Hello,
I am writing to complain about a series of extremely frustrating incidents that happened recently at my local Lowe's store (Store #1585 - Norwood, Ohio).
First of all, as part of a deck that I am building, I bought a 1# box of 16-penny ring shank nails. A few days later, when I went to use them, I noticed that the package had been opened and re-taped, apparently returned by someone and then re-put on the shelf. Apparently this person was a bit unscrupulous, as half the nails were missing and in their place were a few assorted bolts, other kinds of nails and screws (maybe to make up the weight of the nails).
This was extremely frustrating as when I buy something from a store, I like to have confidence that what I am purchasing will be high quality and what I need - not half-used material that is put back on the shelf.
So I made the trip (back) to Lowe's and returned the nails. I had no issues getting my money back so I went back to find a (hopefully unopened this time) box of nails. I found the marking where those nails were supposed to be, but on the shelf above that marking were just straight nails (not the kind I needed). I looked for an employee and after several minutes finally found one. He looked but said he didn't know anything about this and suggested I go check with the man up by the key making machine. He was busy fixing something but at least took the time to call me over the manager of the hardware department. After a few minutes, she came by and we looked back there. She opened the various cabinets and looked on the various shelves and overstock space but could not find any. She looked in the computer and said she was supposed to have 24 of them, but there were none in the entire store.
After striking out with the nails, I went to the paint department to purchase some paint. I gave the employees my paint swatch and they set to tint my paint. After waiting around for awhile, she gave me my paint. As I walked away, luckily I checked the paint droplet that she had put on the top because the shade did not look right. I can sometimes have trouble distinguishing colors and of course sometimes wet paint does not look exactly the color it will be when it dries, but I took this back to the counter just to make sure. Sure enough - she had given me someone else's paint!!! I waited around for a bit more and finally got my paint.
Now I made my way to the checkout in somewhat of a hurry. I had not counted on spending over an hour in Lowe's and was running a bit late. To top things off, the cashier miscounted the amount of money I gave her. An honest mistake and it was only 5 cents, but it really was the topper to an afternoon full of mistakes at Lowe's.
As a professional rehabber, I have always kind of been of the impression that Home Depot and Lowe's were essentially the same store - that you could pretty much find the same stuff with the same service, etc. But if this is the kind of experiences that I am likely to receive at Lowe's stores, I know which chain will be getting my business!!
Thank you for your time
Dan Miller.
PS - In the end, it kind of worked out well, since after leaving Lowe's, I drove 1/2 mile down the street to Home Depot, where the nails were over 30% cheaper!!! ($3.59 vs. $5.39 for a 1# box)
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Update: I had to
follow-up to this email when nobody answered
