Home Depot Help

[Goldenwing]

I see a lot of negative comments on here about Home Depot, and cringe each time a thread gets started coming down on Home Depot. We have only had our store about 4 years. And I have been a very regular customer and have never had one bad experience, including tonight. Not going into a lot of details and make this a long message. All I can say is that 4 Home Depot employees went out of their way tonight to be both helpful and courteous. I just had to say something positive about Home Depot because it seems to me every time the subject comes up, its always negative. And in my opinion, the staff at my local Home Depot, deserve praise, not criticism and be lumped in with all the bad ones. When I can get into Home Depot, which is many times more than some might think I can, the staff there have always treated me with respect and been very helpful. Yes, one time I asked a "tool guy" a question, and he did not know the answer. But he found someone for me who did. I can go into lots of stores and find just as many employees as you do at Home Depot who do not have all the answers. Just wanted to put in my 2 cents worth of praise for my "toy store." Murray

[imported_MDEly1]

I'm with you, HD employees cannot know everything. Its their willingness to be helpful and find answers that makes any store good or bad. I personally do more shopping at Lowes because its closer and because I like to help an underdog now and then. In either store if they are swamped, help can seem like a lost art. Most of the time I can get the help I need from either.

[Mike3206]

I'm glad that you guys have had good service so far. In fact, there are several employees at the HDs I visit that will help out.

Unfortunately, HD has a track record over the last several years of getting rid of their knowledgable salespeople and replacing them with people who don't know what they are talking about or even want to try and help. They are saving money on labor. Also, the trend with them has been cutting back on department staffing. My wife works at HD in the tool corral and complains every Saturday evening that she is the only one on the schedule fro 6 to close. She says same problem with lumber department. Also, she says last saturday, they had 2 cashiers on the schedule!!! WTF kind of service is that? If you guys really want to know what HD is like on a regular basis, talk to someone who works at one.

[daveferg]

Well---we've had our HD many years more and I've watched them go down hill. The thing you have to remember is there is no consistancy between stores, as witnessed here by varied policies, etc.

I only go to HD when a family member gives me a gift card----last year, I was hard pressed to find anything I needed, since many of their products-----have no selection of brands or styles.

Their lumber is a joke. Warped plywood, twisted 1x stock, etc. We're lucky here and have several other choices.

[bryan c]

Though since I have moved to New Jersey I haven't had a problem, I have in New York.

Yesterday in fact I was in the HD where I used to live, it was the another horrible experience. Rude people, that don't really provide any help.
It makes me really appreciate the HD stores local to me now. After being reminded of what I used to go through, I think the stores I go to now are just awesome. They really are though. I think it's the people that make all the difference..........

[Rafael]

Where I am HD is about the only thing around beside extremely overpriced smaller stores where the customer service is even worse than HD. I am in HD at least twice a month except for lumber which is worth paying more for elsewhere even with the bad service I get at the lumber yards. If I need help at HD, about 1/2 the time it is something someone should be fired for. 4 times out of 10 it is OK. 1 time out of 10 it is good or outstanding. I do not blame poorly trained employees, I blame bad management that does not provide adequate training and oversight. Some people are a natural at being good at CS, some need to be taught.

[imported_Woodrat]

I agree with Mike, most of the problems at HD, and Lowes for that matter, are a management problem. My daughter works at our local HD, and here back before Thanksgiving, the managemant decided that the solution to the problem is to cut back the part time helps hours and hire more people. So now the local story has more than the normal complement of what I call FBI's (Friendly But Ignorant).

So now there's a new crop of store employees that don't know much more than how to get to the store, and where they pick up their pay check. Of course I think our local Lowes uses the same management style.

I usually don't need any imput from the store employees on tool or equipment matters, but occasionally will need some help finding something. This is when I really get PO'd at both places. None of the help knows where anything is!

It seems to me that it would make sense to have new employees stocking shelves so they know where things are before they are out on the floor trying to "help" people.

Seems like a "hell of a way to run a railroad", but if you check I think both HD and Lowes are building stores as fast as they can get them up so they must be doing something right.

Take care,

Woodrat

[paul v.]

I agree with many of the posters. The service at Home Depot has degraded severly in the last few years. I used to go in and the guy helping me was more knowledgeable than me. It was an enjoyable place to go and I spent more money. Today your lucky if the person knows anything about the products. Your also lucky if you can find anyone who can help you.

Anyone moderating this site should know most employees of the HD tool coral could not give you enough information to make an intelligent choice about power tools. If you asked anyone about Ridgid new tools like the 12vlt right angle impact driver they shrug their shoulders. I have asked the last 10 days and people are clueless. :confused:


I have to balance this argument by saying White Cap Supply which is owned by HD is fantastic. This service is for the pro but anyone can walk in and get products and service. Its mostly contstrution supply and tools. My guy at White Cap has been there 12 years and the store average is 15. tongue.gif

[ 12-02-2004, 01:15 PM: Message edited by: paul v. ]

[imported_CWSmith]

It is good to know that HD service isn't bad everywhere; otherwise I might just loose faith in the BOB. We have a pretty new store here in our area (about 2-yrs old), and being just across the river from me, it is certainly convenient and I visit the store at least once a week.

Unfortunately, the store is in dire need of leadership or something. The people appear to be given very little training. Most of the associates appear to have very little knowledge regarding store procedures, warranty information, and service. Worse is the fact that there are only two or three people in the entire store who have any knowledge of what it is they are selling.

I've had associates and managers tell me that all their tools are lifetime warranted; that the store handles all the service; that they are totally out of stock on items that, a day or two later, I find; that they don't carry products that they really do, etc. etc.

Display tools are usually a mess, not set-up correctly, dirty, rusty, missing parts, etc. You can see saw dust, like there must be a demo at sometime, but no one ever seems to know when that is or who's responsible for it.

You see lots of Orange Apron's walking up and down the main aile, like they are going someplace, and they always say "Hi"; but you rarely find anyone in any dept. except "Paint". And if you catch an Orange Apron and ask them a question, they usually will tell you that so-and-so "knows about that, but they don't know if they are in today."

Their lumber is so battered that you wonder how anyone would buy it. I've seen stacks of T&G plywood that was so edge-battered that one could never use a single sheet without reworking it. I've sorted through dozens of boards to find a single piece, good enough for a book shelf. I've truly come to believe that "Mill Select" means that there must be at least one knot, gouge, or split every four inches! (How do you find trees with that many knots? I figure they must all be little baby pines that haven't reached their 10th birthday yet!)

A good example of a typical store experience was this past Tuesday, when I bought a power tool, a router bit set, and 44 Dri-Cor subfloor panels. I had to return the router bit set because the wood case was battered and of the 9 remaining sets in stock (they only received 12), I found only one that hadn't been damaged in handling. The Dri-Cor I couldn't get until the next day, because none of the 50 or 60 panels that were on the floor were undamaged enough to use. The lumber manager said he'd have someone go through the 300 in "backroom" stock and I could see the ProDesk in the morning. I came back in the morning and, of course, the ProDesk didn't know anything about it, so I had to return again that afternoon. Of the 44 panels, a good number of them will have to have the T&G cleaned up. I guess I should be happy that I'm not in the building trades and have to put up with loosing time and money on things like this.

But, all said and done, we're lucky to have HD here. They are the only game in town without having to drive 40 miles or paying through the nose for even worse service at the local building company. But it would be certainly a wonderful thing if they'd clean up their act and hire people who know a thing or two.

CWS

[ 12-02-2004, 05:44 PM: Message edited by: CWSmith ]

[imported_jsmorgan]

Ok here one for you I was at HD today wanted to get a tack hammer the only person working in the tool corral was a girl about 19 i ask if they had any tack hammers she said sure we do took me over to where the nails were and handed me a plastic tube of tacks and told me these are the tack for hammers. But I did get my tack hammer thank to osh

[Goldenwing]

I guess I opened a real Pandora's box. But I still stand by what I said, that I think my Home Depot has some of the most knowledgeable and friendly folks around. I was in Lowes twice, its 20 miles away, and the service there was 50/50. One good, one bad. Can you guys honestly tell me that the service and knowledgeable staff is that much more impressive in other industries:i.e. Wal-mart, K-Mart, Radio Shack, Pennz Oil Change Stations, Sears, McDonalds, etc? I could complain about all of those places too. Maybe its not just Home Depot, but the way all service industry companies have gone. And not to sound derogatory, but it makes sense to me to have less staff working on a Saturday night when most people are out doing things other than shopping in Home Depot. Fill the store full of extra staff, then you have employees standing around doing nothing, which increases the overhead by paying salaries to non-productive employees, which in turn causes an increase in price on the products. Never found any piece of equipment in my Home Depot that had rust on it, was broken, etc. And if I want to know about a tool before I buy, I go to forums like this and read online all I can. After all, Home Depot Associates are still no more than salespeople. The more they sell the longer the store stays in business. So I go into the store already knowing as much as I can about a particular item, and only want to find that item in the store and look at it. I usually do not need an Associate for that. And since I am in there a couple of times a week, I know the store well. Never had the problem of finding good lumber. Have to sort through sometimes, but none of the 3 local lumber yards let me sort, so this way I at least get the best I can, in my opinion. One last thing. For you folks who talk about having a Lowes and a Home Depot available to you, why do you continue to go to Home Depot? If I go to a restaurant and get bad service and bad food, I simply do not go back. I dont understand why you folks dont follow the same premise instead of going back time after time just to get frustrated and aggravated. Go Home Depot! lol

[daveferg]

Goldenwing, it's not a question of "standing by your statements". As was said, they are totally inconsistant. Earlier this year, even their CEO admitted it and said he was going to change that----though I've yet to see any results. Unless anyone supporting HD has shopped in mine or others, with unhappy customers, you can't make sweeping statements.

I do agree that management is at fault. And, they've got a P'P' inventory tracking system-----do a search on this forum for "rails" and you'll see what I mean. Whenever they were closing out a Ridgid table saw, frequently they couldn't find box 2 of 2 with the rails-----you'd hear of people buying the saws anyway and then looking for the rails elsewhere. Of course, you'd also get the stories about closeout sales at HD where they had all these extra saw rails. :D :D :D

[hewood]

HD has alot of stores and I'm sure some are excellent. Ours has been around for 6-7 years...it's right on my way home from work and I was pretty excited when they opened. It didn't take long before the frustration began...standing in an isle forever looking for help, trying to get help and finding HD employees have a great discussion amongst themselves and seeming annoyed that they were interrupted, watching the selection turn into squat, buying lights with special bulbs that they no longer carry, and watching the condition of the store degrade to filthy and cluttered.

It wasn't until a Lowes was ready to open a couple of miles down the road about three years ago that HD employees started acting a bit more friendly, but it was short lived and now they appear to be so understaffed that they have a tough time helping if they wanted to.

When Lowes opened up it was great....I was greeted at the door by smiling faces and a "hello", the store was beautiful, well lit, neat, clean, and well stocked....for a while. Now even Lowes is getting really messy, the smiling faces are much rarer, and it's alot harder to find help.

It's probably a sign of the times to cut costs, and hit or miss from store to store regardless of the name over the door.

[Goldenwing]

I really wasn't "picking for a fight" anyone. I just wanted to put in a positive plug for Home Depot and let everyone know that not all the stores are sloppy and inconsiderate and ignorant. I live in a less urban area with the next nearest Home Depot in a big "city" is 50 miles away. Maybe the geographics make a difference. I sure am not smart enough nor have the time to do a study on it to find out. Home Depot has been my favorite store and still is today. Maybe it is the fault of Upper Management that the service has gone downhill, but we all know they will not accept much, if any of the blame or responsibility. But I believe if we look around we can see a change in the work ethics of many of the working class people. The quality of work is not as good, the productivity of individuals is down, except where they are now working alongside "robots", and the caring is just not there anymore. Personally, I am glad for Home Depot in my town. They have just about anything I want or need when I go there. No more driving all over town on a hit or miss mission to find something. And the prices are in the range I can live with. If I offended anyone, then I apologize. It was not intentional. I just felt it was time to stand up and be counted on the positive side. Do I march to a different beat? Maybe so. LOL Murray

[hewood]

Murray - I didn't think anything you wrote was the least bit offensive, and don't think you should feel any pressure to apologize for having a good store in your town. What you may be perceiving is frustration by folks who don't have a facility like your local HD available to them. No offense taken on my part, and at the risk of speaking for others, I don't think by the other posts either. We should all accentuate the positive!

[daveferg]

Goldenwing----no, you don't need to appologize and frankly don't know why you should feel you have to. What you don't seem to get is that HD is not like McDonalds----where Big Macs are the same across the entire country.

I've been around this and other forums too long to not recognize that what one HD might offer, the other doesn't. They are totally inconsistant---so great----you have a good one by you---and 5 or 6 people also posted that their local stores were varying degress of pond scum.

This isn't saying you're wrong, any more than your implied generalizations are true at our stores. Heck, you may even have decent lumber at yours, though I'd tend to doubt it. ;)

[tm311]

What you don't seem to get is that HD is not like McDonalds----where Big Macs are the same across the entire country. Obvuiously you don't eat at McD's much..like HD, sometimes the BigMacs are scrumptious....and othertimes i wouldn't feed them to my dog!!! it all comes down to how much work the employee is willing to put into doing his or her job, you can't always blame management with some of the people they have to work with.

[ 12-05-2004, 04:22 PM: Message edited by: tm311 ]

[daveferg]

Don't really want this to turn into a fight. Aside from food sitting around in the warmer too long, one Big Mac is pretty much like the other. ;)

And, yes employees can be a problem, but, I've spent the last 18 years dealing with businesses on a consulting basis. I can tell you, without the slightest hesitation that where management has blamed the employees for problems or they complain about poor employees-----99% of the time, I've found management hasn't been doing their job, whether it comes to proper/required training, hazardous waste management, machine guarding/safety, or the general condition or business standards of their trade.

Yes, there are lazy, unmotivated employees, but getting employees to do their job and weeding out the bad ones is EXACTLY what management is supposed to do. I don't buy into the claim that an entire workforce is like this, because it simply isn't true.

[Rafael]

Employees are for the most part a direct representation of management. You will not have good employees with bad management, they will not last. And good management will not tolerate bad employees.
And I wouldn't give any big mac to my dog, good or bad. That is animal abuse.

[daveferg]

:D :D :D :D :D

[rtess]

We have 4 HD here and 2 Lowes. They have been here about 15 or so years, and they were both great at the start but now I don't go there unless I have to. You can never find any help at either one of them and If you do find help they don't now anymore than I do. Then to check out they have 1 or maybe 2 registers open and lines clear to the back of the store.I would rather pay a little more and get the help I need and get back to work.

[Mike3206]

Heck no.. No big macs for anyone until they come clean and tell us what that "secret sauce" really is! :eek:

[imported_Knot Me]

No big macs for anyone until they come clean and tell us what that "secret sauce" really is! ...lots of teenage boys @ McD's....don't go there about the "secret sauce"! :eek: :eek: :D :D :D

[pwsdave]

I had to just chuckle as I read through the postings here. Not at you but at the fact that HD has deteriorted so severly over the years. When our local store opened it was clean friendly and had knowledgeable people. Then 2 years later is was no longer.

My GF went in one evening to buy me a 8 inch Delta grinder, but they had some other manufacturer for a little less, so she asks the toolcrib guy what the difference was, he told "if you don't know what you want then you will just have to wait until I get around to it and you should know what you are buying if you're going to come here. Luckily for her the maintenance man from her plant was there and helped her. Not so lucky for the HD employeee, I made the call the next day to Atlanta, I simply asked them to review my acount for the last 3 years and if they would like me to cancel it that day, they didn't (I had the figures for them if they didn't).

Now I've been in sales and marketing for going on 35 years and I know how it should be handled but the local management does not care and neither do the local district managers. But like Sears once was, in most cases they are the only game in town, but times change and HD day of reckoning is coming.
Lowes opened a new store right down the road from them, thought things would get better, didn't in fact Lowes has deteriorated in the last 6 months. Brand new Lowes 5 miles away open for less then 6 months, service in the aisles is decent, but check out stands are staffed by some real wing-dings and never open.

As for the remarks about White Cap, I agree, but HD will fold them in within the next year to 18 months and the great service will be gone. They haven't owned them long enough to distroy them yet.

[buctooth]

Mnay people I know as well as myself have not had good luck at Home Depot; I can never get good service. When I went in to get a replacement water filter for my mom, they had a lady that used to run a plumbing store working in the flooring depatment. The lady that tried to help me didn't know anything about plumbing!!! There are some people that have had better luck at other branches of the store, so it may only be that local branch that is this way, I don't know. I have heard that their tools are made lower quality so they can have a lower price, but the person I have heard this from is kind of critical of everything anyway.
I agree with CWSmith that their lumber and such is not in the best shape. I would never buy stuff like that from them anyway, as we have a lot of local stores that have good quality lumber, doors, and the like.

[ 12-15-2004, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: buctooth ]

[Cuj0HD]

The truth of the matter is that the quality of service has gone down. I have been with HD since 1989 and have watched it happen. ALL of the Founders of the company are gone. With them went alot of the passion for the customer. They reworked labor management and that is why there are less aprons on the floor. every year we loose more benifits(or they just cost us more).Here lately We have had to cut hours because sales are down. one of the hardest things I have to do as a manager is to send employees home early. Because not only does this put more pressure on the other employees and the customers suffer, but I know that for most of my full time people anything less than a full paycheck puts a financial stress on their families. I care about my Customers, my employees and the company too. If I didn't I would have walked away a long time ago.
The thing is that Sales drives how many aprons we have on the floor. And now with the Gift cards and the Online store(which don't count for hours at any store) it just keeps getting worse. There are some in the upper management that are fighting to make changes to get back to what is most important(customers) and I will continue to fight everyday to help them acheive this goal.
I know I have rambled on here but I just wanted you guys to know that there are some of us at HD that do still believe that the customer is most important.
Jeff

[ 12-19-2004, 06:38 PM: Message edited by: Cuj0HD ]

[RGad]

I think we have to be careful about false generalizations. The fact of the matter is that knowledge about tools, carpentry, painting, or whatever is not a criterion for hiring at Home Depot. Some of the folks can find things only if you give then an SKU (and, possibly, a few not even then) while in the very same store other employees are experts in their field. (I've yet to encounter anyone in the painting business who knows more than the paint guy in Waltham, MA, but in the very same store I once asked a guy in electrical where I would find double pole switches and he told me that all of their stuff was in English.) So the only general statement that is valid is that "It varies."

[ 12-19-2004, 08:49 PM: Message edited by: RGad ]

[daveferg]

Jeff--kind of a vicious circle isn't it----few customers---send people home, so the few customers left have less help.

I do know what you mean about the affect founding execs can have. Hewlett-Packard was a fantastic company when both founders were still alive---particularly Dave Packard--long after he stepped down, he still visited the plants and still had an affect. The company took a real down turn, when they both died---not only for employees (we had a few as friends) but for customers when the quality of their products took a nose dive.

I can remember when HD first opened up here. You could get great help and they had top-notch products. It's not just employee hours and benefits suffering. My last trip into HD (6 months ago) I was looking for alternative under sink water filters and some wood preservative to do my deck. They only had one brand of filter (no choices at to style, etc.) and only one wood preserviative product---nothing to choose between.