Great customer service - Lowe's

Let me begin my story by saying that our house doesn't have air conditioning. I'll let some of you get over that shock for just a second before I go on... We don't have air conditioning, and we don't want it. We live in a large old house with an open floor plan, a whopping 33 windows (most of which are 5' tall, and some are over 4' wide), mature trees, and numerous of shade porches. We also have lots of ceiling fans, which Mr. Savvy and I have painstakingly put in (or replaced) in the four-and-a-half years we've lived here. We had replace just about every fan in the house when we decided to tackle putting one in the dining room. We have a very traditional Arts and Crafts dining room, complete with window seat, built-in china cabinet, colonnades, plate rail, and a beamed ceiling. All in quarter sawn white oak. We also have four original light fixtures at the intersection of the ceiling beams, and the fan would go in the center of all the light fixtures. Needless to say, we wanted the perfect ceiling fan for this room, one that gave off both good light and good air, as well as fit the style of the room, without distracting from some of it's original features. The hardware stores near us that carry ceiling fans (Home Depot and Menards) don't usually have very good selections, so we typically pick up ceiling fans at Lowes in Des Moines when we are visiting my parents. We always, with the exception of the dining room, purchased Hunter fans and had great luck with them. They go up easily, they are great quality, they look nice, and they don't wobble or make noise. I think this is where my mistakes began... So I went to pick out a fan for our dining room. There was a Harbor Breeze brand fan that really stood out to me, I liked the looks, it appeared to give off good light, and it was big enough for the dining room. After pondering the purchase at Lowe's, I figured that brand was probably just as good (since it cost more), if not better, than a Hunter fan. So I buy the Harbor Breeze. We bring it back to Wisconsin, and install it. It turns out to be an all day battle. Nothing goes well, the mounting plate is definetely a little weak for a fan of that weight, but we go with it. We have trouble at almost every step. We finally get the fan up and have three problems... 1. The top light fixture (shining up) and bottom light fixture (shining down) won't work at the same time. This can't be a problem with our wiring since everything was pre-wired in the fan, just plug two cables together. We disassemble and reassemble just to be sure. Nope, still doesn't work. 2. The fan motor makes a horrible scraping noise. Once again, we disassemble and reassemble. 3. The upper light flickers constantly (like a strobe) when the fan is running. Strobe lights and scraping noises are just the ambiance I want while eating dinner. Once again, can't be our problem, but to be sure, we disassemble and reassemble. At this point in our fan experience, we considered ourselves to be almost experts. We had tackled old-house wiring, removing ancient light fixtures, assembled and installed numerous fans. We were determined to beat this thing, but it had already been an entire day. So we continue to ponder. I'd like to remind everyone that we purchased this fan 300 miles away, so taking it down to return wasn't an easy option. We figured we'd get it fixed soon enough. So some time goes by... It was over nine months since I purchased the fan that I decide we'd had enough and decide to buy a new one and just eat the cost of this fan. However, I thought I'd call Lowe's and express my unhappiness with the fan. I called and spoke with a customer service rep who encouraged me to look for my receipt. I found it and she started making calls to various Lowe's stores, trying to find one near us that could help. Within 24 hours, I had two store managers call me from various Lowe's stores (not even the one I purchased it from), offering to let me return the fan for full credit. I went to the store in Dubuque a few weeks later, on our way to Des Moines, with my disassembled fan (no box) and receipt, and received a store credit for the full value. I am still amazed at the responsiveness of the CSR I spoke with, as well as the store managers I spoke with. I wasn't even asking for a new fan or a return, I merely wanted to let them know how difficult this fan was to work with. I picked out a new fan last weekend at Lowes, a nice Hunter, and we put it up yesterday. It went up in about an hour, looks great, and works like a champ!