I’m pretty unhappy with Home Depot right now. I thought it might help to vent. (Also, there is a tip that might save you some $$$ if you're also waiting for a delivery from HD.)

May 15 - Home Depot was running a special on something I was interested in. The area where I live was still in phase 1 of the COVID lock down, my local store (5 min away) was out of stock and, it was a rainy day and I didn’t feel like running to one of the stores with inventory (about 45 min round trip). No worries, websites said it could be delivered to my house on May 27 or to the story (I think that was June 5). Order placed and confirmed. Ship it to the house – will save me a trip and I'll get it faster.


May 27 – HD's website still showing 'Estimated Delivery May 27.' Ummm... website also seems to say it has not shipped. LONG hold to get to customer service. No real solution with the first lady. Tell her she’s been helpful but I’m pretty frustrated and want some sort of adjustment. Tell her she’s to nice to yell at... I'm unhappy, want an adjustment, and want to yell a someone. She said OK and transfer me.

Next lady also very nice. More experienced. Explained she and her coworkers had been telling management they should update website so the website shows more an accurate original estimated of delivery date. Apparently management not listing. I tell her she’s been helpful and was to nice to yell at. I’m unhappy - please transfer me to someone that might make an adjustment that I can also scream at. She that maybe she can help. Management has authorized discounts and she can reduce the price by x dollars. About 10% I explain I’d planned a project that weekend expecting the tools - whined a little bit said 'that helps but it was a huge inconvenience." She offers 2x dollars off (about 20%). She also promises to email the warehouse manager to get a status update and assure me that someone from CS would send me an update. (Of course the follow-up email never came.)

Local stores are now sold out – this is a combo set of cordless tools and I like this package configuration better than what Lowes has (at similar cost). Grrrr… I’m stuck.

June 1 – no movement
June 2 – no movement
June 3 - no movement and no promised email with update. Items back in stock at two of the stores. (One store has 2 one has 10). Decide I’ll go to the store if it hasn’t shipped by June 4.

June 4 – I get an email at 2:20 PM – order in transit. Cool, 3 days should have it by Monday. Check UPS website. Basically label generated but yet received. About now I remember a SF thread that basically said – generating a label is not the same as shipping. I think – it’s HD, label will be generated and it will go to UPS the night of June 4. If it’s 2-3 days I might have it Friday June 6. I’m just 7 hours from Atlanta.

June 5 – no movement on HD tracking site. Status on UPS website unchanged. Still waiting for HD to hand off package

This evening June 6 – UPS' app says In Transit. Ok that’s a change (this morning it said label created) but normally there is detail, like what time UPS scanned the item into their system. The app gives a “rescheduled delivery date” but it had an expected delivery date when it showed label created. HD has a (propriatiary??) tracking system. Click Track package in their email and it goes to http://www.narvar.com/tracking/homedepot/ups... It shows scans that UPS' app does not show.

So, I have no idea where or when this package will show up.

Thank-you for letting me vent.

Quick Recap
HD management happy to issue thousands of dollars of adjustments if customers complain but unwilling to give customers an an accurate estimate of deliver date when they order. Narrow window to cancel after order - so you're stuck. You'll get the product at sometime then you'll have to return it for a refund. (Oh, HD website said they didn't want items ordered online to be returned to stores - too keep down store traffic during COVID. (Not the exact terms they used, but I think that's a pretty goo summary.)

If you’re waiting on a shipment from HD – call customer service and complain until you get a price adjustment. Might have to escalate at least a one add’l level. Dollar wise, I’m pleased with the adjustment. But if I had to do it over again, I'd have made the trip and picked one up or purchased my second choice from Lowes. (Which is across the street from Home Depot - like 4 minutes from my house.)

Based on my experience, take anything HD says with a grain of salt. I have to choose if I believe the UPS website (not showing an initial scan on receipt of item) or the HD site, which shows 3 scans.

If you’re thinking about ordering from HD, add at lest two weeks to the planned delivery if you're having it sent to your home. I have no idea if it’s more accurate for ship to store.


Guess where I’m NOT going for my next tool purchase.


Thanks for letting me vent.

Sorry about your experience. I just ordered something from HD, and was surprised how quickly it was delivered. It would have been fast for pre-COVID times. I guess YMMV.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Sorry about your experience. I just ordered something from HD, and was surprised how quickly it was delivered. It would have been fast for pre-COVID times. I guess YMMV.

Truly glad (and a little jealous) that things went well with your order.

Shipping estimates are all over the place right now, everywhere.

One item I ordered arrived before USPS even showed that it was picked up for delivery. I was waiting and grumbling about the slow shipping, getting irritated as the estimated arrival date kept on getting pushed back... And then it showed up at my door.

FWIW I’ve had the same thing happen with Amazon twice. Their customer service will actually say, “I see that your item has shipped and you will receive it today.” I explain their is no tracking info so it hasn’t actually shipped. In addition it now shows as out of stock. They insist it has shipped. Both times this happened to me it took weeks to resolve. I think what happens is they print the label but then it’s not in stock when they try to pull it to ship. No idea why they don’t update the order at that point.

I hear your pain, I've also had issues with Home Depot shipping items ordered over their web site.

Note, this happened about 9 months prior to the Covid mess. In my case I had ordered an extended reach M12 Ratchet and spare batteries for it. Place my order and the Invoice is showing the system is shipping the ratchet to my "home" store but the batteries are going to a store about 40 miles distant off a freeway that has been closed down to 1 lane. Good news is that I check the email that popped up with that invoice. Called customer service and they deleted that order and put in a duplicate to insure that everything would go to my "home" store. That invoice pops up with the SAME EXACT INCORRECT SHIPPING scheme only this time the batteries are going to my "home" store and the ratchet to that distant store. Call customer service again and that gal bumped my up to the IIRC Customer Resolution Center. Who finally got both items going to the store I wanted to pick them up at and gave me a HUGE discount on that ratchet, it went from 229.95 down to 47.95. Yeah, they actually gave me an 80% discount. I'll also note that the following order also got balled up but that one got fixed at the first attempt and I got zero discount.

Tip here is that if Home Depot keeps falling flat on their face ask to speak to the next level up. I believe that it's the Customer Resolution Center but may be incorrect pertaining to the name, I wasn't paying close attention with the CS lady sent me there and it was a year ago. However it is a higher level of service in regards to skill, authority, and ability to issue discounts. Just be aware that I don't think you get sent to that level unless it's obvious that Customer Service and Home Depots ordering system completely hosed the sale and attempted corrections.