I Don’t Hate Home Depot Anymore
July 11th, 2008. Filed under: Finance & Fitness Fridays.
Hate is actually too strong a word to use for the feelings I’ve had towards Home Depot, but I’ve had no reason to not have an active dislike for them. The attitude at Home Depot should be that of wanting to assist the customer by providing expertise and knowledge of what is needed to complete the DIY project. With that type of caring and attitude, these employees would produce happy customers, thereby, ensuring the person’s return to purchase all the goodies needed for all future projects. I’ve been less than enchanted by the general attitude and ineptitude that I encountered since purchasing my money pit last summer.
I told you about my little bathroom geyser last week. This is the rest of the story. Handyman Joe picked up the vanity and drop in sink and counter top on Friday and put it in on Monday. He hit a snag not too far into the job. My faucets wouldn’t work with the sink. It was either return the counter top/sink and exchange it or buy new faucets. New faucets sounded easier than the exchange, so I went for the faucets while Joe kept on with the job. It was a little enough problem considering that every job the money pit has needed so far turned into more of a problem than initially thought. We were sure the floor under the old cabinet was ready to cave in or something. The floor was in good shape, so needing faucets was no big deal. Except that when I asked the guys in the bathroom goodies department last week, they said, “Don’t worry. Your faucets will fit.”
I could either whine and get upset or go in and pitch a hissy fit. If you don’t know what that is, ask your grandmother. She’ll know. She’s probably pitched a few in her life. What I chose to do was go to the service counter, explain the situation and ask if they could put it on the 12 month, no interest plan with my purchases from last week. The qualifier for that plan is to purchase something $299 or more and put it on your Home Depot card. Now I want nice faucets since I plan to be looking at these things the rest of my life, but $299? Get real. Besides, they were for my bathroom and not Consumer Man’s. Don’t say anything. I already used up most of my day’s allotment of nice at Home Depot. But nice faucets don’t mean I’m about to pay anything near $299.
Dawn and Debra in the service department came through for me. They called the credit card people, explained that I had been misinformed when I made last week’s purchase and now needed to purchase additional supplies. Now I have an amount below $299 and so far above $100 that I don’t want to think about it added to my 12 month, no interest charge from last week. I’m busy trying to dig myself out of debt and the money pit is trying to suck me farther into it. That’s why I won’t charge anything without the no interest clause. And I pay it off well ahead of time so that nothing odd happens at the end of the time frame. It’s worked so far with all the things I’ve had to buy from Home Depot and for the central air conditioner.
This story has a moral. Be nice and ask politely. Sometimes it helps, but it never hurts to try.
Home Depot, I don’t hate you anymore, but I’m still not in love with you. I surely do like you a lot more though.