April 12, 2005
Is Everyone Dumb?
I had this discussion with eburke about a week ago. Let me explain.
So I wanted to put a laminate wood floor in the bedroom in the basement. Its going to be a gym. Seems like a good choice of flooring. So I had priced around and The Home Depot consistently had the best price and they had a good DuPont (Go 24!) product that I liked. Good. About 2 weeks ago they had a sale so I pulled the trigger. I went to the store to buy it.
Now every time you go in, some dude in an orange apron tells you how easy this stuff is. No problem. They even have a free class on Saturdays. I am pretty handy and I think I can do it but I have this gut feel that something isn’t right. So I am about ready to do it myself and then I started asking some more questions about what things I need. Its then that I discover that the floor has to be level to a certain degree or the floor will not work. Meaning if its not flat enough, the joints in the laminate aren’t going to stay together and look flat. I do have a big crack in the middle of the room so maybe I better not.
Oh and then he kept saying that you need a saw to cut the board. Ok, I have about 3 saws so then it dawns on me…what kind of saw? “Oh, a just an ordinary table saw”, he says. I don’t have a damn table saw. What do you think this is — the Yankee Workshop. As I explained that I really don’t want to buy a table saw because I don’t need it otherwise and don’t really have a place to put it, he looks at me like I am slightly insane — “Man do not want to buy table saw. Huh?”. Ok, you guys do it.
So the process is that they send some measuring dude out to check things out. This is good news because its only $50 for that service and it goes towards the purchase. If there is something wrong with the room, this measuring will find it.
So the guy shows a few days later and measures. I tried to squeeze some info from him but he said The Home Depot folks would call back with a complete bid now that he had the info. Ok.
A few days later, an associate from the store calls and says its all set. Come in and pay. Cool. So I go in and we go over the paper work. I asked about the floor not being level. What did they find? She indicates that there was a slope but the quote includes one bag of leveling compound. What if that is not enough? She indicates they will charge me $60 for another. Sounds good. Let’s do it. So we load up a flat cart with the 14 cartons of wood and I pay and check out. They have some crappy ass computer system there so it took about an hour to pay for the service. Not fun. Plus they never get our sales tax right because we live in this weird area. Oh well.
So I bring the wood home and carry the 14 cartons into the basement. They have to be there a few days in advance to warm up to the room temp. Check.
The guys were supposed to come Monday to install but because of the Blizzard of 2005 they canceled and returned today. So 2 dudes show up at my door today. Here to do your flooring? Right on. Come on in. I take them down into the room. Just as we get in there, the doorbell rings and a delivery is here. I have to go and get it so I leave the guys in the room. While working with the delivery guys, the flooring guys come up and go out to their truck. Must be getting their tools? They were on cell phones. What are they talking about? After my delivery they come back to the house and say, “Are you ready for some bad news?”. They can’t lay the floor. Not level enough. I wisely curb my words for these 2 very large Latino dudes. Not their fault anyway. Not much I can do with them. They say they can’t lay it because they can’t correct the floor enough. Would have to have the floor ground down and they don’t do that. Bye.
The Home Depot calls a few minutes later. Heard you have a problem there, Mr. Fuller. You bet your ass. She wanted to talk about next steps. I wanted to know who is getting their ass chewed out. We focused on that and she tried to get the manager but he was busy. I told them to call me back when they get their story straight.
They called back later and it turns out that is their associate’s fault. She was supposed to actually read the measurements and see that this flooring wouldn’t work in that room. Bummer. I put the ass chewing on hold for now because the manager is still busy. I told them I would be in touch. Tomorrow, I am calling and telling them to come and get their shit.
So now tomorrow, Kim is going to run to the place we got our carpet from and see if we can get some low pile industrial type carpet to put in the gym. Another small issue in project basement.
From the start, I was worried about this floor and it being level. I had a gut feel. I asked the whole way through and I still got shafted at the end. How frustrating.
bad day by all- sorry to hear about yours. the carpet guys finally came today for our carpet (yes, you remember correctly, our basement was started the week before thanksgiving) and guess what? They installed the wrong color carpet in Eric's office!!!! and ordered the wrong carpet color for the main room! ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From what I've heard, this kind of experience is not uncommon when working with Home Depot. My mother, while in the process of sprucing up her home before selling it, decided to lay some fresh carpet. Home Depot happened to be having a sale the weekend she was ready to lay down some cash for it, so she decided to go through them. Placing the order went fine. But when it came time to actually show up and do the job, it took weeks of rescheduling because the Home Depot assclowns kept stalling and couldn't figure out when they wanted to show up to actually do the job. It sounded like the problem with her was mostly miscommunication between the sales associates and the workers. You'd think a company as large as Home Depot would have a simple concept like that figured out these days, but apparently not.
i still stand by the 1/2" rubber mats i got from http://www.jesupgym.com/. the rubber is a good insulator and a good gym floor. plus, at 70 pounds per 4x6 sheet, it's a nice workout getting them downstairs!
Thanks eburke, I have been looking for 1/2 rubber flooring for our basement. I have heard it is great.
no problem! hope it works out well for you. they ship them via motor freight so there's an extra $45 charge for a residential drop. i would also recommend a good sturdy razor blade knife for cutting. definitely use a straightedge or the rubber will control where your blade goes.
Tell me about it! Remember I was in the construction business for 30 tears ( whoops-30 years) before I decided a change was due. Oh,now for the question " Is everyone dumb". NO, only the people you have to deal with are! All of the people that you never meet are really smart.
Same story here - just a different material - same through Home Depot. Our little old house (22 years new...) had an extremely ugly ceramic tile kitchen counter... finally overly bored with it so we went and scoped out available counter top materials - decided on SileStone a manufactured ceramic marble-like material without the sealing/staining problems, etc... Home Depot seems to hold the corner on the SileStone market around here.
Home Depot gal (how does she live in a "construction" world with finger nails that are that long?) says "the gentlemen" will come "deconstruct" our old counter top and measure for the new...
The brothers (the two Jose's) did a bang-up job with the deconstruction - only punched through the wall in three small places (not to worry - will end up hidden behind the new splash panel)... ah - then on to measuring...
... argh!!!! old cabinet tops not 'flat enougy" - WARNING Will Robinson!!!!! The two Jose's cannot move forward or complete their measuring until the cabinets get "leveled"... but they don't do that... even had them call their boss and I talked to him - they don't do that... have to level and then pay an additional $250 to have them come back - grrrrr....
I called our Home Depot construction expert and once she'd done a bit more mainicure work on her nails then she told me I should come in and pick up the leveling blocks I could use to fix my problem and then the two Jose's could come back...
She didn't "get it" - I didn't feel much like trying to level the cabinets only to find out again the two Jose's couldn't do their job - she kept telling me I shouldn't worry - I'd do just fine... she would show me how if I just came back to the Home Depot store when she wasn't on break/on lunch/talking to other "customers"/filing her nails... my confidence was really building by now in how good a decision I'd made to trust Home Depot with this simple end-to-end counter-top remove & install...
S0 - I asked what she would be telling her Grandmother right then if that was who had signed up for this service....
... (wait for it)...
... she'd just have gradma come in and pick up the leveling blocks...
That did it. These are the times when my wife is most understanding of my genetic defect from my Dad in which I "need" to acquire new cool tools even if they have only a single time use... I got this really excellent five-foot level with extenders built into the frame to give me a 12-foot extended level (don't ask the price)...
In my case I do have my Dad's table saw so I created a few leveling blocks of my own custom exactly to our counters...
The two Jose's came by two weeks later - all was well - counter-top was ordered... showed up and installed perfectly...
Moral of the story? Home Depot REALLY cares how well their end-to-end installations go... if you are REALLY lucky you'll get a salesperson/project manager who is also a beauty queen so you don't need to worry that she'll "over commit" their resources to your problems.
Life is good - the counter-top is beautiful and completely functional... and I have this really excellent expanding level if anyone needs to borrow it...
Todd, Home Depot has a "No questions asked-return policy". If I was you guys I would use Home Depot as a "Tool Rental Store" on that type of equipment(barbeque grills won't work) and figure you just left them a deposit to use their rental equipment.
JUST WANTED TO SAY HELLO AND HOPE ALL IS WELL OUT WEST!!! CAN'T WAIT TO GET OUT AND SEE YOU GUYS AND THE NEW ADDITION. I WILL SEND FITNESS PLANS FOR YOU AND THE WIFE SO THAT EXERCISE ROOM DOESN'T BECOME A CLOSET LIKE MOST AMERICANS.
GO #8
Hey Dohn. Good timing. I will have a post-pregancy wife that needs to drop about 20/30. I might let you stay for free! :)
Hi, I couldn't help overhearing your gripe about Home Depot and their Silestone installation issues. This is the exact reason why I do soooo much business in St. Louis. They don't have a corner on this market and they never will as long as I'm alive (insert evil laugh) and willing to take them on. I do it right the first time and people appreciate it so much they tell everyone they know.
Your Home Depot experience sounds a lot like ours. Ours was a little worse though. I have not shopped there since "the incident."
you obviously should not attempt work that involves common sense. of course, you'll need special tools for nearly any project. I just 'saw' a table saw on sale the other day for under a hundred bucks. Rent a saw. Borrow a saw. If you spent more time working on your projects instead of sitting at the computer, bitching, you might not need a gym in your basement. Baby
That's the funniest comment I have read in a while.
BTW, my job is to sit at the computer.