Despising the Despot

Kick me while I’m down, why don’t you?

I’m sure I’m not the only one who calls Home Depot “Home Despot,” but I must say that usually, I find Home Depot to be among my favorite places. It is a place filled with hope and excitement — all those tools and raw materials waiting to be crafted into projects. It’s thrilling.

But, for me, right now, Home Depot is nightmarish and frustrating. They have screwed us over so much on our counters that I’m beyond feeling unhappy about it. My kitchen remains torn to pieces because Home Depot can’t get their act together. I’ve written about it before [click] but it’s gotten worse so I’m ranting now.

So, to recap. We ordered our countertops. They screwed them up by making backsplashes on them even though we had expressly asked for them without backsplashes. We had to make many phone calls and visits to sort it out and then were told that they couldn’t get our color in for like 6 weeks. I had to go in and look at the samples to figure out that the same blinkin’ color was available in a slightly different finish. They said, “Oh, yea. Good idea.” And, then gave us a 3 week delivery time — no rushing them through even though THEY had screwed them up.

Meanwhile, we’re getting regular calls from the customer service desk to come and pick up the counter tops. The ones that we had refused because they were WRONG! So aggravating.

Greg called the guy at Home Depot who seemed to know what was going on last week and told him we really needed them and he said he couldn’t rush them through. Greg explained to him that we have no kitchen. We have finished the painting and are now waiting for the counter tops to do anything else. We can’t tile the backsplash until the counters are in place. We can’t do the metal tile backsplash behind the cooktop until the counters are in place. We can’t put in the butcher block counter until the counters are in place. We can’t put the sink back and re-hook up the plumbing until the counters are in place. We can’t put the cooktop back until the counters are in place. We can’t start on the hardwood floors because there is still so much construction to do. We are eating out for most meals. We are hemorrhaging money and totally wish we’d gone to a high end counter place now — we would have saved so much money at this point. The guy is like “Sorry about that. I can’t speed it up.”

So, the countertops are due in today (Monday). Friday, Home Depot took another jab at us.

We got a call saying our countertops were in. I told Greg, “you better call them and make sure they aren’t just talking about the same ones that have been sitting there at customer service for 5 weeks now.” He did. He called them about 8:30 on Friday night. The young woman who had called him assured him that these were not the old, wrong countertops. They were the new ones — the replacements. The manufacturer, she assured him, felt so badly about the delay that he rushed them and delivered them on Friday. Greg said, “Okay, I’ll come and get them tomorrow morning.” She offered the information that Home Depot was open until 10pm. He thought about it and said, “Okay, I’ll come and get them tonight.” It seemed reasonable — it was due to rain on Saturday so that seemed the best decision. Meanwhile, I moved stuff in our workspace to make room for the new countertops. Yay! We thought.

I wasn’t really surprised when he arrived home empty handed but I was very, very angry. The woman who called was wrong on two critical points and lied on at least two others. She was wrong about the countertops being the new ones — they were not. They were the old ones. That have been sitting there for 5 weeks and are now damaged from being run into by something. There is absolutely no way you could think they were ready for delivery — they are damaged really badly. Unusable. Furthermore, Home Depot was not open until 10pm that night. They closed at 9pm. Greg got there at 9:15. He talked someone into letting him into the store. Only to see the wrong, freakin’ countertops. Greg is a calm and patient man but I am glad I wasn’t there to see his anger then. So, the lies . . . well, she lied when she said she’d checked that they were the new countertops and not the old ones and she lied when she told the whole cock-and-bull story about the manufacturer feeling badly about doing the countertops wrong and taking so long.

I wonder how long it will be before I can walk into a Home Depot again and feel that same sense of anticipation that I used to feel? In it’s place, I feel a sick and hopeless rage.

So, the countertops are due to arrive today. Our confidence that they will arrive is nil. Our confidence that they’ll be what we ordered is nil. Our belief in Home Depot is similarly nil.

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