Blogic

Incompetence at The Home Depot

Saturday, July 05, 2008 at 2:47pm
Found in the meditations Annoyances  Toronto  

My wife and I are considering building a house.  My mom told me that the Home Depot carries home plan books, catalogs featuring blueprints for homes that you can give to a contractor to get exactly the layout you want.  So off we go to the nearest Home Depot this past weekend.

After wandering around the store for a while without finding these books, we decide to ask the staff for help.  There were three aproned employees standing near a display, looking decidedly un-busy.  “Excuse me” I interject.  “Yes?” they all answer in unison…so far, so good.  Here’s the rest of the conversation:

Me:  “Can any of you you tell me where I can find those books that feature blueprints for various types of houses?”

Female employee:  “No, we don’t have those.” 
*resumes conversation with Male employee #1*

Me, to my wife:  “Oh.  Okay, well, there’s our answer then.”

Male employee #2, brow furrowed:  “You want to build a house?!”

Me:  “Yeah.”

Male employee #2, brow raised:  “Nice little weekend project!” 
*All three employees laugh in unison*

My wife and I exchange confused glances.

“Do you know where we might find books like that?” asks my wife, expecting directions to another Home Depot location.

Male employee #2:  “I’d just check online.”

Wife:  “We did that and learned from your website that The Home Depot carries these books.”

Female employee:  “Oh, we do?!  If we do, I’m not aware of it.”

Male employee #2:  “All the books we have are over there.” 
*points to the far end of the store*

So we wander over to the far end of the store.  Sure enough, there books at each checkout, including several home plan catalogs.  We grab one and proceed to the checkout.  As we’re going down that corridor between the checkout and the exit, we pass many large racks of books, including several shelves full of home plan catalogs of all types:  Cottages, large homes, small homes…  We consider returning the smallish one we bought, but the frustration of the whole experience makes me suggest instead that we “just get the fuck out of here.”

I’m used to people in Toronto’s service industry being somewhat unhelpful and at times impolite relative to their counterparts in Atlantic Canada, but this was ridiculous.

Why did three employees of The Home Depot find the idea of building a house amusing?

And why didn’t at least one of them know that their store carries this product?  It’s not like I asked for a specific title of a catalog.  Could they not look it up in their little computer kiosk just to ensure that they don’t in fact carry them?  Male employee #2 knew that they carried books, so how certain could he have been that they didn’t have the ones I was looking for?

“Check online”?!  I know I can check online, but I’m giving you the opportunity to sell something to me.  Is The Home Depot in the habit of sending people away from their stores now?

For a business that prides itself on having a knowledgeable staff, even to the point of trumpeting that claim as their slogan, The Home Depot seems to have dropped the ball, at least at this location.

By the way, this statement is printed on the back cover of the catalog we bought:

The Men and women in the orange aprons at The Home Depot know what they’re talking about when it comes to home improvement.  They offer advice that can be trusted.  Their indispensable and well-earned “wisdom of the aisles” is reflected on every page of this book.  Let the experts at The Home Depot provide the know-how you need for any home improvement project.