Is it just my BORG?

[Makinsawdust]

I'm just wondering if this is common place now at the Big Orange Box?

I needed some PT lumber for my job tomorrow and made a special trip to the BORG to get it tonight. I parked under the cover on the contractor end, grabbed a buggy, walked to the door and it didn't open.:BangHead: It was 8:30 and the sign said open to 9pm. I could see workers inside but you don't think they would look in my direction do ya. I decided to walk down to the other end to see if it was locked. It was open so I walked down to the lumber end and ask a worker if they stopped selling wood after 8pm. He told me the door was locked and that I could just get it and check out on the other end. This store keeps all their buggies outside. I went to the contractor door from the inside thinking it would open and I could get a buggy from just on the other side of the door. Wrong. I was told I would have to go around and get the buggy and come back in the other door. Being worn out, I said I would just go somewhere else and do business. Went across the street and Big Blue's door opened, there was buggies inside and people offering to assist.

Anybody else experienced this? Maybe my orange store is just especially helpful to tired ole grumps that's already put in a long day and don't walk around the build several times in order to get the privilege of giving them money.

Rant over and out!

 

[gdoebs]

Things like that tick me off. It's hard to find good help at places today. I emailed a local RV place explaining we were thinking about buying a travel trailer and was wondering if they rented them. The response I got back from the SALESMAN was "we don't rent travel trailers." That's it. Not "Sorry Mr. Doebler, we don't rent out travel trailers, but why don't you come by and browse our selection. We may be able to work something out, yada, yada, yada." It would have been nice if he tried a little. I basically told him that I'm going to be spending 15-20k and he didn't try to do anything. Sales must be great!

I've had good luck with Pegram West Lumber in Greensboro. Locally owned and had really good prices on baseboard for my house. Very friendly too.

 

[junquecol]

Remember that Home Depot specializes in hiring IDIOTS for managers. One in north Raleigh closes contractor's sales register during afternoon, so cashier can go to lunch. In Apex store, a bunch of MDF molding just missed me as it fell. Spoke to the manger, and he said "It missed you, so what is the problem?" A quick call to safety dept in Atlanta, and EARLY next morning there was a crew from Atlanta installing safety cables. Manager disappeared a couple days later. Call head quarters and complain about manager not hiring enough help.

 

[manfre]

It's very hit or miss between stores and even departments. When I bought my ridgid bandsaw a few months ago, the employee in the tools section was surprisingly helpful. He spent literally 30 minutes trying to hunt down the last one in stock that was eventually found hidden in one of the overhead racks. He even tried getting me a price match against a display model from another store and then helped me load it in to my truck. The HD in crossroads is not nearly as good. It always seems to take a long time to find an employee who knows anything about the department I'm in.

 

[b4man]

Here in Greensboro I shop @ the Northwest HD and Lowes. I live closer to Lowes but will avoid it to shop @ HD! For me at least I find the HD far more service oriented. They actually ask me if they can help!!!

It's really true that it depends on the store and manager.



Barbara

 

[ehpoole]

Here in Anderson (SC) I usually do my best to direct my business to the Lowes (just 1/4 mile further down the road) because our Home Depot basically got rid of their cashiers 5 years ago, preferring instead those stupid 'self checkout' machines. Unfortunately you can not 'self checkout' wood, bolts, conduit, pipe, tubing, wire, etc -- or anything too large for the scanner! So at least 50% of my purchases require me to wait until the ONE AND ONLY cashier can eventually get to me to check out those items seperately.

Did I mention I really hate those stupid machines? I realize they may be cheaper than hiring a cashier, but are they really worth all the lost sales? All the times I give up on ever being served and just abandon my cart at one of them, leave the store and head elsewhere?

You would think that with employees being so cheap and customers in such dire need these days that maybe they might decide that customer service was worth the investment.... then again, maybe not. After all, I've had to personally train several of their employees offerering 'locksmith' (word used loosely here) services how to properly rekey a lock, so obviously investing in their employees is a very low priority.

Obviously, in the original poster's case, some manager decided that everyone counting and closing their registers and closing the store at 9:00pm sharp was more important than serving a customer shat showed up an 8:30. As someone who once worked in retail, I can understand locking the doors at 5-10 minutes before closing and the registers 5 minutes after closing, but I can not understand locking the doors 30 minutes before closing. 9pm is the time all customers are supposed to be checked out and on their way, the time at which registers close and money is counted ... it is not the time the employees are supposed to leave... employees should be expected to hang around at least 10-15 minutes after closing to finish cleaning and preparing their areas of responsiblity, count their registers, and close them down. The manager should expect to be the the last person to leave for the day after they verify all employees and customers have cleared the building and the alarm system armed.

He did right taking his business elsewhere. Now if only Home Depot were even aware of all their lost sales (though I fear they are all blissfully ignorant of such).

 

[garybushey]

Sad thing is I just read about the local hardware store where I grew up closing because they could not compete with the prices from HD and Lowes. They had the same employees from when I grew up there (more years than I care to mention) and they actually knew what they were talking about.

 

[Trent Mason]

Sorry to hear about that. Is it the HD in Matthews by the Harris Teeter and Stein Mart, etc? If so, my folks have shopped there for years and I never had any problems there. As for the previous comments, I couldn't agree more. I remember when I was out of a job I applied numerous times at both HD and Lowes and never got a call back, even though I knew I was WAY more qualified than 95% of the employees I've dealt with at those stores. I'm not sure what their hiring practices are, but they might want to rewrite them. I've found that an overwhelming majority of the folks that work there don't know what they're talking about. The only assistance I ever ask for anymore is "where to find ____" or help loading something.

 

[Scott Kuykendall]

I just bought a Ridged trim router the other day at Home Depot and at the check out the guy asked if I wanted the extended 2 year warranty for 18 bucks. I showed him that right on the box it says it has 3 year warranty included and that if you register it with Ridged it is covered for life for free. I asked how many people they take advantage of that don't look at the big letters on the box. he said her never noticed it before.
Scott

 

[manfre]

I just bought a Ridged trim router the other day at Home Depot and at the check out the guy asked if I wanted the extended 2 year warranty for 18 bucks. I showed him that right on the box it says it has 3 year warranty included and that if you register it with Ridged it is covered for life for free. I asked how many people they take advantage of that don't look at the big letters on the box. he said her never noticed it before.
Scott

When I bought my bandsaw, the cashier took about 2 minutes of fiddling with her computer before mentioning that she couldn't find the price of the extended service plan to offer it to me. You'd think that they'd teach their cashier's about the warranty of the store's own brand.

 

[CatButler]

It's really hit or miss in Apex. There's an awesome lady in the doors department that helped us out tremendously when ordering storm doors. Both my wife and I remarked that was the best service we ever got out of Home Depot.

Some of the people there I try to avoid eye contact with because they're help is worse than useless and they won't admit they don't know anything.

There's an old guy named Andy that knows a great deal, one day I asked for help in electronics, they paged him but it took 5 minutes for him to get to me because he had to get someone had to take over for him as door greeter. Why put the most knowledgeable guy in the place as greeter?
Must think all the Wally World customers expect an old guy at the door.

I can go on and on about managers not using people to their best strengths, its all over the tech world. They want people to be components they can just plug in.

 

[merrill77]

Just my opinion: Anyone walking into Lowes or Home Depot expecting good service is nuts.

I have occasionally received both great and terrible service from both. Usually it's about the same as I expect at any big retail establishment. I'm just happy if they can point me to the right aisle and operate the cash register.

Closing the lumber-area doors doesn't come as a surprise to me. That area caters to contractors/professionals and they've all gone home by 6p.

 

[Outa Square]

I ran in to that yesterday, in Hickory both the BORG and Blue Version of the BORG have the self-service check out. I feel that i pay the same price to have a employee to check me out and I should get a discount for me to do it, either my time or money. The don't give you a monetary discount and I very rarely get a discount on the time taken to use the self service as it usually take me longer. :no:Also I typically have to load items myself, as it seems that I am only asked if i need help when i have something that i carry to the register.


Personally, when I can I like using the local building supply as I can call them and have them deliver it the same day if I call before lunch, the key is I have to plan a head. :BangHead: The delivery is free but typically the prices are higher on some things which are typically the loss leaders at the BORGs like 2X4's. I have an account and they just bill me. Unfortunately, they close at 5 pm through the week, 12 pm on Saturday, and closed all day on Sunday; So with the exception of Saturday morning they are closed when i work on home improvement projects. So I have to plan better or go to the BORG's. The customer service is better at the local place; it's a bit intimidating at first as they cater to contractors and not home owners; but once you build the relationship it is worth it. I needed a partial sheet of drywall and called to see if they had any damage sheets for sale as i needed 2 square feet, they said they would check. When i got to the house after work, there were two pieces on my front porch, one was 5/8 inch and the other 1/2 inch. Attached was a shipping invoice that had my name and "NO CHARGE" on it, mind you in the grand scheme of things i am a small customer of theirs as i spend less than $300 a year there on average. That is customer service.:wsmile:

 

[BrianInChatham]

Since the topic came up, I had an experience at "Big Orange" last August I'll have to share. I was buying materials to build a retaining wall out of railroad ties. It was about 8:45 when I checked out, not an associate in sight except the cashier. So I paid and made my way over to the stack of ties that was in front of lawn and garden, figuring I'd find some help along the way. Nope. Well, I'm not one to fuss so just get to work loading them into the back of a truck by myself. The funny part came when after I had 10 or so of them loaded, an employee comes up to the other side of the locked gate in lawn and garden and asks to see my receipt. Keep in mind it's maybe maybe 90*, high humidity, and these things weigh maybe 100-125 lbs each and are filthy to boot. So, I show the guy my receipt, and he just wanders off. No offer to help or even a thank you. Awesome.

The next day I needed 8 more, went to a different HD this time. By the time I had paid and got out to my truck one of the associates already had them on a forklift ready to load into my truck. 180* turnaround from my other experience.

So much for consistency. Pretty sure that relates to the hiring practices discussed earlier in this thread...

 

[Makinsawdust]

Sorry to hear about that. Is it the HD in Matthews by the Harris Teeter and Stein Mart, etc? If so, my folks have shopped there for years and I never had any problems there. As for the previous comments, I couldn't agree more. I remember when I was out of a job I applied numerous times at both HD and Lowes and never got a call back, even though I knew I was WAY more qualified than 95% of the employees I've dealt with at those stores. I'm not sure what their hiring practices are, but they might want to rewrite them. I've found that an overwhelming majority of the folks that work there don't know what they're talking about. The only assistance I ever ask for anymore is "where to find ____" or help loading something.

No it was the bigger Providence Promanade store. As for your last two sentences, I couldn't agree more. I generally just want them to leave me alone. There's nothing worse than roaming the isles trying to figure out how to design/fabricate something and being bugged by questions from someone who wouldn't understand if you could find the words to explain it to them.

 

[Makinsawdust]

Just my opinion: Anyone walking into Lowes or Home Depot expecting good service is nuts.

I have occasionally received both great and terrible service from both. Usually it's about the same as I expect at any big retail establishment. I'm just happy if they can point me to the right aisle and operate the cash register.

Closing the lumber-area doors doesn't come as a surprise to me. That area caters to contractors/professionals and they've all gone home by 6p.

I wasn't expecting good service, just an open door or a buggy to put my stuff on!
I r a professional and I wus there! Lots of us work long hours, week-ends and in this case prepare for the next day. I wasn't the only commercial truck at big blue at 8:45.

 

[aplpickr]

I bought a garden cart from the HD in Hendersonville several years ago. Waited til the next morning to unload. Tire was flat. After seven tire exchanges in a month, I received a letter from a DORK VP at corporate: "You are abusing your garden cart by taking it off of level pavement." Where in the WNC mountains will a garden grow in level pavement? When VPs are that STUPID, you can't expect the clerks to be much better! :BangHead: Our blue box is much better and has some wonderful employees.

 

[Bryan S]

Fortunately for us, we have not run into this much at either of the Burlington locations. For the most part we have been treated like a valued customer at both, but we have also been ignored. It does vary from store to store, and it will change for the good, or the worse, when management changes. Another that I am sure contributes to the problem is a problem we have with contractors at the Hospital. That is when the boss is not around, Joe worker sometime does what he wants to do. It is sad when you run into those that do not seam to realize that the one that comes into their store is the same one that allows them to receive a paycheck.

 

[Don Alexander]

the thing i hate the most about either BORG is that they feel the need to continually rearrange the store making a quick trip in to grab exactly what i need into a frustrating search for an item that i knew right where it used to be ARGHHHHHH

 

[Gotcha6]

I've had both good and indifferent attitudes from many of the BORGs I visit. Being in construction, I have corporate cards from both companies as a convenience. One of the better experiences I had was @ the HD in Matthews. I needed a key cut for a Corbin lock. Neither the Lowe's across the street or this store had the blank I needed to make the duplicate and the clerk there suggested I go to Renfrow Hardware in downtown Matthews. I like to have these 'Miracle on 34th Street' moments when someone is honest enough to tell you where you need to go to get what you need. :icon_thum
We also have an account with one of the old line lumber companies in CLT. I don't use them as much as I could because I feel I'm imposing to have them send out a truck out with the small amount of materials on it that I often need that they carry. If it's a larger order, I usually call them & if I can, I have a fork lift or skid with forks on site to make the delivery quick & effortless for the drivers.
I do feel it is the attitude of ALL the employees that reinforce my experience in a store.