Home Depot review: failing organization ( 2 comments)

Home Depot was a well run organization when it first hit the scene. It has now become another large company that has forgotten about the customer. It's recent attempts to change it's philosophy continue to fail. This past year alone I have several stories of not having any aisle assistance, but today will by last trip to any home depot.

I dedicated today to cleaning up the yard which included taking two dead trees back to the Bellingham MA Home Depot. I literally pulled them up from the ground and brought them back in buckets. The return cashier stated she could not take them back without receipt as they were live products. I understood the need for the receipt, however the trees still had the original brand new looking SKU ticket and tags on the trees. The customer service rep just thought it nothing for me to go get the receipt and come back. She mustn't be watching the news or the gas price situation. Eventually she offered to search by sku number and by my credits cards and could not identify the product by either. This was surprising as I have bought literally dozens of trees on these cards in the past year. I asked for the store manager as I hoped someone would understand the common sense of having the new sales tags on the trees corresponding to new purchases, and the fact they couldn't find the sku or my card a problem with their system. The Supervisor proxy sent was equally as unsympathetic to my plight, so I departed with a polite thank you.

When I arrived home, I called Home Depot customer service. At first I couldn't understand the gentleman who answered. When I explained my issue, he asked how I could resolve the issue. I stated that it was not a money issue but at the store I had bit my tongue not to embarrass anyone by explaining why Lowes was now going to be my only superstore provider going forward, and that I wanted to know why with all the common sense evidence my trees would not be accepted as a return. The customer service rep said he would get the store manager on the phone with me to discuss. As suspected, I knew this was just the standard BS, as the store management solidified the HD customer service LACK of commitment and care. The call ended with the service rep reading me a couple of rules about returns, all of which ignored the common sense of some guy working in his yard looking to quickly return two plants that had attached documentation never removed from the tree.

This was my very last trip to Home Depot in either personal or professional capacity. I have instructed my employees to use any other sources as the potential time involvement in problem resolution will be costlier than any gas price will dictate. These people just don't get it.