Sure, there are places where you can save a lot of money by sacrificing customer service. I have a couple of examples of why I shop where I do.

The Bad - Save a Nickel Spend a Dime
I once bought a television from Video Only. I bought it solely on price, they were $400 less than other places, and I was convinced this savings would outweigh any issues. I was sorely mistaken. A few months after purchasing the television (and an extended warranty) the unit started having problems. I called up Video Only expecting to have them help me out, I mean the set was only a few months old! They told me to talk to the manufacturer, and there was nothing they could do. I was bummed, having bought several different electronic items from Magnolia Hi-Fi in the past, I expected an experience similar to how Magnolia operated, I was wrong. After hours of phone calls to Hitachi, and working with their service department, I finally had an appointment for a tech to come out and fix my broken television.

The tech came, replaced some things, and said I was good to go. Ok, so it wasn't that bad, until the set broke again, and I had to repeat the process. This happened about 6 times. At one point they wanted to take the unit to their shop and completely rebuild it. This is when I freaked out and called Hitachi directly, I stayed on the phone for hours, insisting they send me a completely new unit, they finally did.

The moral of this story is that the $400 I saved was no savings at all. If you look at the amount of time, frustration, and stress I was caused the $400 is a joke. I would have gladly paid even more than that to have a company like Magnolia simply refund my money, or just get a new set, let them fight with the manufacturer. I understand statistics (I'm not a pro...) and realize that no matter how good a manufacturer's build process is, there will be a percentage of 'bad' products sent out.

The Really Bad - Bad service, bad workmanship - blame the customer?
We recently hired Home Depot to replace some vinyl flooring in our home. To make a long long long story short, they caused damage to our house during this installation. Thousands of dollars worth. While dealing with the store level on this was good, the corporate and claims adjuster level left a horrible taste in our mouths. The claims adjuster promised us one thing, and then dodged our calls for 2 weeks. When I finally got a hold of him, he promised something else, and when I pressed him on why he did not return my calls for two weeks, he replied "I don't have an answer for you."

All part of the claims adjuster game I'm guessing. I'm glad that when I go home from work, I don't feel dirty. I can't see how this guy/company (Sedgwick Claims Management) lives with themselves. We finally reached an agreement, but it also involves the store level refunding my labor charges for ALL of the flooring in my house. The claims adjustment portion left us about $700 in the red. Sure, I could get a lawyer and all that crap, but the thought of dragging this out, and further deliberations makes me ill. All in all in the end, we're out about $250 dollars. And while we shouldn't be, and the principle of the matter again, makes me ill, I'm just glad for it to be over and done.

The Good - Pay more to Begin with
My wife recently bought a swimsuit top from Nordstrom. We don't shop there exclusively, but we do hit their sales, and when we want something fairly specific, we do end up there from time to time. We love Nordstrom rack (same great service and return policy - lower prices).  The top was not super expensive, nor super cheap. Could she have found something elsewhere comprable for a lower price? Probably. She wore it one day, and did not like the fit, the liner was coming out in the pool, and there was some threads coming out. She went to return it the next day, no issues. They instantly refunded the money and apologized. This is what I want when something that we've purchased does not meet our expectations.

The Really Good - Pay less and Get more
I'm a huge fan of Costco. I've even upgraded our membership to the $100 executive level. We get 2% of our purchases back each year, last year we got a check for $178. We did have some big purchases last year, but we're trying to shop exclusively (when possible) at Costco. Sure, it does not make sense for everything, especially things like produce or other items you don't want in bulk. Costco is an amazing company, between their warehouses and online store, you can get just about anything.

We had purchased a vacuum at Costco a while back. Recently it stopped working, I was not that upset as I thought it was a cheap one, and it was probably time to step up to a nice one. We were in Costco on Saturday, and looked at their Dyson. It was awesome and had a five year warranty too. The problem? $469, ouch. A random customer walked up and gave his accolades on how great it was, how they couldn't live without theirs now, and the price - though high - was worth it. I'm not opposed to spend money on something if it will do what it's supposed to do, as long as it does it well, and will last a while I'm willing.

I told my wife, let's think about it. We both started to get a little frustrated that our other Vacuum was only a year old. On the way out I hit the customer service desk, inquiring if they could see our purchase history back a year or so ago. The gal at the desk told me she could go back to 2000! Wow, impressive. She said, yes, you bought the Vacuum back in Sept 2005. Ugh. Almost two years old, I guess I can't return it. I was baffled when she told me, "No if it's stopped working, bring it in with all the attachments, manual, etc.... we'll refund your money, you paid $199.99 for it!"

So now, I can return my old Vacuum and essentially apply the refund of that to the new Dyson. Costco rocks. We went back on Sunday, returned the broken one, and purchased the new one. The new Vac is so much better. I encourage you to support places like Nordstrom, Magnolia Hi-Fi, and Costco. I know there are other places that operate like this too, but just remember, you're the consumer, when something does not meet your expectations, it's up to the place that sold it to you to make it right.

One of the things you have to remember when trying to save money on a bigger than normal purchase, is that your time is valuable, it's worth money too, your free time is probably even more valuable than money you save when a purchase goes awry. Keep this in mind, the hours of hassle you experience could cost more than the savings in the long run.