how come staff at box stores know nothing baout their products?!?!?!

[murphy1244]

Kinda hit or miss here. A good hardware store is about 25 miles away, but HD is much closer. Most local hardware stores are mini Biglots now, a lot of cheap stuff, employing minimum wage folks. One place I got irritated when the guy made a remark "it must be nice to have money". I bought a bunch of birdseed my wife wanted, and a new birdfeeder. I've never went back.

The store here has been in business since 1905 and ran by the same family. I mean this is a old store with ladders on wheels for the top storage drawers.

 

[sam5570]

I never, ever, go into a store to buy something and expect the sales person to know what they are talking about. Knowledgeable sales people are so rare it comes as a complete surprise when you run across one. I cannot tell you how many times I ask a simple question of a salesperson and they are so far off the mark it's laughable.

Google and the Internet in general are my friends. Before I call the HVAC, refrigerator repair people or a mechanic, I do some research on the Internet to ensure I am not completely taken for a fool. In my opinion, 99% of any information passed to the consumer by a sales person should be taken as completely false. In fact, if you do the opposite of what is recommended by a salesperson, you will usually be closer to the mark.

The only question I will ask in a store is where something might be located on the shelves, and even then the accuracy is about 50%.

agree 100% i always try to research what i'm buying on line before i go thru the door of one of the 2 circuses.[ lowes home depo] i can always find exactly what i need with pics on line some where. the last time i went to lowes un prepared here is what happened. the ice maker in our fridg went bad. so i looked on line and there appered to only be 2 different types. so i took my chance went to lowes ask the guy about the ice maker he said do you have a model number and so on. i said no and he gave me a card with a 800 number on it to call and order one, so i ask him do you have any in stock he said yes we have 2 types in stock i ask to see them found the one i needed and left. i know where your comming from soundguy. if you really want to get your bp up go to these auto pars places almost on a daily basis and exprience just how little they know about what there selling.

 

[PMA]

We built a house a little over 8 years ago and we subbed the house ourselves. We bought windows and pre-finished hardwood flooring from lowes and they screwed both up. They miss matched the double windows we ordered, had a wide window with a narrow window. The flooring they sent the wrong thickness the first time. Ordered again and when the guy was laying the floor, the coloring in the different boxes didnt match. Took it back, put real hardwood floors down. I only buy small things at lowes.

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[Soundguy]

i don't disagree. management is responsible for a lack of training.. ultimately the company as a whole is responsible as a trickle down theory.

as for the work / money issue.

i agree to a point.. however.. I also wonder about personal pride in work.

i worked ina factory , minimum wage out of high school, and thru junior college . I took pride in my work.. didn't matter that i made the same money as a gy flipping burgers.. or mopping the floor inthe next room ( heck yeah.. I moped too! ) I simply took pride in my work.

when I got a job later in the water meter co when i went to college.. I am responsible for all the crosstraining i got. I put in for it. that;s why i had worked in every dept outside of sales. with xtraining like that I could be placed somewhere if they had an emergency.. ie.. someone went home sick. or if a position opened up and i wanted that department type work..e tc. i drove a POS looking car.. i ate alot of ramen noodels. and i gladly stamped those lil pieces of paper that you find in the boxes of 'stuff' assembled by 'so and so' etc. i got paid peanuts and did good quality work. it was a pride in workmanship issue. i moved into testing.. then did a lil stint in R&D and DID actually get a pay bump. like double.. which for me and back then was big... i guess they felt bad having someone design some electronic test equipment to show off (sell) ( at a trade show ) their remote read computer encoding meter heads and pay them minimum wage..

bump up to recently.an engineering firm I've been working at for the last 14 years suddenly laid the lot of us off ( 90% of the eng staff ) I managed to hire on with a client i had been doing work for thru the other co. ( with the permission of the prev co ) though had to take a 15% pay cut to do so. In that move. I picked up plenty more responsibility, and a management hat.. ironically. making less pay than i had in the last 20ys... with the reduced pay has my work quality went down.?? that's apparently the tone by many responders here. lower pay means it's ok to turn out lower quality work... me? nope. if anything.. it made me step up even more. work harder.. do more.. less pay..

my point? the quality of ones work should be a constant..

in a perfect world.. cream would rise to the top. ie.. reward for better work. we all know it's not perfect.. and for many.. increased quality will not get you anything tangible. thus.. the intangible becomes more important sometimes.

i don't care if i am sweeping floors. I'm gonna sweep them the best i can....

Not to beat the subject to death, but given the pay scale at a lot of these places, I don't expect too much. Our local HD has a couple knowlegible retirees on staff. Without them, I would expect a lot less info from HD. If the guy doesn't know his job, that's a management problem, no training=no info. I really think it all comes down to the benjamins - no money = no good. If they paid more, stuff would cost more, and lots of folks would go somewhere else. The good news is, we are winning the race to the bottom!!!

 

[Soundguy]

If you were a plumber, would you work at Lowes at 9 pm?

if i worked at lowes .. I'd know my department.

 

[DFB]

if you really want to get your bp up go to these auto pars places almost on a daily basis and exprience just how little they know about what there selling.

A little different twist on that not so much a dig on the help but the quality of the parts
we just replaced the starter 4 times in my contractor pal Silverado work truck. 3 bad starters off the shelf in row from a discount autoparts chain store. We thought we were nuts each one would work for about 2 days then either just start spinning or go dead. I told him get his money back and we go to NAPA They wouldn't give cash back just guaranteed replacement.

 

[Soundguy]

. if you really want to get your bp up go to these auto pars places almost on a daily basis and exprience just how little they know about what there selling.

i usually won't go to our local napa or car quest WITHOUT a part number. it's THAT bad..

 

[DFB]

i usually won't go to our local napa or car quest WITHOUT a part number. it's THAT bad..

Now were talking the help again

When I replaced the waterpump on my Dodge it specifically said HOAT coolant the kid at the NAPA counter never heard of it tried telling me green prestone was what everyone ever uses finally the manager came in from lunch straightened it all out

 

[ultrarunner]

Occasionally... there will be someone at the top of their game at the big box stores...

When I find them, I remember their name and even if I'm there on a day when that person is gone... just dropping the name seems to get better service.

I stopped in at lunch at a Home Depot I had never visited... ask one of the guys where I could find the skylights... he said, "In electrical... isle 5".

Told him I was looking for a "Roof Window" and he just shrugged and said I should go to customer service.

My biggest problem with the Box stores in the Bay Area are my truck getting broken into... I can't take the truck unless I take someone with me.

Which raises another problem and that is theft which is running rampant.

One of the stores had a women fill up a shopping cart with power tools and bolt out the door with two employees in pursuit... that is untill they noticed a hand gun pointed at them from the get away vehicle with no plates.

Service and knowledge does seem to vary be region... much better in and around Olympia WA as opposed to the Bay Area... I think it's because those in Olympia are career with experience.

 

[Soundguy]

Now were talking the help again

When I replaced the waterpump on my Dodge it specifically said HOAT coolant the kid at the NAPA counter never heard of it tried telling me green prestone was what everyone ever uses finally the manager came in from lunch straightened it all out

same here. i was repalcing the water pump on my ford diesel. partsmonkey tried to give me basic green coolant. didn't try to upsell me to the precharged fleet sca/dca coolant.. or sell me the nappa-cool sca/dca addative? I had to ask for it.. ..sigh....