Canadian alternative to home despots

[damn-spam]

After shopping at home despots for the past ten years, i have switched allegence to Rona.ca rona.ca was good enough to give me a client card which 'kicks back' a 3% cash rebate in exchange for my business...home despots responded with a blank stupid stare when asked to do so. I really get the feeling that despots employees are all part time slackers that could not give a rats ass about customer service. They all seem to hate their jobs and see customers needs as an evil intrusion? rona.ca also offers much better selection in flooring and lumber at far lower pricing.

Anyone else got suggestions????

[Curly Sue]

I don't know about the selection of lumber or client discounts, but about 95% the Home Despot employees on the floor are helpful and more often than not, knowledgeable in their departments. The problem is that there generally aren't enough employees in the departments to help and I spend too much time looking for someone.

Sue(tm) Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

[John Willis]

On Sun, 15 May 2005 02:50:51 GMT, [e-mail] (Curly Sue) scribbled this interesting note:

Really? You must not frequent the locations near us!:~)

This could be a blessing for the poor, hapless customer who, getting fed up with the nonexistent service, leaves in order to find a real store with real employees with real knowledge!

(There are too many examples of the quality of the average H.D. floor walker to go into right now. Perhaps I'll write a couple of thousand words on that subject and post the more recent examples I've been involved in!:~)

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[Curly Sue]

That is true- I'm sure there is a tremendous variability among the stores.

Around here is that because of population density, the hardware stores are very small and the selection is limited. They are often older stores that don't carry accessories for newer tools (eg. dremel). Then, there's traffic and parking, which is probably the biggest factor.

Perhaps my "advantage" is that I go in with low expectations and have been pleasantly surprized. I've been led to items that I didn't know existed (eg. tile trim kits). A couple of months ago I went in with a list of electrical odds and ends to get and the young lady who was in charge of the electrical dept. really knew her stuff.

Sue(tm) Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

[damn-spam]

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Rona gives Air Mile. Prices are neck and neck between two. Rona is clcoser from my home as well. I don't shop much at Wal Mart either. I go to Canadian tire. Tony

[Brian]

Really, I can only speak for Indianapolis IN area...

If I need help I go to Lowes. 50% time HD employees dont even know where product located. Not to be bitchy but last week I needed corgulated drain pipe. I was sent to lumber ( all the way at the end of the store, from lumber => plumbing, almost at the front, from plumbing => two isles prior to lumber).

Thanks, and I am not talking something small, coil of 4" drain pipe is huge....

50% employees never offer any help.

Rest are vendors that are busy restocking shelfs.

[MG]

HD is getting worst and worst. The employees are very helpful all 25 of them in the state of TX. Quality is slipping, if you need 4 small screw you do not mind being

*fastened* for a $0.89 bag but if you need 42 screws then you have a choice between five bags at 4.50 or a box of 200 for $20; assuming you are lucky enough to find the size you need.

Store plan are getting a farce, they used to be very consistent and rational, now every store is different, some marketing genius must have suggested that the longer people stay in the store the more they buy.

I find Lowe's now what HD used to be with even better assortment of products, but this is because they are newer, eventually the neck to neck competition on price alone will drive quality and service out and they will analyze sales data to death and figure that the given price and demand frequency, profit per square foot of a 90degree copper fitting elbow is higher than for a 45degree elbow and you wont find the latter, not even an empty box.

Competition is great, it gives the consumer what they settle for, usually abundant selection of cheap crap.

MG

[WonderfulFellow]

Aw gee, TX eh? I guess George moving to DC didn't raise the average IQ as much as we thought it did.

You probably complain that the supermarket doesn't sell pickles by the each too.

Pretty consistent at the ones I go to.

You're right. A dictatorial central planning system is much better. Just ask any ex-Soviet Union citizen.

[WonderfulFellow]

What is "corgulated drain pipe"? I guess I wouldn't know either.

You sure you weren't sent to "Building Materials" which is what it sounds like. Or plumbing.

I don't think size is of any importance.

I hate employees who offer "help". The fun of going to HD or any of the other home supermarket stores is to find your own way around, to look at and fondle the products, and to gaze in awe at the latest and greatest intoning, "I never knew they made that!"

Aha! There's where you have the opportunity to give your input on what the store should stock and make your suggestions as to how to better design this or that product.

[WonderfulFellow]

And that's why the parking lots are always crowded, there's at least half a dozen and more often ten or more cashiers going full speed, and why HD and the like keep opening new branches. And this despite the wishful thinking of hardware store and lumber yard owners and employees, and from trades who miss their ability to shaft the homeowner.

[ConcreteFinishing&StuccoGuy]

HomoDipo is typical of what is wrong with the USA, cheap inferior prods made in China being sold by dull witted pimple faced dolts in gay looking aprons. The idiot that loves the selection at HD must be the twit i get stuck behind in the checkout--you know the one, with the screaming retard kids that don't look like him and the 400# wife trying to fit 4 hotdogs into her face.

-- Troweller^nospam^@canada.com

[Chris Lewis]

According to [e-mail] :

Are you sure you're not a RONA employee? ;-)

Note to our American friends, unlike the usual complaints about HD south of the border, all of the Canadian HDs I've been to are head and shoulders better than virtually anyone else in terms of customer service. Ie: the staff walking the floor in the plumbing and electrical sections are professional tradesmen with many years of experience. A friend of ours has just joined HD, and the training stuff they do is pretty remarkable.

According to one plumber I spoke to, many professional trademen supplement their income with a few days a week working for HD. You don't see that at Canadian Tire.

That said, I have no complaints about Rona either.

[Canadian Tire, except for the automotive guys, is pretty pathetic in terms of staff knowledge.]

Many rural hardware chains (like Home Hardware or Pro Hardware) are pretty good as well.

[Jimbo]

I do my best to support Rona but in all fairness their floor staff are no better or worse than HD or CTC. The biggest difference I see between Canadian Tire, HD and Rona is their returns process. HD and CTC ask for your phone number so they can track your frequency of returning items and I think that's only fair. Rona on the other hand has never asked me for anything, I just give them the receipt and they give me my money back. Even when I don't have the receipt they give me a cash refund not a store credit.

Jimbo

[MG]

Before attempting to be humorous you should understand the post.

I was not advocating centralized planning but customer demanding quality and service by voting with their pocketbook. Naturally in a democracy the customer has voted..... like the unthinking bovine you are.

I do not understand you reference to Texans IQ, explain to me, is stupidity genetic like your brand or is an attribute you get from your place or birth or you get it where you happen to live at any particular time in you life. In my case is neither, in yours case, all of the above apply because stupidity is within you.

In case you miss, this is a home repair group, not a political forum nor an outlet for bigots.

MG

[KLS]

[a lot of stuff cut]

Another poster who understands my point about inappropriately derogating one group of people just to insult an individual!

[Chris Lewis]

According to Jimbo :

Rona and HD's floor staff are both good. Aside from a few rare exceptions, I've never found CTC floor staff very helpful beyond "what aisle is X on?".

When it comes to, say, recommendations of what to buy/how to repair a leaky shower drain, the master plumber with 20+ years of experience on floor staff at HD was a lot more useful than the high school kids you usually get at CTC.

[The original installer was a professional plumber. He got the gasket on the wrong side of the hole! Sheesh!]

Issues about trying to blackmail stores into offering 3% discounts, or whether I have to supply a phone number on a return don't sway me very much.

The prices are either good overall, or they're not. A few percent make no difference - swamped by the gasoline used to go somewhere else.

Breadth of product, availability, and knowledgeable floor staff matter.

[I don't go to Rona that often, simply because it's considerably farther into the city than I like bothering with.]