OT- I'm tired of calling to make sure something is in stock, get there, and it isn't

scadvice · Jul 2, 2015

Example: I called Home Depot for some flexible insulated ducting, I ask them to please check stock visually, so I'm not wasting a trip and I need four six inch twenty-five footers. The guy supposedly goes and checks to see..."Yep, we have five of them" I tell him great, I'll be right down to get four of them.

Half hour later I'm there and there are only two in stock! I tell them " Come on, half hour ago, you said you had five of them?" the guy says, " guess we sold them". Nooo that is not what happened, because a department manager had been called and he checks the computer to see if any had sold between the time I was told and I got there...nope none were. Obviously he (the person I talked to on the phone) did not check, he just looked on the computer even though I asked he to physically check.

They are not the only place this has happened . In the last few months this same thing has occurred at a number of places. Computers are a great thing, but come on…

I'm also fed up with stores moving things around every month or so causing you to have to spend more time and hunt for things.

:mad5:

Chip Chester · Jul 2, 2015

HDs around here have reserved parking places for picking up purchases made online. (I assume they gather it up for you, and let you know it's ready -- otherwise what would be the point?) Maybe give that a try next time... if there is one.

Chip

scadvice · Jul 2, 2015

Chip Chester said:
HDs around here have reserved parking places for picking up purchases made online. (I assume they gather it up for you, and let you know it's ready -- otherwise what would be the point?) Maybe give that a try next time... if there is one.

Chip

Yes, they do, However here if it isn't in stock you seem for some reason only to find out when you show up there. Even when they tell you the time to pickup. I was told the items were on the computer but 'missing'...i'm guessing there was no physical check as I asked for.

I'm not just picking on HD but all of these places I had the same issue with Lowes the week before.

Tony Quiring · Jul 2, 2015

Have had this happen way too many times as they look in computer and computer includes bad returns or displays or who knows what.

I always ask to have someone touch whatever it is with their fingers and if I am traveling I ask them to put my name on them in kidding.

Most of the time they come back with sorry we cannot find it and do not know what computer is taking.

Insist on TOUCHING it.

Fabworks · Jul 2, 2015

Don't get me started on trying to buy stuff at Home Depot. :angry:

Bill D · Jul 3, 2015

Lowes used to have Guarantee that if the item was not in stock when you got there you had a guarantee , but they never said what that guarantee might be.
Just tonite I checked Lowes online their website no longer tells if a item is in stock or not. So I went ahead and ordered it for pickup. Got to the store and the desk says the system should have called you we checked and the system says they have four in stock but they found none on the shelf. So my credit card should be refunded. I went to the plumbing department and picked up the missing toilet fill valve, paid and left.
Several years ago I wanted one inch pex tube. They never had any in stock so I order it online when computer said it was in. I knew it was not on the shelf that morning. Went down to pick it up and they apologized. I told them to deliver it to me for free the next day. They did in a empty a semitruck to my house.
Bil lD.

Bill D · Jul 3, 2015

What bugs me is their web sites are not searchable. As you add more descriptors results should decrease, instead they increase. If you add a minus term all results will have that term instead of blocking it.
Bil lD.

EPAIII · Jul 3, 2015

McMaster-Carr

rcoope · Jul 3, 2015

EPAIII said:
McMaster-Carr

Exactly, once you shop McMaster, everything else is too disappointing to bother with. Even if it means your house and clothing slowly fall apart.

Here's a story. I got a call from McMaster because they had noted we'd bought a foot of some tubing and then bought ten feet or something the next day. This was one of my staff and was because he got tricked by an ambiguity in the quantity where you can have a different number of parts or you can specify the length, so you can think you're buying 1 six foot piece but if you don't select the length properly you're actually buying 1 foot total. Anyway, they'd realized this was happening often (because they can actually analyze sales activity in detail I guess) so a very bright software guy actually phoned us and presumably others to walk through the issue and they're going to change the website so you can't make this mistake so easily. How the pros do it.

Here's another story. I'm in electrical at Home Depot. I ask a staff member, "do you have unistrut"? I was sure they did. He said no. I wandered around to the next aisle and found the unistrut. Then I saw the guy and said, "hey come over here let me show you the unistut". He'd actually never encountered it. So I proceeded to deliver one of my long winded lectures on the uses of unistrut, complete with extraneous detail about big genomic laboratory projects which peripherally involved unitstut. Poor guy.

Winterfalke · Jul 3, 2015

One issue I have run into is locating product that they actually do have, but have moved. I went into HD to pick up a couple of specialty LED bulbs that I knew they had in stock. The web site said they had 17, the front desk said they had 17, and the corporate inventory management handheld thingey said they had 17. Nowhere in any of the lighting section or the overhead lighting section or the lighting accessories section or the ceiling fan section or the outdoor lighting section or the commercial lighting section or the electrical hardware section (all of which had LED bulb displays of the appropriate brand) could we find the one I was looking for. Finally we managed to track down an end cap on the other end of the store with the bulbs, in a home automation display. I let it be known to the customer service area in general that whomever had relegated the entire stock of bulbs to the single end cap display on the wrong side of the store and not told anyone needed to be fired before someone got ahold of them.

Chip Chester · Jul 3, 2015

rcoope,
I wonder if he would have known where the Super Strut was... because that's what they carry. Probably not, though.

And yeah, if they don't actually call you when order is complete, or if there is a shortage, then online order/pickup is worthless... except the parking places are pretty good.

Chip

crossthread · Jul 3, 2015

I actually do quite a bit of shopping at Home Depot because it is fairly close, they let me take my dog in with me and I get a military discount. I think Lowes has a slightly better selection at least in some categories. In any of those stores you can spend a lot of time wandering around trying to find where they stock the widgets. I would like to see them put a touch screen locator terminal at the front of the store. It could be graphical for when English is not your first language. They know where they put the stuff so if that data was entered in you could find your widget on the terminal,it would at least tell you what isle to look in. The checkout people already have a terminal that shows them a picture of everything they stock for looking up products that are missing the bar code. They would only need to add the location to that database. Maybe they want you to wander around so you will find something else that catches your eye. Oh well. Wishful thinking.

GregSY · Jul 3, 2015

I love it when people bring their dogs into businesses.

As for lazy and otherwise useless store employees, I always ask for their name. That way they take some ownership of what they tell you. When I show up and the item is not there I find their ass and they are accountable at least as far as the bitching goes.

macgyver · Jul 3, 2015

Thankfully I am only across a small town from our HD, but I have very low expectations on finding anything there. I truly believe that I know where their stuff is better than some of the staff. I will admit that I have been pleasantly surprised by a couple day shift guys and gals, but only having 3 out of 50 employees that seem to earn their pay is sad.
They typically get my business because they are open late vs the real stores in town close at 5 or earlier, so I never make it back to town from my shop in time to shop there unless I absolutely have to.

I have also found that calling them is a waste of time.

Now sure if there is any fix, so like I said I just don't expect anything from them so I have only been disappointed a few times.

scadvice · Jul 3, 2015

I miss the Mom and Pop HW stores, they didn't have as much stock, but at least you could call them find if they had it, and they would set it a aside for you.

Not getting the guys name was my mistake. But being sarcastic, I bet they would have said they had no one by the that name working there!

Not to continue to knock HD (well maybe) I have, a number of times, gone in to pick up items they 'use' to carry. That's the operative word 'use' supposedly when not enough of an item is sold they drop it. Even if that item is an intricate part of something else needed to complete the use of those parts. Very frustrating.

JS · Jul 3, 2015

On mom & pop stores, I actually went in and ordered a new window screen. I told them I'ld be in town all week and would be in Friday to pick it up...well Friday came and the excuse was the screen guy does xyz here and didn't have time to make screens. This is all during spring when it's just starting to get hot enough for a swamp cooler...
HD screen kit $15 or so. A phone call 3 years later from mom & pop store saying my screen was done priceless......

Yan Wo · Jul 3, 2015

i have repeatedly encountered each of the following scenarios when asking for a stock check:

1) They say they have it and they do.
2) They say they have it and they don't.
3) They say they don't have it and they do.
4) They say they don't have it and they don't.

Conclusion: Don't bother to call.

Edster · Jul 3, 2015

Stop wasting time at Home Depot and Lowes. Go to a real plumbing supply store. Around here thats Crawford supply. You will talk to someone that knows more about the product than you. They carry good brands like Zoller sump pumps, not Wayne garbage that Lowes sells. You aren't going to get a made for Lowes price point faucet that's a complete piece of junk either.

I bought a nice Shop Vac from Home Depot. Took it to Berlands house of tools to get it fixed and they couldn't figure out the part number because it was a made special for Home Depot cheapie.

Our Local electrical supplier is evergreen oak. Walk in to the will call counter with a list and they come back in a few minutes with what you need. they have most everything a shop will need including large wire and three phase breakers. Try finding a three phase breaker at lowes or home depot.

One of our neighbors is an electrician that we've used for a few jobs. If I need something I can send him an email and he brings it to the shop.

There's a lot more options than home depot and lowes, you just need to get out there and find them.

dkmc · Jul 3, 2015

Let me ask, when you go to any of those stores, and ask an "ASSociate"
for help....
Do you EVER get a sense of "Einstein" from ANY of them?
Do you ever get any sense of "Eagerness" or "Knowledgeable" or "Give a Shit"
from most of them?
And then you are calling on the phone, you're not even there in their face, and you expect them to -walk- some distance and exert themselves for you.....a voice on the phone...
HA!
Foolishness....

I gave up calling ANY box store like 20 years ago.
Try calling Walmart sometime....as a simple question about something being
in stock.....just for giggles.
I GO there and look myself, whole lot less aggravation.

gwilson · Jul 4, 2015

Lowes lets us take our dogs in,even though their door says "No Dogs". All they do is say how cute they are and want to pet them. HD does not. They get MUCH less of our business.

The local Farm Fresh completely re arranged their store,and it is a royal PITA trying to find anything. Some marketing shit probably thought it was a good idea,I guess. Or else,it's because they get to re charge venders for the new shelf space when they do it. I don't know. But,I buy LESS because I get tired of trying to find the damned stuff.

It took them 2 months to get finished with this move,and finally get the overhead signs correct. What a huge PITA!!!! Don't they know they just piss of their customers doing that? I met so many other shoppers complaining about it.

OT- I'm tired of calling to make sure something is in stock, get there, and it isn't

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