On November 29th, I ordered a new washer and dryer at HomeDepot.com. The online inventory system confirmed that they were in stock and gave me a delivery date of Thursday, 12/9. Home Depot charged my credit card nearly $1600.00.

The confirmation email said that they would contact me the day before delivery and would give me a window of time, either a.m. or p.m, for delivery. Since the delivery time was vague, I had to take the entire day off without pay. I'm in sales and my appointments are scheduled in advance.

2 days before the delivery date, I got a call saying that the dryer was on back order and that they would not be delivering on time. When I asked when the delivery would happen, the caller said, we'll call you Monday and let you know.

Monday came and no call. I went online to Sears and found a good deal on another system and was about to order it, but first I called Home Depot customer service and told them I wanted to cancel my order. They told me that the dryer was in the warehouse and that the delivery had been rescheduled for Thursday, 12/16. They assured me that the dryer was now in stock and would be delivered. I asked twice. They did offer me a $100 Home Depot gift card if I would keep the new delivery date. I agreed and canceled my Sears appliance order. Again, I had to take the day off.

The day before the new scheduled delivery, I did not receive a call toschedule a delivery time. Thursday morning I called Home Depot to see when theappliances were to be delivered and was told that the dryer was on back order. When I asked when it would be delivered, they said, next Thursday the 23rd. I told the rep thatthis was not acceptable and asked to speak to her supervisor. She put me on hold and came back after several minutes and said that the supervisor couldn't talk with me right now, but that they would call me today for sure to tell me when he could get me the washer and dryer. As expected, nobody called me.

I went back to Sears.com to order the other washer and dryer set and the price is now over $200.00 more than what I could have bought them for the previous week.

So, Home Depot has had my money for several weeks and can't tell me when they'll deliver the product. We've been without a washer and dryer for over a week, because I removed the old system in anticipation of delivery of the new system. If I buy the comparable system at Sears, the price is now over $200.00 higher. Plus, I'm out 2 days pay at about $400.00 per day.

But what's even more irritating is that nobody at TheHome Depot seems to give a crap. The phone support staff acts like this is a normal way of doing business for them and I should rearrange my life to accomodate their lack of customer service. Nobody has ever called and said they were sorry, and I still don't know if and when the appliances that I've already paid for will be delivered.

At this point, I'm going to try to cancel my order by calling the credit card company and disputing the charges. I'll have to pay more for a different set of appliances from another vendor, but I will never set foot in Home Depot again. They've lost thousands in future sales because of their poor customer service and indifferent attitude.