YAHDR (Yet another Home Depot rant!)

[DaveW]

LOML and I stopped by our local HD to look at patio umbrellas - after debating about what size we wanted, and getting the input from the HD employee (who asked several times if we needed help, which surprised me considering that I've never been able to find people to help me before), we were ready to pick one... then I asked - where do you keep the umbrella bases at? The response? We don't have any.

uh...

I guess they've gotten shipments of 40 or so in the past, and have sold out within days. But umbrellas? They had maybe 30 stacked on the floor, and another 50 up in the shelves.

Even the ever-so-friendly HD employee admitted - sorry - you're in HD - what do you expect?! Nothing's logical here...

[dwolsten]

(who asked several times if we needed help, which surprised me considering that I've never been able to find people to help me before)

I've generally found that store employees are always bothering me, asking me if I need help, at those times when I just want to be left alone to get what I need. Multiple employees will even come and ask me the same question. But any time I actually do need some help, they're nowhere to be found.

What's with that?

[mac_daddy]

They NEVER ever ask if I need help, I dunno, here in Houston, TX, I guess they figure men always find what they are looking for. So what is my solution? Have my wife wear her spaghetti strap top and low cut shorts. This usually works, unless there is another female in the same outfit covering power tools.

[cwsmith]

Sounds like the same experiences that I've had at HD. Lot's of "orange aprons" walking through the isles, saying "Hello"... but when you really need one, they've all gone on break.

Today was more frustrating than I could handle. I'm in the process of moving some of my tools to the new home and needed a 2-wheel dolley. So, off to Home Depot I go (they're the only retailer, short of doing a 40-mile round trip to Lowe's.

So, I find exactly what I need, right size and good price... but there are only two. Both have sat out in the garden storage area through the winter, plus some. Filthy, rusty, and covered with bird droppings. I don't know about you, but when I buy something, I expect it not to be rusty, dirty and certainly not covered with bird crap. So, I go searching for an "orange apron", to no avail. When I return to the area my wife tells me she found a whole pallet of brand new units, all wrapped up on poly.

Yep, there they are... high up on the top racks, must be 20 of them all stacked and wrapped together. So, off to the customer service desk I go to see if there's any chance to get one of these down. "Absolutely NOT", not until the two floor units are sold! "But, they're a mess", I proclaim; only to be answered with a very snotty, "Well, wash it off!"

Sorry, maybe it's just me... but I don't buy anything that I have to take home and scrub, sand the rust off of, and then repaint. I guess HD doesn't need more business. That's why they only have one register open during most afternoons.

My son told me this evening that he just read a consumer survey that reported Home Depot "customer satisfaction" came in dead last, among retailers... and NOT by a slim margin, it was something like 12 or 14% less than the next lowest number. I'll have to see if he can give me a link to the survey.

CWS

[Scrollist]

Hd

I went to HD to buy some casters. A young gentleman offered to help. I asked where the casters were located and he said, "We don't have them". I told him I thought I'd seen them here before, I just couldn't remember where. He says, "What are casters, anyway"? I just went on with my search and found them in the next isle.

Last winter my Wife and I went into HD to purchase some ice melter. My Wife asked a young man where we could find it. He told her they were out. Not five feet away was a whole pallet of the stuff in the middle of an isle.

I needed a couple of sheets of plywood cut to fit into my car. The young man at HD helping me took forever to cut them up because he was backing the panel saw into the plywood to cut it. I told him it would work better if he ran the saw through forward. He told me this is how his supervisor taught him and that safety was the main issue.

[ejs1097]

I've generally found that store employees are always bothering me, asking me if I need help, at those times when I just want to be left alone to get what I need. Multiple employees will even come and ask me the same question. But any time I actually do need some help, they're nowhere to be found.

What's with that?

That's the story of my life, especially in HD. I love it when they are waiting on someone for 10 minutes about some trivial spigeot or something why you stand there like a doorknob then they walk the other way.

Ever notice how they always walk away faster then you can keep up?

[dwolsten]

Sounds like the same experiences that I've had at HD. Lot's of "orange aprons" walking through the isles, saying "Hello"... but when you really need one, they've all gone on break.

I have this experience at lots of other places too, not just HD. But I think it may be worse at HD. I'm wondering if it's a universal law, like Murphy's Law. If no one else has claimed it, I claim it as "Dan's Law of Customer Service": "When you know what you want, the salespeople won't stop hassling you. But when you need their help, they're nowhere to be found."

After all the stuff I've been reading about HD lately, I think TTI/Ryobi was really stupid to sign an exclusive contract with HD. Imagine how much more Ryobi and Ridgid stuff they could sell at Lowe's and Amazon.com.

[RonT]

I worked at a Lowes in VA, the policy there was to acknowledge EVERY customer. Pointing was not allowed, you had to take the customer to the article he was looking for or take him/her to someone who could help. Like any large retail store not all customers were satisfied with the service due to ratio of customers to associates (salesman). Some would complain, but acknowledge the service was better there than at HD. We had mystery shoppers that came in and ranked the service they received; grading the store against another. An associate could gain a day off with pay for good service.

I now live in FL and here Lowes and HD rank about the same for customer service; not the Lowes I was trained at.

It's a tough business and the bottom line, unfortunately, drives the quality of service that the business can afford. Enough people have a need, dispite the poor service, and so life goes on. Unfortunately, the mom and pop shop of yesteryear is gone.

[just4funsies]

I have found here in Central FL that both Lowes and HD never seem to have enough people on the floor. True, I am always running into the "aprons" on their way here and there, but there is NEVER a rep in hardware or plumbing when I need one. (I can get somebody from the service desk usually, but they don't know anything about the product in those departments.) And if you're there first thing at opening, FORGET IT. There's nobody in the aisles (they're all either back getting their morning coffee, or they haven't been scheduled to start for another 2 hours). Another problem with Lowes is that they seem to have an aversion to opening enough registers. They have 20 of them, but usually only 2 (or 1 and the service desk) are open at any given time. I have left many times because I didn't want to wait 30 minutes to get checked out. At least my HD's have some self-serve checkouts in place and open (usually).

[BobSch]

Anybody else want to rant about the DIY checkout stations? I had a clerk ask me why I waited in line rather than go the self-checkout route. I asked her if they could handle gift cards and coupons. She mumbled something and checked me out (so to speak.)

[RonT]

Something I wasn’t aware of until I worked at Lowes is that there are Help call buttons in every department. Usually they are located near the service desk or in a remote department location; it's a red sign with yellow letters.

Call buttons have to be responded to by an associate within 45 seconds; this response time is recorded in divisional headquarters and results are reported to the store manager offering some indication of the kind of service provided by his store. Store managers get very nerves when call button are ignored, kind of a watchdog effect.

I would urge Lowes shoppers to take advantage of this leverage the next time you need help.

[JR]

Unfortunately, the mom and pop shop of yesteryear is gone.

I have to pass a local hardware store on my two mile trip to HD. It's owned by a man who upon inheriting the business from his parents, left his corporate career. I like the guy, so I go there as much as I can. It doesn't hurt that the woman at the counter is very nice, but slightly trashy and always shows a little cleavage...

Aaaanyway, I went there on the 4th for a couple of sprinkler parts. They were out of full-circle pop-up sprinklers, but had plenty of other compatible ones as well as spare parts. The boss wasn't working on the holidy and the teenaged clerk was way over his head on how to effect the switch. Fortunately, I thought, he went and got the gnarled veteran to help me. He understood immediately what I wanted to do. "Nope. Can't do it," he says. I blurted something like, "Whuh?" He says, "It would screw up the computer."

I cobbled soemthing together from spare parts at home, but what a let down.

JR

[gabedad]

The woman in the orange apron who helped me cut blinds to size this last weekend was a total hottie. Who cares if she had to do it twice!

[RonT]

OK guys,

Got to think with the right head and put your priorities into perspective!!

A local floor tile supply house here services contractors with gals behind the counter wearing blouses unbottoned like macho man and short short shorts. Hey, it brings in the business and nobody minds waiting their turn.

Priorities!!! I'm just glade I'm not paying the contractor by the hour.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I think you will begin seeing HD employees asking if they can help out due to the new customer service based incentive program. The program heavily rewards managers and employees for high customer service.