I have been an amatuer woodworking for a long time. I have also been a contractor for other services and have shopped at literally hundreds of Home Depots. I would say as a whole Home Depot's service has taken a turn for the worst in the last 3-4 years but my last experience as this store broke the camels back and I will never shop at Home Depot again. Not to mention I have 40 employees and countless friends I have shared and will continue to share my disatifaciton with. Before I tell you the story first you must know I went to their competitor across the street and had all my issues immediately resolved. (That DID NOT HELP)
Ok the story. My last visit I was shopping for what supposed to be a quick project. I was building a bath tub container out of PVC and other material so the kids could keep their bath toys in their and it would be interactive with knobs and dials ETC. Now bear in mind I am District Manager for a retail chain so I have some degree of understanding and bias for what this experience should be. So in tow I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old to go buy some misc pieces. I get to the PVC aisle and first its a sloppy mess but its home depot so figures, but I can find maybe 60% of the parts I need. I wasn't looking for plutonium here I need extremely common fittings. I am confused, surely I am just missing them, so to my peril I try to find an employee...... HA even when I am staring at them they don't care to help. So frustrated I decide I am going to go get the other components I need and come back to this section. Bear in mind I spent over 20 minutes in one aisle with 2 kids. So I proceed to walk the aisles, still looking for an employee, and I can't A.) find what I am looking for and B.) find a soul to acknowledge me. Then it happens an employee talks to me YAY! Not. I am standing in the middle area kids in tow, cart full of other items I was planning to buy and this employee is walking in front of a pallet jack. He looks at me and then rudely tells me to move out of the way and into the adjacent aisle. So I scoot into the first part of the aisle but I am still hovering so he knows that I need some help. But NO, he stops dead in his tracks and says "move all the way into the aisle".......
Let me put this into perspective. Over 30 minutes in this store, 2 small kids who are loosing their patience, a cart full of goods and the first person to talk to me tells me to get out of his way and then proceeds to hammer home the point by making a little scene. Sure let me wait on you to do what your doing before I can pay for my goods which pays for your job...... Sure maybe that seems a little picky but this sort of experience is par for course at Home Depot. I left the store, drove across the street and found all that I needed with the help of 2 different associates and was back in my car in 10 minutes.
You lost my business Home Depot. The issues that plague HD are fixable but systemic and you can see they are consistent through their stores. (atleast here in phx)