The Daily Ping

HD (as a former MGR) DOES in fact treat it’s people like garbage!! Not like the old days of Bernie and Arther. HOWEVER, many stores are a product of their environment, they are brought up in a world of disrespect and rudeness. Most of all their communities dictate the outcome. (little hint: for the most part those who are aggressive and otherwise and ass, mind you I said for the most part, on this post…… that IS the way they treat customers, because that is the way they are trained, BY THEIR ENVIRONMENT>>>>or their community.) Their will be the NAY sayers, but piss off, I have been in 5 stores, in 4 states…..in 10 years. There has been absolutely incredible people, incredible sales and vise versa. Get a grip.

I agree, Home Depot has the worst customer service ever. We have had several negative experiences with Home Depot. Today was the final straw.

I ordered a $1300 Teak Patio set last weak. They told me that they would deliver it on Saturday, but did not give me a time. On Saturday I left the house for two hours – and of course that is when they tried to deliver.

So, no big deal. I called to reschedule.

Now is where the big deal comes in. I called and was transfered to someone. He said, “I can’t help you, you have to call back.” I asked him if he could transfer me, and he said “no, you have to call back and ask for the special services desk.”

So I called back and asked for the special services desk. I woman answered, cut me off in the middle of my first sentence, and put me on hold. I waited on hold for 12 minutes.

Then while, still on hold, I called them from another phone. When I called they transfered me to special services and the same woman answered (she had a distinctive accent/voice). I told her that I was on hold on the other line for 12 minutes and asked when I could get help. She told me that she had to cut me off because she had customers and that she would call me back within ten minutes or less.

I waited 30 minutes, and still no call. So then I called and asked to speak to the manager. I was put on hold for five minutes, then the line went dead.

So then I called again and asked for a manager. I got a manager. I asked if he could reschedule my delivery. He said that he would. When I asked what time, he said that he could not say. I asked if he could give me some kind of window, like afternoon, and he said no. I told him that I have to be out of the house for one hour on the day of delivery and asked if he could be sure that they not deliver during that time. He said no, that they deliver however their route works, and if I’m not home, then they have to reschedule again. Now keep in mind, I’m paying for the delivery, it is not a free service.

So, I said if you can’t even work around one hour in my entire day I need to cancel the order. He told me that he could not do that right now. I asked him why. He said because he was not at a register. I said, then put me on hold and go to a register. He said that he couldn’t do that. So then I asked him for the name and address of his regional manager. He said that he did not have that information.

I hung up, called back, spoke to a cashier and got a refund.

I will NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER shop at Home Depot again. This was the last straw in a long series of horrible customer service. I find the service to be much better at Lowes.

Monique—-of course you don’t care that by leaving the house for 2 HOURS you wasted the delivery persons time(they had to pull your delivery,load it, and then unload it back at the store.) and also denied another customer(who would have stayed home)a delivery. You will never shop there again-GOOD

Dave—You are an Idiot. How does that Home Depot cheerleader outfit fit, anyway?

I live near a new Home Depot in Apple Valley ,CA. In that store i have seen managers yell at associates on the floor. To me that in unprofessional. I have delt with employees who were not properly trained. My neighbor already had to go back because they over charged him on an installation. The HR insulted my friend because he applied there, and he had a DUI. He doesnt drink, but yet she tells him that he has to stay sober for 6 months before she can interview him. Hes been sober for 2 years. I would rather go to Lowe’s which fortunatelly is across the street from this suck ass store. For all you Home Depot employees or former Home Depot employees. I am sorry for your pain. By the way, there is an online petition to boy cott Home Depot, check it out and sign it.

New tag for Home Despot:

You can do it? Can you help?

They’ve actually put a banner up in the breakroom that’s a letter, allegedly from one of the founders, which says that everything he has — his house, car, kids’ education, and so forth, are because of the customers. Well…

I have an idea: How about a banner next to that one which reads:

Hello!

Thanks for the $210 million golden parachute.

Bob Nardelli

At least that one would be closer to the truth of the present (and long term) attitude of arrogance at Home Depressing, er I mean Despondent, um, Depot. Despot. Uh, whatever.

Why do you say Home Depot is “hell”. I just started employment there 2 days ago, and have heard nothing but good things (preemployment, and current) about working for The Home Depot. Your input would (I feel) help me to possibly understand more fully the experiences I will have at Home Depot. I hope though, that you are not chalking up one bad experience you had there as your sole opinion on the stores. I’m sure they’re not all bad, unfortunately, some Home Depot employees are better than others with their customer service and product knowledge. I feel that they should not sway your thoughts on ALL Home Depot employees though. I know I’m going to try my best to exceed in my role at The Home Depot. Please, explain to me though how you feel that Home Depot. is “hell”, I’d still like to know what I have possibly gotten myself into. Thanks.

All retail is terrible work. Customers get screwed and take it out on the usually innocent employees thus lowering moral and customer service overall but they have a right to be mad, it’s their money they’re spending. It’s a vicious circle. I have worked at h.d. for about 2yrs as a department supervisor and it has been a bad experience overall but it pays the bills. I will be starting a new job soon and leaving retail for good, I even turned down assistant manager training (you would think they would figure it out), I have worked retail most of my life and the workers are treated like shit from most management and customers the bigger the company the worse employees are treated, you are the scum of the earth and a glutton for abuse, so anyone considering it, don’t and anyone who likes it, there is something wrong. Learn and trade or go to college and get a degree and get a job you will like or suffer the retail employee fate. Home Depot thinks they can change since that evil fuck Nardelli is gone but they were there with him when he made it a the terrible place it has become it won’t get better, at my store right now the manager, and the district manager are mormans and assistant managers have a hard time promoting if they are not…hmmm. I will not shop there after I leave and have nothing good to say about the company, don’t shop there and don’t work there.

There’s one guy in electrical at 4607 who absolutely hates HD. Yet for some reason he hasn’t left. He was bitching about the store when I worked there and that was almost 3 years ago!

Half of the assistant managers, the really nice ones, left and went across the street to lowes. The worst position has to be the lot! The only thing good about it was the tips. Screw giving HD the tip money! Keep it, on the lot, you EARN it!

Just finishing a short term in Home Depot Electrical. Hard working people in all departments. I’ve had a number of customers tell me they just came from Lowes. The sales person they spoke with there did not know much….all other help ..out to lunch. A state of flux in hiring is just the way these places often have to operate.
You can bad mouth the big box stores all you want. Until you have worked in one you are clueless. I’m glad to be leaving but it has been some of the best experience I have ever had. The clueless customer to sales person is 100 to 1.

Just some things first off. To the ones who work or have worked for home depot. When it comes to retail home depot isn’t the first and won’t be the last, it doesen’t matter if you work at home depot, target, wal-mart, best buy, whatever you’re basically going to have the same problems. The only key differences are you might have a good manager or a shitty one, if you happen to have a good one you better pray he doesen’t get transferred or promoted but most of the time your average associate will go through plenty of management changes and what sucks usually when a good manager gets promoted they turn from a good manager to a shitty district or regional leader (don’t understand that one). Unfortuanly it always seems like when you get the shitty one they are there for awhile until they quit or do something REALLY stupid. There’s never or rarely is over-time, forget a weekend, have fun on the holidays. Speaking of hours I actually had a manager once that if I could prove it get her in deep shit for changing peoples clock ins and outs so they wouldn’t get over time so she could get her bonus this wasen’t at home depot though. Yeah how would you like to not get paid for 30 minutes that you actually worked? I aint no volunteer not in retail hell nooooo…..

To the customers. You may prefer target over wal-mart, lowes over home depot, circuit city over best buy, pep boys over mr. tire, or vise versa. But really they are generally the same and you know you ACTUALLY hate them all. NOw of course we talk about mom and pop stores and how they get screwed by big buisniess and how the smaller ones know there shit better. There is always a trade off, the smaller buisiness may have better customer service and expierence and quality that’s because they have a lower volume to deal with yet you still shop at evil big buisiness places, why? More selection?One stop shopping?. NEVER EXPECT THE HIGHEST QUALITY MERCHANDISE FROM BIG CORPORATE RETAIL SETTINGS, this should be common freaking knowledge by now. That’s just like you never hear about the best burger places, sub shops, or pizza places being dominos, mcdonalds, or subway it’s always some local joe schmmooo place that puts out the quality stuff. That’s because big buisiniess franchises are cookie cutter places that mostly hire the highschool and college aged part-timers who don’t really care about your hamburger and aren’t planning on being a chef in theire career lives. THe joe shmoo place specializes and openeded the place for a reason, cares about the taste, size and texture of your hamburger, and will teach who they hire to care and if they don’t will fire them in a 2nd. Big businesses push customer service but in all reality they care more about saving money. And generally big buisiness is cheaper for you so naturally you are going to get shitty customer service some how, low quality product, and to much traffic in the parking lot. Noowwww if you can afford quality then you are a dumb ass for seeking service in high-volume retail.

My advice is this, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH on the internet, ask real proffesionals about home imporvement projects. If you can do it yourself or have a friend that you know or have a friend that has a friend, USE THEM. It will save you time and energy. I’ve never used home depot services and have never heard complaints about them, and I don’t have to hear them or use the services to know that it’s at your own risk. There is tooooo much politics and bearucracy (blah) in retail to use thier services to install my kitchen, my flooring or what have you. Granted they might get it right but you never know what your gonna get in retail. Although this is pretty much true with any contractor or installation company but in big retail it’s just tooooo easy for people to screw up.

But I’m the DIYER in anything anyway I don’t trust anyone with anything unless I know them well. If I go to buy almost anything or have a project I will research till I can research no more and network network network. And doing stuff yourself rocks anyway cause then you can bragg about it…..;)plus if you have a friend do it and they screw it up, it’s way easier to make them pay for it or fit it and if you have to sue em it’s way easier to win in court.

I like Home Depot and have had grea success buyiung things there. However, Lowe’s has been a pain in the ass. To Hell with Lowe’s and its affiliates.