I went to this Lowes location in Little Elm. I had planned to go to Home Depot which had won me over with their Christmas tree service, but it was the day after Christmas, so I decided to give Lowes a try too.
The sales-floor staff was incredible: great customer service on this busy day. One member hunted for a difficult-to-find mandrel for me for 10-minutes and found the perfect one. I couldn't thank him enough. So based on this service, I decided to get some wood for a few cornhole boards as well.
The lumber staff on the floor went out of their way too. They helped me pull a great plywood board that I could rip into 4 regulation cornhole boards and the 2x4s for the frames. I was happy to have it all in my hand-truck and at a great price.
So on to the check-out lanes. This is where it all fell apart and left me saying to my son, who was helping me, "Come on, son, let's go to Home Depot."
What a way to blow a sale. Terrible front-end customer service. One that makes you want to go on Yelp and let everybody know . . .
The board at the self-check-out machine rang up $30 more than advertised in the aisle. I can overlook a few bucks, but 60% more: I called for help. The front-end helper lady scanned the board.
"Sorry, sir this is the latest price."
"Uh, I'm not paying $30 bucks more, I picked this board based on the price."
"Please bring me the tag?"
Off to the lumber section.
The guys in lumber were certain of the price.
"Yeah, don't worry, this is the latest price. They must not be up-to-date in the system."
As I was snapping a pic of the tag on the boards up here where I found them, I overheard one of them say, "Wait, these are in the wrong place, they belong down there."
I looked down there and the price for their being down there in their rightful place read "$79. 55".
My doubts set-in.
"I'm not paying "$79.55"
"Don't worry, they'll charge you $49.55", they reassured.
This being their mess-up, and my having had cashiers honor mistaken advertised aisle-prices before was enough assurance for me. I headed back to the front-end self-checkout lady.
"I'm sorry sir, that price does not belong to this item."
"Can I speak to your manager?"
Enter the front-end manager:
"I'm sorry sir", said the manager when he arrived and came up to speed, "This is not the correct price for this item. It's $79.55 and I cannot sell it to you for $49.55."
"You advertised it in the aisle for $49.55."
"You'll have to understand that mistakes happen, sir."
Well, I'm not going to be punished for their mistake. I decided leave, knowing that it was not worth it to give Lowes any control over my mood on the second day of Christmas.
In hindsight, it was a good thing I was paying in cash because I was able to make a quick exit without being too invested in the situation. We left the hand-truck in the self-checkout lane and exited the store,
"Come on, son, let's go to Home Depot."
As I was in the van riding to Home Depot with my son, I told him,
"Son, if you're ever in retail and a $30 mistake that you made stands in the way between you and a customer-for-life . . . give the customer the $30. Otherwise he's going to tell everybody the story about how you screwed him over on the second day of Christmas."
"Okay, Dad."
We went to Home Depot and I paid $10 more for the same stuff than Lowes wanted to force me to pay. Yes the price was still $79+ for the same board but, I'm a man of my word. And this time, it was my decision to do so. read more