Even though Mike and I both work on construction jobsites, a lot of our work is done on computers, so whenever the mood strikes I'll email him over a picture of something I'll looking at to get his opinion.  He usually sends me back a couple word reply that lets me know how he's feeling.  (I've long ago given up on hoping to receive the same level of excitement that I have).  The other day I sent him a link to a faucet I found on Amazon that I really liked:

     
He said it looked good (which in guy talk translates to "Yeah!!  I love it!!! Let's buy two of them!!"), but we would need to buy the sink first to make sure the rough-in hole the sink comes with would fit this faucet.  He then asked if I had any sinks in mind.  It's like he doesn't even read the blog!  Of course, I had one in mind and mentioned it here:


After giving up on the Ikea one from my original idea board, I was already over it and smitten for this one.  The picture on Overstock even had the faucet I picked (I hadn't known that when I picked it)!  The price wasn't bad either, $119, and it was also 10% off that day.

Of course Mike had to try to outdo me and sent me back a link to this sink:

 
Don't worry if you don't see a difference, there really isn't one, except this one is an inch wider, $30 cheaper and includes the pop-up drain (which run about $20/each).  I was so excited that I told him to buy two of them right then and there.

Sorry if it's been a little boring until now, I had to explain the process, this is where it gets interesting.  The only thing we were hesitant about was the pop-up drain, which said chrome in the title, but in the description and picture said that you could chose between the 4 options.  I, of course, wanted the satin nickel.  Mike went ahead and ordered from Amazon, thinking that he would have the option to choose the satin somewhere in the ordering process.  He didn't find any sort of drop-down menu, so he called the manufacturer, Kraus (which we knew had to be a sign since that's my mom and stepdad's last name, spelled with an e though).  They said that there was not any additional cost for a different finish and all Amazon had to do was note which one we wanted and they would ship us that one.  Mike went ahead and ordered the sinks then immediately called Amazon since he didn't find anywhere to make a note.  Amazon said that they had no way of noting which finish and we were stuck with the chrome.  Not that bad of news since we were getting such a good deal, but Mike wasn't satisfied since the listing was deceiving.

I have to mention that until I met Mike I was one of those people that if someone said I couldn't have it a certain way I usually just let it go, whether they were right or wrong.  Mike is not one of those people.  If he finds something wrong, he has no problem calling customer service and asking to speak to a manager to find a solution that works for both parties, (unless he's really being screwed over, then he's only looking out for himself).

Since he had already called Kraus and knew it was possible to get a satin finish drain rather than the chrome, he felt he had a legitimate argument.  Also, we knew Amazon ordered these straight from Kraus and they are the ones that ship it out from their warehouse.  Amazon argued right back and said that they just "copied and pasted" the description from the manufacturer's website and wasn't responsible for the discrepancies.  Mike argued that they were responsible for the content on their site and misleading the customers.  They finally agreed that they would try to send a satin finish one with each sink, but could not make any guarantees.  Mike assured them that he would call them back if we received chrome.     


Obviously this would be a horribly boring post if we just ended up with satin nickel drain stoppers the next day.  We were really surprised to see two big boxes on our porch the next day, (we use Amazon Prime and this item qualified for free next-day shipping).  We weren't however surprised to find two chrome stoppers.  So, back to the phone Mike went.  He was sent to someone different than he talked to before and I think she just didn't want to deal with Mike, because instead of our solution of sending it back and waiting until they could guarantee a satin nickel finish, they refunded our money.  And, didn't want the sinks back.  Yes, you heard me, they gave us the sinks for free!

Not that we're not really excited, but we didn't really want anything for free.  We just wanted darn satin nickel finish!  We were more than happy to pay the already discounted price for two sinks, we just wanted what the ad said we could get.  We're all for getting free things, but we feel a little weird about it.  We kinda would have preferred to have been able to choose the satin nickel finish, buy the sinks and gone on with our day.

I'm not writing this to brag about getting our sinks for free, I'm more sharing our story.  We love Amazon and have very few issues with them, (I say few because we can't forget about TVgate last January).  But it bothers us when customer service only sees you as an annoying number and does anything to get you off the phone, including giving you your money back, but still leaving you with the same problem you started with. 

We'll continue buying from Amazon, (we've found that they usually have what we're looking for the the cheapest price), but we'll definitely be more aware of assuming anything from the listings, on Amazon and other online shops.

In happy a conclusion, we've already called Kraus, (the company, not my parents, har har), and they said if we ship them the two chrome pop-up drains, they'll send up two satin nickel ones in return.  No problem.

So, that's what's going on over here. I promise to be back soon with some demo pictures and obviously I'm sure you're all excited to see what all the fuss was about with the sinks and see them in the finished room.