I NEVER would have done that. What you did only exposes you the risk of being defrauded by an unscrupulous employee.
At the risk of stating the obvious, it's a dangerous game to let store employees know about killer deals before you consummate the purchase transaction. I would never try to contact them to work out details before consummating the sale. Always buy immediately so it's yours, then work out the details once it's been sold. If you can't work things out Lowes will always let you cancel the order AFTER you buy it.
Shoot first, ask questions later.
Once you have a sale written up there exists a paper trail to incriminate anyone who tries to cheat you by stealing the merchandise out from under you. If you never bought the merchandise and they scarfed it up while you hesitated, then nobody did anything wrong.
FWIW I have a Dewalt AC that's sitting in will-call for me until I go to fetch it some time next week.

I have the purchase receipt and I have recorded calls where the CS people in the store confirmed that it's under lock and key in the original unopened Dewalt box with my name on it. Today I had them move it from the front of the store back to receiving so it will be out of the path of foot traffic over the weekend. If it disappears before I get there then somebody's going to be collecting unemployment.