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Showing posts with label Home Depot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Depot. Show all posts

Sunday, October 2, 2011

And the winner is…..


It may have started off Home Depot vs. Lowe’s, but neither of them can claim a win.   I have to say that Home Depot would win for location and hot dogs, Lowe’s has better selection of products (with the exception of not carrying LG products), but Best Buy wins for deals on washers and dryers. 
Home Depot was offering $250 off the LG washer and dryer and free delivery; I think the attitude was included at no charge.  Best Buy had a total of $227 off the two, free delivery and a $150 Best Buy gift card for each appliance.  Sa-weet!  Plus the associate who helped us was friendly and knowledgeable, can’t beat that deal.
Sean is still in shock that we spent more on a washer and dryer then he spent on his first two cars.  However, we are both happy to have our first new washer and dryer as adults.  Now we can finally stop throwing a damp towel in the dryer when we’ve forgotten clothes in there to long, the dryer has a steam function.  Once we get them in place I will post a picture.  We still have to tile the laundry room, buy cabinets and paint before we can hook them up.
This experience made me feel like a grown up, not sure if that is a good or bad thing.  My idea of a hot date on a Friday night did end up being a big appliance purchase and dinner at Red Robin.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Lowe's Vs. Home Depot


Today I finally decided to see the difference between Lowe's and Home Depot.  I have to disclose that I obviously have been to both chains in the past, but this time was different.  This time I actually was looking for something more than a key to cut or a plant to kill (this kill is always by accident, I swear).

Before I go any further let me express my want for a locally owned stored that I can purchase these things at, but it's really hard to find and narrow these things down.  Ooh, new idea after all this is done, helping locally owned stores market their services and products in one place, by location.

Ok, focus, focus, focus.

Funny thing is, I picked a Lowe's location that shared a parking lot with a Home Depot.  So if they were going to show me what they had, I figured this would be it.  As I entered the store I realized that it was very similar to Home Depot and decided to walk around a bit.  Wandering the aisles I could tell I picked a lucky day, inventory day.  Therefore not only are there a bunch of people that looked like they worked there that didn't, but the employees were distracted by the event.  No big deal, I've been through inventory, I can sympathize.

I was tempted by a half off outdoor carpet for the deck.  You should see that poor deck, it needs to be dressed. Then off to the bathroom vanity area where I found a great vanity, with a laundry wash tub and faucet.  The price was great, but I couldn't find anyone to tell me the width (I really need a tape measure in that mammoth purse I own).  I stood around awhile until an employee finally approached the desk in the bath area.  I guess he was busy, he picked up the phone, looked around and then walked away.  I guess me standing staring at him, then the vanity, then back at him, didn't really give him the hint.  Since the tag on the display lead me in the wrong direction, I was just happy to accidentally stumble upon the box only to find that it was not going to fit into our laundry room.  No big deal, I kinda had a feeling that it was too good to be true.

On to washer and dryers, only to confirm that Lowe's does not carry LG.  Well, sort of.  I asked a friendly employee that approached me if they carried LG and much like many people that try to provide customer service, she was not really trained in it.  Simple rule, when you don't know the answer, don't make it up, just say you need to ask.

Now my favorite part, paint colors.  I have to give Lowe's props for having a much larger selection of paint colors.  I was very excited to spend some quality time trying to figure out how there could be two hundred shades of yellow.

Last stop, front door handles.  We are looking into the ones that have a keypad and still had some questions.  Sean already knew the answer, I had the questions.  Winner, winner chicken dinner, a person that approached me, offered me some input and loudly chewed gum the whole time.  Ok, two out of three isn't too bad.

Bubble wrap and two magazines is what I left with.  That's fine, I'll have to try a Lowe's closer to the condo so I'll know what caliber of employees I'll be dealing with.  Plus, Sean found a fabulous deal on the washer and dryer we want and I won't have to buy it from Home Depot.


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Home Depot, by appointment only

So last night I dragged my poor husband once again into Home Depot.  This time we were there to get something done, a quote on cabinets for the laundry room.  We wanted to get an idea of price and quality of one of their basic lines of cabinets and compare them to the Ikea cabinets we've found.  After watching a designer help another couple for awhile, we thought we were being obvious that we needed a little help.  This designer even stood right next to me showing the other couple some options.  Still not a nod of I'll be with you soon or anything.

Finally another employee asked if we needed help, I explained why we were there and he basically told me he couldn't help us and the designer with the couple was going to be at least 2 hours with them and then she had another appointment.  Ok, I sort of understand the appointment thing, but when I talked to one of the other designers a month ago, maybe he could have passed on this little bit of valuable information.  We were asked if we would like to make an appointment and I really just wanted to leave, some how I ended up with a 9:00am appointment today.  After all this hard renovation work, we rewarded ourselves with dinner from the WAB (half off all food on Mondays nights).

I arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed at Home Depot at a little before 9:00am.  I have to confess, I wasn't thrilled to drag my butt out of bed early on my day off and I neglected to properly medicate myself with some caffeine, but still, I was there.  I walked back to the kitchen area to find my "designer."  As I found him approaching the area I started with a cheery "Good Morning," which I personally wasn't feeling, but mustered it up anyway.  I got a quiet hello back and then I had to announce that I had an appointment with him this morning.  He didn't seem to know that someone had sneaked in an early appointment with him this morning and didn't seem to appreciate the gesture.  Still, trying to keep my head up I sat down and started to explain what I was looking for, as I was quickly cut off to have information demanded from me.  Some of which I had and some I had to call my husband for.  I apologized and explained I needed to call my husband for more information and glad that I did.  See, if it wasn't for the fact that my husband could hear grumpy pants barking questions at me, I might have just thought that I was clearly unprepared and unworthy of laundry room cabinet information.

We tried to continue, I was determined to find the nice old guy that I knew was in there somewhere.  He had a picture of him and his granddaughter on his wall, so I know he must have some niceness somewhere or small children would run from this man.  I gave him all the info I had, and in the end he gave me a quote for cabinets that were more than I would be willing to spend. Especially knowing that I would be working with this man.  Just an FYI, cabinets with glass in the door are wicked expensive!  As we ended our little lovefest, he handed me a quote, tried to talk me into just purchasing the cheapest cabinets they keep in stock, explained that I was basically screwed on the space left for the sink and told me he wouldn't be calling me.  In fact, he would be deleting the whole thing out of the system.  I'm sure it was so it didn't count against him when I didn't end up purchasing the cabinets, but really I think we both knew that I wasn't coming back.