Communication your customers <rant>

You can find the kind of customer service you're looking for at the smaller privately owned specialty retailers. You can expect to pay a little more for the same item.
I support locally owned businesses every chance I get. For me, White's Appliance is only 2 blocks away from Lowes. Mine will be 1 of 3 to 5 local deliveries scheduled for a given day. Yours was one of what 10 thousand nation wide ?