Pissed off at Home Depot. (Rant)

[Dave Balderstone]

Can I have her phone number?

;-)

[Upscale]

But that's the way it is (mostly) with the drive for profits that many retail companies use. They hire employees for as low a wage as possible, but with a modicum level of knowledge. Naturally, those low wage employees are going to know only so much.

I remember once going into a low end graphics store to have a map scanned. Even though I didn't own a scanner and had never used their model of scanner before, I was the one that had to show the employee how to use the scanner. Didn't stop them though from charge me $6 for using it.

[Upscale]

Did she end up as one of your three wives?

[Lee Michaels]

You know I was just a funnin' ya.

But every field has some kind of expensive, exotic materials. I had a welder friend who use to show me small handfuls of welding rod that cost $250 or more. It makes sense that any kind of extreme needs materials or adhesives would cost a lot.

[Upscale]

Of course, I knew it wasn't the money from the start. When it comes down to being right against a specific amount of money, being right wins most every time. The money is nice, but the satisfaction that comes from being right is priceless.

[Lobby Dosser]

My last lesson was knife hinges. I didn't really expect to find them in HD, but I was there for some PVC pipe and thought I'd save myself a trip somewhere else. Instead I spent 10 minutes explaining and drawing knife hinges for three of them and still had to make the trip somewhere else. Now I just ask if they know where I can find something. If they say they know, I look there first. If it's not there or they say they don't know, I wander around until I run out of patience or convince myself that they don't have what I'm looking for.

That said, one of the local HDs had a guy in a wheel chair who could tell you to within a foot where to find anything in the store and where to buy it if they didn't carry it. I always hunted him out, but they seem to have disappeared him.

The place I try to shop at most often is an Ace Hardware where Every employee seems to know what everything is and where they keep it. I don't know how they manage it, but you can walk in there and ask a fresh faced, new HS grad if they've got a 7mm Ratrafratz Bolt and get told to go to aisle 4, 2nd cabinet on the left, 3rd row, 2nd drawer from the left - and

*find* it right where they told you to look! Also the kind of place where you can walk in with a problem you don't know how to solve and walk out with a solution and the materials to do the job.

[Robatoy]

I know, I know... one puts them in a blade so one can cut corners?

[Robatoy]

I know you were, others maybe weren't so lucky. *G*

And that brings us to jewellers. Gold, silver, diamonds and pearls by the pound, the sawdust in a shop like that is worth money, eh?...

*grins*

[Upscale]

There aren't too many places like that around anymore, but I do have to concede that the Home Depot I go to has many older employees and most of them have the experience with stuff to be able to help me out when I'm having a problem. The greatest difficulty that I experience is getting them to understand what I want to buy. It's usually some type of esoteric fastener of some type, just that my experience and names for something doesn't always match theirs.

[Lobby Dosser]

Pretty close to some of the guesses I got .. :o)

[Andy Dingley]

Of course - if the OP had bought one of the self-immolating "Firestorm" drills from B&D, he'd have a point.

But who's arguing that the tool here isn't "of merchantable quality" (as my local laws phrase it) ? The question is whether the buyer has an entitlement to replace it simply because they don't like it (for whatever reason) rather than arguing the stronger claim that the tool is not at all merchantable.

[Prometheus]

Why is that, again? Two of my most heavily used and abused tools (DeWalt cordless drill and circular saw) came from the HD, and there has been no problem with either of them. If there had been, I imagine DeWalt would have taken care of it. When a tool has got a warranty, the manufacturer takes care of it- the store just has an exchange/return policy. I still think it's a whole lot better to get tools from the locals, but it's not as though the chains open up the boxes and deliberately wreck the tools inside. They don't know or care what is in any given box- if something is wrong, blame the manufacturer.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[Swingman]

Two weeks ago someone tried to give me three, brand new in the box, "Firestorm" cordless drills, and two of BD's version of the cordless multisaw, all still under plastic ... it raised some eyebrows when I said no thank you.

[Swingman]

Not necessarily your fault ... not all retailers will carry the crap that HD does.

[Larry Jaques]

On Wed, 11 May 2005 20:11:27 -0600, the inscrutable Dave Balderstone spake:

True, so I've reactivated an old sig.

[Larry Jaques]

On Wed, 11 May 2005 21:39:54 -0600, the inscrutable Dave Balderstone spake:

Me, too. I'm working up a sweat just thinking about it.

------ We're born hungry, wet, 'n naked, and it gets worse from there. -

Website Application Programming -

[Larry Jaques]

On Thu, 12 May 2005 03:18:50 -0400, the inscrutable "Upscale" spake:

Some helpful tips, especially for plumbing problems:

If it's a replacement part, TAKE THE PART WITH YOU to the stores or take a digital pic and print it out. Show it to the drones so they can point (or more likely) shrug and shake their heads.

If it's a new idea, draw it on paper and take it with you. Show it to the older, more experienced workers rather than the younger drones. Chances are much better that they've seen it or know of something in stock which might work. (Unless you get the old guy in the HD plumbing dept which had never worked there before and neither knew the stock nor how to plumb. Instead of a 3/4-1/8" reducer, he picked out half a dozen pieces in galv, black, and pvc which eventually ended up somewhat close, but not exactly where I wanted to go. He caught the nick "The Brainless Goldbergian Plumbing Drone of HD." I was so fed up after talking to him that I put off locating the airbrush fitting indefinitely and just went home.)

If it's existing hardware and you can't wait to get it from Lee Valley, take the Lee Valley Tools hardware catalog with you and point out the picture.

------ We're born hungry, wet, 'n naked, and it gets worse from there. -

Website Application Programming -

[Unquestionably Confused]

Ding, Ding! WRONG. Those are those new hinges. Cutting edge technology!

[Unquestionably Confused]

The problem is that all the posters are right, at least some of the time. Oft times the person you talk to at HD or elsewhere hasn't a clue and other times you might just as well be talking to the person who invented the "left-handed framistan" you happen to be looking for.

The problem is you NEVER KNOW which one you've drawn that day.

It's kind of like those old logic puzzles that begin...

"You talk to two guards. One never lies and one will never speak the truth. How..."

If you don't know the answer yourself you'll likely walk out of there with a nice new MAPP gas torch so you can fix the gas tank on your lawnmower

[Robatoy]

Seen them in The Sharper Image Catalogue...being marketed to the hilt!