Home Depot - Avon, MA

[DDewar53]

One of the worst consumer experiences I've had in a long time.

All this takes place on Dec 22 - just before Christmas, of course

6:30 AM - go downstairs to get laundry out of dryer, notice 5 year old gas hot water heater leaking water onto the floor. Turn off water and gas supply, go upstairs to tell Donna to get out of shower (she was thrilled...).

7:00 AM - get hose hooked up and water draining out of tank, call my boss to tell him I won't be in.
9:00 AM - figure out I can afford to put new heater on my Home Depot CC, head out for HD.
9:30 - 10:00 AM - talk to guy at HD about tankless, which I really want. It's $999 with a $700 rebate from the gas company and up to a $1500 tax credit - you bet I want it. Guy tells me I need 1 1/4" gas service for tankless. Since I'm not sure what I have, head back home to measure pipe. I have 1" service, and am not about to re-plumb gas line from meter, decide I have to get another regular water heater this time.
12:00 noon - after getting breakfast, running a few other errands, arrive back at HD. Put water heater and a few plumbing items that I'll need on a cart, go get in line, get everything paid for by 12:30. Receipt says I can get 1 1/2 hour free rental on a truck since I used my HD cc. Good thing, cause I need their truck to get the stuff home. Head over to rental desk (after checking to see that there is, indeed, a rental truck in the parking lot. When I get to the rental desk, the guy starts filling out paperwork then goes looking for keys. No keys. Other truck already 1 hour overdue, no idea when it's coming back. I make the guy search all over the place, under stuff, and look around myself. Go thru all drawers in the place. Go look in the truck to see if keys are maybe locked in it. He says that they leave the keys at the service desk when they're out, so I make him go over to service desk and search.
Now it's 12:55, he says his boss was last to have keys, maybe he has them. He's at lunch and due back at 1:30. I go to rest room, walk over to Dunks (this is the only HD in the state without a DD built in), come back @ 1:30, not back from lunch yet.
1:45, guy shows up from lunch, looks in his pocket & pulls out keys. "Oh, will ya look at that" he says. No apology, nuthin. Guy starts complaining about the Christmas music playing in the store while he finishes up paperwork. I take the keys and get out of there.

After I get the thing home, unloaded, and return the truck, the guy charges me $8.95 "fuel surcharge". I said "it's supposed to be free, $8.95 is not free", he starts telling me that it's not rental, it's fuel surcharge. I remember that it's not smart to argue with an idiot because bystanders can't tell the difference, and don't argue with him, just leave.

I'll go to Lowe's next time.

[Hoodoo Man]

wow, sounds like a fun day. I walked out of the Home Depot in Nashua last spring without a new Webber grill for similar reasons... Total idiots in the place from what i can tell. they couldn't find a sku for the grill and therefore were not able to sell me a grill. It took over 30 minutes of attempts to figure it out and then the one I wanted had been sold at another register. Grrrrr..... Ended up buying at a local True Value for the same price. That transaction was all of 10 minutes, 3 minutes to pay and 7 to roll it to my car and help load it into it. Didnt mind the tax or buying local.

[Scott]

And THAT is why my company (millwork distributor) does not sell to HD or Lowes. I wish you luck w/ that wtr heater Don, hopefully it lasts more than 3 years. They won't honor any warranty if you installed it yourself.

[jquader]

Don, you may be lucky. The exhaust requirements for tankless are also much higher than a standard heater. You can not use a standard chimney exhaust. If you do it to code it's almost impossible to retrofit into an existing house.

I'd complain to HQ. They can do more to satisfy a customer than the local management.

[DDewar53]

And THAT is why my company (millwork distributor) does not sell to HD or Lowes. I wish you luck w/ that wtr heater Don, hopefully it lasts more than 3 years. They won't honor any warranty if you installed it yourself.

The one that I replaced, I got from Lowe's about 5-6 years ago. 3 years ago the thermocouple went out ($2.50 part) Could not find a replacement anywhere, it's left-had threads so not any one will work. Called Wirlpool about it, they said "oh, there's a kit you get free from where you bought the water heater to take care of that, there was a bad batch of thermocouples. We will overnight you one if the seller doesn't have the kit". I made them overnight one anyway, then started calling all of the Lowe's around. Found one, turns out it's a whole new burner. That still works, it's the #$%^$# tank that started leaking, so if you know anybody that needs a burner for a Whirlpool gas water heater I've got one.

Don, you may be lucky. The exhaust requirements for tankless are also much higher than a standard heater. You can not use a standard chimney exhaust. If you do it to code it's almost impossible to retrofit into an existing house.

I'd complain to HQ. They can do more to satisfy a customer than the local management.

Yeah, we talked about the exhaust, too. It's basically a simple 3" tube inside a 4" tube to make an air space around it. The water heater is within 6' of an outside wall, the guy said it would be no problem to run the exhaust over to the wall and straight out, then up again. Sort of like you would do when retrofitting a home for a wood stove.