This morning, Milady and I were drinking coffee and I allowed as how I was enroute to Lowe's to pick up the pavers for the ongoing project. She asked if I had price-checked at Home Depot, and I admitted I had not. She accompanied me on this Voyage of Discovery and we arrived safely in the parking lot of the store. We looked at pavers and saw that we could save some money. Home Depot undercut Lowes by about 70 cents per paver, and because I am frugal if nothing else, we decided to complete the purchase at Home Depot.
I took out my list while she shopped and I quickly found sand (700 lbs of it), plastic paver edging, landscape cloth, and spikes to install the edging. I knew that I needed 26 pavers and they wouldn't fit on the cart, so I headed for the checkout in Lawn and Garden and checked out. When I approached the register, I told the associate that I would need assistance with 26 pavers and gave her a description of the style I wanted. She called for assistance, and we proceeded to check out and I wrote a fairly healthy check to cover my purchase. She gave me a receipt with a time stamp on it, saying 11:09 a.m. She told me that it would be just a minute and someone would be out with my pavers. Five minutes later I was approached by a young man who said that the pavers I wanted were on a top shelf and he needed to find a forklift operator.
Ten minutes later he told me it would be a few more minutes and that the only licensed forklift operator in the store was busy. Ten minutes after that he told me that they were having trouble finding a forklift. Ten minutes later I talked with the associate working the cash register and asked if she needed to call a manager, or did I need to call a manager.
WHOOEE, things started happening then. Some guy showed up with a forklift and got the pavers down and five minutes later my building materials were loaded and I was on my way. I fired the truck off at approximately 11:49 a.m. Forty minutes after the register gave me my receipt.
I never did talk to a manager, and that is a good thing, as he would have experienced a good old Deep South curmudgeon ass-chewing. I wouldn't have used profanity, but I would have talked his ear off about piss-poor customer service while he personally loaded my truck. I can't believe it took them 30 minutes to find a forklift on a Wednesday morning.
While I am on this rant, I remember lumberyards when I was a kid. Just for the asking you could get a yardstick from the service desk. That ain't happening these days. Just for asking, you would be directed to a coffee pot over by the contractor desk while someone loaded your truck. If you mentioned you needed a nail apron, the counterman would throw a couple in a sack. The name of the lumberyard was, of course, prominently stenciled on the yardstick and the nail apron.
Today, you have to buy nail aprons and yardsticks at Home Depot and Lowe's
2 comments:
I have had experiences very similarly in Home Depot myself. Must be part of their training manual.
I know sometimes(especially in a fairly seasonall job like mine) that saving money or just getting the job done at the least expense can be more important then service. But,at least where I live,we have a good mixture of the older style building supply outfits and the big box storesie Home Depot ect....So if you want the best service with a little more going out the old wallet,you gots to go to the older style shops.....Big Al/possibly the world's worst carpenter.when I grab a skillsaw,Greenies everywhere wear black armbands.:)
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