Like I'd even need to post "Rant" for you to know what follows.....


There are so many reasons I hate this place with a passion. But it mainly has to do with the dimwitted service you get(WHEN YOU CAN FIND ONE OF THOSE ORANGE APRON'D ANUSES TO TALK TO AND DOESN"T TELL YOU "I DON'T WORK IN THIS SECTION BUT I'LL GET SOMEONE WHO DOES[red]The biggest F*KING lie I hear with stunning regularity at the HD[/red]!)

My in-ground sprinkler pipe burst over the winter so I bring in the broken part to buy identical pieces and fix it. Not finding what I'm looking for I ask for help. They first guy says he'll help me in a minute, promptly gets on the aisle phone, carries a six minute personal conversation with his girlfriend (or boyfriend), hangs up and then walks away. I say excuse me, no response, falls on deaf ears, so I yell, "EXCUSE ME! You were gonna help me with this pipe?" He looks up at a guy on a HiLo and says "This isn't my section, he'll help you."

They guy on the HiLo eventually comes down, I tell him what I'm looking for and he tells me "They don't make that." I promptly raise my right hand(seriously considering braining him with the two foot section of PVC pipe in my hand) but I settle for just showing him that they actually do make such a part and I actually have a real live one right here in front of him. He can't seem to find the equivalent part so he proceeds to show me how I can make a similarily functioning piece. He then creates a "Frankenpipe" that would be utterly useless to me and cause more problems than it's worth.

I leave HD and go to a local Lawn/Sprinkler store and buy the needed(correct) parts and am happy.


I go in looking for 4(FOUR) 6x6 CCA ties to build a shed base with. (i.e. spike them together and fill the resulting box with gravel.) All they have is 6x6x8 foot ones. So I find an employee (who stunningly enough works in the lumber section) and ask him if they have 6x6x10' ties, explain the project(a simple 4 tie job)and await to be directed to the proper shelf. Well, they carry 4x4x8, 4x4x10 and 4x4x12 but no 6x6x10. He tells me I could special order them for you, but there would be a minimum # for the order. I ask him how many, he says "150."

You could have just sad you didn't have them.

I ain't done yet! Here's the worst part!!!!


I go there the other night to buy fence posts and wire fence to pen in my chickens which have free reign in my yard.

I'm buying the green 5' "U" posts. They're steel and weigh about 7 or 8 pounds a piece and come in bundles of 5. I go to the elevated shelf and pull off one bundle, four loose posts slide down off the shelf into my upper left thigh. Tearing my shorts from my hip to my thigh, scratching my upper thigh, lacerating my shin and "grazing" my left nut! I think somethimes I'd rather be hit in the nut than suffer the "graze." Cuz you know the pain is there when you're hit, but the "graze" pain comes in a gradually rising cresendo of pain that grows worse as you limp your way to the customer service desk. They make a phony little fuss and offer to pay for my shorts.


Beside the overall shitty level of service, running the "Mom and Pop" hardware stores out of business, the shoddy quality of the lumber and products they push, they place just BLOWS.


[size=6]F**K HOME DEPOT[/size=6]

Don't you mean...

[center][size=5]Hell Depot[/size=5][/center]

Seriously, agree whole heartedly. I darkened that place twice.

Loved Payless Cashways, had everything. Real lumber yard, parts and stuff and more parts and stuff... they are no more in my area. sigh...

Then I found Home Base. Home Base went out of business (sh!t). Nice people, didn't BS you. If they didn't have it, didn't even recommend Frank'n stuff. They would even get out the phone book and help locate a place that had the real parts. Nice.

I have tried Lowes, cleaner and brighter. But have only been there once, so can't say much, yet.

I have kinda given up on home improvment lately, and my place is starting to show. Half-way painted interior. Mix-matched carpet, tile. Yard with a semi-dead tree. A lawn that desperatelies need a sprinkler system.

But I do have a nice new roof!!! (paid someone to put that up). And a couple year old paint job that still looks good (I did that, love airless sprayers).

You should hear their shit about "Bleeding Orange,"  which is Home-Depot-Speak about how EVERYONE who works there is so into their job and utterly competent in what they do.

Yeah right.

I only go to home despot if I know what I am looking for and don't need any assistance.

Orchard Supply Hardware tries to hire people who are knowledgeable and want to help you. The only down side is that they use richard karn (Al from Home Improvement) who is anti-gun.

There is always Ace Hardware, but they are using rosie for advertising now. Haha.

sherm,
I work at a Orchard Supply, and while it doesn't have everything, it does a thing called "home repair." Home Depot, on the other hand, is what is known as "new construction."
So, for repair, go to a hardware store. Add a room, go to a Home Depot.

[left]This is what happens when big money asswipes make a big chain store's out of something i think should be very local! I hate these store's not only they put smaller guys out of business you remember before everything became a big chain store like walmart. id go to my nearest lumber yard check on prices. this happen to me at best-buy over a computer these teenage dicks about got there nose busted i asked them about this and that computer but walked off on me.[/left]

You can always go to Ace Hardware and support Rosie O'Fatass [:|]

I can't begin to count the number of times I've stalked out of Home Despot or Lowes Blowes without what I came to buy.

I'd love to spend money at the local hardware store, if they just have some better hours.  I ask you, when do you have time to work on the house? Nights and weekends, right?  The Ace hardware store, which is only 6 blocks away, closes at 6 pm M-S and is closed on Sunday.  If you can't buy what you need on Saturday morning, forget it.  These local shops are there own worst enemy.

Lowe's makes me appreciate Home Depot, but if it is a small job, I will go to Ace, because I usually need to ask questions too, and they are better with that.

Yeah I agree with all that!
Almost as bad as the droids at RatShack while shopping for electronic supplies. I usually reserve my trips to Hell Depot for MAPP torch supplies!
TF

I stopped shopping at HD when they began supporting Homo organizations.

Eddie

Two years ago I was going to make a scrapbooking center for my wife. Real fancy. I needed two sheets of oak plywood, stain, hardware. She got excited after I designed it and wanted to go late at night to get the stuff.
Off to HD world. We picked out everything, and needed the plywood rough cut to get it home.
We were ignored like there was no tomorrow. Ignored and gaffed off over and over. We finally left, and left the full cart sitting there.
We got the stuff at Lowes.
I wrote the HD website and told them how POed we were. HD made a formal apology and gave us, in cash, all the money we had spent at Lowes as part of the apology.
They got another chance.

I really hate to go to Home Depot.  It is such a drag.
This company would advertise "new, lower prices," and the catch is that they stock lower quality merchandise.  For example, at one time, they USED to stock good quality American-made vise, and now they have the cheap junk for China.  Junk, junk.

I will go to Lowes whenever I can.  I hate just trying to drive in the parking lot at Home depot.  Place is packed all the time and they always seem to be unloading a semi right in the front.

HD is the biggest shithole ever.  Everything is out of order and you can't find anything you are looking for because nothing is organized logically.  Plus there isn't anyone around to help you find stuff.

I go to Menards whenever I can.  The people are helpful, and they have a nice combination of new construction/remodeling/maintence supplies.  It doesnt hurt things that a bunch of hot chicks work at the Menards I go to.  There's just something about a hot woman wearing a toolbelt that you just have to love!

Back when Hechinger's was still in business, we had a HD open about a mile away. It was great. The salespeople were helpful and some were even quite knowledgeable about their products. Then Hechinger went under. Almost immediately, since there was no significant competition close by, HD started to go downhill. Now it seem what salespeople there are, are all high school kids who could care less, or morons who couldn't get any other job.

They constantly advertise things that they don't have in stock. And they never seem to have what I go there for. I went there the other day for tomato fertilizer and something to kill japanese beetles and they had nothing even close. I tried to get stainless steel nuts and bolts and they didn't stock them. I wanted a dust chute for the Delta planer I bought from them and the tool department sales guy didn't even know what in the hell it was I was talking about.

I used to really hate Hechingers, but I sure do wish they were still around.

Yep,  
Home Depot is the new "Fast Food" employer of today.  

They are voracious users of unskilled labor and "cooler" to work at for the kids than Wendy's...

All of the [u]skilled[/u] labor is out plying their trade in the real world.

Home Depot sucks!

[img]http://tafcocorp.com/shelter/homedepot.gif[/img][url]http://www.the-homo-depot.com/Default.htm[/url]

I hate the hell hole too.I'll go to ganahl lumber instead or the local hardware store hd service sucks as do their checkout lines.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quoted:
Home Depot sucks!

www.the-homo-depot.com/Default.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




I see more and more of those decals on cars. I never seen anyplace selling them. Now I know where all those people are buying them.

OSA

Well I guess it varies from store to store. The Home Depot I go to is very quick during check out. Don't have any problem finding help. But one day I went to another in the Park Meadows area and had an arguement with an 18yr old clerk that I couldn't install a certain breaker in a panel I was doing a job on. I am A licensed electrician. I was even wearing my work shirt.

My employer is a manufacturer of building materials and The Home Depot is our largest retail customer, so I get some inside information.

One of the things The Despot's suppliers HATE about them is their method of receiving goods at the stores.  HD's policy says all freight bills must be stamped with HD's own marque at the time of receiving.  If the proof-of-delivery doesn't have HD's stamp, then according to HD, HD never received it!!  My employer has literally given HD entire truckloads of material for FREE since the POD was not stamped and HD refused to pay.  Of course, the common carrier truck driver who delivered the goods could not care less.

Injuries at HD stores are out of control.  HD is panicking right now.  One of their reactions is to order all their suppliers to deliver at night so the shelves can be stocked at night.  I recently heard from one of our execs that HD is experiencing over 100 injuries PER DAY in their stores to employees and CUSTOMERS!  HD has no safety program and is desperately seeking help.  

My employer is a leader in industrial safety and we have offered to send teams of managers to HD stores to do safety audits.  But, like most of the posters to this thread have observed, employee turnover at HD is high and the help is generally low quality.  As long as the orange aprons don't care about themselves, the customers will feel the pain of the mistakes and poor training.

Yet another good reason to avoid Home Dumpo is the high number of truck ripoff's that take place in their parking lot. Our local police, LAPD Pacific Division, says that crooks prowl the Dumpo lot like kids at Christmass waiting for a truck to arrive with tools in it. You park and go in and the knuckle dragging dickweeds go to work on your ride with a slidehammer and mini crowbar. You come out and find you're screwed. Home Depo knows *all* about this very common happening but plays dumb when you go inside to raise hell. Sometimes they won't even let you use the phone to call the coppers. They need armed guards and cameras.  But that costs money....!

I say call a lawyer!!!!!!
You were hurt by an incident that OSHA would love to look into.  You were onmly graised, butothers could be killed...  Do it for the many children that are always running around there....


BISHOP

My Homie Depot story is from the "other side".
I worked part time at a Home Depot in the San Diego area, in one of the north east yuppie scumville areas.
This store is located in a VERY upscale neighborhood, and they cater to these types of customers.

I was working the hardware isle by myself on a Sunday night. My jobs for the night included: 1. Restocking 8 shopping carts full of "returns" from the clueless brain dead fucking morons who didn't listen to the salespeople in the first place.
2. Repackaging all of the shit that the clueless brain dead fucking morons ripped open to see if it really was what they were looking for. Why? After they ripped it open they would put it back on the shelf and take an unopened one.
3. Cleaning up after clueless brain dead fucking morons who think that the shelves and display racks are their personal trach cans.
4. Trying to stock the lower shelves with the crap from the overhead shelves and having to wait for the clueless brain dead fucking morons who ignore the safety banners and the safety flags and who walk right under the forklift / cherry-picker / man-lift / stocker and then give you that "fuck off and die" look when you try to stop them from doing so.
5. Having to listen to clueless brain dead fucking morons who won't belive you when you tell them that a nail won't work in unsupported drywall, you show them the plastic drywall screw inserts and how well they work, and they still buy that 5 lb box of 16 penny framing nails.
6. Having to watch and not be able to do anything about the clueless brain dead fucking morons who open the packages of screws, nuts, bolts and then one out of a package of 5 and stick it in their pocket and walk out the door.
7. Having the most lowlife scumball clueless brain dead fucking moron walk in and buy (on his Home Depot card of course) the most expensive (insert pressure washer, table saw, air compressor, generator, you pick) and then walk it up to the cash register and KNOW that they are going to be using the Home Depot "rental" agreement (buy it and return it in a couple of days after they are done with their job).

The worst part?
Having to suck ass to clueless brain dead fucking morons.
My last day?
While trying to do all of the "tasks" I was helping a very nice lady and her daughter buy an entire set of door knobs and a garage door opener for her house.
I also had a guy who was waiting on me to pull down a toolbox from one of the upper shelves. I also had a guy waiting for me to help him out in plumbing (water runs downhill is about all I know about plumbing).

While I was helping this lady this clueless brain dead fucking moron "Biff" fucker with his fat-assed pregnant shorthaired ugly wife came in and wanted me to help him NOW. I tried to explain to him that I was busy with a customer, and that I would be with him as soon as I could be. This was not good enough for him, he started to bitch me out. I asked him not to use abusive language, it didn't bother me, but I was thinking about the customers. He proceeded to get in my face, at which point I asked the lady if she minded if I helped the guy out. She was nice, she said it was ok with her, her daughter made a comment under her breath along the lines of "anything to get that foul-mouth out of here".
His skanky fat-assed wife heard it, and started bitching me out. I tried to explaine to her that I had no control over what another customer said. "Biff" came over to me and threatened to kick my ass unless I apologized to his wife.
Instead I called the manager up and asked him to come over. I told the guy and his wife to wait for the manager. I went back to helping the lady out with the doorknobs. After I had pulled her order for her door knobs I asked the other customers if it would be ok if I went to help Mr. asswipe "Biff" out. The guy who was waiting for me to pull down the toolbox said "NO". So I set up the safety banners and drove the manlift to the shelf where the toolbox was. "Biff" walked under the safety banner and demanded that I come down and help him out. I refused, and I also told him that he was in violation of the safety rules. He ignored me, so I had to stop. While I was stopped the manager came up and tried to help this guy out. They got into a pissing contest, I watched it while I pulled the toolbox down for the guy. When the toolbox guy was leaving he called "Biff" a "fucking jerk-off". Biff took a swing at the toolbox guy, he stepped back and "Biff" caught nothing but air. "Biff" swung at him again, this time "Biff" dropped the manager!
The toolbox guy took a couple steps at "Biff", he went white in the face and backed up real fast. About this time "Biff's" wife came over and started attacking me and the manager!
I broke away from this crazed bitch and called for the loss prevention guys. One of the girls in the paint department called the San Diego Police, in about 2 minutes there were 4 cop cars and 6 cops in the store.
The manager had a bloody nose, there were 4 customers who gave statements that "Biff" attacked the manager. I also swore out a complaint against "Biff's" fat assed ugly wife.
The next day when I went to work the store manager called me in his office and asked me to drop the complaint against "Biff's" wife.
I told him that there was no way I was going to drop it, he asked me again. I told him the only way that I would is if they both apologized to me and my customers, and if they never came and asked me for ANY help.

Of course the manager told me that would never happen. Then I told the manager that I was going to get a restraining order against "Biff" and his wife. The manager got mad and asked me what gave me the right to do that. I told him to ask the other manager who had his nose broken by "Biff" why, and why I needed protection against a pregnant fat whore.
When the manager asked me to drop the charges I refused and told him if he asked me one more time I was quitting. He asked me again, so I removed my orange apron, cut it up, and walked out the door.
So before you go blaming all of the problems on Home Depot look at 90% of the clueless brain dead fucking morons who are the customers.
I agree that the contractors and the "real" handyman types do get it broken off in the ass more often than not.

My favorite part about Home Depot is when they ask their suppliers to supply a part with a slightly different part number, or in the worst case, a different color... why?...

so they don't have to price match with Walmart, Lowes, Sears, etc, etc.

PeterAR,
I'll let you in on a Homie Depot secret:
Around 75% - 85% of Home Depot suppliers are owned in part by Home Depot!
Home Depot invests their profits into companies that are "Home Depot Partners".
That is why you will find Home Depot specific merchandise from major labels.
Paint, tools, flooring, hardware, garden supplies, power tools, Home Depot has invested in those companies.
Ever wonder why a Home Depot brand battery drill looks like a Black and Decker drill that looks like a DeWalt drill?

Cause Dewalt is just a glorified Black and Decker. Black and Decker makes Dewalt

I worked for the Depot for 2 yrs,and I hate the place as well.When I worked there,we used to get called out to fights after work by customers,or we would tell them to come back after closing time to settle up.Today, I had the absolutely best luck there.I walked in w/a lumber cart straight to the cdx,threw a sheet on the cart,saw the lumber guy and asked for a couple of cuts.Loaded the cart back up and walked straight to the checkout and was out the door in about 10 mins.Sorry to rub it in.

I feel for you sherm....really I do

What I like about homo depot is the fucking yuppies that go to the one by me...you cant even go in there in your work clothes without getting stared at.  I also like paying 30 bucks a gallon for Ralph lauren paint that has all the cool colors while the cheap paints onl com in white of some shade of it.