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  • Report:  #1279658

Complaint Review: Lowe's Home Improvement - Dayville Connecticut

Reported By:
Eric Donelson - North Grosvenordale, Connecticut, USA
Submitted:
Updated:

Lowe's Home Improvement
1150 Killingly Commons Drive Dayville, 06241 Connecticut, USA
Web:
lowes.com
Categories:
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Lowes – Never Stop Improving.

The home improvement big box REALLY should heed the advice of their own slogan.  They have a LOT of room for “improvement.”

This is an open letter to anyone at Lowes who cares enough to actually respond in a real way to try and engage with a customer who’s now been soured-for-life from EVER wanting to have anything to do with this company who seems rather annoyed that the unwashed masses might want them to expend a modicum of effort alongside the exchange of goods for money that is the rock bottom bare minimum of retail.

I’ll try to keep this to the highlights, as I’ve spilt too much digital ink and wasted too much breath on this tone-deaf organization as it is.  Here’s how my story started:

My Mother in Law bought an $80 Hitachi drill from the Lowes in Oneonta NY as a Xmas present for me.  She (and I, and my wife) were all very impressed by how light the sealed-packaged-drill was (can you see this was going?) but we all chalked it up to the advances in material science that make so many amazing things possible.

But no.  When I finally cracked it open to charge it up, it turned out that not advanced-chemistry, but rather age-old-shoplift’ery had lightened our load.  Here’s the run down.

-The drill packaging which consisted of a hard-plastic case inside of a cardboard POP sleeve was absent the expected ziptie(s) to keep the case secure, and was sporting a brand new set of over-the-top and around-the-sides plastic strapping.  This strapping looked professional enough to avoid arousing suspicion, but in retrospect, the way it was obscuring and deforming the cardboard overwrap certainly seems suspect.

- Upon opening the “drill” I’ve got 1 Charger base.  2 Batteries (one of which has a OEM plastic contact-cover, the other was missing it).  1 Small set of bits as pictured on the overwrap.  1 random loose-bit slotted into one half of a paired set of storage slots.  A manual, a little loose plastic wrap, and exactly zero hand tools. 

- For those of you who don’t work retail as career-professionals like my wife and I, this is what we in the business call a “repack”.  Some sleazeball buys a product they want, takes it home, takes OUT the good stuff, puts in a brick (or just enough of the original low-value contents to be convincing) very carefully and professionally re-seals the package so any store clerk wouldn’t even think to open it for verification, take it back to the store and get a refund of their full purchase price.

Protip- Lowes is more focused on getting rid of customers than doing their d**n jobs, so any aspiring thieves out there should practice this technique there.

So, we discover this, and immediately realize what’s happened, but we’re not fussed, we know this happens all the time, and are SURE we can waltz into any old Lowes and get a refund or an exchange.  Because THAT’S HOW THE BUSINESS WORKS IN 2016.  I call my Mother in Law to see if she has a receipt, but tell her not to be fussed if she doesn’t because this happens all the time and shouldn’t be a problem.

She finds the original receipt and mails it to us, so we wait for it to arrive.  Once we have it in hand, on her next day off my Wife goes down to our local Lowes (Kilingly CT) and explains the situation.

The following series of events are what have happened since this point-

  1.  She is told that a Supervisor needs to be checked with (This is fine, and expected)
  2. The Supervisor tells her she’ll need to call Hitachi and deal with them (This is ridiculous, and she asks for a Manager)
  3. The Manager on Duty comes out and tells her that since they don’t have the item in store and she didn’t purchase it at this (the Killingly CT location), she’ll have to take it back to the original location, Oneonta NY.  A brisk 6 hour drive from us. 
  4. She explained that she would not be driving 6 hours, nor sending her 78 year old Mother back to Oneonta to take care of this transparently simple problem, and says that if they’re sending her away without a better solution, she’d like the corporate number.
  5. She is sent on her merry way without a resolution.

At this point, we both reach out to Lowes to try and resolve this. Parallel events-

Myself-

  1. I tweet @Lowes and express my disappointment
  2. I am IMMEDIATELY directed to write up my tale on the Rant or Rave website by @LowesSocial (Credit where due, the Lowes Social team is on the ball, if seemingly powerless to help directly)
  3. I write up my story (similar to above), closing with saying that based on my Wife’s experience in Killingly I’d rather deal with Corporate directly, and not with the local Management team (this comes back later). 
  4. I am told by Lowes Social via Rant or Rave that I’ll HAVE to talk to the Killingly people, and that I will be contacted in 24 Hours

My Wife-

  1. Calls the number provided.  Is directed to call the Oneonta NY Lowes.
  2. Talks to the Oneonta Manager, who is flabbergasted at the experience she’s had, and that a problem in a CT store has been redirected back to him.  Redirects back to the corporate team.  (Credit where due, this gentleman was very helpful and professional)
  3. My wife is told that she’ll have a call from Killingly in 24 Hours.

48 Hours Pass (Saw that coming, didn’t you?)

We have a day off so we grab our empty drill box and receipt and drive on down to Lowes in Killingly.  On the way I tweet at Lowes again, and am asked to update my Rant or Rave (This is annoying to do on a mobile device, and a little ridiculous to ask a customer to do but whatever), and I do so, explaining the lack of contact and am promised that the issue is being escalated.

We proceed to the service desk-

  1.  I explain to the clerk what’s happened and what we need to do (either a refund or exchange)
  2. He is SUPER apologetic and highly responsive (so far so good, and credit-where due, this kid was MOSTLY great –see below-)
  3. He calls/pages/radios a few times before he finally gets a Manager to call him.
  4. He explains the situation.
  5. The Manager asks how much the drill costs.
  6. The Manager has him check stock at the Lowes in Lisbon CT.
  7. The Clerk tells us that he’s sorry that the Manager can’t come up because he’s walking for a Forklift, but that we’ll need to drive down to Lisbon and we can exchange it there where they have the item in-stock.
  8. We say, “Great, that works.”  But we ask for the small favor of calling ahead to Lisbon to ensure that they know the situation and this will be no problem before we leave.
  9. There is some conferring with his co-workers
  10. No call is placed.
  11. We are left unengaged for some minutes.
  12. The Store Manager (Michael, I believe possibly Mark?) arrives at the desk and in a friendly (if, rote) tone asks us “How we’re doing.”
  13. We explain the situation.
  14. He tells us that he’s LOVE to help us, but he’s got none in stock.
  15. We reiterate that we were promised a resolution, and we never even received contact.
  16. He tells us that (Miracles!) there are 3 on the truck he’s unloading RIGHT NOW (at Noon on a Sunday), and if we come back later we can exchange the item then.
  17. I ask when he expects the merchandise will be available
  18. He says 2 or 3 hours (I’ve unloaded many many trucks, and frankly, even if this truck existed, I’m in-retrospect, very dubious that all the freight would have been offloaded and broken-down/packed-out to the point where three little drills would be at-hand in just 3 hours, but I digress.)
  19. I say, “Great.  This is what you’re going to do.  Go ahead and give me a refund on a giftcard, and we’ll either go buy one at Lisbon or come back in a few hours and buy the one that’s being off loaded.”
  20. His demeanor IMMEDIATELY darkens and he blusters asking us “What’s the difference?  A Refund now or an exchange in a few hours???”
  21. I tell him that the difference is our time, our trouble, our convenience, the fact that this has been handled so poorly so far.
  22. He then says (and this is a nearly verbatim quote) “Well, in your Rant, which I read, you said you didn’t want to talk to anyone from this store, which is why I never called you.” In a very hostile tone.
  23. My wife responds that, separately, she was ALSO promised contact, and none was received.
  24. He mumbles angrily (to the point where the clerk did not understand him and needed it repeated) “Just process the refund.”  And walks away briskly with his head down and no further eye contact or acknowledgement of us, let alone a thanks or an apology
  25. The clerk, without asking us, and despite our earlier request for a Giftcard processes the refund to my Mother in Law’s Lowes Credit Card.
  26. When we point out that it wasn’t what we wanted and that it’s not actually helping us get a drill he starts panicking.
  27. My wife tells him its fine, that she’ll have her mother mail us check.
  28. We later find out that her Mother’s Lowes card is paid off in full, so now she’ll need to get them to issue HER a check
  29. I tweet at Lowes Social AND Update my “Rant” ticket.  Social (once gain responsive and professional), apologizes and tells me that my case will be escalated to the Market Director and that I’ll be contacted in 24 hours. 

Any guesses how many hours it’s been?  48+.  No calls.  No emails.  No tweets.  Nothing.

Here’s the deal.  We’re retail professionals, gainfully employed, and spending all day every day doing everything possible to make OUR customers happy and loyal.  I do it from the corporate office (with 11 years of field background), she does it every day at the store level.  We can AFFORD an $80 drill any day of the week.  The money’s not an issue.  In fact we received as a wedding and housewarming gift a $200 Lowes gift card.  That Killingly store is the one closest to our home, and when spring comes I’m sure we would have given them that gift card and how many other hundreds of dollars we’ll be spending in preparation for our first spring in our new home (patio furniture, riding lawn mower, grill, all on the list).

Anyone with a primary school education can see that giving us the $80 drill (for which I’m sure they can get at least 30% credit from their Salvage Vendor if not Hitachi themselves) in exchange for our future business would have been easy math.

Instead, Killingly will not get ONE PENNY of our $200 gift card.  And Lowes writ-large won’t be getting that Drill purchase, nor any of our other future business.  And I’m transparently on a social-warpath with their brand now, maybe not enough to cause any real pain, but certainly not a benefit to them.

But Mike in Killingly sure did keep that $80 in his P&L bottom line.  Oh wait…yeah he didn’t.

Definitely room for “Improvement.” 

 



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