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Posted by: Shawn on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 01:16 PM
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 | Home Depot Customer Service hurts Family of Six
What has happened to customer service? When did corporate leaders decide to throw out the training and educating of employees “How to treat and retain a customer?”
We have been Home Depot customers since we purchased our first home in 1999. My wife and I have purchased the majority of our home items their.
Purchases exceeding $15,000.00 probably closer to $20,000.00 over the years, what kind of service can you expect for being a loyal customer?
We are a middle class family with four kids. We have a Home Depot credit card and we love to take advantage of their offers “Zero interest and Zero payments” for 1 year terms that they offer every once in awhile.
Our most recent purchase was a new LG Refrigerator. We purchased it 1-15-2007 paying $1432.55. We put $900.00 on our Home Depot credit card and paid the remaining balance by debit card. We also paid $55.00 for delivery and haul away of our old unit. We have a printed delivery receipt stating our delivery would be 1-18-2007 and we will receive a phone call the evening prior to our delivery appointment to confirm a time frame the following day.
We received our phone call the evening of the 17th as promised stating they would arrive with our new appliance between 2:30pm and 6:30pm the following day; also we would receive a phone call 30 minutes prior to arrival.
To this point Home Depot followed through with their promise of our purchase. After working a half day, I came home and cleared out the refrigerator of the non essentials, pops etc. At to 3:30pm we cleared out everything in the unit, unplugged it and moved it out of the kitchen close to the door for them to haul away.
This is when our experience gets bad. We received a phone call at 5:20 pm stating that the delivery truck is backed up by over three hours and they would not be delivering our unit today. When asked about when they would deliver it, they stated we would have to reschedule with Home Depot”
Trying to keep a good attitude and knowing that you can’t accomplish much by getting angry, we called Home Depot. We spoke to “My” at the service desk and were told very rudely that we had only two options. Cancel our order or transfer to another person who could reschedule for another day.
How could this be possible? This is not a dryer or washer we were waiting for this is the unit that stores food for a family of six and keeps it cold. Our old unit was already turned off for hours and was warm and our food needed to get out of the colder garage and into the refrigerator.
Not satisfied with our options, we asked to speak with a manager. We got the not so delightful “Mike Newman” a manager of the Everett store # 4713 on the phone. This man has studied customer service and retention and has mastered the art of “who cares”.
Mike gave us the same options, with not a lick of empathy in his voice for our desperate situation; Mike told me, we could cancel our order or reschedule it. Frustrated with this mans lack of concern, I asked Mike who we could write a letter to about this experience. He stated well “Me, or I guess the store manager Melanie Macisaac”.
Not giving an ounce of concern to look into our situation; Mike quickly transferred us to a sales person in appliances to get rid of us. This is where we got our original sales person on the phone.
Passed on to somebody that could do nothing to help us except tell us we would have to reschedule and unfortunately the news gets even worse. We would not receive the new unit the next day since the schedule was full, “Amazing”.
This sales person stated he would call us at 9:00 am when he gets into work and let us know what day could be rescheduled.
Well “Mike Newman” from Home Depot Store # 4713 in Everett, Washington. You succeeded in getting rid of us from bothering you with our desperate situation. Home Depot has seen the last purchase from us and will never see our business again.
The drive to Home Depot is about 12 miles round trip for us, when a Lowe’s was built closer to our home 3 miles away we remained loyal customers to Home Depot. Lowe’s you have just gained another customer. Since most people live in their home for 5-7 years then move on to a bigger or better home. Look for that next $15,000-$20,000.00 to go to Lowe’s.
I have been told that a good experience with a company can impact a few people when told but we shall see how many people will hear about our bad experience with Home Depot.
Our theory is this, they realize that we take them up on their offer for “Zero Interest and Zero Payments” for 1 year and we always pay the bill off prior to the 1 year ending for several years now avoiding the large interest payment that would apply, basically free money for 1 year, would they not provide the product for awhile because of this? Just a theory, I guess we shall see how long it takes them to follow through with their end of our purchase.
David- Everett, Washington
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