Customer Service (rant & rave)

I truly appreciate quality customer service and abore bad customer service.

Sorry for this long post, bu I have to rant today about the service that women sometimes get at car repair locations. First a brief history...when I was a kid, I helped my Dad with all the car and home repairs, he loved teaching me about tools, materials, and the correct way to determine why something was broken and how best to fix it (RIP Dad). Therefore, I have always had a comfortable knowledge about cars, not an expert, but I can describe symptoms of problems without having to say such rediculous thigs as "that thingababob made a whitzydoodle noise and then it...." My complaint in general is that women are sometimes treated like second class dimwits when seeking car repair. Fortunately I am not intimidated by the service managers and can usually get what I need to have done, but it still irks me.

Today, the service manager at my car dealership was an arse!!! He wasn't rude....he just had that "I'm a man that knows about cars and you are a woman that knows nothing" attitude. That is not a good attitude to take with me at a car shop...because #1...I am usually right, and #2...if I am right and you are wrong, then your will be eating crow over and over again cause I will be back every 3 or 4 thousand miles!!!

I went in today for the usual maintenance and also to have my windshield replaced. My windshield had previously been broken and replaced, by a vendor that comes to the dealership for work, so they arranged for the same company to replace my windshield again today. The last time I had car maintenance, when I left I noticed a strange crack in the lower part of my windshield. I called the dealer after I got home and said that this had happened at the delearship, but I was on my way to an appointment and wasn't able to turn around and go right back when I noticed the break. Anyway it was a wierd break at the base of the glass on the passenger side and was curved like a very large horseshoe. When the car dealer service manager checked me in today he carefully looked over my car and said "well I found a chip in the lower glass so it would have probably been a rock." "I said it was not from a rock, and had described the break to the dealership over the phone and someone had said it sounded like a stress fracture, so maybe that was what it was or else someone had laid a tool on the windshield to cause it to break like that." He immediately said "Oh noooooo, it's NOT a stress fracture, I haven't seen one of those since the 80's, they don't happen anymore." I replied that I was just telling him what the other guy told him based on the circumstances. He remained very smug...I signed my papers, went to the waiting room and did a project for work while I waited. The girl that supports the service department is a real sweety-pie and always so nice and had arranged for the windshield company to come. After about an hour, she came over and told me "the windshield guy is here and says that is a stress fracture and he will get someone to help him lift the new glass on so it is better supported this time and there will be no charge." JUBILEEEEEEE

I so wanted to give the service manager a lecture about treating women like idiots, but think he realized he had made an arse out of himself. When my car was done, he said, "your car is ready, sorry it took so long." I replied "no problem, thanks" and went to the checkout. JERK!!!

Now in all my "I told you so" revelry inside my own mind, I thought to myself....hope a rock doesn't hit my windshield anytime soon.

The RAVE part of this, is that I heard my usual service manager (who left for a short time) is back at the dealership and I will be sure to hook up with him for my next service as he is kind, courteous, and respectful.

My wife has had a lot of the same problems. She doesn't know as much about cars, so she actually has been taken advantage of. Some stupid car dealer talked her into a car right before we got married. Long story short, she paid way too much for what she got, while the dealer was telling her she couldn't do any better in her price range.
What a tool!

I know exactly what you mean Josh. It is extremely difficult for a woman to buy a car if you are going to a dealer where you have the latitude of bantering about the price. It is so critical to know the basics about cars and the prices that they go for or you will end up paying top dollar and getting options you don't need or not getting options that you do want. I was married for 16 years and my ex always did the bantering, so after my divorce the first time I had to buy a car I was totally lost. I wanted an SUV so was sticker shopping for several months but only when the dealerships were closed. I hate going on a lot when they are open, as car dealers are such sharks. I have single-handedly purchased 4 SUVs in the last 16 years, 3 of them new. One was very easy as it was through AAA and was "up-front pricing" so there is no bantering...the price is what it is. I typically turn my current car in as part of the down-payment and that is where a woman can really get ripped off. You need to know current blue-book and you need to be honest about the condition of your car. You need to watch the newspaper ads and see what vehicles similar to yours are going for in the used car section. I have learned a lot about buying cars over the years and just like everything in life....don't impulse buy. That is a real issue for women, because (in general) we look at things like the color of the car as being one of the major buying points, but dealerships don't. You can use this to your advantage though as you can stand firm on the color options you want and if they don't have it, you can banter on what they have on the lot and squeeze a few more pennies out of that aspect of the buying frenzy. If you know what you want and you know what you can pay, and you have the finances, then plan on staying at the dealership for at least 2 to 4 hours to banter over price....the longer you hold out the better it will be for you. The dealers want to sell and you want to buy....so something will eventually give on their side.

I still think men probably get a better deal on their cars, but would love to hear opinions from others. :)

I'm a guy and I hate buying cars. I bought a Saturn the 2nd year they were out because the price was what it was. No haggling. Drove it for 10 years and then bought a new Saturn Ion. Had the new Ion for 6 months and my teenage son totaled it. Drove through a telephone pole. I went to the crash scene and every single door on the car still worked perfectly after shearing off a pole and having the pole crash on the roof of the car. My son walked away wothout a scratch. He was wearing his seatbelt. The insurance paid off the car loan and I got a check for $32.00. Goodbye $5,000.00 down payment. I went back to Saturn and said your car saved my son's life I'll take another one but I don't have any money left. So, they sold me a used Saturn. An S car. Well, they called the next day and said the financing won't go through because there's not enough equity in the car. But we really want you to have a Saturn and so we're going to give you a better car, an L series, one year newer and less mileage for the same price. They said we'll bring it over to your house. I said, "Send it." I called my wife and she said, "What color is it?" I don't know what color it is I bought it over the phone.

OMG...that has me howling!!!

I think car dealers have to be the worst. The industry is all but unsupervised, and it is in their best interest to really screw you.

We got a Taurus a few years back for Mrs Gigantalope. We actually got it from her work the same model year as it was produced with less than 3000 miles on it for 12K less than new.

Before we got it tho, we wanted to drive a few, make sure it wasn't weird, or hard for her to see out of or some such. The Fuqtards who worked at the dealerships we went to would only speak to me. They told us it had a V8 (which they don't come with) and volumes of other crap.

The last car we bought we didn't really want, it just happened to be the only dealership that seemed to have integrity.

Where I work, I often see the finance arrangements for used cars, and believe it or not, it's often over 20%

I sure miss good old Cal Worthington tho.

Vampiress--
Funny about going after the dealers are closed! ha! I usually just walk really fast so that they can't catch me. I'm half running most of the time. My wife can't keep up though, so they always catch her. I usually do whatever looking I want, and then get back to the car, waiting for her to catch up. It's a good way to get her away from them, cause then she can just say "my husband's waiting for me". ha!

On 2007-04-29 12:20, VampiressRN wrote:
I still think men probably get a better deal on their cars, but would love to hear opinions from others. :)

HA! When it comes to car salesmen, used or not, they are "equal opportunity exploiters"! Coco Loco and I needed a new car a couple of years back, and decided to buy a Honda. We have been extremeley pleased with the car, but the buying process sucked ass big time. Being big time Costco fans, we decided to try their auto buying program. You send in an e-mail, stating what area you live in, and what car you are looking at with the trim level details, etc, and they send you back an e-mail quote and a "Costco approved participating dealer." The dealerships are hand picked by Costco, and remain under their scrutinous eye to make sure there is a good level of customer service.

Although this sounds great, and a local dealer had the model we wanted in the trim level we wanted, they still found an area to jerk us around on, and that was financing. Honda does well enough that they don't have to offer 0% financing, and the best they were offering was 2.9%. Well, they made sure that we would not qualify for that financing no matter what. My dad even offered to co-sign for us, and they rejected him, and he's a retired doctor with immaculate credit and an extremely high fico score!!!

When they rejected my dad, the guy at the dealership - who was actually one of the managers - told us that we weren't going to qualify for anything less than 8.9% or higher, so too bad for us, and basically told us to get the f*ck out of his office! I was shocked, because I figured that we'd just get a loan through Maria's credit union or something, and then just come back with the cash. As we were standing in the lobby, near the exit, wondering what the hell just happened, the manager came out, and started yelling "Get the hell out of here! Yeah, that's right, get out of here, coward, before I kick your ass! You wanna see what'll happen to you if you stick around, buddy?"

Needless to say, at this point I was more than shocked. Coco Loco asked what we should do, and I said let's get outta here before I pop that guy in the nose. He was screaming "Yeah, just try it buddy, see what happens" as we walked out the door. My friend was outside, and he's about the size of BigTikiDude, and I'm no small guy either. I told him what happened, and after further thought I knew that I didn't want him to get away with it - I wanted management info to report the whole thing.

My friend and I walked back in, and the manager's back was to us. He was standing in front of all of the employees, telling them what had just happened. I heard him say "yeah, what it takes in this world is for a guy like me to put a guy like him in his place.... he knew who was boss... he wasn't going to mess with me...bla bla bla" All the time I'm standing RIGHT BEHIND the guy, getting angrier and redder and redder in the face. All of his employees started laughing quietly to themselves, as the guy kept on bragging. Some of them were actually holding their hands over their mouths as to not laugh out loud, and they were all muttering "Oh no!" and "Awww, man!" under their breath. Finally, after almost two minutes of this, the manager asked all of his employees what was so funny, and the sales guy with the biggest grin on his face (as in boy I hate my boss and I'm glad this is happening to him) said "Look behind you." I tapped the guy on the shoulder at the same time, and just like the voodoo witch doctor ghost tapping Shaggy on the shoulder, the guy totally blanched pale white, and had the most shocked look on his face! It was priceless! He was caught totally off-guard, and was actually scared shitless! I guess he thought my friend and I were going to beat his ass!!!

I was seriously scowling, and still red in the face, and I exclaimed "You and me - in your office. Right now!!! MOVE IT!!!" And he immedietly scampered into his office like the weasily coward he was. I demanded all of upper management's contact info, which for a second he hesitated to give to me, because he didn't want to incriminate himself. Then I told him that my friend and I weren't leaving his office, and neither was he, until he gave us the info, and that we could do this the easy way, or the hard way. Then my friend and I both leaned forward at the same time, looking him right in the eye. He started singing like a lark!

After he gave me all of his info, I told him that if he could have just sat tight for a couple of days, then I would have come back to buy the car from him. But no, he had to be an asshole about the whole thing, just like I'm sure he is in all of his business transactions. Then I made him apologize to me! As I walked out of the dealership, the other salesmen applauded my friend and me.

Then I contacted the Costco auto program. They were mortified! I must have received 5 or 6 phone calls from their corporate people, all wanting detailed info. They ended up yanking the Costco affiliation away from that dealership within a week or two. Then two weeks later Costco called us up again, and lo and behold they had a car waiting for us at another dealership. They must have ordered it directly from the factory, because it was exactly the color we wanted and had every option we wanted. It was October of 2004, and this car was a 2003, but it must have been the last 2003 to roll off the assembly line, because it was still all wrapped in plastic inside and outside. We test drove it that way! And they basically gave us such a good deal on it that we couldn't refuse!

So we ended up getting a good deal, but had to go through hell at first to get it. Yeah, those guys will try to screw over whoever they can to make a buck. And the jerk I had to deal with was a manager, so it goes to show you that it's definitely a top down management kind of thing.

HOLY COW!!! That is just crazy. Talk about being held captive at a dealership through a painful deal...you sure had it. Needless to say, there was NO customer service with that idiot. Glad the story turned out well in the end and bully for you in reporting the incident to Costco and getting their support by removing that dealership.

I have to agree with you in that you can have everything looking real good and your ready to jump on the deal and go for the good financing...and BLAM, they throw every negative thing they can in the deal and screw you with the percentage. After my divorce many years ago I struggled financially and had to go through a bankruptcy, but made it out alive and paid that off and passed the years of torture that you have to suffer. When I bought my first Muarano the dealership took advantage of that and I didn't get the best financing I could, but I did stay at the dealership for hours to fight from 12% all the way down to 5%. Now I have very good credit and that was very helpful when I bought a new Murano last year.

I just don't know how some people live with themselves, when they are so dishonest and evil in their position as a car salesman. An another thing I really hate is when they can't break you down, they bring in their boss...the big guns to try to pour on more intimidating methods.

Next time I buy a new car, I may be brave and sell my trade in on the outside as I know I can get more money. Then I am going to drug the coffee of the dealer that is working with me...maybe some sodium pentothal, prozac and valium...LOL

Ha! Awesome story! When my wife got her new car, the salesman conned her into leasing it, telling her that she couldn't afford to buy a car. She came home (I wasn't with her) and I was so mad, I could've spit. We went to our credit union like the very next day and got a pre-approval for a car loan with a 4.9 or something like that. Then we went back to the car dealer, and I asked the guy something like "What gives with telling her to lease the car when she wants to buy one? We want to buy the lease out." He tells us the same crap, that we don't qualify for any less than an 8% APR or something lame, and I pull out my letter that says 4.9% on it. Well, now he's got egg on his face, and he says-- "well we just can't do that for you." And I said "Fine. You'll get a check in the mail for the payoff amount." Then we walk out the door.
We really wound up paying through the nose for this car though. The guy leased it at a price that's probably higher than the value of the car. I mean, it's got a lot of extras on it, but it's not worth what we paid for it. Still gets my blood boiling. Well, live and learn. Like you said Vampiress-- you gotta do a lot of research to know what you're getting into, otherwise you get what sounds like a good deal, and then you get screwed.
I always say that you should call your own bank or something to see what type of interest rate you qualify for before shopping for a car, that way you know whether the dealer's offer is reasonable. When I bought my truck almost 9 years ago, had to have my Dad put it in his name cause his credit was so good and mine was so bad. Well, he'd gotten a nice APR from his credit union, and when the dealer found out about it, they offered to beat it by just a little, rather than lose out on all the interest. I mean, why wouldn't they want the practically free money that they earn in interest?

It's the amount of interest that is automatically built into the lease that kills you. I'm a former accountant, double majored in finance and accounting. The price of the car isn't inflated, it's pretty much the MSRP, but you'll notice that leases never tell you what the interest rate is. Based on the price of the vehicle, the monthly payment on the lease, the number of years on the lease, and the salvage value of the vehicle at the end of the lease, you use all that information to figure out (impute) an interest rate.

Another thing not known to the average joe is that the interest rate on the lease is negotiable as well. When I was studying accounting, one of my professors had just bought a new pickup. He was teaching us about leases at the time, and said that it really doesn't matter if you lease or buy, as long as you can get the payments down low enough - which is pretty much true. He decided to lease his truck, and had asked for the interest rate of the lease. They told him it was around 7%. He went home, evaluated all of the information, and when he imputed the interest rate, it was actually around 22%!!! He called the dealership on this, and was able to get the truck with around 7% financing, which brought his monthly lease payment down to under $200 per month, which was a lot cheaper per month than buying the truck.

When you go to buy a car, they are either going to hit you with a higher price on the car, or a higher interest rate. The lower the interest rate, the less they will negotiate on the price of the car. An old girlfriend's sister had a pretty good trick. She was prepared to pay for the car in cash - either she had saved up, or already had financing through their bank, etc. But she didn't let the dealership know that. She went in, and negotiated on the price of the car. The dealership would only go so far on the price of the car, so she suggested that they lower the price of the car and raise the interest rate. They gladly agreed to this, and lowered the price. She said she still wanted a lower price, so go ahead and raise the interest rate some more. They gladly did, and made another offer. She had them raise the interest rate one or two more times, which they did, until she got the price down to what she wanted. At this point, the interest rate was sky high, like 25% or so, so she had them type up the contract, which they gleefully did.

When all of the paperwork was completely finished, and both parties were completely locked in, and they handed over the keys to her, she then said "Oh, by the way, I think I changed my mind on making payments, here is the full payment for the balance of the car loan now". She then whipped out her checkbook, and wrote a check paying for the car in full! She actually could have waited 30 days or so to do this, but she said the look of shock and horror on the car dealership guys' faces was priceless!!! She said that they were really pissed off about it, selling the car at a really low price and making no interest off of it, but that there was nothing that they could do. The main reason she paid them up front, instead of sending a check in, was to get back at them for trying to take advantage of her. It's not too often that one can get over on a car salesman, but that was a good one. I'm going to try it one day.

So who says only men get better deals on their cars? :)

On 2007-05-03 11:18, VampiressRN wrote:
I just don't know how some people live with themselves, when they are so dishonest and evil in their position as a car salesman.

I've had two close friends who sold cars at dealerships. One of the guys is a real upstanding salesperson and great guy. The other is pretty cool, but can be a little unscrupulous and dysfunctional at times. The horror stories that they have told me about the other salespeople made my skin crawl. They all sit around at the end of the day and LAUGH and BRAG about who the biggest chump was that they sold a car to. And of course they say "And he even bought the undercoating - HAR HAR HAR!!!" A big one to brag on was selling us mooks the stereo system that already came with the car. They try this with all accessories, as well as the additional dealer markup over the sticker price.

One time during a slow day, there were no customers. My friend and another salesguy were leaning back against a car, shooting the breeze. The other salesguy accidentally dropped his keys. My friend bent down to pick them up, and when he stood up he found that the guy wasn't there anymore - he was halfway across the lot greeting the customers who were just walking onto the property!

When there was any free time, all of the salespeople constantly watched Glengarry Glen Ross in one of the back offices. For inspiration!

Most of the salesguys that my friends knew had serious addiction and gambling problems, and the related serious financial difficulties as well. After close to a year, my good salesperson friend couldn't stand it any more, and quit. He was sick of seeing families getting severely ripped off, and hearing everyone laugh about it. And the other friend, well, he's dealing with his own problems...

HAHAHA.....that is funny about the dropped keys, cause those guys are like Vampires, in one place now, and in a split second, acres away breathing down your neck, trying to lure you in.

My ex used to use this approach and it was all a game to him....walk on the lot, look at the car you want to buy, walk around it, look at the sticker in the window, then shake your head in disbelief and look sadly at the ground. By this time the salesman would be by his side and blurt out "sticker shock eh?" The ex would then say, "yeah, boy I really wanted one of these too, but way out of my price range." Hours later we would be driving away in the new car. I never knew it until years later, but he had done all the up front planning for the whole thing, he knew about the car, knew what kind of price he could get, knew what he could get for his car, and had all the finances figured out before hand. I think he liked buying cars. On the other hand, I hated being at the dealership for 4 hours dickering over the price.

Another place that is terrible for customer service is Home Depot. They used to be very good when they first opened up....you could find a salesman and ask him and questions and actually get a decent answer and linked to the product you wanted right away. Well, that is not so today. You have to walk all over to try to find a salesman, and then they typically reply "oh, I don't work in this department, I'll send so-and-so over and they can help you." But even when you get the right person, they are not always secure in the information they give you. I shop at Lowes now, so hopefully they won't loose their edge.

Ha! Mai Tai that manager sounds like a guy I know who sells cars.
Too funny.
This guy bounces in and out of the car biz.
He usually pisses off the management, Or the customers, or both.
Then they let him go.

But selling cars would suck.
Everybody thinks you are ripping them off because of guys like this.
Then when you go out and say I sell cars for a living they all think
you are a cheese ball scamming loser.

P.s. I have never been a car salesman.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2007-05-04 13:20 ]

The information about leases is actually something I've heard before. My wife, when she got suckered into the lease on her new car, didn't know anything about being able to negotiate the price, so she got totally screwed.
I like the idea of negotiating the price down and letting them jack up the interest and then just writing a check. Nice! I'd say that you'd have to be careful about early payment penalties or something like that, though. Just to make sure that there aren't any, is what I mean.
It never ceases to amaze me what people will do to their fellows.

Here is an interesting article that was on the AOL welcome page today.....

Anyone who has sold cars for a living will tell you that most buyers are payment shoppers. More than comparing vehicles, or looking for the best vehicle for their particular needs, they shop monthly payments, which is one of the absolute worst ways to buy a car.

Too Much Info
Here's a cold, hard truth: If you walk into a dealership and, right off the bat, give the salesperson your monthly payment limit, you have just told him you're going to buy a car today. All he has to do is get together with the sales manager and work out something --anything -- that fits near your monthly limit, and the deal is done.

Here's how this works: After hearing your monthly payment limit (let's say it's $500) the salesperson starts asking about what kind of car you want. Since you've thought about the vehicle less than you've thought about the monthly payment, you're probably kind of unsure about this yourself. All this time he's working his mind through his inventory -- any good salesguy knows his inventory -- and trying to put you together with something that will come close. "Close," not necessarily on or below, to your stated limit.

Backseat Shopper
Maybe you think you're looking for a two-door, but if he has a four-door that's close he'll steer you that way. So, you look at what he has, you kind of settle on something and you take it for a test-drive. Trust me on this; whatever you test-drive is going to feel a lot better than whatever you drove to the dealership. You're tired of the old car, and the salesperson knows that if he gets you behind the wheel of something new or newer, you're going to start taking possession, as they say. And the longer you drive it, the more possession you're going to take.

Eventually you end up at a cubicle or desk and he writes up the deal, with your offer, including your limit for the down payment (let's say it's $2,000) and your $500 monthly payment (sometimes known as the downstroke and the nut, by the way). You may initial it, indicating (psychologically, at least) it's your confirmed offer to buy that car that day. Then he takes it to the sales manager -- and, just for your information, I've met literally hundreds of sales managers and not one of them was stupid, so don't think you're going to out-clever them -- who starts figuring the real deal that is actually going to happen.

More Or Less
The salesguy, all smiles, brings it back and says he's got a deal for you. They'll let the car go with $5,000 down and a monthly payment of $575. You respond: "Whoa! What happened to my deal of two grand and five hundred? I can't do a down payment of five grand!" So the salesperson says, "Well, what can you do? Can you do forty-five hundred? Can you do four?" And, pretty soon, you say you can do $3,000 down, but you can't do $575 a month, no way. So, he says, well, what can you do? (See a pattern here?) Can you do five-fifty a month? And you allow that you can probably squeeze it to $525. (In the parlance of the trade, you have bumped yourself up. You did this to yourself. He was just asking.) So he says, "Fine, let me see what my manager says."

Back to the sales manager he goes. Then he comes back, with another deal. OK," he says, "My manager will let the car go for a down payment of only $3,500 and a monthly payment of just $535." And you're starting to think, well, I could make that. And you agree to the deal. You're tickled pink. You've got a new car to show off to the neighbors.

Another Year
And what you didn't notice, because you were so wrapped up in the down payment and monthly payments, and all revved up about showing your new car to the neighbors, is that the payments were reduced by bumping the payment schedule from 60 to 72 months. And when he points it out -- because he has to, and he's going to be very careful and have this all up front just to cover himself -- you'll buy into it because you're just glad they were able to get close. Besides, you knew all along you could really cover more than $500 a month, and so did he.

How did he know this? From experience. Because you did what most car buyers do. They shop for a payment, rather than a vehicle. And when they give an upper limit for that payment, they lie, because they can always do more. And the salesperson and the sales manager know that. They know that if they can get you near a car you like, you'll bump yourself up. They know this from experience. They're not stupid.

Educate yourself before buying a car:
Do your research. Spend some cold, hard time working out sound decisions about what vehicle you want, and why. First shop the vehicle, then shop the price. Know up front what it should cost and what you are willing to pay. If at all possible, arrange financing before you walk into the dealership. Take some time to educate yourself. Take responsibility for your purchase. If you don't, they will.

Very good advice! It's exactly the mistake my wife made when she was shopping. She said I'm willing to pay X dollars per month.
Instead of putting her in the Camry she could afford at X dollars per month, she wound up in a much smaller Corolla that I don't even fit in! All because she didn't shop for a car, she shopped for a payment. And the salesman found one that she could make.

In addition to knowing their inventory, the salesman will put you in the cheapest car for the largest sum of money he can manage. As Vampiress notes, they'll "bump you up", even after you've been bumped into a cheaper car. I think my wife paid the full sticker price, AND the delivery fees (which you almost never have to pay when buying from dealer stock, at least in my experience). Normally, a dealer knocks off delivery fees and other stuff to make the car cheaper. In this case, he was able to get away with leaving them on.

It's always a little extra work to get info on a car you might be buying, but it's always worth it. An unscrupulous salesman WILL rip you off if you give him the chance. If you know what you're getting into, you can at least protect yourself. At the very least, you always have the option of getting up and leaving.

Anyway, I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but stuff like this just gets my blood up. I hope there's a special type of tiki-hell for jerks that rip people off.

I have found that the best way to deal with that "how much can you pay monthly" is to flat out tell the dealer you are not doing a deal on that premise, but you are negotiating on the price of the car only, and stick to your guns. I think the bottom line is that you will get screwed somewhere along the way at any car dealership, but a savy buyer might knock off a few more bucks on their behalf.

This weekend I had the displeasure of shopping at Home Depot....I hate that store. It was a Friday night around 7pm. I figure 100 employees onboard....about 30 shoppers in house....1 live checker at the front of the store....2 self-check lanes.....1 contractor lane with a live checker. HELLO....why do I have to stand in the effing line while the people in front of me fuss with their new Home Depot account (the 10% didn't ring up) manager had to come spend 10 minutes figuring it out. I ask "if there another checker that can check me out"....she says "oh you can go to isle #" and I say "but that is marked for contractors"...she said "oh it's OK you can use it." So I march my fat butt down to that line and wait for the 2 customers in front of me to get checked out. The checker says "oh you look tired" and I said, "well it wouldn't be so painful if you had an adequate amount of checkers for the customers in your store, it is always such poor customer service at the checkout." She apologized for the wait but I told her it wasn't her fault, it was the usual poor customer service that Home Depot is known for. Ay Yai Yai...I just muttered and left with my bag of goodies. I can hardly wait till the Lowes opens in my neighborhood.

I hear the Home Depot rant. That place is getting ridiculous. I think there's a few problems with that place--
First-- most of the employees that work there don't know anything about hardware. If you ask "will this anchor hold a shelf in my wall?" I'd bet that you'll get a blank stare in response.
Which now leads me to my second point--
Where did all the good people go? They quit! My brother (one of the handiest people I know*) used to work at Depot. They treated him and so many other good employees so badly that they just quit. I mean, my brother never got breaks on time, and sometimes didn't even get a lunch break at all. I mean, how illegal is that, and the management's response was to "suck it up"! Can you believe that? Then my brother got hurt on the job while working in the tool rental department. It took him like 4 years to get his workman's comp claim settled. Just ridiculous.

My brother did all the design work for the tiki bar that I have in my house. He drew up the plans, and we built a pair of these bad boys. One sold on Ebay, the other's in the Quiet Village Tiki Lounge. I'd have never gotten as far as I did if it wasn't for him. I learned a lot working on these things with him.