Lowes rant
 

So, Lowes is doing Stubbs 15# bags of charcoal for $4.25/bag, which is half off. After getting some quick research on charcoal for my WSM, it seems that Kingsford isn't in good favor with many because of the chemicals/fillers used compared to an all natural charcoal like the Stubbs.

Anyway, here is their 20 minute pick up guarantee word for word(exclusions not copied because none of them applied):

With our exclusive 20-Minute Pick Up In Store Guarantee*, you can get what you need, when you need it. Always free, and always fast.

Simply place an order on Lowes.com and select "Pick Up In Store - Free" as your shipping option, and your order will be ready at the store in 20 minutes. Guaranteed*.

I place the order this morning and get a confirmation at 10:30 am that my order for 20 bags of charcoal will be ready for pick up in 20 minutes. I arrive at the store at 7:30 pm (yes, 9 full hours later) and present my pick up confirmation and it hadn't even been pulled. They had to find the d-bag to find the 20 bags (as there weren't that many on the floor) and get it down from 4 rows up on the selves still on a pallet. Then they had to go off to the parking lot to find a cart to put it on.

The Lowe's "20 minute guarantee" is only a guarantee that you'll wait another 20+ minutes for them to actually retrieve your order once you arrive and not a minute sooner. Sadly, there's no meat to to hold them to it in their guarantee like it's free or anything.

:sl:sl:sl

Dumbasses anyway...
[/rant]

Re: Lowes rant
 

I worked at a Lowes several years ago, sadly I think I was the most intelligent person there. That speaks VOLUMES about how stupid of people work there.

Seriously I could rant for hours about how dumb these people were.

Your experience is nothing surprising to me, sorry to hear that happened though.

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Home Depot FTW

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20 bags? That's what I'm talking about. You'll be smoking a while on that, bro!

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Dang I missed it. Not on sale in Raleigh.

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So what else did you buy while you were waiting?

I can't seem to get out of a big box without some "extras".

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I shop at lowes over HD. I usually use a harbor freight, or osh, coupon for %20 off or $20 off $50. Never had a problem, unlike at HD.

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Yep,that's a butt load of bags.
Knowing I was getting 50% off on that many bags,they'd have to take a hell of a lot longer than 20 minutes to piss me off :noon

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:tpd:

I buy 240#-320# of KF at Home Depot every Labor Day and then again at every Memorial Day when they have it for 50% off, and I'm more than happy to do all my own lifting, lugging and standing in line for those prices.

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It's pretty easy to make me mad, but even I am with Dave on this one.

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I just can't get upset over things like that. There is obviously a flaw in the system but it's not necessarily the fault of the folks working there. I spent a lot of years in retail and restaurant management and got to know many good people living at the poverty level or below. I would have spent that 20 minutes getting to know some of the people that were working and giving them that little bit of kindness that everybody needs. BTW: Being nice to people in stores and restaurants pays off. They remember you and will go out of their way to help you next time they see you.


MCS

Re: Lowes rant
 

Consider yourself fortunate... its full price at my Lowes :2

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I won't shop at Lowes anymore for similar reasons...I purchased a stove from them with free next day home delivery, but apparently I didn't see in the terms at there convience and I went with out a stove for 5 days...I'm now a Home Depot guy

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Brother IMHO this is probably the best post I have seen anywhere in a long time, Good on you! :tu

Re: Lowes rant
 

I work at Lowe's....;s

If your order isn't ready in the alloted time, I think you are supposed to get a discout on the order or something like that.

Customer Care line is:
1-800-44lowes

I'd suggest giving them a call, then they get the store management to call you and kiss-ass....
Raising sand will get you far with them... like I said, they are Kiss-asses when that number gets called.


Thats partly the salesperson's fault & your fault.
They have special order displays on the sales floor. There is a green sign that says "Available in X Days"... But they should have told you that at the time of purchase. Like I said before, call the customer care line!

Re: Lowes rant
 

I have had issues with both stores. I go with the best deal. It may be HD one day than Lowes the next.

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:tpd:

They are across the street from each other, here.

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I Prefer Lowe's. Seems Like They Have Better Quality & I Have Never Had A Problem Returning An Item.:tu

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So I ordered a special order door this past fall from Lowes. It was an inside door, and i planned on it taking a little over a month. When i got it, i was told that it would be in by a certain date. A couple days went by after that date and I called just to see what the status was, they told me that it wasn't supposed to be in until the two weeks later. Ok, not a huge deal. So that date came and went, I called on a Friday, was told it was in the warehouse. I said "great, I'll pick it up tomorrow" Was told that the warehouse was in CT (I'm on the NH/MA line) and the truck didn't go to the warehouse on weekends. So now I was a little upset. Asked to talk to a manager to see what I could do because I had someone coming that weekend to put it in. 4 days later the manager called and told me that the door was never in the warehouse, it was still at the manufacturer's!!! I asked why i was told that it was in the warehouse and he told me that he didn't know. I asked if there was a message to call me that weekend, there was not. Anyway, it was going to be another 3-4 weeks now and I did talk him into a discount for every week it was late.
It comes in, my father-in-law and I spent and entire day trying to get it in (we are both pretty handy around the house) and finally gave up. Got a friend who's a contractor to come over, he had the same problem. After much sratching of the head, we found out that the door, with glass window was warped and because of that couldn't close. By this time i had already chopped the bottom off because I was going to do that anyway because I don't have clearance in the ceiling so I couldn't return it.
Sent an e-mail to complain and let them know that I wasn't happy. Got a call and was told they are going to have a meeting with the store about the poor service and how to give me the best information next time and he was going to call the manufacturer.
So after 2+months of waiting, i have a warped door that I then had to sand the corners down so it would shut.

Now saying that, I also have bad things to say about HD as well!!!
So the moral of the story........ Shop at your local mom and pop lumbar/hardware store. They usually have everything that you need and the knowledge that you need about any project that you have as well.

Re: Lowes rant
 

To me, if you're going to have a "it's ready in 20 minutes guarantee" and it's not ready when you come in 9 full hours later, we have a problem. I was already stressed out enough as I was just taking what I thought would be a short break from studying and I thought I'd be back in time for my son's bedtime routine, but he was already asleep when I got home.

Did I get a good deal? Yes...I'm happy with that. I'm just not happy that someone advertises something and completely fails to deliver it. Would I have been upset to show up 20 minutes after the confirmation and they had at least been in the process of getting it down? No. The upsetting part was that over the course of 9 hours, nobody even knew about the order and had to search all of the rows to even find it on the 4th row.

In the meantime, I did just get a response from the store from my submission to the store about my experience and he's offering me a $25 gift card for their mistake. :tu

Re: Lowes rant
 

Wow!
:hn
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Re: Lowes rant
 

:tpd:

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Between the choices of "sharp stick in the eye" and "shop at Home Depot", I'd take the stick.
Thing is, they're both whores. Lowe's is my whore, and I know how to get around her. With Lowe's, I have talked to all the folks who work there, and know what's in their power and what's not. I know what the manager can and can't do. I've got a good idea how the top end of their stupid-meter ticks, and they have very little power to help a brother out, too.
So I know a few things...
1.) If it ain't on the shelf, it's very highly likely it will never, ever be seen again.
2.) If it ain't in the store, don't buy it.
3.) In the name of all that is good and holy, NEVER accept "it'll be here in two weeks." They have nothing to lose by saying that, there's no consequence on their end. It seldom if ever shows up within a month, and oftimes, never.
4.) When you take something off the shelf, call for two guys to take it out of the box and inspect it. If they are dicks about it, tell them to leave and go get two new people explaining that the other's attitudes are unacceptible.
5.) Expect everything to be wrong, broken, missing parts, or completely unusable. Make sure there are 3 backups on the shelf so you can get what you need.
6.) Don't expect them to ever get any better, it'll save your blood pressure.

On the upside, there are tons of things they can and will do for you.
They'll load your car, push your cart through the store, personal shop for you, lift stuff, move stuff, cut stuff, look for stuff, and go to the other end of the store to fetch you something.

Fleshed out, I absolutely love their human services, and I use them. I'm not shy. It makes for an awesome experience, and that's what I'm paying for anyways. Where else can you get one or two personal employees to go shopping with you for an hour or two? Then imagine how happy you just made those two guys by getting them out of work.
Just like Home Depot, you can't use their corporate usefulness to so much as wipe your ass. They suck. But if I stay within my bounds, I can get lots of help at Lowes.
At Home Depot, I got nothin except three fat old guys leaning on the lawnmowers.

Re: Lowes rant
 

Duane, expect the same thing next time. The word guarantee was just contrived to get you in the door. Call ahead next time, then call again to make sure the order has really been picked, and make someone go physically touch it.

You done good on the card. Real good. Take it and run!!!

Re: Lowes rant
 

Lack
Of
Well
Educated
Staff

Went to Home Depot Friday evening to find two 3 inch metric bolts for my mailbox. The store was empty with maybe >10 customers inside. Looked for the bolts myself but their nuts and bolts section was not easy to read as far as what was standard and what was metric. I asked for help from a nearby employee. She called Eric who was the specialist in hardware and said he would be there in a minute. I waited 15 minutes and finally started getting impatient. Finally had two guys come over that worked there, neither of them was Eric, and they couldn't understand how the nuts and bolts were setup. After a good 30-45 minutes I walked off to go and find my wife who was looking at something else. Walking back we passed a guy and I asked if he was Eric and he said yes. I told him I waited in the hardware section for a half hour and he was a no show. He just gave me a dumb look like I wasn't going to be his friend on FB anymore. Damn near an hour later I got my two bolts in standard and not metric. I made them work by cross threading the he!! out of the threaded post.

Re: Lowes rant
 

Funny thing, I've never had an issue with either store down here, but in this part of Louisiana the local business gives big corporate stores a serious run for the money. Albertsons (big grocer chain similar to Winn Dixie, Kroger, Super1, Meijer, and the like for those of you who aren't familiar) can barely keep a store open here because the local family owned grocers have most of the business.

I find that when I go to Lowes/HD, I already know the SKU of what I want, and if the website says it is in stock or not. I just have an employee look up the SKU and tell me if it's in the store inventory, and if so what bin (generic term for row/shelf/aisle location) is the item located in.

But then, I tend to do all my shopping by going in ahead of time with SKU's and prices already figured out. Prevents me from picking up "extras" as someone put it :)

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I like the way Lowe's mixes their paint. They mix their paint real good.


MCS

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Cuban paint is better.

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That's because they don't skimp on the lead. :=:

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:td

Thats pretty rough... Im college educated and probably know more about home improvement than most the contractors/homeowners that walk in the door!

But I do work with some A-Class morons at Lowe's who couldn't poor piss out of a boot with instructions on the bottom of the boot.

It seems like the people who have been at Lowe's for 5 or more years are knowledgable people. I have been there 9+ years. Alot of the newhires are idiots, some aren't. :sh

Re: Lowes rant
 

Hey, you can now go to Dunkin Donuts for Cubans.

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And one day, you will be able to go to Cuba for Dunkin Donuts

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I will call ahead next time for sure. At least they owned up to it and responded.

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I hear you. I've noticed more old people working there lately like they are hiring cheap labor. I still prefer Lowers over HD anyday.

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I have a Lowes about 5 minutes from my house and I gotta say that I love it. I especially like their Cobalt line of hand tools.

Re: Lowes rant
 

Well, at the end of the day, can OP agree Lowe's doesn't suck after all?

He got the items at an incredible price, that would likely not be matched, all for a relatively short wait.
On top of that, a gift card for his wait.

Life's good!

Re: Lowes rant
 

Lowes Rules! :wnr

So... I'm guessing you weren't an English major... ;)
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Are snide comments like this really necessary? (Yes. I see the winking smiley. Smilies don't absolve people from common courtesy. :2)
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Re: Lowes rant
 

I didn't go to Lowe's yet today, and I'm gettin' the shakes. They're running out of stuff for me to buy, though. I need a Lowe's Plus.

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I do love walking into Lowes.... so much stuff there to make a guy happy. I walk in for a caulk gun and walk out with a new grill.....and no caulk gun.

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It seems I've been at sears a lot lately. MADE IN USA

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To me your Lowes Rant pretty much represents various aspects of service at all of the major Big Box Stores. Unfortunately though they are about all we got left to shop at so we just learn to deal with it. You just have to go in the door after educating yourself on what you need then find it and check out with no other expectations. Then if you stumble on a pleasant experience enjoy the moment but don't go back expecting it again. :2

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I mostly shop at HD, to me HD is better set up for contractors and Lowes is geared more to the home owner.
Every time I go to Lowes I have to ogle over a new Husqvrna chainsaw, a brand I can't get a HD,and when the wife is with me she reminds me I'm not there for a chainsaw :sh:D