I wrote to Chicken of the Sea about some bones I found in a can of tuna & received coupons for a few free cans of tuna...which I gave away. I guess it was dumb, but I was pissed.

Recently, I called Home Depot after receiving the only thing worse than horrible customer service...no customer service. I purchased a small set of patio furniture and had to take it off the floor and load it onto my truck by myself after requesting assistance. Luckily it was raining really hard so I didn't get too hot. My phone call netted me a $30 gift card. Hardly worth the aggravation I endured after spending almost $500.

__________________
Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.

I'm anti-Home Depot. After spending 10K (yes, that's a K) in their store they had the nerve to charge me for 3 individual home delivery charges. I politely explained to the manager that I would think they could wave the home delivery charges when I'm purchasing flooring plus the install services, did they really think I was going to haul the flooring home and then have them install it? Seemed ridiculous to me. He woudln't wave the charges and I've not been back since, Lowe's is happy to have my service.

Oh, and the kicker was coming home to find my removed carpet piled up in my driveway in a rainstorm... yes, apparently I didn't pay for the "haul away" service... JERKS!

__________________
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and swing.

I've had that happen before and I ranted and raved!


Unfortunately it wasn't Home Depot that did it...it was Mrs. WI.

__________________
Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.

I got a nice email from Dan at Quaker Oats yesterday

__________________

The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there.~ Betty Grable

If I wanted your opinion, I'd remove the duct tape and ask you for it.~ Me
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One man's dream is another man's nightmare~~~~> §¤ Lilith ¤§
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==>Gone Shopping<== ~Just a Quickie~ *~A Celebration Vacation~* ~Surprises~ Sleeping With the Window Open
What Did You Do Today? Self Defense Class ~Short Sweet Snippets~ § Summer Spin § Story Challenge Submission Pajamas

I am Jude's wife and I work at Home Depot. If I had a dollar for E.V.E.R.Y T.I.M.E. I have heard "I spent 'thousands of dollars' in your store" I would be a very.very.rich.woman.

If you cannot read the install policies that is not the fault of the store. Rather, it is your fault for not reading the contract. It is a legal and binding contract. Surely you don't go putting your signature for just anything without reading it, or do you? As a side note, if you were going to have laminate or tile installed, then you must have it in the area where it is going to be installed at least 3 days for it to acclimate to the room temperature. Carpet, not so much. But again, your customer agreement CLEARLY spells out all of the charges. If you had any questions, you should have asked before paying for the install or called the store as soon as you had a question.

Also, if you think that Lowes is any different, just wait. We hear people saying "I'll just go to Lowes" but see them in the store the next day. In time, they will do something to you that will anger you. It's the nature of the retail beast.

Besides, you'd be surprised to know how much Home Depot and Lowes have in common.

Ummm thanks, I hope you enjoy working at HD, but regardless I've been jaded by the lack of service I received. Perhaps I have too high of expectations from a bigbox store but regardless I will not be shopping there again.

__________________
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and swing.

Because I work in a lease-driven field, I'm very "contract oriented". But it would be very helpful to have an associate hit the highlights of the agreement when you're executing it. Things like "do you have a way of disposing of the old carpeting or will you need us to take it away?" not only helps to avoid a homeowner problem related to the service you're providing...but it also is a potential increase in the sale. There's no excuse for that.

How many times to you need to hear someone complain about having spent a significant amount of money before things change? Your comment about them coming back the next day shows you don't care about pleasing the customer. You take their business for granted. Funny how you don't have a problem providing them the service of taking their money. Though even that is going away now that HD has 8 self-checkouts and one live register.

__________________
Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.

I'll let her reply herself later but WI are you saying that if someone spends a certain amount of money or doesn't bother reading their contract they should be exempt from the charges everyone else has to make? They aren't complaining they want special treatment because they think their money (and time) is more important than everyone elses.

As for what level of service you think she provides I can guaruntee you're mistaken. She has received more rewards for customer service than I care to count, but after hearing so many sob stories about people wanting special attention because of the amount of money they've spent when in fact 10k really isn't that much money compared to some of the other jobs she's done.

She works very hard to make sure her customers are happy. Very few of them return the favor and make sure they make her job easier by reading the contract and knowing what they want and or need done.

"Self check-outs"?

Scary for the job market.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

WI, (it's Jude's wife btw) you are absolutely correct in the statement that it would be very helpful for the associate to hit the highlights of the agreement while the transaction is in process. I cannot agree with you more and feel that it should be done every time to ensure that each customer is told the same thing across the board so as to avoid problems down the road. Whether it was done in Maddy's case or not, I don't know. But again, I stand strong with my statement that it is the customer's responsibility to read the contract before putting their signature on the dotted line.

I also believe that most of us go to work to earn the Almighty Dollar. That said, most of us work for companies that want to earn a profit. Forget about the fact that I work at HD and they make millions of dollars in profit, at what point do you as a business say that if a customer exceeds a certain dollar amount then they should get some service for free? 5K? 10K? 25k? The point I was trying to convey is that we hear "I've spent thousands of dollars" so many times because people want something for nothing. Does HD have deep pockets? You bet. But what about the mom and pop stores that don't have that luxury? Every delivery is a loss for them because of the cost to own the truck, insure it, maintain it, but they still offer it because not every one has the means to deliver large amounts of product or large size product. If that means that Mr & Mrs Customer will come back and shop their store then its a loss they're willing to take.

Again, I wasn't present during Maddy's transaction. If the sales associate grossly under calculated the amount of product or even over calculated it, then it is the stores responsibility to make things right. Even though I work for HD, some customers cannot understand that we are at the mercy of our vendors. We can't control back orders on product or the fact that one of our freight lines had a horrific accident and all the product was damaged in that accident and product had to be reordered. Instead, one of the first things that I get asked about is how much are we going to compensate them for lost time. I cannot stress enough that not all customers do that but I get my fair share of them.

I care about my customers. On the day of their scheduled install I call them during the install to make sure that the installer arrived on time and that that everything is going ok. Sometimes problems do occur and I give them my direct phone number so that they can call me instead of having to go through a bunch of people and adding to their frustration. Unfortunately that didn't happen in Maddy's case and for that, all I can say is I'm sorry. I realize that the customers are the ones that sign my paycheck. I have understood that concept since I started working when I was 16 and worked at Dairy Queen after school. Without customers patronizing your store, you are going to fail.

I take pride in the fact that I have earned many awards because of my commitment to the customer. But it still does not excuse the fact that with any agreement, the customer needs to read the contract before signing on the dotted line.

Sorry I've plucked a nerve with my dislike of Home Depot - but at the end of the day this thread was started to talk about where as consumers we are being pinched on the products and services we purchase and if we were going to get on the bitch wagon and do something about it.

I've done something about it, taken my business elsewhere. There are certain things I expect when I make a purchase and if it is not someone's (in this case Home Depot) business for whatever reason to provide the level of service I expect I will take my business elsewhere. That's the lovely thing about a capitalist society, there are plenty of places more than willing to take my money.

I'm going to end it with this... isn't it interesting that at Home Depot the "delivery of the carpet" is a built in cost ... oh I'm sure I paid a delivery charge its just factored into the install cost ... but for hardwood and tile it is not pre-factored into the install cost it's a seperate charge. And just for the record I wasn't asking for a significant "discount" it was less than 1%, which if I would have liked to sign up for a credit card I could have received a 10% discount. Clearly cash is not King anymore but I imagine that's another topic that we can vent about.

__________________
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and swing.

Oh, one more thing I wanted to add - the mom and pop stores that you referenced... yes their pockets certainly aren't as deep as the big box stores. But the one thing you wil ALWAYS find is people return to the mom and pop store and pay more for the goods (in many cases) because the customer service tends to be superior. I know this is not exclusively true - but the mom and pop stores are competing on something and it typically isn't profit margin per widget.

I learned from my choices, and if I had to do it over again, I'd make a different choice. I wish I would have contacted WI, I bet he knows a good flooring store in the area

__________________
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and swing.

Maddy, (Jude's wife again) It's quite obvious that HD failed to meet your expectations in that install and for that all I can say is that I'm sorry. Unfortunately you didn't get the service you are entitled to and to me that is a shame. But for the record, when your carpet was ordered it was shipped from the mill.... probably in Georgia, straight to the installer. In most areas of the country carpet does not have to acclimate to the environment where it is going to be installed. Hardwoods, laminates, and tiles do need to acclimate to where it is going to be installed - for a minimum of 3 days to meet manufacture warranty purposes. That being said, our vendors will not ship to the installer for that reason.

And you're right about customers are willing to pay a little extra at the mom and pop shops... I do it too. Most of the time I'd rather go to the local mom and pop grocery store vs the alternative, Walmart simply because they have some cool little extras that Walmart doesn't offer.

In the end, it is your right to choose to spend your money where ever you want. I wish you much success in your home improvement projects and that you find the service and product that you desire, elsewhere.

I work in commercial real estate. Nobody knows better than I that it doesn't matter what the lease says when you're arguing with an irate tenant. They don't care that they were the ones that executed a lease with certain entitlements and stipulations...they care about how they're paying $100,000 a month for rent and it doesn't include a picnic table outside for their employees to eat at. So what do I do? I weigh their wants and how much it will cost me against the loss of income and inherent expense that replacing them as a tenant will bring should they decide to take their business elsewhere. Sometimes they get what they want, sometimes it just doesn't make economic sense.

In Maddy's case, I can understand why the store didn't send a truck right out to pick up the carpet. But it never should've gotten to that point. It was easily avoidable and had someone truly focused on providing good customer service been helping her, it wouldn't have happened.

__________________
Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.

I'm better with hard wood.

__________________
Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.