On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 08:08:54 -0500, "SeaKan"
scribbled this interesting note:

i work at an hd. just an associate. what are your biggest pet peeves about
hd? anything in particular?


Having read the entire thread thus far, I have to say most of the
problems with HD have been discussed.

However...

You knew there was a "However", didn't you?

As a general rule, if you feel the need to ask a question while at HD,
a question that involves more than the usual "Where is it?" kind of
question, the customer (being me in this instance) is almost always
better off simply leaving and patronizing a real supplier for whatever
parts or materials.

Here's the most drastic example I've experienced.

Needing some valve seats for a faucet one day, I go to HD expecting to
find a bin full of various seats. I expect to be able to look through
them and find the one I need, pick out two, pay for them, and leave
happy. I knew there was a problem when I felt the need to ask even the
simple "Where is it?" question. I ask an employee in an orange vest
where are the valve seats? He directs me to a small display on the end
of the aisle. I look, and I see miserable display. I ask him where are
the rest of them? He, very self- assuredly, responds that there are
only two or three different valve seats.

I'm serious. He seemed to believe what he said. Only two or three
different plumbing valve seats found in typical homes.

I leave. My next stop was a real plumbing supplier. It is a fair
distance away, but that one stop at HD for a couple of valve seats
taught me to spend my time wisely. Don't go to HD for something if
there is even the slightest chance they may not have it, since if
there is that chance, rest assured it will happen. Rather than drive
all over looking for plumbing parts at HD or Lowes, or even the local
hardware stores, I go to a real plumbing supplier who I know will have
the parts, even though it means I can't get those parts on a weekend
and it means extra miles. Even with those considerations, time is
saved by going to a real supplier instead of an overly generalized
"Home Center".

Others have mentioned the crappy wood they carry. HD will sell an item
like a lawn mower, yet not carry things like blades (another
experience I've had first hand.)

Others have mentioned a lack of any help at the stores. My (at the
time) seventy year old father once got into an argument with no less
than two "associates" about a canvas, weatherproof tarp. He asked
(that fatal mistake, again) where they were as they were not where
they were the last time he needed one. The first "associate" couldn't
find it, so he asked another, who said they have never had them. My
father, with these two numb-skulls watching, finally finds a box of
them on an upper shelf, he looks around for a ladder, and not seeing
any, proceeds to climb the shelf to retrieve one himself since no help
was forthcoming from the two obviously impaired "associates."

I had to perform a similar routine when buying a chain saw, except
there were no "associates" to be found at all, much less a ladder.
Climb the shelf to obtain what I'm looking for.

The biggest problem with Big-Box Stores? They come into a market, make
a big splash by having good prices and stocking lots of items, drive
smaller, dedicated suppliers out of business, and then proceed to tell
their customers how and what to buy. This is why I try to buy lumber
from a real lumber yard, plumbing parts and supplies from a real
plumbing supplier, roofing materials from a real roofing supplier,
etc., etc., etc. In each and every one of these cases, I spend less
money, less time, have knowledgeable employees to ask any questions I
need to ask, and in many cases (lumber and roofing in particular) they
will expertly load my truck, which is something the fork lift drivers
at HD never seem to be able to learn how to do.

Good luck with your new trade. You're gonna' need it.


--
John Willis

(Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)