I pit the Home Depot

The BBQ Pit
1

I really only needed something simple-a tile. And because my house is essentially all builder-grade, it’s not a particularly high-end tile. It’s a pretty basic white, gloss finish, ceramic 4 1/4 x 6 inch, cove sanitary tile. You see, my bathroom has a line of these along the base of the wall and one was cracked. And while I was having a handyman repair my builder-grade plumbing, I figured he could affix the tiles because the builder had apparently never heard of thin-set and instead attached some of them with a rim of caulk?

So, I told Mr. handyman to glue in the tile which was cracked at the corner, but he said he could pick one up easily at the old Home Depot while he was purchasing parts to replace the broken builder-grade drains in my sinks. So off he went to pick up a basic tile, but came back with two tiles, both glossy white ceramic, cove sanitary, but one was 3 3/4 x 6 and the other was 6 x 6 because that was all they stocked. He suggested taking a tile from behind the toilet to replace the broken one and putting one of these in its place. Not a terrible idea, but why not try to find a new one (apparently he either broke or misplaced the old one-got a bit of a language barrier).

Let me use my google-fu, I told him, and see what I can find. Not surprisingly, the tiles were easy to find, at Home Depot online. They listed every size; 2x6, 3x6, 3 3/4x6, 4x6, 6x6 and even the one I wanted, 4 1/4x6. I ordered two, just to have an extra. They cost $2.30 for both but wanted $8 for shipping. However, they would ship free to my local store. Fantastic!. I entered the information, made sure I entered the store near my home and entered my order, only to get a confirmation that they were being shipped to a different store 30 miles away. I had to call them up to change this. No problem-they cancelled the order, and reordered for the correct store and all I had to do was wait for a week for them to arrive.

Last weekend I got the e-mail that they were in so I hauled myself over to the store on the weekend to pick them up. They handed me a package. “Let me just check that they are correct before I leave,” I asked. However, this was easier said than done. Apparently their method of packing tiles involved putting them in a large cardboard box and spraying around them with spray insulation then shutting the box flaps so they sealed shut. It was quite a production getting the box open and we ended up scraping out handfuls of insulation in order to finally get to the tiles (which luckily were in a plastic bag in the midst of the foam). But they didn’t look quite right. They looked a little short. I borrowed a tape measure to find that they were 4x6 inches, not 4 1/4 x 6. I asked if we could return them. “Are you sure you are measuring them right?” asked HD guy. I informed him that I had measured the ones at home and the ones Mr. handyman had brought me and the measurements were exact. “They don’t always measure them edge to edge” said HD guy. I informed them that the 3 3/4 inch one that this store had sold us measured exactly 3 3/4 inches edge to edge. “Take it home to make sure then if it doesn’t fit you can bring it back here and we can return it and get the right one” said HD guy. Not wanting to argue, I took them home to double check.

At home, I tried the tile in the empty space and to my complete lack of surprise, it was 1/4 inch too short. Before returning to HD, I decided to call their online site to see what they could do. I explained the situation, pointing out that their website listed both a 4x6 tile and a 4 1/4x6 tile and that they had likely sent the wrong one. They told me that they would contact their supplying company and get back to me but instructions were that these were “destroy on site” and did not need to be returned. She promised to let me know as soon as she heard anything.

I waited 5 days with no response and decided to call again. I once again explained the situation and the HD gal told me that she would check with the company to see what was going on. I pointed out that the website had both a 4x6 and a 4 1/4x6 tile listed and they had likely sent the wrong one and of course when you have a line of tile you can’t just use one that is 1/4 inch shorter than all the rest. She agreed and promised to get back with me ASAP.

Yesterday, I came home to a voice-mail stating that she had talked to the company and that the tile measurements were all approximate. She stated that the measurements were rounded off so that they would sell you the nearest size. She then informed me that if I wanted a refund, I could ship the tiles back and they would refund my money.

So-Home Depot, let me just say this. I am NOT paying $8 to ship back $2.30 worth of worthless tile. I am just going to add them to my collection of every size of glossy white ceramic cove sanitary tile except the correct one that I have amassed. And I will post it here to bitch about the fact that while you take the pains to list both a 4x6 and a 4 1/4x6 tile on your website, you do not apparently consider these measurements any different and despite them being two completely separate item listings, you feel that it is appropriate to fill orders for either size with the same 4x6 tiles. Not only that, but your salespeople not only have no idea how to measure tiles, but apparently have no idea that somebody might actually want tiles that are all the same size so they can be laid in a straight line. They also have no idea about your return policies and no idea how to pack items for shipping.

BTW, I googled a little more and found another tile company that had my tiles in the correct size. In addition, they actually went and measured the tiles for me to make sure that they were actually 4 1/4 x 6 since they did say there was some manufacturer variation in measurements and they wanted to make sure that it would be correct. Now to be completely honest, I did have to pay more for my 2 tiles. They did cost $1.85 each but I consider the $1.10 money well spent.

Meanwhile, next time I’m going to Lowe’s.

2

You can return them to the store. We have a program called BORIS - Buy Online, Return In Store. You’ll at least get your money back.

Sorry you had a problem. We’re the second-largest retailer in the world, with over ten thousand associates; not all of them are top of the class.

3

lol at homeowners who buy from discount warehouse stores then are shocked at the service or quality.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

4

You want to bitch about $8 shipping?
Or the $2.30 price of tiles.

Now that HD has driven all the real building supply stores out of business, you jerks can find out exactly what you DO get at the dump.

If you don’t know enough to identify quality, do not find hte cheapest crap and expect it to be decent.

5

I suppose that the real building supply stores must be all gone then, driven out of business as you say.

Because when I tried to go to a proper tile store for my kitchen remodel (doing exactly what my contractor told me to do), the first thing that happened was that the woman sneered at my wife and me, as if we were not worthy of her time. Then she condescended to speak with us even though we didn’t have an appointment (just to browse?).

The one tile I liked was a fairly plain milky glass one. “I don’t have time to work up an estimate, but that one is around $80 per square foot”

Sorry, but I don’t think I can afford to go to real tile stores. And I don’t need the smug arrogance of the sellers. Perhaps they cater to contractors only, but their showroom was public, and my contractor had specifically told me to go there. Surely there must be better ones out there, but I have run into multiple specialty building supply stores like that.

I support brick-and-mortar when there really is a positive difference: I buy all of my musical instrument gear from the music store around the block from me because they care, they always provide great advice, they match online prices, and they greet me by saying “Hey dude, we got this cool bass in last week that I have been waiting to show you!”

To the OP: Glad you got your tile. That’s the situation where I would probably just have the guy cut a larger one to size on the saw–it wouldn’t be absolutely perfect, the edges wouldn’t be finished, but after a couple of days nobody would ever notice it.

6

Good suggestion about cutting the tile. Back when I used to do the Saturday tile clinics, I’d tell people that grout, like charity, covers a multitude of sins.

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I’m only here to pit people who use “the” with Home Depot and grammar Nazis who point that out.

8

Huh? Our contractor hasn’t got much of anything at Home Depot in the course of two renovations in our house(kitchen/master bath)- the lumber comes from a commercial lumberyard, as does the drywall, Hardie Board, etc… Plumbing comes from a local plumbing supply outfit, lighting from a electrical supply outfit. He has a custom cabinetmaker who does cabinets for him, and he gets his flooring from a commercial flooring place.

About all that comes from Home Depot or Lowe’s are little rinky-dink things that are too small to get at the commercial places- like the closet carpeting, or stuff like drill bits, etc…

And the trick to getting good service is to get an appointment and point out that you’re at their store because <your contractor name> is doing a job for you and needs you to pick out your stuff. We’ve done that at ProSource, and at a local plumbing supply company (Apex, in Richardson, TX) and they’ve bent over backwards to help us. Even let us take samples home to compare to our existing stuff.

I suspect that since they don’t sell directly to the public, they’re pretty wary of random people off the street who come in without their bona-fides in order.

9

Let me just say that the pit is not the quality of the tiles but the fact that they specifically list one size on their website that they apparently do not sell and feel it is justified to simply substitute another size without telling people. I did try calling a few tile stores but they all wanted minimum orders of several hundred tiles and I only needed one. I also did think of cutting it down but because it has a sanitary top edge, it would look just as bad and the handyman’s suggestion made more sense. Meanwhile, I am surprised at those who suggest I am being cheap. Do you normally retile an entire room if you chip one tile rather than just try to find a replacement?

10

Look on the bright side: you now have some nice coasters. :smiley:

11

Oh my God. You only lost $20. Just trim the oversize tile and make it work, and get over it. Your the type of customer that makes retail employees drink.

12

Your the type of poster that drive’s grammar Nazi’s to heroin.

13

Not so fast.

The other day I wanted a 10-pack of a certain size drill bit, and I found one on-line at Lowes. Big price reduction too. Thing is, that they didn’t have any left in either of the two stores closest to me. But they had quite a lot in a third store. 63 of the items in stock according to their website. So I figured I’d swing by that store and pick one up (IIRC, I needed to head out in that general direction anyway for some reason or other, so it wasn’t completely out of the way).

But I was suspicious. It doesn’t make sense for an item to be completely sold out of two local stores and for there to be 63 of them in a third. So I went on this nifty Lowes customer service chat line that they have on their website, and the person I was communicating with assured me that the website was accurate and they have 63 of them in stock. But I was still suspicious. So I called up that particular Lowes store, and the person I spoke to assured me that yes, they have 63 of them in stock. So I went over there.

As you can imagine, they had zero in stock. The guy in the tool section did his best to be helpful. He verified on his computer that there were 63 in stock and then checked all the overhead bins, but came up empty.

The manager ended up giving me a reduced price on 3 2-packs. Which actually worked out for the best in the end, because it turned out that I didn’t really need more than one bit anyway, so I returned the other 2 2-packs next time I was in a Lowes store and ended up paying less than had I gotten what I wanted.

Still, the general point is that these things happen.

14

That’s what those of us in inventory management would write off as shrinkage. It happens.

15

I thought “shrinkage” is when people steal or lose a few here and there. Having your computer system say you have 63 when you have none sounds more like some sort of computer error to me.

16

Tut mir leid, Herr wolfpup, but ve haf only Dolophine.

17

Sort of like people who use apostrophes when they are not appropriate.

Try “drives grammar Nazis to heroin”, please.

For real adventures in building supplies, I say nothing beats the Habitat Restore. I shop my local mom & pop/Ace because it’s a block away. I shop Home Depot when a bigger selection and better pricing is needed. I shop the restore when I need a 70’s brass chandelier to rehab or some mismatched tile or new blades for a ceiling fan or a window from a turn of the last century house.

18

Those are the reason codes that fall under shrinkage. Essentially, shrinkage is an unplanned difference between the systematic and physical quantities. That would account for the system giving a quantity of 63 pieces and them having zero physically.

A good inventory management program catches this early on and adjustments are made to the systematic quantity to match the physical. Apparently, you caught them between cycle counts.

19

My understanding is that the term would only apply if at some point they had 63 pieces and this amount “shrank” in an unintended and unrecorded manner.

In this case, I think they never had 63 pieces to begin with, and that number was an error in the computer system from the start.

Wikipedia on shrinkage

20

Thou hast been whooshed big time.