Home Depot Disasters
I’m still getting comments on Home Depot’s Real Problem. as well as You Can Do It. We Can Help. And, I get e-mails. Somebody needs to tell CEO Nardelli that the peasants are not happy. (There could be ropes and torches in his future. Here’s hoping he’s got better escape routes out of the castle than poor ol’ Dr. Frankenstein.) Here’s part of one e-mail:
I’ll try to be brief. We contracted with Home Depot in May to have siding put on our house. We had concerns as to whether the old siding should be removed, but the salesperson assured that they would go right over it and it would be no problem. He also said that any spots where the old siding looked bad they would remove and fill with the styrofoam material that was on the backside of the siding.
Well, suffice to say, things didn’t go well. And, Home Depot seems to have really dropped the ball.
…Finally a young lady came out from home depot she didn’t have a clue as to what to do, and also informed if we tried to call her on Saturday to forget it she’d be nursing a hangover.
It gets a lot worse - and now the woman who wrote to me is banned from entering Home Depots. Or course, I’m only hearing one side of the story. But, it’s clear to me that Home Depot could have easily handled the problem right upfront and chose not to. They’d “not done anything illegal.”
I’d bet that Home Depot has performed to the letter of their contract. But, there is a big difference between “illegal” and “immoral.” All this over a whoppin’ $16,000. Big money to the customer. Way too small an amount to even be an accounting rounding error for Home Depot.
Sad, very sad.
Tags: Home Depot, marketing, marketing troubleshooting, customer service
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November 2nd, 2006 at 8:04 am
so a few months ago, coporate added a bunch of hours to all the stores in the country….was a good thing as that meant more bodies on the floor, now its october and someone in corporate realised no one had figured out how to pay for those hours…so for 3 or 4 months now the company has been way over hours with no alotted monies to pay for it. Now the remedy they are going to use is to run the whole company under hours thru the end of the year to make up for their mistake! Now thats pretty nice, cut back the hours during the holiday season, work your employees to the bone, give them nothing for x-mas! way to go Bob Nardelli, way to look out for the folks giving you the huge bonus’ every year!
November 9th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Mary,
In one of his first (maybe it was the first) shareholder meetings, Nardelli didn’t even show up. Shareholders were calling for his head. You probably already heard about that. He’s a numbers/tech guy from everything I’ve read. Not much for the human side of the equation, which will eventually trickle down to employees and onto customers.
You’re blog is smart, honest and funny. Nice work.
Steve
November 30th, 2006 at 8:09 am
[…] The Duh! Bottom Line: If companies thought of customers as relationships versus one-time “wham bam” transactions, I (and many others) wouldn’t be writing about Big Clueless Companies such as Comcast, Home Depot, and Cingular. Treating us with a litlle respect could be the start of a long mutually beneficial relationship. So, here’s a very quick sanity check for anybody who has to deal with customers (or clients): 1. Would I say that to their face? 2. Would I treat a friend this way? 3. Would I treat a stranger on the street this way? 4. Do I feel good about myself (forget your company, career or salary for a second) in dealing with customers? 5. Would my parents be proud of the way I treat customers? 6. Am I doing things “the right way” or am I doing the “right thing?” (Rick is standing there watching the love of his life fly away – he’s doing the “right thing” even though it’s a heap of pain and trouble.) […]
January 3rd, 2007 at 8:38 am
Nardelli has left the building.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/business/03cnd-depot.html?ex=1325480400&en=5635a1ae7dab5b43&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
February 4th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I decided to see what is out there about Home Depot as a parent of an employee. First of all my daughter has worked there almost a year without a vaction day - 2nd the don’t like to pay overtime under any circumstances - if you work over you have to take it off somwhere during the week. 3rd - the do not pay shift differential for 3rd shift - they pay more than the minimum wage here in the south but that means your just on the upper end of being exploited. Mary’s comments about the employees standing around like they are depressed is fairly accurate - not to mention bored. Ohhh did I tell you about their scheduling? No matter what is written in the employee handbook - my daughter doesn’t know sometime until the day before the start what her next weeks schedule is. She doesn’t always have 2 days off in a row . She can’t get a part time job to supplement her meager income because she has no idea what her next weeks schedule is going to be. How can a company work this way??? Their scheduling is a nighmare & just not humainly right - you cannot have a life if you are an employee of home depot. I too have started to go to Lowe’s. There are other things but I won’t go into them here.
April 9th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Home Depot is the sorriest store I have ever encountered. I have been trying too put carpet In my home now for two months. Carpet I have paid cash for over $$3500 and the Ridgecrest Ca Store keeps delaying us with unworthy excuses. I will never by a single thing from home Depot…especially Ridgecrest Ca Home Depot. Low’s is alot better.
May 25th, 2007 at 5:45 am
You should contact NBC in Los Angeles, as they have had several reports and a wide range of media investigations pertaining to HOME DEPOT rip offs.
Good luck and obtain several estimates next time.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:31 am
[…] No, not mine – Home Depot’s. My past Home Depot posts (here, here and here) really hit a nerve. People hate that place with the heat of a thousand suns – and that’s the employees! […]