Home Depot Prices? Off Topic

[foto]

Just curious as to everyone's current experience with Home Depot. They came in over here and are now basically everywhere while most of the regular shops are gone. Went to buy some stuff for the home and realized that their prices are no longer so cheap anymore. In fact they seem to be almost exactly the same as my local shop with the added disadvantage that everything they sell is the cheapest (quality)model you can find anywhere. They don't even seem to carry name brand items anymore but instead have mostly in house brands or special OEM items made for them that have a lower quality.
One of the final nails in the coffin
was when I needed one more sheet of sheetrock for some repairs at my house. I only needed one more so I went to the local "expensive " shop. Well turns out that it only cost about 30 cents more for the sheet but guess what, All I did was drive thru their lumber garage after i bought it and it was loaded onto the roof of my car by the store. I actually had a pleasant experience shopping there. Unlike home depot where i had to have a forklift come lower more sheetrock to the floor and then i had to cut the straps myself to get my sheetroc. load it onto my cart and then carry it to my car myself and load on the roof myself with the aid of a fellow shopper. All for a grand savings on the 8 pieces of sheetrock of $2.40(8x.30).
Never again will I go to Home Depot and have to deal with the hassles, crowds, cheap quality and complete lack of service unless there is no other way. How is it by you guys. Are they still much cheaper than the other stores or have they raised the prices on you also? Just curious as I was reminded of this when i went to HD to get a torx screwdriver as it was on the way and realized that i couldn't even find a good one. All of the screwdrivers were some in house crap brand made in china or somewhere. The deluxe house brand was husky made somewhere but they had the fit, finish and balance of one of those old stanley variety packs they used to sell at KMart. Real junk for which they were asking a premium price. Got a set of torx/allen wrenches instead which have that junk feel to them and which i know are going to break on the first stuck screw they encounter. Is everybody trying to rip me off or does it just seem that way.?

[denton]

Our local Home Depot is great. If you go to the plumbing department, you'll find experienced plumbers to help you. If you go to paint, you'll find painters.

The local counterpart that I don't like is Lowe's. Our local one is like wandering a maze, and nobody knows anything, even if you can find them. Needed an automatic center punch recently. Went into Lowe's. Found all kinds of center punches, but no automatics. Looked and looked. Gave up, and went to an industrial supply place. Next trip to Lowe's, there are the automatic center punches, about 8' away from the regular ones... no logic... only slightly better than sorting through a random pile, and with no help.

The other thing I really don't like is entrance only, and exit only doors, about 50 yards apart. No matter where you park, your walk is longer than it needs to be.

[Lilred]

I'll only git in on this here thread cause I werk fer Lowes.
HD & Lowes do hire stupid people sometimes. Or they put em in areas they aint used to. Like an electrician werkin in plumbin.
But sometimes, they do hire smart people that are actually freindly. My store has alot of great people in it, and I'm good freinds w/ all of us "old timers" whos been there a while. Then they hired a bunch of new people w/ their britches hangin off their butt and so forth...werthless. I dont understand why they even bothered. It depends on findin a good store, and iffin a HD just moved in, you can bet Lowes wont be fer behind.

On the subject of prices/brands, I can tell you bout that.
Lowes' & HD are always concerned w/ each others prices. They both got their spies they send to compare prices in the stores on a daily basis and that 10% guarentee crap, which is used often. But it aint werth the lil bit of savins iffin you caint fnd a good store w/ good help in it.
Lowe's brands I can tell you bout..well..some of em. Our vendors/suppliers always have these people come in our store to downstock, clean & whatever alot. Plus we go to these dern trainin classes on their product all the time.
I keep a close eye on which stuff is made here and which aint..cause I'll sell the US stuff for I'll sell anything else. And the customers want that too..they'd rather buy US stuff.
All our sidin is made in WVA. That sidin is made for Lowes by NAPCO, and it's made in by-god wva of all places. I sell the heck outta sidin, and proud to do so for a company that still manufactures that stuff from scratch here. As far as the quality goes, I'll add a lil somethin fer ya'll to think bout.

At Lowes anyways, I will give them credit fer this: ALOT of their "in-house" brands are made here, by smaller companies.
Now, when Lowes asks them to produce a certain product fer em, those smaller companies are so excited, because they know they will make a fortune sellin their product at Lowe's. And they put do R&D like you wouldnt believe to be sure it will do what it says. I was there when Phillips made their ACQ treated deck screws fer Lowes, lifetime warranty and all..that company now has 4 er 5 plants insteada the 1 they started with. I think they are based in Ohio. Dont be ashamed to ASK, because there are some associate who do know, and the best person to ask about a product, is the vendor themselves.
So, not all stuff from the HIW (home improvement warehouses) comes from China, and next time ya'll go in, ask somebody werkin in that dept about it. You can spot store "veterans" perty easy in Lowes. They usually have alot of buttons on their vests, and some will have "employee owner since 199_ "on their nametags.
The tags that say "specialist" will usually be a good person to ask too, but not all the time. There are some who choose not to be a specialist that know more than the specialists..lol

I really dont know about HD, but it's a shame there are so many "illliterate" people at Lowe's with no product knowledge, because they dont utilize the product training classes and the in- store vendors, but that is entirely up to the associate who is willin er not willin to learn.

Dont git me wrong, I aint sellin Lowes..I'm sure HD has some of the same products like we do,but it eases my job every day werkin fer such a big company, that at least, in part, it creates jobs and keeps the small factories from closin. In turn, it keeps that dam "made in China" crap from bein stamped on every dern thing you buy.

Edit: Think about the basis of how China got it's start..because we caint seem to pay the higher price fer the made in usa stuff. Fer the average Joe, would you werk yerself 70 hrs a week like them fool Chinese people fer 1/2 the pay? I dont think so, and until we are willin to sacrifice that..then unfortunatly, the phrase "made in China" is here to stay.

[fabsroman]

Very good post Lilred.

Short of the matter is I hate Home Depot and Lowes, but they are here to stay and I have to deal with it. Pretty soon, there will be no more mom and pop shops of any kind. I live right next to a shopping center that has a Target, Kohl's, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Home Depot, just to mention a few. The Target, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart pretty much have the clothes shopping market pegged across the board except for those upper society shoppers that need a Macy's or something along those lines.

As far as Lowes itself is concerned, I had one heck of a bad experience there, not once, not twice, but three times.

Peeve #1 - I was shopping around for solid surfaces for my counter tops (e.g., Corian, Granite, Silestone, Zodiaq) and Home Depot had the square foot prices marked on their board. Lowes didn't and required that I make an appointment with a kitchen design rep to find that stuff out. The night I went to Lowes to find out how much that stuff costs, my fiance and I stood in the kitchen center for almost an hour without a single person asking if they could help us. My fiance eventually went to somebody in the section and asked if he could help us and he said he would be with us as soon as he finished helping the people he was with. After he finished with them, he went and helped another couple. I was pretty hot. When I went to the Customer Service desk, they were pretty rude to me. So, I sent an e-mail to Lowes corporate about how I was treated and I never heard back from them.

Peeve #2 - before the above occurred, I had ordered almost $8,000 of hardwood flooring from Lowes and probably wouldn't have done so if #1 occurred before hand. I was told that I had to order the hardwood from the same dye lot to prevent large variations, so I did that. I was told it would be in in about 2 weeks. Two weeks passed and no phone call, so I stopped by and there was no wood. Since I wasn't really ready to put the hardwood in yet, I waited a month until I stopped back over there. When I stopped over there, they had my 4 pallets of wood, but never had bothered to call me. I happened to have the truck with me so I took a pallet with me and came back later that evening with two trucks and a trailer for the remainder. Of course, during the time between the first load and going back, I had my brothers and a friend carry all 24 boxes of hardwood up three flights of stairs to the 4th floor of the townhouse. When I got back to Lowes, I found that the forklift operator had dropped a bundle of wood from the top shelf and it was now splinters. The guy there offered to sell it to me cheap, and I told him the only thing it was good for was burning. My brothers and friend were really happy to find out that we had to carry all the wood back down and return it because I had to reorder the entire lot.

Peeve #3 - the second lot of wood came in about 2 weeks later, which was rather good news. Problem was that it wook them almost 2 hours to find a forklift to get the wood down from the top shelf. Next problem was that the 4 pallets were not from the same dye lot, but since one ended in 25 and the other in 26 and after inspecting both of them, I decided that they were close enough for me to use. However, I was pretty pissed about having to wait so long and when I complained to the Customer Service desk, I got the same lady that was rude to me on Peeve #1. I was steeming at this point, but she was actually really nice to me. I showed her the 1" thick stack of receipts that I had from Home Depot and told her that Lowes might have received more of my business if they hadn't screwed up the initial wood order and they certainly wouldn't be getting any more of my business after this event. She refunded 10% of the purchase price to me for my inconvenience and it made me feel better.

Short of it is that I have been back to Lowes since. Albeit, not as often as I go to Home Depot across the street, but that is because it is across the street and Lowes is 10 minutes away. However, Lowes does carry some things that Home Depot doesn't, so I go there to get them.

To be fair, I am sure that Home Depot screws things up too. They were late on delivering my bathroom cabinets and one of the matching mirrors came with a scratch. On my intial bathroom design meeting, the design guy told me I couldn't use the cabinets I wanted because they were frameless and could not butt up againt the wall because they needed to have filler along the side for the doors to open properly. Hence, he wrote up a ticket for more expensive cabinets that weren't my first choice in style anyway. I pondered it for a couple of days and then made a second appointment and then dealt with a guy that ordered the exact cabinets that I wanted. They are upstairs in the bathroom with a granite counter top on them right now and they work just fine.

If you want top of the line stuff, like faucets, closet accessories, etc., you have to go to a place like Expo Design Center, a company owned by the same company as Home Depot, or the Great Indoors, a company owed by Sears which is now owned by KMart. Don't get me started on KMart buying Sears because I love Sears hand tools and I hate KMArt.

Lastly, I have a lot of clients in the contruction business and my father has done a bunch of home remodeling over the years. I hear complaints about both Home Depot and Lowes, but I guess almost any place will give you reason to complain if you frequent it enough. As far as tile and granite is concerned, I go to a wholesaler to get it and it is about half the price that Home Depot and Lowes sell it for. Regarding drywall and lumber, I go to a client of mine that owns a drywall installation company and it is cheaper than Home Depot and Lowes too. In the end, it is all about shopping around for the best deals. For appliances, I go to a company where I know the VP of sales.

I am praying that in about a month or so, I will have almost no reason to go to Home Depot, Lowes, or anywhere else for consruction materials. I would prefer to be hanging around in Best Buy and Comp USA looking for home theater stuff and computer stuff and maybe a couple of furniture places too.

[Allen]

I have shopped Lowe’s and Home Depot in Alabama and Tennessee. I would have to give the thumbs up to Lowe’s over all. Most recent would be when I moved into my new home that they had installed all the kitchen appliances for my builder. One week later the refrigerator ($1000) quit working and all the food was spoiled. My wife called the store and was told someone could come out in 2-3 days to look it over. She said ok, but called back later and told them she wanted someone out that day. The manager called her back and said they did a lot of business with our builder and if she would give him the model number he would send out a new refrigerator. They showed up two hours later and had swapped them out before I even got home from work.

I think both stores have the potential to be good stores. It all boils down to the people they hirer and how much pride they have for their job.

Lowe’s gets my business first due to the service they have given me, but I do shop HD when I cant find what I need at Lowe’s.

Allen

[Lilred]

Fabs, those are the most common complaints Lowe's gets. And it all boils down to the people they hire. I can explain why there is no-one ever in the aisles at Lowe's, but it would probaly make the folks I werk fer very mad by tellin their business. But I will say this..it all boils down to the manager's yearly bonus.
Same w/ HD.

To give ya'll a hint, when something goes wrong, you should always ask for the store/ops or zone managers that are in the store. If that dont werk, you email the customer service. I think the email is manager@lowes. com.
Be sure to mention the store location and names of who you talked to, cause w/o that, you wont git very fer.
Those emails go straight to the store manager, and is "refereed" by the district & corporate folks. If the issue is not resolved, the store managers will be in a world of hurt.
Customer complaints fer the store via email, show up every day on our screen, and managers hop on them problems like a fox on a 1-legged chicken. Cause THEIR boss sees em every day too.

Most managers try to avoid that dreaded list cause it makes em look VERY bad to their boss, so there is no escaping the system. Lowe's has an excellent customer service program, and the incentives/bonuses fer associates to give great customer service is outstandin to be honest. I dont really know iffin I can can go into details..bein its their "business" and all..but they have the potential for a PILE of money.
But, the associates are just..I dunno..some hold grudges, cause Lowe's will beat the "customer service and carin fer all things in general" out of ya..I will say that. They expect ALOT. However, it's the associates duty to the customer, not to Lowe's, to follow up on all orders and customers. Most associates caint seperate the 2.

[Dutchboy]

What drives me nuts is that these stores aren't hardware stores.

I can deal with the fact that you have to buy a box of nails, instead of the three pounds you need. But you can't buy fence clips at the fastener isle, you have to go buy a box two hundred yards down the store at the fence isle.

When Lowe's opened here, I walked in and asked them where the hardware cloth was. No one knew where it was. Or WHAT it was. But, I needed 12 x 4 ft of hardware cloth. Used to be, you would go in to the hardware section, and roll off however many feet of cloth you needed, paid for it, and that was that.

Now, I have 12 ft x 4 ft screens. Lowe's and Home depot have 3x25 or 4x8 (or something) rolls. Precut and wrapped. WTF am I going to do with half a screen? So, now I have to special order my hardware cloth, pay the Yellow Freight Theft rate, and end up storing 300ft of hardware cloth I might use up in four years.

Just PEACHY.

JMO, Dutch.

[Builder45]

There is a reason HD and Lowes are cheaper. I live in the town where Lowes was started and know some of the big wheels that run the company. Lowes is about selling home-improvement products just as is Home Depot. Lowes or Home Depot cannot afford to hire professionals to inform people about products. The simple solution is; Know what you need before you go and plan on waiting a while to get it.

As a contractor I see Lowes and Home Depot in a different light.
I use lowes for cabinet quotes inexpensive tile and lighting and appliances(because people can see what they have not just look at a book) for everything else I use specialty stores for plumbing and electrical fixtures,any kind of flooring products etc. Lowes and Home Depot were designed for the do-it-yourselfer nothing more nothing less. Lowes used to cater to the Contractor with trips and home packages and incentives but that was before my time and before Home and Garden Television.

[Lilred]

Builder, I aint goin on no Lowe's sellin spree here..but it seems to me it, again, all boils down to the people in them stores, cause iffin yer a contractor, and they aint takin care of you...then yer in the wrong store lol...

I do takeoffs fer house packages fer free, we guarentee next day delivery, and we give em discounts along w/ free delivery. And iffin you want real good deals on lightin & stuff...ask them folks in that store bout the contractor Leadco & Sylvania lightin programs. Contractors save 30% by gittin em through those programs..just a lil FYI fer ya. They should have a binder fer both, w/ prices.
And w/ both them programs, they'll drop ship to the jobsite fer free.

Again..it all boils down to the people. That sucks.
Iffin ya'll have a question bout stuff like that..just ask me. I'll tell ya what the deal is, and I'll even write ya down somethin to print out and take to the store w/ ya..so there aint no confusion fer the goober you got at yer store.

[jmarriott]

I bought a "Husky" tool bag at Home Depot today.

It was made in China, I looked at a "Kline" usa made toolbag that was just about the same thing but not as well made or a fit for what I carry for work on a daily basis. It was at a local Electronics tool store 72 dollars for the USA made one and 34.95 for the made in china which worked out better for me.

I felt bad about the China thing for a couple of minutes and bought it anyway. What the heck it was just a better toolbag design and let me replace the Kline 7/16 nutdriver i lost and walk away with half the cash i would have first laid out at the electronics supply store.

home depot Had a couple of things I liked about it in that they carried different brands than lowes and menards where i normally go to. Every thing looked like a lowes dressed in orange clothing. I most likely would have bought a ridgid Job box 2048 model but it had no price tag and after i track down someone to look it up 10 minutes later he had not come back.

[Id Elkoholic]

Im going to have to give Home Depo a thumbs down. When They first came to Idaho They were a lot more costomer frendly than they are now. This fall I bought a chest freezer from them. The first store I went to had the freezer I wanted with a sticker on it that said "In stock pick it up today". When I told them I wanted one they came back and said that they didn't have one. so i tried to negotiate on the display freezer. It had a dent on the lid and they woundn't take any $ off. So I drove across town to another store. Same freezer same sticker and none in stock. I went ahead and bought there Display. Then later this winter I decided to go ahead and buy two more of these freezers. I live in the back country of Idaho. It's a 25 mile ride on a snowmobile to where I park my pickup then its another 110 miles to the nearest Home depo. When I got there they didn't have any. But they looked on there computer and the store on the other side of town had one. when I got there they didn't any, so they called a store in the next town 25 miles away and they had two. I went there and bought them. I told the clerk that my truck bed was full of snow, and that i needed to borrow a shovel to clean it out in order to get the freezers in it. she walked me over to the new rental dep. and told them the story, the guy said to get my truck, bring it over, and he would rent me one. I smiled and said are you serious? then he explained that it was a company policy that they couldn't loan tools. So I got my truck drove over to the rental shop walked in grabbed a shovel and started to walk out with it. He told me he was serious about having to rent it. And I told him he could stick it up his ass. when I was done I returned the shovel,went into the store and complained to a manager about the situation. all he had to say about the situation was if you would have asked me I would have said to get a new one off of the shelf, buy it .then return it.Is that stupid or what?