So ever since I neglected buying the wife a birthday present this year and she said "Buy me a big American Style Fridge" I’ve been on the lookout for a quality model at a decent price.
Anyone that knows me will know that, prior to making such a life changing purchse, I will thoroughly research the available models, every possible feature and narrow the choice down to two or three models. I will then spend hours googling for suppliers to find the best rate. To cut a long story short I had narrowed my choice down to the Samsung range, and specifically the RS21DCNS model. Many people were selling it priced from �650 up to �1,100, so I found the cheapest online retailer and placed an order.
Two weeks later I phone up said retailer to find they don’t deliver to Northern Ireland (hello Appliance City), that someone should have called me to tell me this, profuse apologies that no-one did, but that they could deliver to the nearest port. Like a 1 tonne Fridge at a UK mainland port is going to do me any good. So they thoughtfully cancelled my order. Back to the drawing board.
More searching revealed that my local Currys were having a easter sale and that they had this model at �799, but with �100 off making it �699. Well, not much difference between that and the failed online supplier, so off I trotted to Currys with credit card in hand.
Currys sales droid began the order process and somehow managed to place the order with shipping as a separate item at �999. After some quick assistance from someone more experienced got the right delivery code and announced delivery would be �49. What? �49 ? You have to be kidding right? You are only dropping it 10 miles up the road. Last year I bought a normal fridge, cooker and washing machine with total delivery cost of �15. I told said droid this and offered "If you can do delivery for �30, I’ll buy this right now". Hmmm, he thought, and went off to ask his manager. �Sorry no, we used t have discretion but we don’t any more�. Noted my disappointment, and after another failed managerial trip I said thanks, but no and left the store.
Now the missus being her normal self decided we weren’t going to get it any easier, and it was the last day of the �100 off deal so, under orders, went back to the Currys website and proceeded to place the order. At the checkout with �699 fridge + �49 delivery Currys offered me a Promotion Code box. Whato! Bit more googling and I have two promotion codes valid for the Easter weekend. One for free delivery (haha) and an added bonus of another code for 10% off all purchases over �199.
I now have said fridge, bought from Currys, delivered from Currys all for the grand sum of �629. Currys your lack of droid discretion cost you �100 guaranteed sale.
Net result: Missus is happy. I’m �100 better of. Cheers to Currys and zero negotiation tolerance. 