Lowes vs. HD....

[Existential Angst]

So far, +5 vs 0.

The latest:

Had a last min. need for Arbor Vitaes, for some privacy issues. Spent 1/2 hr on the phone -- 30 solid minutes of mostly waiting on hold -- with HD, 4 different people, 2 hangups, 3 diff. stories. Ultimately, no arbor vitaes.

Called Lowes: No arbor vitaes, either. But, it only took me 20 seconds to glean this info. Boom, bang, done. Goodgawd....

Unfortly, no Lowes conventient to me, gotta pay a toll to NJ, always a traumatic event for me. If you google Westchester County, NY, you'll see 500 HDs, and not ONE Lowes.... I don't know what (or who) is behind that, but I'm sure there is some corruption at work.

HD is sumpn else.... I think shit service is their own personal artform, and I think managers are rewarded for it, bec undoubtedly shit service corresponds highly with cost savings for them. I'm sure seeing 3 out of 15 cashiers open, with long lines on each, just warms Management's heart.

[Jon Elson]

Yup, an absolutely BRILLIANT strategy! Make sure no customer ever sets foot in the store, and you won't need any of that expensive staff.

Jon

[anorton]

What some stores grasp and most others do not is that if there is always a line at the registers, the sales volume will always be limited (one way or another) by the number of open registers times the rate at which the checkers ring stuff up. If stores want to maximize sales, there should never be a line. If there is any line at all, pausing the line for 5 minutes for a price check on a $2.00 item makes even less sense.

[Lew Hodgett]

----------------------------------------------------- You expected to find garbage shrubs in stock in Westchester County.

Poor baby.

Lew

[Existential Angst]

Don't know what your point is, but if you want to pay top dollar, there are plenty in stock in Westchester County. Sprain Brook has 8 footers for $450.... perty 'spensive garbage, eh? Windy Farms has'em for $65, but full sun only.

HD had'em for $20-35, depending on the type. And, there are proly a dozen varieties.

And yeah, it's late in the season.... so I took a shot.... And your point was......???

MY point was, 20 sec vs. 30 mins, plain and simple.... AND, this is not an isolated case. Getting info over the phone from HD is ALWAYS, without exception, a nightmare, and *almost* invariably incorrect. I've had them tell me stuff was NOT in stock, and it turns out it was in stock. Of course, much more the opposite case. Never fails at HD.

My conclusion is that shoddy service has become a sport with them. Esp. over here, where there are no Lowes to keep them on their toes -- no rhyme intended.

[gregz]

Any one store might have issues. I never really have a problem at my checkout. Store is usually busy. My two lows stores have less business, but they are further away.

Greg

[ATP]

They're not set up to spend a lot of time with phone calls. That's part of the reason the prices are low. WRT Lowe's, the stores in the NY Metro area are much newer than HD, but more oriented toward women. They are seriously deficient in hardcore plumbing fittings, for example.

[Bob La Londe]

500 Home Depots?

You know Home Depot has on-line interactive inventory. I look up what I want on their website and then check the stores on-line to see if they have it. Then I am not stuck with the vagaries of knowledge from a failed contractor who works as a clerk at the store because they failed as a contractor. If do need help in the store I look for the "old guy" who is actually working.

If you mean the tree... arborvitae then they show 4 (1 discontinued) on-line and they all say "on-line only." Took me about a minute to check.

The crappy pride in workmanship that you complain about is why I like to check things myself if I can. I was raised that you do the job whatever it is to the best of your ability no matter the wage. If you agreed to take the money to do the job its immoral to do anything but a good job.

[gfretwell]

That is my impression too. If you are building, go to HD, if you are decorating go to Lowes. HD has the best selection of plumbing and electrical parts The problem is nobody in HD (or Lowes) knows what they are for or where they are at. At HD the people in the electrical department will send customers to me with technical questions if they see me. One day I was sitting on the floor digging through boxes trying to find 6 particular EMT fittings and the HD guy who I have know for years said "that is why we call this a do it yourself store, if you want to find something, do it yourself" Neither are like going to a real lumber yard or supply house but those guys are not interested in selling a hand full of anything.

[CRNG]

On Tue, 4 Dec 2012 17:32:40 -0500, "Existential Angst" wrote in Re Lowes vs. HD....:

Just the opposite where I live. The HD always has excellent service whenever I go there. The Lowes service sucks every time, the few times I go there.

[Gunner]

Im always fascinated by their trying to push "self checkout" on the customers. Ill wait in a long line with a real teller before using the mechanized checkout.

I consider giving my money to People to be appropriate, not to a machine. Which is why I don't use vending machines of any sort either.

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

[krw]

I prefer them. The machine is almost always smarter than the person who would be there. At least the machine can count change.

Use a card.

You forgot the part where they claim the opposition is doing the evil deeds they're perpetrating themselves.

[krw]

I've found that the quality of HDs varies quite significantly from one area to another. Within an area they seem to be similar. I've also found that Lowes are much more consistent and better. There are fewer of them, though, so usually further. They also tend to be very close to HDs.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Yeah so? Next week if you call the roles may be reversed. Your experience with one store from each chain proves nothing.

[PrecisionmachinisT]

If I want plumbing, I go to a plumbing supply house....

If I want lumber, I go to a lumberyard....

If I want hardware, I go to a hardware store...

Anyone see a pattern here ?

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per [e-mail]:

That seems to resolve the contrast between other poster's low opinion of HD and my own experience here in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Maybe it's a district manager/personality thing.

In the two I shop at, their return policy is as accommodating as I could hope for. Seem like they'll take almost anything any time with no receipt required.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per PrecisionmachinisT:

This is probably totally moot to anybody's point but...

A long time ago, I was refitting the bathrooms in our house with new faucets.

I bought cartridge-operated ones from Kmart.

The same day, I went to a plumbing-supply store to buy a Delta brand lever-operated faucet for the kitchen sink.

Out of curiosity, I put one of the KMart faucets on the counter and asked "What's the difference between this and Delta?".

The guy behind the counter got red in the face and almost shouted "*This* is quality and *that* is SHIT!"

It's been 30+ years since that day and I've never had a problem with any of the bathroom faucets. Then I noticed that the local gym where I went for 10+ years used the same faucets.

OTOH, I've had to rebuild the Delta faucet in the kitchen at least five times..... -)

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Ed Pawlowski:

Somebody who follows stock prices told me that HD's stock has come way, way up in recent years.

Seemed to me like that coincided with local HD's service level.

Used to be that when an employee saw me, they'd try to duck into another aisle to avoid answering a question. That's when the stock was very low.

Now I practically have to fend them off.

Sounds like an upper-level management change to me.

[George]

Is there some reason you are fixated on only big box?

We have two local garden centers that have great service with better quality plants and lower prices than big box.

[George]

Walmart syndrome. Many people care about price only and management will do what is necessary to make that happen.