I just got back from the local The Home Depot, located on 41st Avenue in Capitola and I am not happy. As all my friends know, there is a disease in Santa Cruz called “Indifferent Customer Service.” It is a plague upon our beautiful area and it needs to be stopped.
Now usually I enjoy my visits to The Home Depot. Before this particular store opened, I use to journey over the hill to visit them until one opened in Watsonville. So for years I have been taking my time to travel the distance because I found their employees to be very knowledgeable and helpful.
When the store in Capitola opened, I was very happy. The Home Depot was now less than 5 miles away from my house. And visit it I did. And spend money I did. We bought our new oven, microwave, dishwasher (all GE) from them, plus countless other items. But lately I have noticed that the customer service is beginning to get down right bad. And in this economy, there is no excuse for bad customer service.
Just today I had three things happen, then I witnessed a fourth incident which prompted me to blog about today. Here is what happened:
- Upon entering the store, saw three employees joking around while two customers were waiting for them. I also had a question, but these three could not be bothered to stop their personal conversation. (They were talking about what they had done over the weekend.)
- I was searching for some in room fans for Meta Magic Studio, yet I could not find anyone to help me locate them. In the past, I could always get directions within two minutes. Not today, I happened to find them after 12 minutes of searching.
- I purchased two fans. I realized right after I swiped my debit card that I had used my home card versus the MMS card. I have done this before so you would think I would be more careful but I screwed up. I immediately asked if I could cancel the card swipe (which has been successfully done before) so I could swipe the correct card. The “bored” clerk just looked at me and said nope. Ok, so it was my bad for swiping the wrong card but I have not even punched in my pin number or verified amount, surely it can be stopped (because in the past it has been fixed). Bored and pathetic The Home Depot employee answer was “ah guess – ah - ah your out of luck.” Oh wow!
- So I leave the store not so happy then I helplessly watch as a lady in a car backs into a mess of shopping carts. It looked as if every cart at this location was out in the parking lot. (See pictures). This poor lady was more embarrassed by the collision and just wanted to leave. But what really pissed me off is that two employees saw the whole thing and walked away. (All of this happened between 11:20 am and 11:50 am today). — I went to my truck and took pictures of the parking lot mess in the vain hope that Home Depot might read this.
Now I know all companies have bad days but I am watching this location start down the path of Indifferent Customer Service which is rampant in Santa Crus County. Time to shape up The Home Depot.
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Blog note – I am know making a category on Customer Service just so I can track this better.
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