Sunday, September 28, 2008

My Cebu : Home Appliance Shopping (SM Appliance)


I stayed for another 10 days in Cebu recently and was tasked by my family to purchase a simple washer. My mom didn’t want to burden the house-help so much and wanted her to have an easier life. We agreed to just buy a small washer (5kg or so) minus the spin dryer. We have a very reliable clothesline area at home. Brian (my hubby) who was my partner in this task asked me if there were appliance centers alongside the Cebu South Road. I told Bri there are lots of appliance centers in Cebu, big ones are Citi Appliance, Gillamacs ... but I’ve never bought in any of these places.

So past experience in setting up our place in Mandaluyong told me the best place to go was SM Appliance Center. So off we went and was at SM City Cebu by 10am. We browsed through the displays and an SM attendant answered our questions. Unfortunately, for our top 2 choices, they didn’t have stocks and only have items on display – NO I’m not buying display items unless its discounted. But SM as they are, they couldn’t give me that discount which other smaller appliances in the city would have given. So we bought option 3, a Sharp washer. The SM attendant told us that delivery to our place is P520, just as I thought, pay P520 delivery for a 3k product! We told her we have an SUV and we can just bring it home. She replied saying, that the people working at the warehouse were not available yet and we should come back at 11am. So to make things faster, we paid in advance and browse around looking for refrigerators.

Time passed and by 11am we gave our receipt to the claim counter. The lady told us, item is not available yet and they don’t know how many minutes more it’ll take for the item to be brought in the store from the warehouse. To really show more incompetence, this lady called up another attendant and asked what time ... she was answered maybe 15 or 30 mins more while cutting paper in front of us. There you GO! INCOMPETENCE at the core. In instances like this, I look for the manager to get what I want. Well, the manager was able to have the item brought in, in 15 min. Boy, I sure was mad as hell by this time, we were already in the store for more than an hour and purchased a freaking 3k washer! My bag is more expensive than this! Grrrr ...!

Lesson learned, never buy in impersonal stores like SM Appliance Center in a place like CEBU. In impersonal Manila, maybe it works best but in Cebu, stick with the locals! I should have went to the downtown area and went to the many appliances stores there, they would have been more attentive and fast! Ah the problem of the big retailers, loyalty maybe low because service is just terrible ... no wonder my dad never bought any of our appliances at SM Appliance Center! Dad knows best!


Mrs Jane B.

5 comments:

Mrs Jo said...

Sm Appliace Cebu...is BIG JOKE from supervisor,Manager down to the sales person is F*** uselesssssssssssss...I RATHER SHOP IN COLON THAN IN SM..

SYSTEMATIC???????????? NOT IN THE MILLION YEARS

Unknown said...

can you recommend an appliance store in cebu city where i can buy a portable aircondition besides sm. i'll be visiting in january from calif and need a portable ac to move around the house.

Administrator said...

Jane, Don't isolate SM Cebu. SM Bacoor and SM MOA is just as INEFFICIENT as SM Cebu.

They have been hiring managers that cannot flex their processes for the sake of customer satisfaction.



CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS KING. How many times do we have to remind them. This is an overused cliche.

Htennek said...

I never imagined SM Cebu is like that. Anyways I would like to recommend an appliance store in cebu city that offers installment plans on appliance and furnitures.

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