Utterly Meaningless » Blog Archive » SLIGHTLY OT: WHY I HATE HOME DEPOT
  • SLIGHTLY OT: WHY I HATE HOME DEPOT

    Filed at 7:33 pm under by dcobranchi

    OK- it’s probably completely OT but is related directly to the paucity of posts on H&OES.

    I am in the process of nearly completely renovating our only bathroom. After I’m done, the only things that will be original will be the tub and most of the drywall. Last night my quest was to buy the new vanity along with all the associated hardware. Here begins the Home Depot tale of woe.

    Lydia and I had already scoped out the exact pieces we wanted. We yanked the seats out of the minivan and I hustled over to the local HD. After picking up the few tools I would need, I went back to where the vanities are stored on those 20 foot high shelves. Cool. They had the exact one I needed. It was up just a bit too high for me to grab it by myself, so I asked a passing “associate” (who happened to be driving a fork lift), if he could use the truck to get the vanity down. It would have taken all of one minute. No- he couldn’t help me but the girl right behind him could (he said). Well, she couldn’t and walked down to where he and his buddy were to tell them to come back and get the vanity down. Should be a couple of minutes, she said.

    Fifteen minutes later, I’m watching them moving 5 gallon water bottles all over the store. They see me. They know I’m waiting. But, moving the friggin’ water bottles is more important than helping a customer.

    Finally, I gave up and walked up to the sarcastically named “Customer Service Desk.” I told them the story and that I was going to Lowes. Their response? A shrug.

    I went straight to Lowes and spent $350.

    I swear I will never shop in Home Depot again, even though Lowes is three times farther away.

    UPDATE: Misery loves company.

    23 Responses to “SLIGHTLY OT: WHY I HATE HOME DEPOT”


    Comment by
    Dave
    May 7th, 2004
    at 8:57 pm

    Well Daryl, If it makes you feel any better, the situation here in Chandler/Tempe Arizona is exactly the opposite. Lowes should be renamed “slows” and thank goodness for Home Depot!


    Comment by
    Eric Holcombe
    May 7th, 2004
    at 9:53 pm

    heh. Slowes. Home of 37 registers and two cashiers. I mean, if you don’t need the darn things on Friday night or Saturday morning, YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE BUILT THEM.

    I guess maybe they came in handy for the Y2K scare.

    I spent an hour waiting to get some 2X6X10’s moved from the high rack to the floor on my last visit. For some reason they were down to the last four or five, which looked more like bananas or double helix experiments than lumber. The reason they were out? The 2X6X10’s were $.50 LESS than 2X6X8’s. I didn’t ask.


    Comment by
    Andrea
    May 8th, 2004
    at 1:56 am

    Don’t ever try to get help in Hobby Lobby either. You will regret it.


    Comment by
    Chris O'Donnell
    May 8th, 2004
    at 8:07 am

    I don’t find Lowe’s to be any better than Home Depot. One way to be the low price leader is to not pay anybody to actually work in the stores.

    I buy all my landscape materials at a local greenhouse, but I’m stuck with Lowes / HD for hard goods. What I wouldn’t give for an Ace Hardware in the neighborhood.


    Comment by
    Daryl Cobranchi
    May 8th, 2004
    at 8:30 am

    I agree that the mom&pop stores are much preferred to the big box. I almost always go there first, especially for hardware/handtools. They just don’t carry lavatories and other bathroom-type “furniture.”


    Comment by
    Daryl Cobranchi
    May 8th, 2004
    at 8:32 am

    BTW- The guys at Lowes were very helpful in getting the vanity down. They even volunteered to help load it in the truck. Anecdote? Sure, but so is this whole post. 🙂


    Comment by
    Dave
    May 8th, 2004
    at 11:08 am

    Hmmm…. An Ace HW just opened 1 mi from my house… I think I’ll try it out!


    Comment by
    Rikki
    May 8th, 2004
    at 11:03 pm

    heh. I’ve been married to Home Depot for 13 years. I personally hate what they’ve become, but they pay the bills and cover unexpected medical emergencies so it’s not fruitful for my husband to find another job right now. I think the worst of the changes started happening when they hired an ex Wal-mart executive to be the new CEO of the company. It’s all down hill now, i’m supprised they haven’t made every employee go part time to save on paying for benefits. *sigh*


    Comment by
    Mike
    May 25th, 2004
    at 6:31 pm

    Home Depot owes me kitchen cabinetsI have been shopping at Home
    Depot for many years. I am from Georgia and I like to support home-grown
    companies. However, my experiences with Home Depot lately has been
    terrible to say the least. The store located on the Gulf Freeway in
    Houston, Texas (near Gulfgate shopping center) had some kitchen cabinets on
    display that they were saleing at a discount. From the day they went
    on sale I was giving my name and number to the sales people and the
    managers. On May 11th, a sales person in the cabinet department (Charles)
    called and told me my offer had been accepted (he had talked with his
    kitchen cabinet manager Kevin). I offered to pay for them over the
    phone. He said I would have to come in person and pay for them. During
    that time I measured out the positions in my kitchen for the cabinets, cut
    holes for the plumbing and gas lines. Later, Charles called me back and
    said they have to wait before I can pay for the cabinets due to
    accounting purposes. He said he would call me back when I can pay for
    cabinets. Two days later another sales associate (Mike) in the cabinet
    department called me back and said the cabinets had been sold. I
    informed him that I was promised those cabinets and he said he had called
    and left me a message (in the middle of the day while I was at work.
    They had my work number too). His message was that he had “information”
    on the cabinets. I argued with him about why he sold the cabinets
    because he also would have had to get prior permission from the kitchent
    cabinets manager. He had no answer. I went to the store and talked with
    Kevin (the cabient manager) and his attitude was he did not care, there
    was nothing he could do and he was done with the matter. I went and
    talked with the manager of the store (Juan) and he said he knew nothing
    about the situtation. Apparently Kevin never talked with his manager
    about the event either though I asked Kevin to find out what happen!
    ed. I
    asked the store manager to find out and please call me. I told the
    store manager I just bought an older home and was spending a lot of money
    on this house and already spent over $2,000 at Home Depot. One week
    later I have not had a phone call. So here I am with holes cut into my
    walls for these specific cabinets (I just remodeled my kitchen also). My
    wife and I are on a limited income. I do not have money to do repairs
    caused by others mistakes ( I need to repair the kitchen wall holes or
    find cabinets that will match). My house needs about $20k worth of
    repairs done to it, which I was planning on spending at Home Depot. But
    this incident (along with never being able to get customer service at
    Home Depot and along with not being help with French Doors that I
    purchased there last month and had to get customers to help me load) has
    forced me to possible take my business to Lowe’s where at least when you
    walk in the door someone is there saying, “Can I help you find somethi!
    ng”,
    instead of running and hiding from customers. I feel Home Depot owes
    me compensation for the mistake they made by not selling me cabinets
    they promised me on a verbal contract we had and which I still have on my
    answering maching.


    Comment by
    terri
    June 2nd, 2004
    at 6:44 am

    IT IS A SHAME THAT SOME CUSTOMERS HAVE TO WAIT SO LONG FOR HELP IN HOME DEPOT BUT THEN AGAIN,WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WHEN THEY LET ONE ASSOCIATE TRY TO RUN TWO DEPARTMENTS BY HIM/HERSELF?


    Comment by
    Tammie
    June 18th, 2004
    at 9:22 pm

    We have come to the point of becoming physically ill if we have to visit home depot. Not only can we not find things, no one wants to help in 4 different stores (Within 30 miles of us), and almost everything we have bought from them has either broken, not worked and had to be returned, or was not to the size/spec it said it was. For example, i recently asked a clerk to cut me some decorative chain (after looking for help for nearly 9 minutes – yes, i time them!). i asked for 4 – 18″ pieces and 4 – 24″ pieces. What i received was this: 15.25″, 16.5″, 18″, 19.5″, (2) 23″, and (2) 24.25″. Six pieces had the ends chewed up so badly by his “shaky” cut that i had to recut them at home and with the lengths all wrong, i had to completely redesign my project! (Does it say on the application anything about knowing how to measure things????? How about just having a brain?)

    Finally, a Lowes is coming within 22 miles, instead of the one across the street from the furthest home depot. i’m sure we will be visiting the new store on a regular basis, especially since they are on our way home from work.

    honestly, i work for a government contractor. if we did the type of shoddy work and provided the same shoddy product as they do, i’d be out of a job.

    i haven’t had one pleasant experience with home depot in the 13 years i’ve been shopping them. some people call lowes – “slows” – but if it keeps me from having to pop a nerve pill before a visit, i’m all for it.


    Comment by
    Matt Thomas
    June 26th, 2004
    at 4:58 pm

    Home Depot Fucking sucks my Balls! I ordered over $3,000 in lumber on a Thursday for delivery. They couldn’t get it to me Friday so they promised “first delivery” on Saturday AM which should be no later than 9 AM.

    So I have my carpenters show up at 9 am, and the truck hasn’t arrived yet. I call HD and they say that he ran to another stop first but was on his way. I had to leave for the day, so I just told the carpenters to hold tight and the delivery will be here shortly.

    I came back at 4 pm to see that nothing had been accomplished and the fucking truck never showed up! I call the store manager expecting to here about a fatal delivery accident, but no, he offers no apology or explanation and simply says that “the truck will be there soon”. This butthole cost me over $300 to have my carpenters sit on their ass all day and had NOTHING to offer!

    Fuck You Home Depot! Fuck You right in the Ass!


    Comment by
    Larry M.
    July 6th, 2004
    at 1:50 am

    I live in North Ridgeville,Ohio and My wife went to the North Olmsted,Ohio Home Depot and bought a water heater and installation for next day install. The next day comes. The installer calls me in the morning and asks when to come and install the water heater. I said,”Right now!”. He said he couldn’t come right now,so we set it up for 1:30pm. Well 1:30pm comes and goes,no phone calls from the installer or the store. I finally had to call them about 4:30 only to find they sold me a water heater they did not have. Oh no, nothing could be done till the next day. Ihad to ask for a discount on their stupidity and they offered 10% after trying to act like they weren’t totally responsible.
    The next day comes. I call early in the morning to see if they had gotten the water heater. They had gotten it and said I would be first on they’re list. The installer doesn’t come until 2pm. The installer puts in the water heater says he can’t use the flex pipes that had worked up till then, replaces a gas valve w/o asking puts in solid pipe in place of the flex water pipes(this should have been covered under the contract. It says so in bold print, but he charges me $38 a piece). All total he charges me $106 extra ,on top of the $179 I already paid for the installation. I called the store to complain, they said they could not do anything till they got the final report from the installer. Well 2 days go by no call back. So I call them. The “customer service desk” had the receipt right there, but did they call me, No. The “service desk” lady could not even understand the terms of her own contract. I had to get Manager Miguel on the phone and he understood, but he said they hadn’t talked to the installer yet. This after they said they would follow it right up 2 days earlier.They told me to call some customer complaint line for immediate action. I called they gave me some runaround back and forth between them and the installers help line. Then finally took my complaint and told me I would have to go back to the store “customer service desk”. 2 days later I call only to find Mgr. Miguel has talked to the installer(who by the way says everything was proper, of course) and now has he has to sit down w/ the instore head of the installers and discuss this. Well, I call the complaint line again and they take down my statement again and then they say this will have to go to the regional office. I call back Mgr. Miguel and he is totally irresponsible and throws up his hands and says ,”What do you want me to do about it?”. Well this is what I’m doing about it Miguel, I am never never ever going into a Home Depot again. I hate Home Depot!


    Comment by
    Colleen
    July 7th, 2004
    at 12:21 pm

    I work at Home Depot part time. I absolutely hate working at Home Depot. The job wouldn’t be so bad if I didnt have to deal with jerks and morons all day. I saw the ads and thought that Home Depot was a different place to work than the other stores I’ve worked at. The major problem is the management. They are all losers-in-life but winners at Home Depot. They walk around all day, don’t help when you need them and are out to get you i.e cant wait to find a reason to fire people. I was hired at a decent rate of $11 an hour. Now they want to save money and pay people $8/hr. This is ridiculous for the amount of work you have to do and the grief you need to put up with. In addition, the customers are so rude at the location I work, dealing with these people makes you think society is going down the drain.

    I work with a lot of people that are very clever and nice. But they are all “associates”. The people that run the store are the managers and department heads. They dont actually run anything they just stand around and tell people to do ridiculous things that aren’t possible given time restraints. Recently just about every employee in my department quit. And because the pay rate is so low, they dont have anyone to come in and take their place.
    In addition, there isn’t a shred of professionalism where I work. The managers talk to you like you are dirt, insult you and others behind their back, and the males stand around and stare at cute women and say disgusting,degrading things. There are no women department heads or managers, and im sure when there are manager’s meetings they say rude things about women.
    If a customer comes to Home Depot and wonders why they cant find anyone or there is only one associate per 25-30 customers, dont take out your frustration on the poor employee that is already close to quitting. If you complain to the manager, they are useless. Call Atlanta, the Corporate office of Home Depot, and you will find someone that will have an impact on fixing the store that you dont like.


    Comment by
    paul
    July 7th, 2004
    at 3:19 pm

    I have so many aweful Home Depot stories. I am not a happy HD customer right now. They, true to form, really suck ass. Their “associates” need better training all around. They’re fucking retarded. I bought $1000 granite countertop for a kitchen, and 3 months later when I was ready to have it installed, they claimed that “We only install granite if it’s over $1200…You can get your money back and go elsewhere, or buy more granite.” What the FUCK???? The DC Home Depot blows big time. Part of this catastrophe also involved the Associate selling me a refrigerator that was discontinued, and when I went to pick it up two weeks later, being told “Oh, this model is discontinued. Sorry. You can get your money back.” What the FUCK! I had my cabinets measured to that exact refrigerator!

    LOWES here I come. God save the queen and fuck HD.


    Comment by
    Robin
    August 2nd, 2004
    at 9:41 pm

    Dave in the kitchen department at Lowes in Flanders, NJ was very nasty and always had an attitude throughout my Avanza countertop transaction. It didn’t matter that I spent $4500. Anytime I would call, come in, ask a question he just copped an attitude. The best was when he copped an attitude when I asked for a breakdown of the pricing. I didn’t have anything. All I has was a $4500 charge on my American Express card. If I had it to do over, I would have bought Silestone or Topstone at Home Depot.


    Comment by
    tricia
    August 3rd, 2004
    at 3:35 am

    Ok, ok…Home depot sucks, lowes sucks…Who really cares. If you don’t like it don’t go. but don’t bitch. it’s just a imature waste of everyones time. You do all realize that everybody is reading all these snooty little pre-school remarks, and going. My god this is pathetic. No one is really taking this to heart or caring about a damn word of it. People get caught up. You try runnin a department with thousands(literaly)of parts you have to know about. What they all do, how much they all cost, how many you have in stock, if it comes in beige; and the biggest slap in the face of all….(after this dick has taken up 25 minutes of your time)Does another store have it cheaper? Then imagine you’ve been at work since oh….5:45 in the morning. by 2:00 your ready to clock out and go home. Oh no. A customer walks up to you. pissed off because they spent 10 minutes looking for you(being the only one in your department)Where do you get off?? Is it my fault you don’t know how to read isle signs???? screws and nails, PROBABLY UNDER THE GIANT SIGN JACK ASS!!!! Don’t blame me for your incompitance. If you didn’t notice. the slogan is..YOU can do it, we can help. Not We’ll do everything for you. Read the gi-gantoid signs. get your little srews and your little bit of wood don’t bitch and get the hell out of my store, ive got my own problems to deal with…..


    Comment by
    Joe & Moe
    August 29th, 2004
    at 7:55 pm

    Home Depot Is nothing but a glorified Pergament!(for those who are unfamiliar with Pergament that makes them the equal of a 5 and dime hardware department store hardware section. Our local Home Depot store is at Cropsey Avenue in Brooklyn. The lumber department takes the prize for being number 1 in “we just don’t give a damn”. First of all you can never get any lumber cut to size. They have this wooden “out of order” sign which they use according to the mood that they are in. Don’t feel like cutting lumber? Heck, put the sign up. Yes this is an accusation on my part but if your saw broke down as often as theirs does, you would either have a back up or just get rid of the damn thing. They play games with the saw and their little sign and they think that you are stupid. When asked about the saw not being operational, they have this “could care less” attitude. Another thing that bugs me about this store is their attitude concerning stock. It seems that they just can’t hide their joy at not having particular items which you need. There’s always that little gleam in their eye when they say “nope, don’t have it”. Also this crap about not ordering anything until inventory is accomplished seems to be some sort of antiquated inventory system. I once went to the customer service desk and asked the gentlemen what his name was and his response was ” who wants to know”. I could go on and on with my negative experiences with my local home depots but you know what? Lowes has come to Brooklyn. I will make the out of the way detour to Lowes as I am sick and tired of the home depot’s indiference to accomplishing your goals within some sort of reasonable time frame. Home Depot seems to have lost sight of the home repair/remodel adventure. The only two things I would like to further state are the following; Regarding the Cropsey Avenue Home Depot, the guys that run the tool rental department are right on the money. They have an understanding of your desire to complete your project within certain time parameters.
    A note to Lowes, yes everything is wonderful and lovey dovey at your new Brooklyn store. Keep one thing in mind, Home Depot came on with the same lovey dovey crap. We pray that you do not fall into the same abyss (cesspool) which is the Home Depot.


    Comment by
    HD Associate
    September 9th, 2004
    at 4:03 pm

    I started working for HD about 5 months ago. I was offered a decent rate and I picked a department where I knew there would be lots of business (to ensure I would get hours). I was forced to start as a part time employee because I have children and I’m not available to work from open to close. (When I first heard this I thought it was rather odd.) So I then worked on finding childcare for my children till 11:00 pm. Trust me…this is pretty difficult. It took me 2 months to find childcare to cover all the possible times they could schedule me to work from open to close. I then called and informed them I now have all day open and would like to be a full time employee. They then informed me that full in my department and it isn’t possible. So I asked to be moved to a dept that was open…and I could name 4 dept that I knew desparately needed help. He said he would get back with me.
    Its been a month and no word. In fact they even cut me 10 hours a week!
    I would appreciate any comments on this!


    Comment by
    Fred
    September 25th, 2004
    at 12:25 am

    Bob Nardeli, CEO of The Home Depot, is the fucking prick that is slowly nailing the coffin lid closed. Bernie and Arthur should have never quit.


    Comment by
    Harris
    September 28th, 2004
    at 3:43 pm

    The thing to remenber its that neither HD or Lowes gives a shit about developing repeat business on their home installation jobs. Their attitude appears to be that as long as they can screw everybody once, then they will be making money. The subcontractors that they use cannot exist on their own. That is to say that their customer service and overall comunication skills would not enable them to remain in business if they weren’t given work by HD / Lowes. No shows and no call backs for two
    If HD or Lowes are trying to sell home improvement projects to you, be wary. The best thing to do isthe legwork and find a real contractor if schedule and responsiveness are important to you.


    Comment by
    Ace
    September 30th, 2004
    at 8:32 pm

    Well, I just got canned from The Home Depot today. I was promoted to dept head of special services back in April of this year. Since then there have been a total of 4 different employees hired for special services. I have had to help train each one. The 1st one lasted 4 weeks, the next one was there for 2 weeks before injuring his back. The 3rd one was transfered in from another dept. The last one was hired in off the street and has caught on fast.

    The only problem was with me trying to train these people and work my reports in a timely manor. I worked the 1:30 to 10:30 shift each day and had to not only try to do the reports, but also take care of customer’s at the desk. Handle customer complaints, cut keys (since the powers to be decided to move the key machine from hardware to just beside our desk). The service desk was also expected to answer the phone when our phone person was not there.

    I did my best to provide the customer service which I thought you were supposed to do at a store like Home Depot. But, it seems that management is all about numbers and paper work. I even had some customers come up to my desk complaining about the indifferance from our assistant manager at times.

    When that happened I gave the customer the customer care number to call. As if that would make any differance.

    The bottom line, The Home Depot and other large stores are not interested in customer care. They are all out to watch “the bottome line” and make the stock holders happy. No matter the cost.

    Ace
    Former employee of The Home Depot.


    Comment by
    Mary in AL
    November 15th, 2004
    at 11:45 pm

    Unless there is a national emergency, I doubt I will ever be shopping at Home Depot again. For a long time, years actually, I shopped at the big box Lowes, then this fall I decided to have granite countertops installed in my kitchen. It really was on a whim that I stopped by the Home Depot to get a price. The salesman in the kitchen department was terrific and the service was super. I paid nearly $4,000 and gleefully awaited the process of my new countertop to start. But, alas, that was not to be. To be fair all of the problems started with the granite fabricator and not HD. Three days after I placed my order, the company that was going to fabricate the countertop was raided by the FBI for various immigration and white slavery accusations. (Google Newton Granite in Atlanta Georgia to read the news reports).
    No one at HD called to tell, and after about 2 weeks I called to find out what was going on. In the meantime, I contacted the Home Services Business to set up a time for someone to talk to me about replacement windows and siding. (Since I had such nice experience with the granite sale why not make further purchase right?) Wrong.
    After the really nice man from the Home Services division came over and did his sales spiel, we chatted a bit about the granite countertop. He thought 3 weeks was a bit to long to wait for the guy to come and do the template, so I called again and was again told that someone would check into it. Finally I got the original salesman, who called me back within the hour and said that the fax for the order didn’t go through (sound familar?). So I waited another week, and for yuks, thought I would look at the granite companie’s website to see what they had. I couldn’t remember the web address so I googled the name of the company and that’s when I discovered the arrests and shut down of the company. Thus begins the end of my business/customer relationship with Home Depot. I went to the HD the next day with the articles printed out in my hand, and asked to see the salesman. He was nice, but he claimed he did not know about the arrests. I showed him the article and told him that according to AP and the Atlanta Journal HD and Lowes had changed fabricators. He followed up, his manager informed him of the new company. About 3 days later, I finally got a call for the guy to do the template. Now, I paid for my countertop in full on August 23rd – It’s the end of September now and the template was just getting done. The new company sent along a waiver with the template guy and I did not want to sign a waiver to examine my granite. I wanted to go to Atlanta to the supplier and view my slab. Home Depot said I didn’t have to sign the waiver so I said good, call me when I can go to view and approve the slab.

    Well the new fabricator is in Florida, a long way off and I wanted to at least see a sample. The new fabricator sent me a sample of grantie that was not what I ordered but he had written the correct name of the granite I ordered on it Back to the HD with the sample from the new fabricator and a sample the old fabricator. Again, the HD people, very nice, called the new guy asked him what’s up? They admit they didn’t really have my granite color, so they just sent a sample from a different granite and put my color on the label. It’s october now.
    Now, I’m not trusting this new fabricator at all, what with the fraud and all, but I figure, I’m in 6 weeks now, we all agree I can to the main granite wholesaler, pick out the two slabs I want as long as they are in the same quality or grade range as the original. I do that, go to Atlanta, pick out 2 slabs, which are in fact a grade less than my original order. The next day, I go to my HD, see the Kitchen manager, he faxes the approval and batch number from the wholesaler to the fabricator in Florida, with notes to order the slabs and finish my countertop. That Was October 23. I go on a trip for a week. I have found a lovely granite, my countertop will be made and all is right with the world.
    It’s Nov. 2nd. I get a call from a customer service guy at the local HD, he wants to know why I haven’t made the appointment to have my countertop installed. I say cause its not done?? Uh, oh. At the same time a guy from the wholesale granite supplier calls and says I can come to their shop and view my granite that I wanted. Now I’m confused, because I have a reciept where I have already selected my granite. I give him the batch number and ask where is my granite, it should be in Florida. Well, he says it’s not showing up in the computer he puts me on hold, he comes back says, he is going out to physically look for the slabs and will call me back. He never calls back.
    It’s lunchtime and I get a call from the Florida fabricator VP who infoms me that I let my hold on my granite expire and the granite I picked out in Atlanta has been sold to someone else.
    Fortunately for the local HD I had had my martini. I told the VP in Florida that the local HD faxed the order for the slabs on October 23. He said well, they have other granite in the same color and I said you tried to switch colors once on my already, I don’t want to use your firm, I am cancelling my order and I went to my HD with the lost slabs, and told them I wanted some other company to do the fabrication. They contacted the Florida fabricator, fussed with him, I told them that I had spent the better part of my life in the local HD and I had a solution. We agreed that I could go to a couple of local places, get some estimates, that HD would refund my money and pay the difference for another company to do my countertop. I found another place – the price difference was only $54 – I took everything to them, last week. The store manager did not get back to me about the $54. I figured I would go ahead and place the order with the new company anyway, and that surely they would not argue over $54. I was wrong. Silly me.
    This morning, Nov. 15 nearly 3months since I originally gave my money to Home Depot, a man named Armando called me to tell me he was coming to my house to install my granite countertop, and he was from the Florida company. I found it amusing that the Florida company could fabricate my countertop out of granite from thin air. At first I thought about letting Armando come all the way from whereever to my house (He had been traveling apparently several hours and had not made it into Alabama but he was at the state line) just so I could see this countertop that I had cancelled because the company lost my granite slabs. But, instead I made another one of my weekly trips to HD hell, and again, with yet another floor manager but the same customer service guy, gave them Armando’s cell phone and asked them their thoughts on how this company in Florida could make my countertops when they didn’t have any granite, or at least not the granite that I had approved. Well, no one has an answer for that, and when they contacted the guy at the Florida company, he said he didn’t know anything Nov.2 was a long time ago.

    That’s when I said, look I brought you my estimate, I want my full refund and the $54. They said no, they would have to send me a check in the mail, and I would not get my $54 because the other manage wasn’t there. Well, okey dokey. I told them they had been holding my $3949 since August, they were making money on my money,but I didn’t have the option of paying part down and keeping some of my savings in my account until I was satisfied with my countertop. I wanted my $54. I also explained to them, that I am an attorney, I earn my living by being in my office meeting with people and doing actual work that I can bill for. (I’m a criminal defense attorney I did not threaten to sue) I had to cancel appointments and leave my office to deal with this mess, not just today but many days prior. I had now spent 3 hours on a countertop mess that I didn’t make. I want my $54. They said no, I said I’d call the Atlanta Office and left.
    The Atlanta Office offered me less than what I had paid, then said I already had my money back (not true) then offered me a $55 gift card, but still less than what I had paid. Now I’m losing money and I can’t spend a gift card at the local countertop company. I asked for a supervisor and was told no – couldn’t talk to one. She offered to research it – I told her I wanted be fully reimbursed plus my $54 – no gift card. 2 1/2 hours have now gone by. I’m now really not happy and Armando who has been sent back to where ever he came from is not happy because he thinks he won’t get paid because he did not install the countertop. I don’t really care about Armando at this point. But my HD said they would talk to the Florida guy if Armando doesn’t get paid, I still have Armando’s number, maybe I should check on him. But I digress…
    Coincidentally, last week I signed a contract with the Home Services Division for new windows and vinyl trim about $11,000. I call customer service back and I tell the next person who takes the call that I think that I want all of my money back, the $54 and now the 3 hours I have had to spend with this mess just for this day. I am angry but not yelling. She say I can have my money back (still her amount is less than what is on my receipt, no $54 and they don’t reimburse for lost time from work) I said, we need to resolve this because I have spent hours in the local HD, have not had my money since August and made two trips to Atlanta. While most of it was not HD’s fault, today it is and I feel like I should have gotten my $54 and full refund last week – instead, I’ve had the opportunity to spend my morning with this mess and now I can’t even get my full refund, much less my $54. I told her I’d lost 3 hours of work at $175 an hour. None of this was my fault, I had been patient for nearly 3 months and all I have to show for it is now $5000 gone from checking and savings and no countertop and no $54 and I had to cancel paying clients and leave my office. (I had to pay a 1/2 deposit with the new countertop company) So, I told her I would cancel my other other that I paid a deposit on last week if we could not resolve this today. She said okay, go ahead. I asked for fax numbers particularly to the coporate office so I could fax my letter to them, and she wouldn’t give me the fax number. Refused. Totally. I called my salesman, who is a terrific guy too, and asked for his help. But, I did tell him I would cancel the order if I am not reimbursed for my lost time and the full refund plus my $54. Do the math folks, this isn’t a lot of money. I did not want to make an empty threat to HD. He said he would talk to the folks further up the chain tomorrow and to give him a day to fix it. I was really counting on that refund to cover the rest of the money due to the new contertop company. Trust me, criminal defendants in Alabama, not rich, but I love the work and it lets me do public interest law which I like lots too.
    Will I sue – no, not worth it? Will I cancel the windows and trim, yes, because I said I would. I just hope I don’t have to. I can’t believe HD would go to war over $54 – That says a lot about the basic philosophy of the company. I have a friend at the Wall Street Journal who covers HD and Lowes, I’ll be sending him an email now.
    Don’t shop at HD