Appliance Center — Attraction in Durham

UPDATE TO ORIGINAL REVIEW: I posted the below two months ago -- and would like to update it based on a response by the long-time owner of the Appliance Center, Mr. Stewart, who appears to be trying to hand over the business to others. A few weeks ago, Mr. Stewart left a very nice message on my voicemail apologizing for what we went through after only now having learned about it (perhaps from this review). He immediately offered to pick up the old hood and refund the money we spent on it. I have since had another very nice conversation with him, and he has picked up the hood. It is clear that this is not how he wants his business to run.

We are building a custom home and were instructed by our contractor to work with The Appliance Center to get all appliances. So we did -- and deeply regret it. This is not true of most of the vendors we worked with – we had many very positive experiences. But The Appliance Center stands out as the worst. The most illustrative of our negative experience was around a kitchen island hood -- we made very clear from the beginning that we needed a hood that would accommodate my height (6'2") and were assured the hood they recommended would be no problem. When installed, sharp edges were exactly at eye level -- and we were told it could not be moved higher. I asked whether they would take it back and swap it out for one that works and was told they would not -- we were now stuck paying thousands of dollars for a hood we could not use. No apology, no sense of accountability and no effort to make it right. They then proposed 4 other hoods I could buy from them. At this point I was appropriately skeptical – and so I learned how to read the spec sheets. It turns out that each of the 4 hoods they now proposed would have created exactly the same problem. When I pointed this out, they agreed and admitted they had misread the spec sheets (just as they had with the first hood) and, for the first time, used the word “apologize”. But had I just ordered one of their replacements, I am sure they would have made me pay for that one too. I was then literally left to fend for myself and find a hood that would work – they seemed uninterested in helping further, all this after close to $50,000 of payments for everything we had ordered from them for a fairly large house. I would recommend staying clear of people who conduct business this way. (Before posting this review, I shared it with Michael, the Appliance Center person we worked with, and asked if what I describe was accurate. He had no corrections to make – and...

I am a huge fan of The Appliance Center and Stu Stewart. I first spoke to Stu in early 2021. My husband and I bought a home sight unseen from Singapore in Chapel Hill, and were planning a complete renovation including a huge kitchen remodel. Stu was so patient in helping us choose our appliances remotely. When we arrived in NC we decided not to pursue that renovation and bought a different home. In September 2021, Stu helped me pick out appliances for our smaller kitchen that were in stock and I'm really happy with our choices. We did have an issue with one of the appliances, but Stu has been so helpful in resolving it has not been stressful at all. We've also had really nice interactions at the store with others and with the delivery persons. The Appliance Center is a professional, well run outfit. Its the only place I'll go to get my appliances while...

I've used appliance center in the past. Over 10 years ago when remodeling, they were very helpful with selecting a range. I called recently to set up an appointment for 2 appliances. I was told by the sales person that dishwashers were hard to get these days and the wait time was about 3 months. Additionally, when asking about a non-standard range size, I was told that he didn't have anything in that size and unless I wanted a 48 inch, he wasn't sure if he would be able to help. In that this information was not helpful, I did not set up an appointment. It's very good, however; to see a local company that's doing so well that they can turn...