Fucking Home Depot

[Winnie]

I like Lowe’s in our area. Seems to have friendlier staff. Even if they don’t know where something is they’re quick to find someone who does. Home Depot is always such a chaotic mess that we’ll drive the 10 minutes out of our way to go to Lowe’s. I’m always amazed at people who save their HD trip for Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. and seem bewildered by the swarm of cars trying to find a parking spot around them.

The only thing that bothers me about Lowe’s is the paint department. No matter what time of day it is, there are always 10 people in line and 2 people behind the counter, who also have to run up and down the paint aisles to fetch buckets of base to do the mixing. One guy is usually just watching the paint mix or manning the thing that closes the top of the can, while one person is taking orders and running around like a crazy person.

[gotpasswords]

Around here, Lowe’s is a smidge better than Home Depot. Lumber at Lowe’s is far better than HD’s Better than either, though, is Orchard Supply, (aka OSH) despite (or maybe because of) being a part of Sears.

I’ll happily drive two miles farther down the freeway to go to Orchard, rather than HD - the extra couple minutes driving would only be time crawling around the HD parking lot while the sharkers and just plain clueless are battling for parking spots.

But, as usual, the lightyears ahead of any others winner - the little local guy! The place where you can go in to buy two bolts instead of a whole box, and where they actually know what a hemispheric dooframitz with left-hand threads is, AND where it’s stocked, AND know to ask what you’re putting it into since you need a 1/4" gap for electric and the 3/8" gap for gas.

[ltfire]

In just about every large food store I have ever been in, every shopping cart has an alphabetical list of the food items they carry, with the aisle number following the item. WHY CAN’T HOME DEPOT AND LOWES DO THIS? Now, you don’t have to ask the slack jaw greeter at the door (who, by the way, looks at his own list to give you information)
‘Say…can I get a copy of that list?’…and he says…duuuuh.
God bless all the mom and pop hardware stores that were forced out of business so that we may be subjected to idiosy just to buy a lightbulb.

[Loopydude]

“Local Guys” are becoming fewer and further between. Not long ago my “local guy” closed his doors, and cited Wal Mart and Home Depot as the twin angels of death to the small hardware store. There are a couple Tags and True Values within reach, and I really should go to them more often.

But Home Depot has a lot of stuff in one place. That’s what should be so great about it. That’s why, sucker that I am, I defy all logic and still go: I want this, that, and the other thing over there. Under one big roof is all of it. If I could just drive up, walkin in, get this, boom, get that, boom, get the other thing, boom, check out, and walk out in the 30-45 minutes that it should take, it would be a true thing of beauty.

Such a shopping experience should not be impossible.

But gawd-DAMN, every time I go to that accursed place, I’m there for, what, half-an-hour per item? Big things, common things, no biggie. It’s the little things that get you. A simple cam lock. Cripes, I once went in there in search of one, and was told with po-faced seriouness that Home Depot did not carry such a thing.

I was assembling a hardwood entertainment center that I finished myself. It was partially assembled. I was short one cam lock. I wanted the cam lock NOW. I did not want to order the missing cam lock from the manufacturer and wait a week while the furniture sat there in pieces…

That’s why I come to you, good Home Depot man, for this one-inch hunk of metal. And I know, you…you…rrrrr…SIR, that among the ten-thousand different kinds of nuts, bolts, screws, and fasteners on the shelf, you have got a f-ff-fffrigging CAM LOCK.

I look. And look.

And look.

And there it is. Yeah, the shape is slightly different than what came with the furniture, but it’s just what I need. About shoulder height, amidst a huge display of odd shaped nuts and fasteners and other metal esoterica; a needle in a haystack, but there it is.

I hunted the man in orange down:

“Hey, just to let you know, you do carry cam locks.”
“Well will ya look at that! Ho-lee smokes, I had no idea!”

Right. Did you check inventory? No. Do you even know how? Who knows. Did you know what the fuck you were talking about when you told me, in no uncertain terms, that you carried no cam locks like the one I held before you in my hand when I said “Got any more of these?”

NO!

What IS it with those people?

[LouisB]

@picker

I gotta say, if there’s one around you, check out a Loew’s.

Every one i’ve ever been to blows away any Home Despot ever.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any here in Wisconsin that I’m aware of.

My experience has been exactly opposite this. And, there are both here in Florida.

[fluiddruid]

@poogas21

Now why do you have to do stupid shit like that? You know who has to clean all of that up? ME, the worthless summer hire. Please, find a manager and bitch them out for cutting hours to the cashiers. Find the store manager and tell him that the front managers aren’t opening more registers (at lowes if there are more than 3 people in a line, the head cashiers HAVE to open new registers until the lines die). I HATE it when morons decide to make MY job tougher because of something I can’t control. Its like stiffing your waitress because your food was made poorly.

Somehow, I think that making a statement that you are taking your business elsewhere might be better than just yelling.

Sorry to you, dude, but you’re hourly, right? So it’s either clean that up, or… what? Roast marshmallows?

[finette6]

@fluiddruid

Somehow, I think that making a statement that you are taking your business elsewhere might be better than just yelling.

Sorry to you, dude, but you’re hourly, right? So it’s either clean that up, or… what? Roast marshmallows?

Apparantly it’s been a while since you worked an hourly job. If Home Depot is like any place I’ve worked, poogas has to clean up your tantrum in addition to all of his/her other duties, not skip out on another part of the job that day.

[danceswithcats]

If you don’t like Home Despot and the other similar action, blame the person you see in the mirror. That’s right, Bubbo-YOU! You’re the one who turned your back on the elderly but extremely well-versed fellow who ran the old time hardware store. You wanted to save a dollar on a box of fasteners, but can’t find them nearly as quickly as you could with the old style store. To hell with the bar codes-the Mom and Pop hardware stores kept prices in their heads, and rewarded regular customers for steady patronage. 'Tis an evil beast which you’ve helped nurture-you’ll get no sympathy from me.

[cornflakes]

@poogas21

Now why do you have to do stupid shit like that? You know who has to clean all of that up? ME, the worthless summer hire. Please, find a manager and bitch them out for cutting hours to the cashiers. Find the store manager and tell him that the front managers aren’t opening more registers (at lowes if there are more than 3 people in a line, the head cashiers HAVE to open new registers until the lines die). I HATE it when morons decide to make MY job tougher because of something I can’t control. Its like stiffing your waitress because your food was made poorly.

No, it isn’t.

I’m sorry if you were the one who was stuck with this cleanup, but your management made a decision to cut labor costs at the checkout and my time and peace of mind are too valuable for me to bother with an unacceptable situation. If you want somebody to bitch at your manager about things, then you’re the person to do it.

[Merijeek]

@cornflakes

No, it isn’t.

I’m sorry if you were the one who was stuck with this cleanup, but your management made a decision to cut labor costs at the checkout and my time and peace of mind are too valuable for me to bother with an unacceptable situation. If you want somebody to bitch at your manager about things, then you’re the person to do it.

So he/she should bitch to the manager because the manager did something you didn’t like?

What planet are you from?

Ignoring the obvious idiocy of your statement, look at it this way: Who is the manager more likely to listen to, you, the Mighty Customer or Abused Summer Peon Who Makes $6.50 An Hour?

You’re being an asshole, and instead of targeting the cause of your frustration, you’re expecting someone with no power at all to do it for you.

Brilliant.

-Joe

[Loopydude]

@danceswithcats

If you don’t like Home Despot and the other similar action, blame the person you see in the mirror. That’s right, Bubbo-YOU! You’re the one who turned your back on the elderly but extremely well-versed fellow who ran the old time hardware store. You wanted to save a dollar on a box of fasteners, but can’t find them nearly as quickly as you could with the old style store. To hell with the bar codes-the Mom and Pop hardware stores kept prices in their heads, and rewarded regular customers for steady patronage. 'Tis an evil beast which you’ve helped nurture-you’ll get no sympathy from me.

I must admit, I have felt pangs of guilt about contributing to the demise of smaller firms with my patronage of the larger. These regrets have certanly not been assuaged by the crap-ass service I get out of big box shopping. But I think it’s a siren song nearly all of us have been beguiled by: Savings and convenience. Thing is, now that the Mom&Pops are on the out, the savings aren’t so great, and the service blows goats, making HD et alia very inconvenient sometimes.

You’re right; I fucked up. So did about 100 million of my fellow consumers. Still, do I not have any right to be frustrated? When I go to HD’s website, determine that an item is stocked and can be purchased at the store, get told once I arrive that HD doesn’t stock it, or find that nobody knows where it is and they make no effort to help me find it, what, should I then go home and flail myself for my consumer folly? I don’t have any cause to be annoyed? Hey, I’m willing to assume some responsibility, but purely blaming myself is just bullshit. If HD was willing to do a better job serving their customers, there would be no reason for guilt. We’re not communists; we don’t have to go to the Local Guy just because he’s a swell dude. If he charges me more for a hammer, and doesn’t carry half the stuff I need, why shouldn’t I go to Big Box, buy the hammer and all the other merchandise I need, and walk out happy?

Well, hindsight being 20-20, I see that was an unrealistic expectation. Is false advertising to blame as well? I have to wonder.

[Who_me_1]

I wouldn’t dump anything on the floor, but I sure as hell would leave it sitting in the cart in the middle of the aisle. I know some poor peon will get stuck putting things back, too bad… because I’m sure as hell not going to do it.

[Loopydude]

I’ve never resorted to being obnoxious. The worst I’ve ever done is not put the cart in the corral, which many happy customers do with blithe lack of concern.

I don’t think going tit-for-tat with HD helps much. Rather, I think we need to complain when our patronage is abused to the mothership. I’ve dashed off a nasty letter since starting this thread, describing in as much detail as I can recall my issues. I’ll be extra vigilant in the future, and make sure I take names, dates, and provide all the other particulars. I invite you all to do the same to your local Home Goods Monolith.

Also, go to smaller firms if you can. Hit 'em where it hurts: The wallet.

Wish I’d done it all years ago.

[Elenfair]

Meh… I guess there are regional differences.

The HD in Orleans was awful - I asked for Schedule 40 PVC and the dude I asked (who was in the plumbing section) tried to send me to electrical. They were totally useless when it came to helping me out with some projects and I quickly gave up on them.

The HD near us here in the Twin Cities kicks ass. The plumbing guys who seem to be there every time I go are really really helpful - in fact, last time I went I needed a bundle of 10 pipes… but we only had the small two door car… so the plumbing guy pulled out his PVC cutter and measuring tape, and together we cut the pipes into 3 pieces… that’s 30 pieces total… He took the time to do it, and to bundle the pipe pieces together…

He was impressed that I knew so much about plumbing… and then I explained to him the only reason I knew so much about PVC pipes and fittings was that I built dog agility equipment in large quantities…

He was amused. Helpful fellow.

His coworker also helped me with the same thing last time I was there - chopped up a pipe for me so we could take it home easily.

Every time I have tried to find something in the store (for some reason my instincts are good about where they should be…) I have found someone to point me in the right direction or walk me to the right bin themselves!

YMMV, I suppose.

[stretch]

We live in a small town about six miles from the nearest ‘big’ city, where there is both a Home Depot and a SLowes. (Ever since mr.stretch came up with that nickname, it’s stuck in my mind; I’ve actually had to stop myself from making out checks to SLowes. mr.stretch also calls it the inconvenience store, as in: Can we get that here in town or do we have to go to the inconvenience store for it?)

We think the SLowes sucks more, mostly because it used to be Eagle (a regional HIW store) and they had kickass customer service. Then they sold out to Slowes and the service plummeted.

A couple of years after the change from Eagle to SLowes, Home Depot came to town. When they first opened the doors, they had terrific customer service. Our theory is that they were trying to make an impression as being different than SLowes. Unfortunately, it seems that’s all over. Now you have to go hunt down a person in orange just like you’d hunt down the poor red-smocked person at SLowes.

Both places leave too much shit sitting around in the aisles. I feel like I should be stocking shelves every time I go in one of those places.

We try to buy as much as possible from our local hardware store. The customer service there is exceptional. The staff knows where everything is–even where mr.stretch has wandered off to. And now in an effort to be competitive, they are open every day, so we don’t have to go into the big city for our hardware needs.

Now if we could just get a lumberyard here in our town instead of the next city over, everything would be perfect (driving the six miles our little bedroom community into the city just aggravates me ). We try to buy all our lumber from a local place, instead of Home Depot or SLowes, but the local lumberyard isn’t open on Sunday. Also, when we buy from the local yard, we usually get plywood and specialty lumber from the local mill, which gets quite a bit of its wood from regional forestry concerns, so we’re supporting our local and regional economy as much as possible.

[cornflakes]

Sorry for this hijack. I’m going to post this reply to elaborate a little and then leave it at that.

@Merijeek

So he/she should bitch to the manager because the manager did something you didn’t like?

No, I don’t care what he or she does. I merely stated that if poogas21 wanted someone to talk to the manager, then they are empowered to do it. I had already made my decision when I walked up with two bags of plaster in my arms along with a few other items (it wasn’t one hundred pounds, but it sure felt like it), and I saw two registers that were backed up into the aisles. I put the stuff down in the aisle because I didn’t want to waste time looking for a cart.

Ignoring the obvious idiocy of your statement, look at it this way: Who is the manager more likely to listen to, you, the Mighty Customer or Abused Summer Peon Who Makes $6.50 An Hour?

What sort of fool would place the opinions of every dink who walks in the door over those of his own people?

Really though, the box stores run on a Wal-Mart mentality. I doubt that either one of us could convince them to spend more on labor. The only way I could see them using a suggestion would be if it streamlined things without costing more. If it was an odd case where management just didn’t notice a yards-long line… well, there’s not much I could have done there either.

You’re being an asshole, and instead of targeting the cause of your frustration, you’re expecting someone with no power at all to do it for you.

I’m being an asshole who values their own time and found their own solution to a situation. I decided that, instead of being stuck in line for a half an hour by a management that didn’t put more people on registers, it was worth more to spend the evening with my family and buy the stuff later. That’s what I did, and there was nothing frustrating about that evening at home or the follow-up trip.

[Merijeek]

In the interests of cutting things short, I’ll cut out all but the most egregious errors…

@cornflakes

What sort of fool would place the opinions of every dink who walks in the door over those of his own people?

Umm…you’re fucking kidding me, right? Would anyone, and I mean ANYONE who has ever worked in retail like to correct this guy? Hint: Customer can get you fired, peon below you can’t do shit.

@cornflakes

Really though, the box stores run on a Wal-Mart mentality. I doubt that either one of us could convince them to spend more on labor. The only way I could see them using a suggestion would be if it streamlined things without costing more. If it was an odd case where management just didn’t notice a yards-long line… well, there’s not much I could have done there either.

I’m being an asshole who values their own time and found their own solution to a situation. I decided that, instead of being stuck in line for a half an hour by a management that didn’t put more people on registers, it was worth more to spend the evening with my family and buy the stuff later. That’s what I did, and there was nothing frustrating about that evening at home or the follow-up trip.

You
And I’m sure you ran straight home so you and your 2.5 kids (plus a labrador) could sing around the campfire or some such shit. That kind of stuff may work in a complaint letter, but let’s all be realistic here.

You, the little guy, shit on the littler guy. Everyone wins but the guy screwing you.

See, everyone is happy.

It’s like tipping badly because you didn’t like the food, even though the waiter/tress did exactly the best they could possibly have done. You’re punishing the wrong person for what pissed you off.

ObBushSlam: Kind of like invading Iraq when most of the Bad Guys were from Saudi Arabia.

-Joe

[P_T]

[QUOTE=Merijeek]
Umm…you’re fucking kidding me, right? Would anyone, and I mean ANYONE who has ever worked in retail like to correct this guy? Hint: Customer can get you fired, peon below you can’t do shit.

[quote]
I’ll back you up on this one. Summer peon help = worthless. Customer = Everything. If you aren’t keeping the customer happy then your business will fail. Not maybe, not if. It WILL fail. A customer has much more power when it comes to making a complaint to management than even the regular full time employee. You’re assuming the place is there to make a living for the people who work there. That is secondary.

[congodwarf]

It really does just depend on the store. The HD near my house is awesome. The workers are nice and happy and knowledgeable. When we were remodeling out bathroom, an employee from the bathroom dept. followed us around for 2 hours. She helped us pick out everything, right down to the paint. She would leave occasionally to help other customers and she still answered her phone. I wrote a letter to the GM about her.
I wish they sold clothes and food too because they’re so good. I’d do all my shopping there. The Lowes in the next town over is terrible. I wont even consider going there. I’ve been to 3 Home Depot stores in MA. I’ve never had a bad experience.

But, thanks to my job, I have to deal with Lowes and Spenard. I never had a problem with Spenard. I frequently found myself wishing I could shop there.
I have frequent problems with Lowes. Thanks to the employees I have to talk to on the phone, I will never shop at any Lowes. I don’t care if I have no other option. I will not shop there.

[MysteryFellow63427]

@MissTake

“May-nards is my friieeennnddd”

It’s been at least 5 years, and I still have that jingle rattling around my head.

“Sayve big money at Menarrrrrrrrrrrrds!”