Land of Oz

Lowes Again!

Yes, it seems like I'm a glutton for punishment. Unfortunately, Lowes often has what I need even if it's such a pain to find it. The good news? Today after stopping at three hardware stores, one tractor supply store and Home Depot in a quest for some flat headed, slotted #14 wood screws, 1 3/4" long, I finally found them at Lowes. So much for $3 purchase. The day before I was trying to spend $300 on a Delta floor model drill press.

I knew from their web site that they were out of stock, so I went to the tools section and asked a guy taking inverntory how long it would take to get one. He said "let me check" and the chase began. I followed him to his terminal and he queried the system that told him they didn't have any. His response, "We should have one in a few days." That's what they always say when they are out of stock. (I've since found out that the item has been discontinued by Delta so I doubt his statement was really true.)

I asked if I ordered one would it get here quicker - he said, it would probably take longer! He did some more checking and found out a neighboring store (about 25 miles away) had three on hand and would be able to ship one for Monday. He told me you'd have to pay for it though, and I said fine. He wrote the stock number and some cryptic notes on a piece of paper, handed it to me and told me to take it to any cashier, tell her it was a shipment from Midland, and they would be able to help me.

As I think I've mentioned before the checkout lanes in Lowes suck big time. As usual, there was only one open with a line of folks standing in it. I get in line and finally get to the cashier. I hand her the note and tell her what I'm ordering. She rings it up and I ask her if she added the Midland shipping note - she said no, and that she didn't know how to. I canceled this credit card and she tried again and told me "this is probably the right way." I told her I didn't want probably, I wanted to know for sure. She called another cashier over for help and that one didn't know anything either. By this time there were about 10 people piled up in line behind me. I told her to forget it, cancel it again and I'll take it to Customer Service.

I went to Customer Service -- they'd should know right? Of course not. The cashier there said she didn't have any idea how to do what I needed and got on the phone to call someone. Several minutes later (did I mention I was on a lunch break?) this poor old guy* about 80 comes tottering up to the counter. I show him the note, he glances at it, points at each word with his finger, does it again, and finally tells me he used to know, but since they got that new system in, he doesn't anymore. I probably said something to the effect that, "Isn't there anyone in this store who knows what's going on?" and wandered off to find the guy who gave me the note.

I noticed he was a "zone supervisor" whatever that is and he was still at his terminal. I explained, probably being rather short, what had happened. He took back the note and said, "follow me and I'll do it for you." We wandered to the checkout lanes, he grabbed a cash register, fiddled with a few keys and about after me signing the credit card window, he handed me a reciept and said it would be ready for pickup on Monday.

What really set me off to log this was I just watched a Lowes commercial where the actor who plays a clerk, covers his heart and promises low prices. Crap, how about touching your head and promising service! I really wouldn't mind paying a couple of percent points more if there was someone is the stupid store who could answer a simple question.

2fers: Delta Tools and Hardware