"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote:

I thought I would spread the news about an issue I had with Home Depot
Friday.

We had a trenching crew cut a buried feeder to our water pump. It was
old direct-burial UF-TW, and I knew the size and length. I decided to go
THHN/THHW in a pipe this time to do the job right.

I sent an errand boy down to HD with the specs IN WRITING.

So, I get a call from the store saying the "woman needs to talk to me."

I had spec'd the gauge (#2AWG copper or 1/0 aluminum), the insulation
type, the number of conductors, and the length. In writing.

She said, "you don't know what you want" (!). Explained to her the load,
the length, the application and the ampacity of those two wires I'd
spec'd.

She said, "Aluminum is against the law -- it's too dangerous -- we don't
sell it." Hmmm... I guess the utility companies haven't heard that one
yet.

OK, lady, do you carry COPPER? "Yes, but it's going to be expensive."
Sure... retail copper always is. "If we cut it, you cannot return it."
Yep... cut goods, all sales are final.

"What do you want, EXACTLY?". #2AWG copper, THHN/THHW, 250', one piece
please.

So the boy comes back asking for help to unload. Huh? In the bed of the
truck is a single spool of about 300lb of 2/0 copper THHN. Spool is a
factory spool, sealed, marked "250-feet, 2/0, THHN". WTF?

Call the sto "sorry you can't return cut wire". It's not cut, its on
a factory sealed spool, and it's NOT what I ordered IN WRITING. "Sorry,
we don't accept returns of cut wire."

OK, you're getting it back anyway, and I'm calling the credit card folks
to report fraud. You're getting it back no matter what, and I'm getting
my money back. Plus I'm going to sue the daylights out of you for
shutting down my factory while we sort this out. "What's your number;
we'll call you back."

Now it's 3:30PM. This has been going on since 9:45. Finally the store
manager calls back an says, "It's our policy not to accept cut wire back,
but we'll do it just this one time."

This time, they miraculously had what I'd asked for the first time, and
by 4:30, we had our pump back on.

Next time you need something from Home Depot -- go to Lowes.

LLoyd

Sorry, I can't go to Lowe's, they're on my 1 year black list - again.

Never ask any questions of big box store personnel, or answer any of
their questions. State what you require and that is all.