The Home Depot Sucks

Originally posted on xanga.

The Home Depot sucks. If you read this and you work for The Home Depot, I am sure you're not the sucky person and that its your colleague.

I ran out of propane for my BBQ Grill and wanted to exchange mine for a filled tank. I decided to goto The Home Depot (HD) because it seemed the most convenient and was sorta on the way. Man, did I make a mistake.

Instructions are:
1. Leave empty tank (by the cages that are locked and contain both empty and full tanks)
2. Go inside and pay for tank (in my case, an exchange)
3. Come back outside and get full tank

Pretty easy, just 3 steps. I head back to my car and bring the empty tank and leave it by the cages. I make my way inside to go pay for the exchange. On my way to the cash register, I past about 4 or 5 employees. People that are wearing those orange vest and have name tags. I smile, but do not get smiles in return. Instead, I get stares of "what are you looking at" in return. No sweat, I am not here to make friends, just want my propane so I can go home and BBQ for my family.

I get to the cash register(s) area. There's 4-6 self checkout stalls. All full. There's 2 "full" service cash registers open. 1 that's right next to the exit, the propane cages and what seemed like the most convenient. The other one is on the other side of the store in the contractors area. So, roughly 50-75 feet away.

I get in line that's the closest to me and want seemed like the most convenient. 2 parties are ahead of me. The party right ahead of me is (I am guessing here) a mom and daughter pair, not asian. During the checkout process, the mom is chatting it up with cashier that's in his early 20s. It almost seems like flirting. As the mom and cashier are talking it up, a lady that's suppose to change the cash register drawer appears. Its my turn at the line. I have no items as I am going to let the cashier know that I am doing a propane exchange. The lady says to me that they'll help me shortly. Just my luck. I have to wait a couple of minutes for them. No sweat, I am not in a rush. No big deal.

The cash drawer lady finishes her thing and calls the cashier back to begin again. As the cashier is walking back to the cash register, he's on the phone and 2 guys are following him. I tell the cashier that I am paying for propane. Cashier tells me to hold on. Does a bunch of stuff on the register. The 2 guys that followed him are now interacting with him. I am not exactly sure what's going on. I just want to pay for my stuff and leave. I've been waiting in line for a long time. The cashier starts swiping the items of the person behind me!

What in tarnations is going on?! I ask the lady behind me if the cashier skipped me. She doesn't know. I than ask the cashier if he skipped me. I get a "huh?". I asked again a bit more firmly, "Did you skip me?" I get another "huh?" I must be speaking a foreign language! I asked a third time, irritated now, "Did you skip me?!" The cashier now starts to pay attention and says, "Oh, you're not with them?" (referring to the 2 guys that came during the cash drawer exchange).

I look at the 2 guys. They are asian. I look at the the lady behind me, she's asian. The cashier is not asian. Completely irritated, I respond, "Not all asians are togther". The cashier gets really polite and starts on my transaction and calls over the speakers to have someone goto the propane cages for an exchange.

Cashier transaction finished. I goto the cages. I look at the time on my cell phone to see how long I have to wait. 3 minutes go by, no one shows up. 5 minutes now. I don't want to go back inside to deal with anyone. 7 minutes! I am conflicted! I don't want to go back in. Finally, at 9 minutes, an employee of The Home Depot is bringing some carts back and sees me. That guy asked if I need a tank. I say yes, present my receipt, and get my full tank.

So, that speaker call was USELESS! If that cart guy had not showed up, I would have had to go back in to ask for assistance!

I am on the verge of NEVER going back to The Home Depot. I've had good experiences with other ones. Maybe it was that location. During my bathroom remodel 2 years ago, I was at The Home Depot and Lowe's like 3-4 times a week for 2 months. I don't recall service being even remotely as bad as today.

But in any case, the people there are not friendly and the service sucked for the most part. I am not going back to that HD location if I can help it for the rest of my life.