Why I hate the Borg

[Phil Crow]

I just read a post that got my blood pressure up regarding customer service. I have a similar tale:

Last Saturday, I set out to cap my workbench as well as make a saw guide, as I do not own a table saw. I also had to pick up a few odds and ends (tube of adhesive, 1# of roofing nails, etc), so I decided to go to the Borg because I knew exactly where those things were; I figured, "What the hell...I'll pick up a sheet of 3/4 MDF while I'm out." Yeah.

After wandering about the lumber section and not finding any MDF, I asked the young child at the, uh, oh yeah! The Project Desk for a sheet of 3/4 MDF. He told me that it was kept outside in the lumber yard and I could pay for it, then drive around the back and pick it up. Okay, no problem. By the way, how much is it? Eleven dollars a sheet. Super.

I get to the front with my tube of Liquid Nails and my roofing nails and tell the middle-aged housewife working the register that I need a sheet of 3/4 MDF. "What's MDF?" So it begins.

After spending 10 minutes explaining to her (and the other lobotomites in line) what MDF was, she pored over her cost code sheet and said she needed to call someone. She did, and was given some explaination or other and said to me, "All it is is particle board."

"Well, ma'am, it's not exactly particle board. You see, the wood fiber--"

(Getting Snippy)"It's listed as particle board on my sheet here, and all you have to do next time is ask for particle board."

Fine. So I pay the eleven dollars for the sheet of listed-as-particle-board and drive my p/u around the back of the store, where I have the exact same conversation with the lumber yard guy. Finally, he tells me to pull around to door number 3 and they'll load my materiel.

Guess what the loading hand tries to load into my pickup?

I spent another half hour trying to get my eleven dollars back. By this time, I was seething. I was able to hold it together long enough not to choke the manager of the store and got out of there.

So, anyone know of a source of 3/4" MDF in the Sandusky, Ohio area?

-Phil Crow

[Rumpty]

FWIW, "Some" Borg's have 2X4 precut MDF sheets in the precut section.

[PM6564]

When I'm in Sandusky, I always get mine at Home Depot. Just ask for particle board - they'll know what you want.

[Chris]

OR...

Ask for "Baltic Birch Plywood." It is a reflex that can't be stopped. They will drop the first word and repeat the rest... "Birch Plywood? Yeah we have that? Telling them that BBP comes in 5x5 sheets will not help either. The response will be that theirs comes 4x8 but they can cut it for you.

There are just some things that you shouldn't go to the Borg for. Learn them. Remember them. Then you will not be disappointed/frustrated.

-Chris

[BigJoe]

Have you tried 84 Lumber on Milan Rd?

[Frank Ketchum]

So, you are suprised that a 19 year old female is not an expert at construction materials? Did you just land here from a distant planet?

At this point you should realize that you are not talking about MDF especially at $11 a sheet. The home depots are not stocked with "experts" for workers. Take anything they tell you with a grain of salt.

Frank

[Frank Ketchum]

So, you are suprised that a 19 year old female is not an expert at construction materials? Did you just land here from a distant planet?

At this point you should realize that you are not talking about MDF especially at $11 a sheet. The home depots are not stocked with "experts" for workers. Take anything they tell you with a grain of salt.

Frank

[Frank Ketchum]

So, you are suprised that a 19 year old female is not an expert at construction materials? Did you just land here from a distant planet?

At this point you should realize that you are not talking about MDF especially at $11 a sheet. The home depots are not stocked with "experts" for workers. Take anything they tell you with a grain of salt.

Frank

[Frank Ketchum]

So, you are suprised that a 19 year old female is not an expert at construction materials? Did you just land here from a distant planet?

At this point you should realize that you are not talking about MDF especially at $11 a sheet. The home depots are not stocked with "experts" for workers. Take anything they tell you with a grain of salt.

Frank

[Scott Cramer]

The entertainment value of having them try to cut a 4x8 sheet down to 5x5 would be worth the time wasted.

[Joe Gorman]

for that grain of salt:

Ketchum wrote: snipped

[Eric Tonks]

I never buy anything at a lumber yard or home center unless I see and touch it first to see if it meets my needs and is the proper quality -- then I go and pay for it and pick it up. Prevents such mixups.

With a yard hand I sorted out 15 suitable 5/4 x 4 wester red cedar deck boards, then went to the order desk to get the paperwork, took the paperwork to the cashier to pay for them. The order desk had written the SKU for 3/4 x

6 WR Cedar and the cashier couldn't find the correct SKU for the size I wanted. It took 3 people and about 10 minutes to locate it in their computer, then I finally could pay for the size I wanted and went back to the yard to load up my 15 chosen pieces.

This was at a Canadian BORG called Rona, Home Depot's only competition in Canada.

[Ron Magen]

Phil, THIS should have been the time to either leave or seek out the MANAGER. 'MDF' being 'Medium Density FIBERBOARD' - or basically a 'paper & glue' product - storing it outside where it is exposed to weather or high moisture will soon lead to a pile of pulp.

Ron Magen Backyard Boatshop {who uses a good bit of MDF & 'Whiteboard' for jigs & Templates}

SNIP

[FrozenNorth]

Had some genious from Rona deliver me two skids of wood, one was labelled shed, one was labelled floor, guess which order they unloaded them in. Shed on top of the floor, on building day we had to move all of the wood off the top skid, move the skid and reload it all, so that I could start building the floor.

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

My Borgs carry particle board AND MDF.

Do _you_ know what MDF is?

Barry

[LRod]

It takes special chutzpah to criticize someone's intelligence by referring to them as a "genious."

LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[WCD]

I've asked for MDO at my local Borg and they don't have it. I've seen MDF over there, though. The two are easy to confuse, if you don't know the difference and aren't looking at a piece in front of you.

[Charlie Self]

Yes. And it does help if you remember that the big boxes are not designed for, or by, woodworkers. Any woodworking items found there are incidental to their main mission, so it is somewhat silly to criticize them on that basis. Now, when they screw up on building materials....

Charlie Self

"On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does." Will Rogers

[D K Woods]

heh...guilty as charged... I do admit to having trailed employees at the local microcenter just to hear their pitch. good for a laugh.

david

[Bob Kuphal]