Well, I wanted to address these concerns in an email, but apparently the Lowe's website doesn't HAVE an email option, just a chat and phone option. Lovely.
Just had one of my worst store experiences ever. Not just a home improvement store. Any type of store.
I bought a bunch of lumber (2x4 & 4x4) online. I picked it up and was pushing it back to the woodcutting area. I saw an employee and verified where it was. She informed me they couldn't do the 4x4s -- would've been nice to know ahead of time but hey maybe that's common knowledge -- but pointed to the area and said she'd call someone back.
I ended up having to go around to a different aisle because one was blocked off, so it took me probably another 5 minutes to get to the station. No one was in sight -- at the station or approaching it -- so I pressed the Help button too. Which causes the intercom system to announce several times that help is needed in the wood cutting section.
Nada. I'm impatient by nature, so I tried to cool my jets. But once it had been nearly 20 minutes (!) since I talked to the initial employee, I asked some others to call it in again. (And to find them I had to walk at least 1/4 length of the not-small store, meaning I had to keep checking behind me every 20 seconds or so in case someone showed up at the station in my absence.)
I got back to the station only to find the Help button apparently turns off on its own at some point. Always great when even the machinery gives up on customer service.
I pressed the button again, causing another set of "Help needed in the wood cutting section" announcements.
At the 30-minute mark I gave up and called the front desk on my phone -- and it took two and a half minutes for anyone to pick up. They apologized and said they'd send someone. After the call, I discovered the button had once again shut off on its own. So I pressed it a third time.
About five minutes after that, a guy finally showed up. So all in all about 35 minutes of waiting. In a normal situation, I'd have abandoned the cart and gone elsewhere, but this was stuff I paid for already. I had no choice but to wait.
Oh, and when I told the guy I needed as close to 85 and 3/8" as possible, he got out his tape measure and put it against one of the 2x4s and said he could do the 85 inches, "But I'm not really sure about the 3/8 part."
So I had to get down and look at his tape measure, then said, "Okay well you have 16th marks and 3/8 is the same as 6/16" and counted out 6 of the marks. At which point he said, "There?" and I had to say "Yeah, there."
SERIOUSLY?! The sign specifically said no one should use it who hasn't been trained and approved. So they taught him how to use a (dangerous) machine to cut lumber to customers' specifications WITHOUT MAKING SURE HE COULD DO ANYTHING BELOW A QUARTER INCH??? That's kinda a big deal given that cutting an extra quarter inch (or leaving an extra quarter inch on) can make the wood unusable for a given project.
This was just generally a terrible and exasperating experience.
Look, I know staffing is far more sparse on weekdays -- but so are customers. And even if you get an unexpected rush, surely SOME employee can get back to the wood cutting department before three different employees have called, the intercom has three times done 4 announcements of help needed and 35 minutes has elapsed.
I chose to switch to Lowe's because I don't want to give money to Home Depot's Trump supporters. But maybe it's time to give Ace a try. read more