchased locally and it was a pain in the a**. The dealer screwed up the order and it took months to get. The range itself has been great, just the transaction was a problem. The range hood was a local purchase from a different dealer. This was a wonderful experience. They gave me the same price as online. I did have to pay sales tax but the service was excellent. Future purchases will be a comparison of the local dealer where I got the hood and the online stores.

berryberry: I recently had a post about a BlueStar range. The quote I got from AJMadisson was $2000 less than my lone local retail option. They did tell me that they can "hold" an order and ship at a later date which sounds like that might work for you. That would enable you to take advantage of the current prices and you wouldn't have to worry about storage. I'm not sure exactly how far out you can set your ship date, probably only a couple of months.

I have purchased through US Appliance and everything went a smooth as could be. The builders had no problems moving it from the garage to the kitchen (hardwood).

I am building a new home now, and printed out all the prices I was quote online to the local appliance store (a high end store) and they came in very, very, close - so they are getting the order this time around. You have nothing to lose by asking if the can match the price, if not - I would have felt 100% comfortable with buying online.

As I've been pricing appliances (and fixtures, sinks, etc.) for my kitchen remodel, I've been printing out the best prices that I can find on the internet. I bring in the print outs with me when I visit the local stores to let them see the prices. I'd prefer to purchase locally, but like everyone, I want to get the best price I can. So far, the local dealers here have met or beat the internet prices I have found. Maybe it's because construction/re-modeling is slow right now.

Some have had success buying on line and some have had nightmares, but the same could be said for buying locally. Ask a lot of questions, if they are shaky with their answers , or not giving answers, but giving non answers, such as it depends and we will back you up or we have been here for a long time. Your stomach is your best lie detector.

John just wrote a good piece on this very topic on our site here: Buying Appliances Online

For anyone who might be interested.

Anthony
Appliance Buyer's Guide