So, I went to Lowe's last Friday to check out a compressor I saw online. My local Lowe's didn't have it so I drove 10 miles to another one that the site said had it. I get there and it was way up on a shelf. I didn't have time to wait and the kid said they would only bring it down if I bought it.

I did some more research today and decided to buy it. Paid for it online and the confirmation said it would be ready in two hours.

I wait three hours, go to the store and it is still way up on the shelf. Customer service couldn't be bothered helping me since they were two busy answering the phone - I guess they figure the customer in the store isn't as likely to walk out as someone on hold is to hang up.

Finally grabbed the store manager and bent his ear some - he grabbed the operations manager who told someone to get it down ASAP. The ops manager brought me back to customer service where I had to wait for "Kong" (according to his nametag) to help me. With me standing there the Head Cashier told him to take care of a phone order first. I about went through the roof. When the ops manager came back around five or 10 minutes later, he blasted Kong and told him to write up my order.

Total time to pick up a compressor that was paid for - about 40 minutes. Worst experience ever in a Lowe's. As soon as I know that it works and won't be going back, I'll be writing some nasty letters. And I may have to give the Depot another chance at my business.

 

Sounds about par for the course in this day and age. Customer service has been conspicuously absent for the last 5-10 years or so.

Jason

 

I've been avoiding Lowes where possible since they put Spanish everywhere.

 

sorry but I beat you at Home Depot, early in the spring I wanted a case of bottled water (which hadn't been brought down for the summer) after paying for it i paitently waited for the forklift operator, every employee who asked if I needed help I told them I needed the pallet of water down to get the ones I paid for, I waited in the store for 3 hours until I finally got my case of water.

 

Home Depot ain't much better. We ordered a window from them the other week...all paid for, we just had to wait a couple weeks for it to come in. And this is the brand new Home Depot...hasn't even been open a Month yet.

Anyways, the window comes in on Halloween. Mom calls them and tells them I was on my way to pick it up, and they say they will have it ready for me at the Service desk to pick up. So mom calls me back and tells me to go and get it. It's a 20 minute drive from the house, minimum...and do you think they had it up front? Hell no! And the place was dead! I counted about 11-12 people in there the entire time I was there. Anyways, the guy at the counter gets on the intercom and tells the guys in the back to call up front. 15 minutes and several calls later...still nothing. So the guy takes a flatbed cart and goes to the back himself to get it. 20 minutes later, he's wheeling it up front for me to load in my truck.

I pulled in the parking lot at 12:43pm, and pulled out at 1:34pm

 

I believe I would have gone off!

...Or at least stole the forklift and got it myself

 

i reached a point where I had to see just how long it would take to stand there and wait politly. oh yeah i was at "work" well at least on company time getting company supplies.

 

im a contractor and i go through this on a regular basis. i ordered 150 8' 1/2" sheetrock and paid for it along with a bunch of stud , insulation, screws and other junk for a job. I paid for it at 6:40 PM the night before and told the people at the commercial sales desk id have my truck there at 8:30AM for it. i purposely waited til almost 9:45 to go get it and nothing was pulled.. i started pulling it myself and then i had a hard time getting someone to count me out so i could leave..
this is the norm at lowes
Years ago i used to work for a forklift dealer so i still have keys to fit most forklifts i can tell you how often i just hopped on a lift there to move stuff. Its amazing how fast they fly out of the woodwork when they see a customer on the forklift
Lowes and home depot have become sesspools for "i dont wanna work" welfare recipients for employees. This leaves me having to buy supplies from foreign owned businesses which i hate to do cause it seems that in the big city here there aint many American owned US citizens that own construction supply houses. then we all sit here and wonder why our great country is going down the tubes

 

I have noticed that almost everywhere you go now days is the same way.

 

when my nephew worked at BIG 5 in Prescott "management" preached to them that they are just customers and there are plenty more out there.

 

At some point in my mind the cost savings is too expensive. Here Lowe's is closer and has better service than Home Depot. In fact from my experience Home Depot has no customer service. But I'm about through shopping in these chain warehouse stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, WalMart, & etc. I'm tired of the BS personally & the savings aren't enough to waste hours of time each week.

 

Customer service is getting worse and worse everyday. A couple of best places I have had decent customer service is at Mills Fleet Farm, Hardware Hank, and Target. Chalk up Home Depot and Walmart as some of the worst.

I haven't shopped much at Lowes since it's fairly new in my area and haven't had a bad experience yet. But, when I go to Menards and Home Depot the customer service has been poor to fair. When my wife is with me, she hates it when I don't ask for help and tell her that I am better off trying to find what I need versus someone who will just give me the runaround and still have to walk all around the store to find something.

Also, I'm getting tired of asking people if they have a particular item and they tell me that their "computer" says they have some, but can't seem to find anything.

 

I go to Fleet Farm as little as possible cuz while there are some good deals they pass those savings on to their employees. I worked there for a week and a half. Never been lied to more in a 10 day stretch than I was in that one. Never been through such a BS hiring experience either.

 

I gotta tell ya, the customer service at both the Lowe's and The Home Depot here are superb. Maybe it's the "aloha" attitude we have here on the island. I've always been greeted and helped at east to find stuff. I don't hold some of the people to be experts in everything in stock or anything but the service is always pretty good.

Who needs customer service at Wal-Mart? It's a transactional shopping place now. You know what you need, you find it and buy it. It's almost like buying online but you can't do it sitting in your underwear.

 

Depending on what I need, I usually go to the mom and pop style hardware store.

It cost more, but I'm usually out in several minutes, not several hours.

Another good store I shop at, when I'm in the area, is OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware).

The place is clean, and customer service is very good.

Other than that, I just backup my truck onto a jobsite and help myself; nighttime of course. (just kidding)

BTW, I haven't entered a Slowes or Home Deport in several years.

What I can't fix, I just put a tarp over it.