NYLiving.com

Full review
I would not order from LizMadison.com again. At the very least, one should inspect and measure the product at a local retail store before ordering from LizMadison. Their website stated that the stove was 30 inches wide. It is actually almost 32 inches wide at its widest point. This caused major problems.

I needed a kitchen stove with a maximum width of 30 inches as that was the width of the stove space in my kitchen counter.

I wanted an electric stove with regular coil burners, a self-cleaning oven and controls at the front of the stove.
Very few stoves met all these requirements and I was very happy to find a Frigidaire model at LizMadison.

This is a long story. After I describe the problems with the delivery, I will discuss the problems with the mislabeling of the stove and the inaccurate website and phone information from LizMadison which caused me problems which caused me to have to have part of my kitchen counter torn out. However, I would not have bought the stove if I had been aware of all the trouble that I was going to have.

I ordered the stove and it arrived promptly by freight carrier for which LizMadison charged me $98.00. However, they used a freight company whose policy is "hurry up." The driver did not want to bring the stove inside my home (there are no outside stairs) until I offered him a tip. When he got the stove inside, he pressured me to sign the receipt in a hurry. I signed it "subject to inspection" after I persuaded him to open the top of the box. As he was leaving, I realized that the stove looked too wide. I measured it and it was 32 inches. I told the driver that I wanted him to take back the stove. He refused. I persuaded him to call his dispatcher who told me that they would not take back the stove until I obtained authorization from LizMadison.

So I phoned LizMadison. I was lucky that the stove had been delivered before LizMadsion closed at 5 pm EST as I live in another time zone. I was lucky that the phone was answered promtly by a "live person" after I pushed only "one button". I described the problem to the man who answered. He told me that by raising the feet on the stove I could install it with the edges of the top hanging over the top of my kitchen counter on either side as only the top of the stove was 32 inches and the body of the stove was 30 inches. I took him at his word and gave the delivery man a tip.

The next day my handyman came to install the stove. There were several unpleasant surprises.

1. There were small dents in the back of the stove. Fortunately, they would be hidden in back of the stove and would not affect the stove operation due to their small size and location in the metal ventilation screen, but the fact remains that the stove was damaged.

2. No cord to plug the stove into the wall outlet was enclosed. This may be standard with stoves as a member of my family was able to dash out to the hardwear store and buy a cord, but most buyers would have known this and LpzMadison should have noted this fact on their webpage and offered to sell me a cord.

3. Now for the *most serious problem*. The stove could not have been installed by raising the feet in accordance with the advice of LizMadison's phone representative. Not only was the top of the stove too wide, but a large portion of the front of the stove was almost 32 inches wide, even though the back portion was within 30 inches. There is no way that the stove would have fit into a 30-inch space even if it had been raised up. I realized that we could fit the stove into my kitchen if my handyman ripped out a 2-inch wide section of tiled counter between the stove space and the wall. My handyman was just able to fit the stove into the space after he had ripped out the 2-inch-wide counter section next to the stove.

4. Finally, the stove has no side panels. It is designed only for installation in a counter space. Luckily this was not a problem for me, but it would have been in my old home where the kitchen arrangement required a free-standing stove. Nothing I saw on the LizMadison website indicated that the stove had no side panels.

The stove is installed now. It took several hours so I have not had time to test it yet. I ended up paying my handyman for several hours of extra work. I also now have exposed sheetrock on my walls where the counter was ripped out and I will have an additional expense of having tile installed over those areas if I can find matching tile.

A reader might ask why I kept the stove. There are several reasons.

1. I did not want the stress and uncertainty of making arrangements for the seller to take back the stove as one never knows whether a company with which one has not dealt before will actually arrange a cost-free return of the product.

2. I did not want to have to devote 3 more days to waiting for the return take-back truck to arrive, for another delivery truck to arrive with a new stove, and for my hanyman to return to install the replacement stove.

3. I did not know if I could find a replacement stove which would actually be only 30 inches wide and I had already had had my old stove, which was still mostly functional, removed.

If the LizMadison website had accurately described the width of the stove, I would never have bought it.

If the LizMadison phone representative had not misleadingly told me that I could install the stove by raising the feet, I would have insisted on the delivery driver taking it back.

This is worst experience that I have ever had with an on-line reatailer. It never would have started if the size of the stove had been properly indicated on the LizMadison website.

I hope that I have helped readers who need a new stove. It can be a much bigger project than it may seem, especially if one shops at LizMadison.