A little venting at Home Depot...

[Swingman]

The wags were wrong ... the price of freedom is actually constant bitching, not vigilance.

[nailshooter41]

Hah! Laughed my ass off at that whack between the eyes. You may well be right.

If you are, this group is a veritiable bastion of freedom. When I get to the threads describing the misery and despair generated by the aforementioned offenders, I will hold my hand over my heart.

But this morning, I almost snorted coffee on my keyboard... thanks a lot Swing.

Robert

[Dave Hall]

Seems to me that if the additional staffing doesn't at least generate sales equal to added payroll, that the added staffing wasn't really needed. I would assume that added staffing would have to at least cover its own costs as well as the cost of the additional product sold before you would schedule those added bodies. A profit based bonus makes complete sense as long as it is at least intermediate trem based, not short term and as long as the manager has some control on other factors affecting sales volume.

Dave Hall

[Doug Miller]

No hotdog vendors, or pretty girls, outside the Indianapolis HD or Lowes stores. Just a bunch of dolts *inside*...

Went to HD the other day for two pieces of half-inch black pipe. Need one cut to 9'plus and threaded. There is exactly *one* ten-foot section of half-inch black pipe in the store. Clerk tells me they don't reorder until they're low on (or out of) several sizes at once.

So I headed to Lowe's instead, where they had many pieces. Grabbed two, asked to have one cut and threaded... and learned that the pipe machine is out of order and has been for _two_weeks_. Bought one, went back to HD to get their one remaining pipe cut and threaded...

... where I discovered that *their* pipe machine is down too. It hadn't occurred to the clerk to tell me that the first time I was there, talking about getting pipe cut and threaded.

Called local plumbing supply house. I'm sure their machinery is working. It is, but they want **double** the price at HD & Lowe's.

Try another Lowe's store. Called first to make sure the machine works. They assure me it does. Got there, and there's *one* guy in plumbing... and he doesn't know how to run the machine. FORTY-FIVE MINUTES to get one stinking piece of pipe cut & threaded.

GRRRRR

[Brian Elfert]

Union pay for grocery cashiers is about $15 an hour here in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Other cashiers seem to get about $8 an hour at least to start.

If union cashier pay had kept up with wage growth over the years, they would be making something like $30 an hour or more.

Brian Elfert

[Brian Elfert]

I special ordered some rugs from Home Depot on June 30th and got them yesterday on July 14th.

/They even called me a week ago to warn me about the order being late. I don't consider two weeks to be late at all.

How many big box stores don't want to import stuff at the lowest cost?

Brian Elfert

[Swingman]

I do prefer to use the self service machines at HD myself ... that said, and depending upon whether I've had my morning coffee, it is irritating to have that mechanical sucker loudly take you to task for having an "unauthorized item in bagging area".

There are times when you just don't feel like being dictated to by a mechanical object ...

[LP]

It's even more irritating when you put it in perspective; They fired a cashier who needed a job. They pocketed that cashiers wages. They then hired a cashier (YOU!) who would work for free, and use a machine to chastise you and keep you in line.

Aint greed wonderful.. .. .. ..

[Markem]

No but my experience with them has been they are not yet out out beta testing. Failure to register the item in the bag is a common problem in all that I have used. I do believe managers who make these decisions only hear profitablity though. Not the inheritent problems with new technology.

Markem

[Kevin]

Had a similar experience at the Lowes in Bloomington. Got a piece of 3/4" black pipe and needed both ends threaded. Had some worker get on his phone and call for help. No response after 5 minutes. Had him call again. No response. Tried one more time and the manager came over and did the threading and cutting. Apparently 2 people out sick and the other guy on lunch break.

[simoogle]

Our local HD is "quaint" in it's ineptitude. Went for another gallon of custom green latex and all they could make that day was brown with pigment overflowing in customer after customer. Came back 2 days later and learned all they had to do was to reboot the paint mixing computer. (what's worse HD or MS?)

At customer service a few weeks later and the lady in front of me has a very dead hibiscus tree. Branches, trunk & roots; all in all about 4 foot tall. She is also carrying a bag of dirt ... a complete return no missing parts:) Most importantly she has the receipt which shows purchase within the 1 year guaranty period. So the problem???? The clerk couldn't find a barcode on the tree to scan for the return. After

20 minutes I offered to carve one in the trunk to expedite the situation. It took about a half hour with two management types to get the woman the return. I was having so much fun watching, I didn't mind the wait!

Jerry

[Duane Bozarth]

...snip long tale of woe culminating in ...

Wouldn't it have been far simpler to have simply gone to the place you would solve the problem in the first place????

I fail to understand the mentality of going to places where one expects poor service and then complaining about receiving what one expects...

[bf]

But the hot chick isn't there. You missed the most important part of the story LOL.

[Upscale]

Fast forward to today. Down at gate 13 at Skydome (now called the Rogers Centre). Look down the street. Condominiums everywhere being constructed or finished. No stores, no trees, no grass, flowers or anything growing. Nothing except great expanses of concrete everywhere. That's the way it is everywhere in downtown Toronto. Makes me long for when I was a kid in Montreal living on a 10 house street that had a huge field growing wild at the end of the street. Biggest playground in the world as far as I was concerned.

[Doug Miller]

And pay double the price?

Well, I wasn't expecting service quite *that* poor...

[Duane Bozarth]

Was the few bucks saved sufficient compensation for the time and aggravation?

I expect ...(that way I'm not disappointed.. :) )

But I never approach a Borg for anything that isn't going to just come off the shelf, and try to have to never to do that. Of course, that it's 60 mi to the only one even remotely close helps... :)

[Dave Balderstone]

He wasn't going to the hot dog stand for the hot dogs, C-less...

[Dave Balderstone]

How much is your time worth? Obvious less than the cost of a piece of

9' pipe...

[D. J. MCBRIDE]

Ah, the Wal-Mart business model!

[Larry Jaques]

I must have MISSed that part of the message earlier. My MISStake, if I read you right.