It is Sunday afternoon and as usual a run to a DIY was required. I decided to go to Home Depot because it was closer than Lowes. I went to get a refill on our propane tank for an evening barbecue, but being the compulsive person I am I decided to first walk the store to see if I could find anything interesting. Do any of you do this? I ended up purchasing a number of items including light bulbs, cleaning solutions, a double package of this citrus air freshener made from real citrus oils and my propane refill. I also encountered a number of Home Depot employees who were very engaging and going out of their way to help me. Strange I thought, most of the time I cannot find anyone and when I do they are looking at their feet as to not make eye contact with me. I wondered if this was a new mandate from headquarters focusing on customer service.
As I got close to the checkout all of the lanes had people in them so I started to calculate which one I should go to for the fastest exit. I still needed to exchange my propane tank which was in my car. Just then a smiling woman stuck her head out from the self-checkout area and waved for me to come to her. Great but can she transact the propane exchange I thought? I asked right up front if she could do a propane exchange at self-checkout. “Of course we can” and she started scanning my items. When she scanned the double pack of citrus air freshener she seemed dumb founded and went to the center sales desk to confer with two of her associates. It seems she got a message that stated “DO NOT SELL THIS ITEM”. Sir I am sorry but we cannot sell this to you. I am sorry. I then said to the three sales associates, “you mean to tell me Home Depot will not sell this product”? I was ready to get a little upset when, Linsey (that is how she spelled it) the front checkout manager said “sir we cannot sell you this as there might be an unsafe reason for us not selling and this product could be in the process of recall”. I hope you can understand.
Here comes the amazing thing Linsey did. She asked one of the other sales associates to go back to the place I got this and get two other similar citrus air fresheners. I thought this will be interesting and what will she charge me? To my surprise Linsey gave me the two bottles of citrus air fresheners which I knew were more than double what I would have originally paid. Please take these for your inconvenience and drive your car up front so we can exchange your propane tank. Needless to say I complimented Linsey and the other two sales associates for making my Home Depot excursion awesome.
I have always used Home Depot as an example of poor customer service these past few years. When something like this happens I feel compelled to SHOUT about it. Home Depot please keep doing what you’re doing and I will always go to Home Depot for my DIY needs!
