I try really hard to support local business and local jobs. I could easily order everything on Amazon where I expect to receive zero customer service. It seems every single time I come in this store and ask a question, the employees don't know the answer or are "staffing a different section because they are short handed." A week ago I went in and asked if they had fertilizer for my sky pencil holly bushes. The garden center employee said he didn't know what any of that was. I said Holly-Tone is what I'm looking for. He looked it up on his tablet and told me to go look for it myself inside because it's not in the Garden Center. So, I immediately left and bought it on Amazon. Same price, delivered to my door, no frustrating lack of customer service.
------This is the mission statement of Home Depot: The Home Depot is in the home improvement business and our goal is to provide the highest level of service, the broadest selection of products and the most competitive prices.
My husband and I visited this location another time to buy a Traeger Grill. The associate who helped told us it would be fully assembled and delivered to our house, more specifically, in the location of our choosing which would be the backyard. We were told it would be delivered on Wednesday, June 21. I was home all day, waiting for it. My husband said the tracker reported that the grill had been delivered. It was indeed delivered. It was sitting in the middle of my front yard in the grass in the rain. No one rang the doorbell to at least let me know it was outside. I immediately called the 800 number for customer service. This associate was very nice and told me that the store delivered it themselves and not via a 3rd party. She put me in contact with the store. She was polite, listened to my concerns, and directed me to the store I purchased it at. She did a nice job of diffusing my anger at this situation.
I spoke with the manager, Kendra. I was very upset that our grill had not only been dragged over our grass, but had been deposited in the middle of the yard without my knowledge for anyone with a truck and a couple of strong people to possibly steal. This was not the highest level of customer service Home Depot promises in their mission statement nor what we were told at the time of purchase. Kendra proceeded to double down on 1) It was a 3rd party delivery service and she's not responsible for them 2) They never deliver grills to a backyard, it's always curbside only and 3) No associate told us that it would be delivered any other way and we were wrong.
Kendra repeatedly argued with me during our call and she interrupted me every time I tried to speak which escalated my anger over the situation. I was never able to calmly tell her my situation and her interruptions and telling me I was wrong were not helpful. I got disconnected and had to have my husband deal with her. She doubled down with him on her same positions as before and interrupted him many times during the encounter. He had to actually yell at her to get her to stop and listen to the situation.
Ultimately, the 2 person delivery team returned to our house and delivered the grill to the backyard as we had been promised. I felt bad for this team - they were well past middle age, not in the best shape and that grill was heavy for them so they basically dragged it back to the backyard. I could see why they rolled it up my grass in the first place. They were as polite and nice as could be, but not really qualified or using appropriate body mechanics to be delivering heavy items safely.
I am very disappointed in my recent visits to this store. Employees do not seem to have much knowledge of the products in the departments they staff, employees do not all give the same/correct information regarding deliveries and purchases, managers don't seem to possess much managerial skills, and I frequently see employees standing around scrolling on their phones. My experience with someone who was supposed to be in a position of management was full of conflict, doubling down on why I was wrong and she was right, and zero effort at diffusing a customer's anger when their $900 purchase was delivered on a lawn, in the rain for it to possibly be stolen. $900 is not an insignificant amount to spend. We deserved a much better experience.
It used to be a lot of fun shopping at Home Depot. It used to be one of my favorite stores. The employees used to have some expertise in the departments they staffed and managers actually helped customers. If I have to stand in a store googling the items I need for a project and the manager just argues with me when there is a real problem with my items, then what's the point? I might as well purchase what I want on Amazon where I can expect and receive zero customer service. read more