On 12/29/08 04:22 pm DerbyDad03 wrote:

Our old wooden garage door is not in good shape. Saturday we went and
had a look at the Clopay doors at the local HD and got a price including
installation. In the course of conversation I said, "Why Home Depot?
You're not the only people who sell Clopay. According to the Clopay Web
site,company name here sells their doors too." HD guy says, "If you
buy from us, they're the people that do our installations anyway."

Today I went to the other store and got a significantly lower price
(including installation) for what is in all material respects the same
door but with a different model number -- and they don't use (because
they don't recommend) the EZ-Set spring system that can be adjusted with
a power drill.

So two conclusions:

1. Buying from HD -- and the same quite likely applies to Lowe's as well
-- doesn't necessarily mean that you get some dumb-ass lowest-bidder
installer rather than somebody who knows what (s)he is doing.

2. Buying from HD -- and the same quite likely applies to Lowe's as well
-- doesn't necessarily mean that you get the best price.

I would never have expected the best price from HD.

The reason I thought that I *might* get a better price from HD is that
HD -- the whole chain -- must buy a lot more stuff from Clopay than our
3-store local "chain" and would therefore be able to negotiate better
prices. And *perhaps* HD would deal with Clopay directly rather than
having to go through a regional distributor -- IOW, cutting out a middle
man.

Perce