How to Get the Best Deal on Your New Name-Brand Major Appliance

How to Get the Best Deal on a New Name-Brand Major Appliance

By John C Fisher

If you are looking to buy a new name-brand major appliance, you don’t want to just go to any store and make a purchase unless you have done your due diligence research first. You probably have some idea of what manufacturer you are looking for, before you walk out your door, but there’s more to it than just that.

Find your manufacturer’s model numbers for the appliances that you are interested in before you start doing your pricing and consumer review research. Once you have your model numbers you can start by checking out consumer reviews on the models you are interested in. I suggest you check Consumer Reports and JD Powers. You can also do an Internet search for consumer reviews on the models that you are interested in.

Once you have zeroed in on the model that looks like it will best suit your needs, the next step is to get the best possible price. Instead of doing a lot of leg-work and wasting gasoline driving to different retailers, the best and quickest way to check a multitude of retailer’s prices all in one shot is a website called "krillion." I'll provide the link to this website at the bottom of this article. This is a public website that anyone can use, and all you need to do is type your appliance’s manufacturer’s model number in the search bar, and the zip code for the area you live in. This site will pull up ALL the advertised prices for your appliance at a good portion of the retailer’s in your area. Most often, you will get prices for Sears, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Best Buy, and HH Gregg and maybe even some Mom & Pop shops around your area. (Note: Most retailer’s won’t price match an online only offer, so your items needs to be in stock and available for delivery within a reasonably short period of time.

Most retailers of large-appliances will do price matches, so you don’t want to start with one with the lowest advertised price, because if you do you won’t get your best price. Also, read each retailer’s price-match policy, because they aren’t all exactly the same. Most of them will give you a price-match plus some percentage. Check the wording on the policy to see if the percentage is a percentage of the difference between the prices or if it is an additional percentage off. If you can find one that offers an additional percentage off, and you are looking for a relatively expensive appliance, you might find some significant savings this way.

Now, that you are armed with the lowest advertised price, you need to make your way to the retailer who has the HIGHEST advertised price, and show them the information that you found. They will want to verify the numbers, so make sure you tell them where you got your information. Now, you ask for the price-match. If you get an additional percentage of the difference between the two prices, it is to your advantage to go to the retailer with the highest advertised price to get your price match. Sometimes, if you have time to wait, you can still get the best deal by purchasing online; just make sure you can get service after you have your appliance in your home.

I hope this information is helpful in your quest for the best price on your new appliance. Here's your link to the previously mentioned website: http://www.krillion.com

Another important thing to know is that most retailers will have some sort of price guarantee. In other words if your name-brand appliances goes on sale at another retailer for a lower price than what you paid within a certain designated time-period, you can go to the store where you made your purchase and get an adjustment for the price difference. The amount of time allowed for this varies with retailer, so check your facts BEFORE you make your purchase. If you need something right away, and you have information that is going to go on sale somewhere for a lower price within the allowable time period for a price-adjustment, you just maybe able to get your appliance quickly AND get a refund for part of your purchase price when it goes on sale elsewhere. Also, make sure that you can get your adjustment as a credit to your charge account or cash back. Some retailers may only offer you an in-store credit for the difference, which isn't going to do you any good unless you have an immediate need for something else that retailer carries.

If you want any more tips and tricks, comment on my Hub, and I would be more than happy to give you any helpful advice that I can. Happy shopping!!!

Copyright 2011 by John C Fisher

Most major appliances come with a 1 year warranty from the manufacturer. However, manufacturers' warranties do not cover many things that might go wrong. In general they never cover electrical power surgers, which can fry your appliance and turn it into a smoldering pile of worthless rubble. If the circuit board that controls your appliance gets fried, repairing it can cost several hundreds of dollars. Your warranty straight out of the box usually does not cover the cost of having a service technician come to your home to repair your appliance either. A service call is generally in the neighborhood of $70.00 and up. Some newer models of appliances have a nice feature which allows your appliance to communicate with the service tech before he even comes out, so the problem is already diagnosed and he can bring the needed part(s) with him. This eliminates the need for a second service call, which you may have to pay for AGAIN.

There are additional warranties that can be purchased that will cover your appliance either for an extended length of time ie "The Extended Warranty" which only covers what the warranty covers, but for a longer time period or the "Master Protection Agreement" which is only offered at one retailer that I am aware of. The Master Protection Agreement covers almost all of the things that the warranty doesn't cover, such as power surges and the cost of a service call. It also covers a FREE annual maintanence check, so if there is a problem that is at the beginning stages it can be nipped in the bud before it actually becomes a major issue.

Whether or not you buy additional protection is up to you, but in my opinion you don't buy car insurance because you are planning to have an accident, you buy it to cover yourself in the event of the unexpected. The same applies for appliances. If you spend thousands of dollars to have your kitchen remodeled and your brand new wall oven shorts out and destroys not only your kitchen, but burns your entire house down, if you have the right protection agreement, it will replace anything that was damaged by your appliance if it fails. Appliance makers are not stupid and the warranty the provide is on things that they are pretty certain are unlikely to go wrong, so why not cover yourself for all the things that are more likely to go wrong, especially power surges, because the average American home is having little power surges all day, every day and inevitably, eventually one of those small surges will become a BIG surge.