My Story

The chronicle of the journey from infertility, to miscarriage, to finally raising twin girls born in June 2012.

Friday, January 7, 2011

McLendon's Kicks Home Depot's Ass

Totally off topic post here.

Home Depot is less than a mile from me while McLendons is a couple of miles away.  Not a big difference, but I will go to McLendons every single time.

Why?  Because I don't think I've ever walked in there with a problem and walked out without a solution.

A year and a half ago, I bought some paint for the bedroom.  After going over colors and getting my paint mixed, I went home and had some regrets.  I checked one of the colors and confirmed my suspicions, it was too bubble gum instead of rosey.  And it was my own fault.  They mixed the colors as I asked them too, but I had given them a sample that was too pink.

So I went back in with my receipt and the paint a few days later.  I wasn't expecting a refund or anything, I was fully prepared to just buy a new thing of paint and have them mix the color anew.  But I figured someone might want the bubblegum paint so maybe I could give it back to them and they could resell it as a discard or something.

But as soon as I told the paint guy my problem, he bent over backwards to fix it!  I made certain that he understood that it was my own mistake and they didn't do anything that needed correcting, but he still insisted that he give it a shot.  He added all sorts of pigments and remixed my old pink and came up with a color that I was perfectly happy with.  All of this effort, all of that extra pigment and materials and he didn't charge me one cent!  I had fully intended to simply purchase new paint, and instead, they fixed the paint I already had for free.

And today.  I wanted a couple of shelves for my bookcase and headed down there to see if they had something prefabricated that would fit.  Nope, everything they had available was a few inches too short or way too long.  So I asked the person at the painting station if there was someone who could help me with shelving.  She walked over with a measuring tape, asked what I was trying to do and said that they could cut down one of the longer shelves to fit.  Sweet!  So we found a really long shelf that would yield 2 shelves of the size I wanted and she handed it off to a second guy to cut down after warning me of the rough edges. 

I even asked if I should go purchase the shelf and come back with it to be cut down, and she told me not to worry about it, just let him cut it down and then checkout. 

Is it perfect?  No.  It's about a quarter of an inch too deep so the corner sticks out a little.  And she said that if it didn't fit right when I got home, just to bring it back in and they could trim it any way I like.  But you know what?  It's 95% there and I'm perfectly happy with that.  Too lazy to take them back in to trim them.

If I go to Home Depot, I rarely walk out with a purchase.  There's no one to help me find or make what I want.  But the sales associates and I always find a perfectly good solution when I go to McLendons and I always walk out of there with a purchase.  Whatever you've spent on assisting me McLendons, you've earned it back in my loyalty and with every additional purchase I've made from you because of that previous assistance.

2 comments:

  1. I work at Home Depot and go to college at the same time studying mathematics and math education. It is in my opinion that every American thinks their problem is greater than the next person. How big is this McLendons? And do they get has must customer traffic as Home Depot? The main problem is people lack the problem solving skills necessary to get things done by themselves. America has taught its younger generations that if they have a problem, somebody else can fix it. You could of easily cut the selves yourself. And Home Depot returns paint that customers screw up. I have also noticed if some customers like you (probably a woman)are not waited on hand and foot, they get upset. Its not Home Depot's fault that you don't know basic house repair needs such as woodworking.

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    Replies
    1. My problems aren't greater than the next persons. But when I walk into a store, my intention is to solve a problem I am having with the products available in that store.

      I'd say the Mclendons is approximately half the size of the Home Depot nearby. Always plenty of customers when I get there and plenty of people available to help those customers find what they need. In Home Depot, lots of people in aprons who are almost impossible to flag down. When you do, you get "not my department" and they head off somewhere else.

      This happened to my husbands coworker (male) when he was sent on his lunch break to purchase something. The item he needed was stacked on above his head and he needed assistance getting it. It took him 45 minutes to find someone who could bring a ladder over and retrieve the item. This was a different Home Depot than the one next to my house by the way.

      I could easily cut those shelves myself, if I owned a table saw. I don't think Home Depot would appreciate it if I were to use their power tools all willy nilly. Even though I do possess a vagina, I also possess a theater tech degree, one of the skills needed to earn such a degree is carpentry. I do know basic house repairs as evidenced further in this blog where I'm installing new flooring in my house and doing just fine now that I own a chop saw (which I did not own at the time of this blog post).

      It is Home Depots fault that assholes like you are inflicted upon the people attempting to shop there. Thank you for demonstrating the attitude that prevails at Home Depot so succinctly, which again proves my point, McLendons kicks Home Depots ass.

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