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Home Depot sucks


Dirtyhip

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and their customer service sucks.

We had to buy a dishwasher.  We needed it now, so no TX call this time.  

My husband was standing there for the floor person to stop blabbing about something.  He said I need a dishwasher today.  The one person said to the other "Do we have any dishwashers?"  Then the person they asked said "No," as she laughed.  Then the person asking started to laugh.  They thought it was hilarious and laughed at a customer asking if they had any in stock. 

For things that are not pressing, I think we will likely just shop online. 

Getting polite help there is ridiculous.  When I worked at the LBS, and we were out of something that someone needed, I would never fricken laugh.  I even stifled back chuckles when this little kid held up a single serve pouch of chamois creme.  It was tough, but I answered him diplomatically, and politely.  I just said "That isn't the gel that you eat on a ride.  It goes on your shorts to prevent fiction chafing.  Come over here and check out our nutrition center.  THAT is how it's done.  

We bought at another local place that I don't love to go to for personal reasons.  Actually, I hope this is the last dollars that I spend there.

Small town shopping  problems.

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I worked for a couple years at the HD here. We would occassionally have to go to training and meetings at other stores. It was amazing how differently customers were handled by the various stores. I shop at ours because they are pretty decent overall. That said, I would never buy an appliance there because we don't have local service for them if anything goes wrong. 

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I need a dishwasher, because the one in our home stopped working.  We had an operational one when the buyers were here looking and then it died.

Windows?  I have a new laptop.  Previous one died.   It's been a bad week.  Dishwasher died, my bike failed on a ride and I had a headache yesterday. I rarely ever get headaches. 

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9 minutes ago, groupw said:

I worked for a couple years at the HD here. We would occassionally have to go to training and meetings at other stores. It was amazing how differently customers were handled by the various stores. I shop at ours because they are pretty decent overall. That said, I would never buy an appliance there because we don't have local service for them if anything goes wrong. 

Part of the problem here is that we have limited places and it creates a mini monopoly for certain items.  HD can act any way they like, cause I think they know that customers don't have many options.  We try to shop at this other regional hardware place, but they have such a limited supply of things.  

It's complicated here.

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13 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

I need a dishwasher, because the one in our home stopped working.  We had an operational one when the buyers were here looking and then it died.

 

I thought that might be the case after I hit Submit.

My local HD is great for customer service.  Menards is closer to the house so it gets most of my business but HD is just a block out of the way on the commute home.  There are always lots of helpful employees ready to assist.  Like you say - local competition may make a difference as to how the store is run.

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8 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Part of the problem here is that we have limited places and it creates a mini monopoly for certain items.

Welcome to the world of big box stores.   They just about killed off all of the small ma & pa stores.   They are like mini monopolies.

We purchased ALL of our appliances from a local ma & pa store, with the hopes he can remain in business.  The store is still open... 

I'd look on line at manufactures sites, sites for reviews, etc...  and find the item I wanted.   The local guy ordered exactly what I wanted.  And his prices were good to. 

And he has many appliances in stock, just for people who want to buy now.   Not to bad for a rural area store.  

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1 minute ago, Bikeguy said:

Welcome to the world of big box stores.   They just about killed off all of the small ma & pa stores.   They are like mini monopolies.

We purchased ALL of our appliances from a local ma & pa store, with the hopes he can remain in business.  The store is still open... 

I'd look on line at manufactures sites, sites for reviews, etc...  and find the item I wanted.   The local guy ordered exactly what I wanted.  And his prices were good to. 

And he has many appliances in stock, just for people who want to buy now.   Not to bad for a rural area store.  

I am hoping I won't need to buy more appliances in the near future.  I think we are nearing 7 grand this year.  OY!

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13 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

I think we are nearing 7 grand this year.

We were just over $7K.    Dishwasher, refrigerator, microwave, microwave trim kit for in cabinet mounting (which cost just as much as the microwave), slide in range, washer and a dryer.

Yeah building a home gets expensive fast.  

Menards did get our business for lots of celling mounted lighting.  Other than that... all our stuff for the home was purchased at small local shops.   

We were lucky at a small lighting store.  We have 4 chandeliers the 2 large ones (foyer and stair case) we just loved that were on display.  They were discontinued models.  The guy at the shop gave us a great price just to sell them.  If I recall more than 50% off.  I'm sure he still made some money.   But we saved a lot more than he made. 

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I had that issue at Sears. We needed an electric dryer. It's Friday, we could get it Tuesday. The Monday truck was already loaded. They didn't laugh, but were kinda snippy when we told them we were going elsewhere. Local/regional place had one in stock & threw in the pigtail.

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1 minute ago, Bikeguy said:

Yeah building a home gets expensive fast.  

We had in our mind what we thought it would cost.  It was not realistic.  I am thankful for the sellers market arena, and the fact that our cash account was well prepared for the financial hit.  I think we will get out of this and remain debtless.  This allows for us to do whatever the hell we want.  There is no bank telling us when we can occupy.  We have the county to contend with, but they are very chill.  My husband and I talked about the occupancy permit and really they just want to keep people safe.  They don't want people in a ramshackle place, or heating with propane/kerosene heaters, etc. My builder basically said "all cash customers get to do what they want, within reason of causing them dangerous conditions or making the job harder.  Our builder likes us.  I think we are low maintenance customers.  One of them said "You guys are nice.  We have had some people that were very hard to work with."

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The quality of some of the products they offer is not as nice as individual stores.  For instance, you're not likely to have high quality rug selections as compared to a carpet store.

I was at our HD one morning just as they were opening.  All staff were gathered around the front and a lady with a clipboard was talking.  I overheard her say, if you're not here to take care of the customer, you need to consider if this is the right place for you to be working.

I usually have a decent experience at ours.

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2 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

and their customer service sucks.

We had to buy a dishwasher.  We needed it now, so no TX call this time.  

My husband was standing there for the floor person to stop blabbing about something.  He said I need a dishwasher today.  The one person said to the other "Do we have any dishwashers?"  Then the person they asked said "No," as she laughed.  Then the person asking started to laugh.  They thought it was hilarious and laughed at a customer asking if they had any in stock. 

For things that are not pressing, I think we will likely just shop online. 

Getting polite help there is ridiculous.  When I worked at the LBS, and we were out of something that someone needed, I would never fricken laugh.  I even stifled back chuckles when this little kid held up a single serve pouch of chamois creme.  It was tough, but I answered him diplomatically, and politely.  I just said "That isn't the gel that you eat on a ride.  It goes on your shorts to prevent fiction chafing.  Come over here and check out our nutrition center.  THAT is how it's done.  

We bought at another local place that I don't love to go to for personal reasons.  Actually, I hope this is the last dollars that I spend there.

Small town shopping  problems.

Absolutely true!  When the economy was recovering from the 2008 Great Recession, I did a detailed study of Home Depot and Lowe's with the idea of buying stock in one of them as building companies were getting back on their feet.

I expected to see Lowes was doing better because I like their stores much better. But, without question, Home Depot was the hardware store to buy because it had a number of commercial-related Durable Competitive Advantages, including the ability to ship large, preassembled housing segments, much better contracts with large contractors. etc.  So I bought Home Depot stock and it's done very well.

But that doesn't help the individual consumer.  My sister and BiL, who are helping me pick out appliances and decide on kitchen, etc. layouts agree with you and me that Home Depot sucks.  We've been spending most of our time in Lowe's.

Back in 1991, I bought a house and there was an in-store expert at Home Depot that advised me perfectly on how to sand and and apply epoxy coating - hand sanding between coatings - to the hardwood floors and to NOT stain it because the coating would be enough and keep it light.  They don't have experts like that in the stores near me now.  When you mention hardwood flooring, they have a hard time remembering if they carry it!

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Just now, MickinMD said:

Absolutely true!  When the economy was recovering from the 2008 Great Recession, I did a detailed study of Home Depot and Lowe's with the idea of buying stock in one of them as building companies were getting back on their feet.

I expected to see Lowes was doing better because I like their stores much better. But, without question, Home Depot was the hardware store to buy because it had a number of commercial-related Durable Competitive Advantages, including the ability to ship large, preassembled housing segments, much better contracts with large contractors. etc.  So I bought Home Depot stock and it's done very well.

But that doesn't help the individual consumer.  My sister and BiL, who are helping me pick out appliances and decide on kitchen, etc. layouts agree with you and me that Home Depot sucks.  We've been spending most of our time in Lowe's.

Back in 1991, I bought a house and there was an in-store expert at Home Depot that advised me perfectly on how to sand and and apply epoxy coating - hand sanding between coatings - to the hardwood floors and to NOT stain it because the coating would be enough and keep it light.  They don't have experts like that in the stores near me now.  When you mention hardwood flooring, they have a hard time remembering if they carry it!

How is your build going?  I just received wrap and windows.  :foryou:

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My daughter, niece and their husbands were at our local HD during the remodel of their house.  The guys were looking at something and my daughter, niece and her daughter were casually waiting nearby.  

A young male HD employee asked them if they needed anything and then started hitting on my daughter.  Some weird line about them going out & having drinks with him while they waited.  

My niece (who is a hot head) went off on the guy about a lack of professionalism & such, the guys then came over and asked what was going on and a freaking bru ha ha ensued... HD dude nearly got his ass beat by my nieces husband who is also a hot head.  my daughter & SIL were like, can we just leave now...

Manager came over, asked them to leave but they refused telling him his employee just hit on this young lady with her husband nearby.  My niece stated verbatim the lame pick up line and asked if they trained the employees to say that.  The manager still asked them to leave but said he’d address the matter with the person. 

We have another HD not to far away so they just go to that one now to avoid creepy pick up line guy...

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4 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

We had in our mind what we thought it would cost.  It was not realistic. 

Yeah tell me about it...   I don't want to remember... but I'd guess our 'final' price was 15% to 20% more.  

We drove all over the Chicago area (one benefit of living about 80 miles from a large city) looking at the stuff we wanted for our home.  Windows, doors, fireplace, stair cases, lighting, garage doors, kitchen cabinets, tile, etc...   Most times the stuff we liked was more expensive than the 'allowance' in our contract. 

3 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

The quality of some of the products they offer is not as nice as individual stores. 

When we were looking for faucets the ones we liked on the Moen web site could could be found (we wanted to 'see' them before we purchased) at individual stores.  The big box stores didn't sell the faucets we wanted.  Then we had the plumber order everything we wanted.  He got a better price that we could find.   They were still expensive, but very nice.  

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My local appliance store was a small town sears branch for appliances.  The sales crew and the install/warehouse guys managed financing to keep the place open under a new name.  Several of my appliances have come from there.  When my kitchen was destroyed in the flood I asked and they sent the install crew to my house to put the dishwasher back in after the cabinets were done.  They did it for the cost of a new install kit and the tip I gave the guys.  I'll continue to do business with them.

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We really only have 1 true appliance store that is not part of a big box. They treat people right. We will need to replace our dishwasher before we sell the house. We’ll go there. 
 

FWIW I had to go to HD tonight. I was greeted at the entrance and asked if I needed help finding anything. I took a detour through the garden center checking on some plants for WoW where another employee greeted me and offered to help. I then got the drain snake stick from plumbing and priced a cordless tool set on my way to checkout. 2 different members of staff asked if I found everything and offered to assist me at self checkout. This was the standard we set for ourselves when I worked there. It was impressive!

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2 minutes ago, denniS said:

How is that possible? Didn't you sign a contract agreeing on a price and date the project would be finished?

Yeah it's possible.  

For example... we went to the place that custom builds stairs.  We had the budget from the contract.  They could build stairs for the quote.  They would have been nice. We looked... and decided we liked different oak handrail designs, different newel post designs, etc...  So our stairs look great. (at least we think so..)  We even added matching oak stars and hand rails installed with finished walls into the basement, rather than the pine wood.   So that cost more... 

The gas fire place that was in the contract, was nice...  we wanted a bigger and deeper firebox.   That cost more too.

Our kitchen cabinets,  ditto...   We had a budget and of course blew thru that too.     Our under counter lighting is dimmable LED tape lighting.  I selected that rather than the typical lighting they would use.   WoBG didn't want to see any electrical outlets in the kitchen walls under the cabinets.  I found under cabinet power strips with built in GFI.   

We didn't have penalties or change orders for these kinds changes..   we just added the cost to the total bill.

We built a custom home.  The builder gave us his estimate based on our discussions to create the contact.   We just upgraded along the way.    WoBG and I made lots of trips to many places to see all of the different things that we wanted for the home, while the home was being built.    

Could we have done this cheaper...  not sure.   We just picked the stuff we wanted during the build.  

1/2 of the kitchen...

Kitchen.thumb.jpg.4ca60c22d6226e71d2e9dddd5655ebff.jpg

 

The stairs at Christmas time.   The carpet treads are there for the dogs.

641101412_tree5.thumb.jpg.6bd57551b8013b4cb42dcce9bc6d43b1.jpg

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3 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

Any hope of repair, or is it too far gone?  A repair might be less expensive, less trouble, and faster.

It's done and the buyers will be happy.  My husband was quite certain it was the motherboard.  It would have been cheaper to go this way, yes.  Lately things are hard to get with shipping and we need this now.  We close in about a month and it needs to be done. 

It's all fixed now. 

6 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

Yeah it's possible.  

For example... we went to the place that custom builds stairs.  We had the budget from the contract.  They could build stairs for the quote.  They would have been nice. We looked... and decided we liked different oak handrail designs, different newel post designs, etc...  So our stairs look great. (at least we think so..)  We even added matching oak stars and hand rails installed with finished walls into the basement, rather than the pine wood.   So that cost more... 

The gas fire place that was in the contract, was nice...  we wanted a bigger and deeper firebox.   That cost more too.

Our kitchen cabinets,  ditto...   We had a budget and of course blew thru that too.     Our under counter lighting is dimmable LED tape lighting.  I selected that rather than the typical lighting they would use.   WoBG didn't want to see any electrical outlets in the kitchen walls under the cabinets.  I found under cabinet power strips with built in GFI.   

We didn't have penalties or change orders for these kinds changes..   we just added the cost to the total bill.

We built a custom home.  The builder gave us his estimate based on our discussions to create the contact.   We just upgraded along the way.    WoBG and I made lots of trips to many places to see all of the different things that we wanted for the home, while the home was being built.    

Could we have done this cheaper...  not sure.   We just picked the stuff we wanted during the build.  

1/2 of the kitchen...

Kitchen.thumb.jpg.4ca60c22d6226e71d2e9dddd5655ebff.jpg

 

The stairs at Christmas time.   The carpet treads are there for the dogs.

641101412_tree5.thumb.jpg.6bd57551b8013b4cb42dcce9bc6d43b1.jpg

Lovely home. 

You nailed it.  It's was partially the change orders, rising costs in appliances and everything else, and a little under expectation of real cost.  We did some research, but what we found must have been outdated or blatantly incorrect.  Once the actual quotes really came in they were far above anything I imagined.  By that time we had bought the property and were in line to have our well dug and septic to be installed.  There is a big difference in new construction spec home costs and a one off custom project.  We got a good deal from our contractor, but still.

We upgraded the cabs to better wood doors.  We got this fantastic deal for a custom built kitchen and not off the shelf cabs.  We are a trial home for this guy to get into doing cabs for this local place.  If he does our job well, he will get to work for the company.  I feel quite confident from everything I have seen from him so far.  We also upgraded the floor.  They spec'd floor price that I saw at Crap Depot, and we upgraded that by about a dollar a foot.  We upgraded our bathroom fans too.  It's always the fan issue, right? 

The garage door was more too.  We got the best insulation that was available.  Their quote was far less for the door.   

Front door was more.  I told them the prices of doors that I liked, and they used that for the quote.  Then, prices went up significantly.  Prices on materials are rising in an unbelievable way since we started this idea last July.

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54 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

septic to be installed.

That's one thing that actually came in under budget. 

WoBG and I meet with the builder and septic system guy.     We have a wooded lot.  Out back yard (the grass part) is only about 60 feet wide.  We noticed two pink flags in the woods marking off a corners of a square.  The flags were about 70 feet into the woods.

I asked what are the flags for???   The septic guy explains...  "That's the area that needs to be cleared out for the leach field.".     OMG WoBG just EXPLODED...  No F'n way...  YELLED at the septic guy, and the builder.  Told the builder "We are done.  We're tearing up the contract."   NO WAY ARE MY TREES GETTING CUT DOWN.   And it got worse from there.  

I asked (after the storm subsided a bit)...    "So what's plan B?"

The septic guy explains there is new sand based leach field that can be built, in the grass area over here.   We won't need to cut down any trees.

So... How much extra does this cost?   I was expecting another $20K, etc...    "It's cheaper than the standard leach field."

I was like  WTF...   Why the hell didn't you just tell us about THIS plan????

The builder became afraid of WoBG that day....  I've know for years... not to piss her off.

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14 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

That's one thing that actually came in under budget. 

WoBG and I meet with the builder and septic system guy.     We have a wooded lot.  Out back yard (the grass part) is only about 60 feet wide.  We noticed two pink flags in the woods marking off a corners of a square.  The flags were about 70 feet into the woods.

I asked what are the flags for???   The septic guy explains...  "That's the area that needs to be cleared out for the leach field.".     OMG WoBG just EXPLODED...  No F'n way...  YELLED at the septic guy, and the builder.  Told the builder "We are done.  We're tearing up the contract."   NO WAY ARE MY TREES GETTING CUT DOWN.   And it got worse from there.  

I asked (after the storm subsided a bit)...    "So what's plan B?"

The septic guy explains there is new sand based leach field that can be built, in the grass area over here.   We won't need to cut down any trees.

So... How much extra does this cost?   I was expecting another $20K, etc...    "It's cheaper than the standard leach field."

I was like  WTF...   Why the hell didn't you just tell us about THIS plan????

The builder became afraid of WoBG that day....  I've know for years... not to piss her off.

We had very few trees on our lot and the ones that were there were not impeding any progress.  We have some elderberry and juniper.  While I don't love Juniper, it is a native tree that does well in our zone.  Some say it is a moisture sucker, but we don't mind that too much.  We will thin some of them.  

I have been very chill with our contractors.  I think they do know I am wound tighter than my husband.  LOL

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