Goodbye Dishpan Hands

See this beauty? I'm saying goodbye! She's 15 years old and already been repaired at least once. This repair would have been the entire motor/pump assembly and with the differences in appliances now, it just wasn't worth it.

After a week and a half of unrelenting comparison shopping (that's what we did the day before the triathlon when the kids were staying with grandparents overnight: shopped for dishwashers. Sad, right?), I was tired, sticker shocked, annoyed and excessively knowledgeable about decibels, energy ratings, wash arms, motor horsepowers, cup clips, delay starts, cycle times, oh should I stop now?

I finally decided on a model at a local shop. It was a really solid deal, cheaper than Home Depot or Lowes, good features- a couple of tradeoffs but that's what you expect, right? I went looking for the phone number online only to stumble on a set of reviews of the shop itself. The reviews were terrible. There were 20 (a lot more than similar shops) and only one was positive. The stories were just the sort of customer service nightmares that make you feel like your head is going to explode. They were focused on appalling disinterest, deceit and in-your-face rudeness by the sales staff and the (new) owner that all began the second the sale was final. I considered that they might not be genuine, or could be sandbagged by a competitor or... but it just didn't seem like the place we wanted to work with.

Today I went to one last local shop (one with good reviews online), with the plan that if there wasn't anything there, I would go back and check with the Better Business Beaurau, etc. and see if I thought it would be wise to buy the one we had picked out. What do you know? Great selection, great prices, great service, a good warranty/service policy, and no tradeoffs. Just everything we were looking for. So, I jettisoned my usual "never make a major purchase on the spot" and "better sleep on it" policies and bought one. The salesman did some trading of inventory so that I can get it tomorrow morning! I still feel like I need to cross my fingers.