Massive Fail at Lowes Yesterday
- Thread starter Hermann
- Start date
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
Sometimes poor inventory control works for you. Last summer I went to HD to get an new Klein digital multimeter. The one I wanted was around $60 and showed in stock, none to be found so the HD guy grabbed a $100 one and went with me to checkout and told the checkout girl to price it at $60. Not going to argue.
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
That one person quit earlier in the day.
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
Yes there is more. Upper management did nothing to remedy the situation.If it's not age discrimiation it's gender (or lack thereof), color, height, weight etc.
At the end of the day, the staff were shortstaffed.
Nothing less and nothing more.
I believe it was. As 4 young folks standing around who didn't move in a half an hour. Not one of them would turn around and look me in the eye. We aren't ugly or stinky. Karen did not get vocal until a half hour passed in the lumber area. Someone mentioned the store was without a general manager for several days. A new one had not arrived yet.
Sounds like a typical big box store with poor management these days. As you yourself are pointing out - what upper management?
Doesn't matter what age you are. I can point to multiple retail experiences in recent years with similar problems, and I can state I am not elderly...
Doesn't matter what age you are. I can point to multiple retail experiences in recent years with similar problems, and I can state I am not elderly...
No excuse for the poor treatment . Was brought up to be respectful to others . Seems like this is not instilled as much .
The 'art' and proper mindset for customer service is quickly dying. I'd love to blame it on the younger generation but I can't lay the blame on any one group. It generally sucks all around nowadays.
Sorry for your poor Lowes experience. Having no one able to use the saw is one thing, but having four people standing around in the customer service department doing nothing to try to resolve the situation is the biggest failure. Some people just aren't wired for it and all the training in the world can't beat it into their heads. There are lots of terrible managers out there also.
Sorry for your poor Lowes experience. Having no one able to use the saw is one thing, but having four people standing around in the customer service department doing nothing to try to resolve the situation is the biggest failure. Some people just aren't wired for it and all the training in the world can't beat it into their heads. There are lots of terrible managers out there also.
I hope you were just being dramatic. Otherwise Karen really needs some therapy . Complete overreaction . I'm not saying that to be nasty .
Lowe's stores have multiple levels of management . Lack of a " General Manager " is not a showstopper .
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Plenty of people trained to cut wood . More like a lack of motivation coupled with poor supervision .
Yes but the point is that the store should have multiple people trained in various tasks. Then again maybe everyone else was scared of the blade?
Yep. Just like being trained on a forklift or a cashier. It make you more valuable to the company.
It all started going down hill when some corporate motivational speaker came up with the idea that if you gave the help professional sounding titles, they will work harder. So now instead of being a stocker or cashier, you're an ASSOCIATE. Yea ok, and I'm a transportation consultant.
It seems to be getting worse as the years go on. I am middle aged. I think what I'm seeing is a decline in work ethic, among other things. It could just be my perception that things are worse in that regard now than 20 years ago...but I do not think so.
If you ever do manage to get somebody to cut wood for you, see if you can catch sight of the code they punch in to turn on the saw. Then you'll be set. I rarely rely on store associates to help me with anything because they don't know anything and they don't want to help. They are quite literally paid to stand around and suck up the oxygen.
They'd first have to care about their value to the company.
Not quite as bad as the OP's experience, but the wife and I were at Lowe's this past weekend trying to buy a new gas grill. When we hit up the young guys at the service desk about whom do we talk to about buying the grill we wanted, all 3 pretty much had a look like "oh, no, we might have to do something hard". Two of them then pointed to the one finishing a bag of potato chips who was slowly slinking away and said "He can help you.". He first had to hunt down the key to unlock the chain the grills were on, and he took us up to cashiers. As usual, no live bodies on any of the registers. He was about to have somebody paged, but my wife said "Can we ring it up on the self checkout?". "Oh, yeah!". So he brought up the item on his phone, keyed in the stock number, and amazingly, the self-checkout didn't require somebody's approval to purchase it. He managed to snag one of the other guys to help load the grill onto the truck, but you could kind of tell that they weren't too eager to sell a grill that night.
I could tell 10 similar stories however I just left. no shouting involved.
Doubt it had anything to do with age.
One simple story.
Went to buy 8 concrete pavers to put under picnic table legs (2 tables) Busy lowes but not jammed or anything.
First the aisle is closed because they are forklifting.... in the aisle next to it.
wait
Get 8 pavers.. noted they were 1.47? each (iirc)
take to register. all are closed except self check with a girl who resembles peppermint patty(PP) from peanuts(charlie brown).
She cant figure out how to ring them up.. about 10min of wait.
So I go back to get the sku off shelf..
Aisle is closed again.. forklifting other aisle.. ask employee to go read off the sku.. no can do. someone might rush in the other aisle 5ft away..
so I leaned over and took a pic with 10x zoom.. got scolded.. meanwhile I was 45ft from forklift in another aisle.
Go back. PP puts the number in it comes up as something else. I was irritated now the garden center is at the far end of the store.
Left... sat in car for 5min to cool off.. (so I didnt yell at someone) pushed down the frustration.
Go back to garden center again. figure out there is NO price for the pavers in the aisle.
Ask for help. guy shows me secondary display near garden checkout that has the number. and a price.
Go back to self check.. find cart with my 8 pavers in it. PP comes over and types in the sku..
IT COMES UP.. yey... but wrong price 50% more than the sign.
Said fark it -paid and GTFO.
Yes all that over 8 concrete pavers..
Doubt it had anything to do with age.
One simple story.
Went to buy 8 concrete pavers to put under picnic table legs (2 tables) Busy lowes but not jammed or anything.
First the aisle is closed because they are forklifting.... in the aisle next to it.
wait
Get 8 pavers.. noted they were 1.47? each (iirc)
take to register. all are closed except self check with a girl who resembles peppermint patty(PP) from peanuts(charlie brown).
She cant figure out how to ring them up.. about 10min of wait.
So I go back to get the sku off shelf..
Aisle is closed again.. forklifting other aisle.. ask employee to go read off the sku.. no can do. someone might rush in the other aisle 5ft away..
so I leaned over and took a pic with 10x zoom.. got scolded.. meanwhile I was 45ft from forklift in another aisle.
Go back. PP puts the number in it comes up as something else. I was irritated now the garden center is at the far end of the store.
Left... sat in car for 5min to cool off.. (so I didnt yell at someone) pushed down the frustration.
Go back to garden center again. figure out there is NO price for the pavers in the aisle.
Ask for help. guy shows me secondary display near garden checkout that has the number. and a price.
Go back to self check.. find cart with my 8 pavers in it. PP comes over and types in the sku..
IT COMES UP.. yey... but wrong price 50% more than the sign.
Said fark it -paid and GTFO.
Yes all that over 8 concrete pavers..
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I don't have time for customer service. I bought an orange Home Depot apron. I put that on and cut the wood myself. Nobody has ever bothered me. Well, some guy wanted me to cut some boards for him. I told him to get his own apron. I don't know if he complained about poor service to management. At our local Home Depot the saw tends to be down. Maybe I should show up with my own saw?
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