The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns: Home Depot Hell

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Yeesh, where do I begin?

Everytime I head to Home Depot around here, I get the royal screw job. After the first time, I thought maybe they were just low on staff. Perhaps they were just busy that day and couldn't have staff available to answer my questions.

So, I got what I needed, forgot about what I wanted, and wrote the experience off as one bad day.

I returned another time for something else, figuring forgive and forget.

No chance.

Same drab treatment, cr*ptacular service.

But, as time goes on, one tends to forget the horridness, so I returned for one last venture.

A friend of mine needed a lawnmower for her place. I also needed to get myself some minor goods, so we headed to Home Depot together.

Once in the store, we headed to the lawnmower section where we picked out something that didn't look cheap, but not too expensive, and it had to be electric. She had made her decision from looking at the floor models and looked around for a service person to get us one in a box.

Oh, just our luck, a service person was just walking by at the very moment we needed one.

Unusual, but desired.

But, as luck would have it, this person told us she'd get someone from that department, as she was too much of a dimbulb, apparently, to get a d*mn box herself.

So, we waited a little while and finally got some high school-looking kid to help us out.

Or, so we thought.

My friend tells him what she wants, and he says he'll go get a trolley to pack it on for us. He returns a while later, with the trolley and proceeds to put the floor model on the trolley.

My friend's like, no 'tard, I want a new one. Okay, she didn't call him a 'tard at that point, but I was sure thinking it.

So, the kid says he'll go track one in a box down for us. He reads the information for the model we want, and he leaves.

Luckily there was some patio furniture beside us, so we sit down there and wait.

He returns, looks at the information again, and he leaves.

We continue to sit and wait.

He returns and says he's not sure if they have one, but he'll check the computer. He takes down the information on a notepad, and he leaves. At this point, I'm like, why didn't he just write the information down in the first place.

We sit and wait.

He returns, looks at the information, and leaves.

What the...?

We sit and wait.

I tell my friend that we should just leave. She's says to give it a few more minutes.

We sit; we wait.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the kid walking up an aisle. I figure, okay, he's finally going to get it out of storage. Then, a few minutes later, I see the same kid walking in another direction down the front end of the store.

Finally, I just say, enough, we've got to get out of here. I told my friend that this isn't worth her business or mine, and she agrees.

We are no longer sitting and waiting.

In the end, I vowed not to go back to that Home Depot Hell; plus, I created a more appropriate slogan for the company:

Home Depot - where everybody's a nobody.

Linked to Liberal Common Sense, Conservative Cat, The Dumb Ox, imaginekitty

May 2008

Comments

Thank goodness it's just not me and my cantankerous nature when it comes to Home Depot! Even being one of the boys, we still sarcastically call the Main/Terminal store "Homo Depot." But of course the West End boys never admit to purchasing from this store.

Had a similar experience recently buying floor tiles. Three dimwits later, they all acknowledged the computer showed a palette of the tiles -- not one could find that palette though. I wandered around and finally found the palette on a shelf near the ceiling in the bathtub area -- four aisles over from the flooring tile. Then getting someone to get those suckers down from that height was like a Marx Brothers movie. I had to wait until a "certified" forklift employee could be found. The entire process took about 2 hours. Why I go back is beyond me.

Try the Rona Home Centre way out on West 12th -- far better customer service but a bit out of the way.

Posted by: Larry | June 29, 2006 11:01 AM

'round here, we call it "Home Despot". I really prefer the locally owned chain, and I've only ever had a couple of situations where they didn't carry something but HD did.

Posted by: Wulf | June 29, 2006 11:03 AM

Larry - ya, I'm going to try the Rona nearby in my area and hope that works out a lot better.

Wulf - that seems to be the way it is, eh. We get all these big box stores, but it keeps ending up that locally owned, or mom and pop shops, are soooooo much better. Some of them cost more, but somehow, I think the price is worth it.

Posted by: Sam | June 29, 2006 01:24 PM

If you think shopping at Home Depot is a pain in the ass, try keeping one out of your town!

http://www.no2homedepot.com

Posted by: JB | June 29, 2006 01:47 PM

Sam, Lowe's is the same way! You can't the attention of the staff, but if you grab something and head to the door without paying for it, you'll get more attention than you really want. I've seen it happen!

Posted by: Mark Shipley | June 29, 2006 05:47 PM

Mark - are you sure that wasn't you thieving? Sure, "seen it", uh huh. Lol.

Posted by: Sam | June 29, 2006 07:07 PM

i sympathize with everyone-i myself am an exHOME DEPOT employee-i slaved away for 3years at an HD here in Los Angeles and(just to name a few)with in those years have been apart of two lawsuits, been fired then the same day rehired, watched HD fire someone with years of expierence for someone who has none, ive seen managers steal from the store, get caught and be able to keep their jobs, ive seen more sexual harrassement take place in one HD than an entire four years in High School,ive seen HR managers pour chemicals down a drain that drains to the ocean, i have witnessed managers and employees tell customers to go to hell and deny it when a district manager becomes involved, i also have countless other situations i have seen happen. it is the worst place to shop, the worst place to be employeed and the sad fact is that its going NOWHERE, i worked inside the paint dept. and on a bad day just the paint dept. would make close to forty thousand dollars. and thats on a bad day. other depts. make double that on a good day. i learned a few things here and there but it was from the expierenced customers, not HD Pros. HD products sell themselves. a customer may not be able to retrieve them properly, but...customer service no longer exists.

Posted by: Jason | July 6, 2006 03:31 PM

Jason - thanks for sharing your experience. I guess I can thank my lucky stars Home Depot wasn't around when I was doing that kind of work. Hopefully, I'll never have to head that way again; I'll be choosing Rona or Canadian Tire instead.

Posted by: Sam | July 6, 2006 03:37 PM

I can,t stand you. If you dont like HD than dont go. Why would you think anyone cares. Go "rant" on Starbucks. You tree hugging bitch.

Posted by: gil latew | July 7, 2006 04:17 AM

I would have to agree with Sam. It seems that you wrote all of this and then didnt even bother to think out the details of it. Maybe the kid was new, not really sure of what to do perhaps? And if the model was readily available why would you complain about the associate walking by and telling you she would find someone for you? I work at home depot and if it isnt my department why would i know how to run it? You are one of those types of customers i would love to jam a 2X4 up their ass.

Posted by: Ashley | February 13, 2008 01:28 AM