I never write ratings, because what's a drop in the pond of ratings. But damn, if I could give this spot a negative star, or perhaps that specific sales person. I have truly never met such an arrogant, condescending, and curt individual at a speciality store in the Bay Area.
I took my Asian-immigrant mother there May 24, 2024 around 2PM to explore doors. Their selection is pretty good, and the presentation is professional.
He immediately gave my mother a disdained lookover, and was extremely curt from the get-go. She asked if she could get help looking at door recommendations for fiberglass external entry doors, and he silently slowly walks over the front where the door slides are presented. He replied, they only have one and in one style. When she asked if it would be possible to get a different style , just a shake of the head in a reply and silence. She asks if another manufacturer they have could do it, and gets a stern no. He (I assume aware of how condescending he's being), then begrudgingly forces himself to reply "what kind of wood would you like this in?", my mother replies "exterior". He then more slowly and sternly as if to a toddler, rolling his eyes, repeats "What kind of wood would you like this in?". My mother replies, "for exterior". As he sucks in his breath to belabor it a third time, even though my mother is clearly inexperienced with specifications of doors materials, I interject and explain it to her in Chinese. He clearly did not want to spend any effort explaining it to her, for which I cannot discern if out of racism, arrogance, or both.
I patiently ask him, what types of wood do they have? To which he now kinder BUT NOT KINDLY, says all kinds and brings out a plastic box. So I make the small talk again of "wow that's a lot of wood" and he responds "yea, that's why I asked" matter of factly. I help translate between the two, because he evidently doesn't want to help my mom. When she directly asks him the price comparison of two woods, after a few unbearable minutes at his desk he FINALLY asks what the use case is for. Maybe this question should have been the first question to ask? Though, he clearly didn't give a f**k. I tell him it's for an exterior garage entry door in San Francisco, and he blank and matter-of-factly responds "I'll tell you it won't weather well". So I tell my mom, it's exactly what I told her already, and she declines to move forward cus she's already upset by his mannerisms. Mannerisms, so bad that I can't even help remediate for. He lets out a deep sigh, and I tell my mom it's okay to leave, as I hobble out with my cane.
My takeaways are this.
1. Never got the serviceman's name, never introduced themselves.
2. This serviceman, evidently not a salesman of any skill, is condescending, arrogant, and racist.
3. If he deems you aren't worth his effort or energy, you may as well leave instead of hoping for more help, elaboration, or lending any form of expertise.
I kept my mouth shut to observe this sale, to see if I wanted to commit to the 6 other doors I needed to buy for my own renovations. I chose to look for local shops in the Bay Area to support local businesses and figured their customer service would be better and more available, but looks like Home Depot and Lowe's are better options than this. They ultimately carry the same suppliers anyway and will be cheaper. Typically big box stores have worse customer service than small local distributors, but evidently, any customer service is better than dogsh*t customer service. Better than racist, ableist customer service.
It's not like it takes higher education in STEM to resell doors. The least you can be is an honest, humble, welcoming person to any prospective customers, who actually took the time drive over and communicate in person. Espescially in the Bay Area.
Tl;dr go to any other door store in the Bay Area. They aren't worth your breathe and energy.
Western door companies don't have too many differences between their product styles. If you want North American manufactured doors anyways, may as well go to Home Depot/Lowe's. They all buy from the same manufactures.
If you want more interesting door options look into Asian companies to import doors instead. A lot of more interesting modern styles are white labeled and sold with a huge markup from asia anyways.
For Dolan, I'm sorry this service person is ruining your reputation and sales like this with their incompetence, you deserve better employees as a growing local business. read more