Weird Texas Spring has arrived.
As usual for this time of year, the weather is starting to get a bit goofy. We had severe weather warning in the area today. Of course, I went windsurfing. I arrive at Fire Ant in the early afternoon to find no one else from the crew there. They were either working or scared off by the weather. I only managed about an hour on the water, but got a 30mph run out of the day on the Madd with a 5.5 SE Wave. I tried my Screamer for a few laps, but the barn-sized holes made the scholgg no fun. If I can loose some weight, it won't be so bad.
But the weird was reinforced when I headed over to my favorite hardware store beforehand. It's not one of the big chains. It's a "Mom & Pop" store off the beaten path called Arrington Hardware. I've shopped there for quite a few years for my non-landscaping supplies. It had a been a couple of months since I'd been in the place, so I was deeply disappointed to drive up to see "Store Closing" signs. I've known one of the owners, Pat, for about 5 years when we were first on a city planning committee together. We had a long chat, but the basic story is Walmart had sucked the life out of their business. So they decided to close before things got ugly.
Oh well.
Home Depot Apologizes
After bitching about the continued crappy service from Home Depot, I wrote a fairly strong email to HD corporate. They replied...
Dear Brian,
Thank you for contacting The Home Depot Customer Care.
We appreciate you taking the time to forward your concerns at the NW Dallas Home Depot store. We apologize that we did not meet your expectations.
The feedback you have provided is taken seriously and will be used in the overall evaluation of the services we provide to our customers. Our Company was built on the values of great customer service and enthusiasm of our associates. We obviously missed the mark with you and this is not the way we mean to run our stores.
We need you and we don't take your patronage for granted. We would like to send you a $35.00 gift card that can be used at any Home Depot store. It's our way to say 'Thank You' for your feedback and our hope that you will give us another chance.
Please provide the telephone number starting with the area code and the physical address where you would like UPS to deliver the gift card.
Again, please accept our apologies for the circumstances you encountered in our store.
We look forward to your continued patronage and assisting you with all of your home improvement needs.
Sincerely,
Monica
Customer Care
Since I've complained about and to Home Depot many times for pretty much the exact problem, I don't really expect them to change.
And some people may wonder why I do business with them if they're so bad. One word:
Convenience.
This particular store is close enough to the shop that I could hit it with a rock on a windy day. And since it is a corporate training facility for HD, you'd think it would be better than their average store. The reality is that it's worse. Possibly the worst. And considering how bad Home Depot is compared to all the alternatives, that is saying something.
So I think I've finally learned my lesson. I'd take their gift card if I wasn't positive that they'll use that information to market to me incessantly. Let's face it... HD is run by a bunch of douche bags.
Labels: but still sucks., Home Depot apologizes
Home Depot sux
Yeah, I'm sure no one has ever heard that before.
But they do.
Especially the one on Grissom Lane in Dallas. The manager, Randall, absolutely does not care that his employees have extremely poor customer service skills. You can call him at 972-484-7077 and ask.
Sheesh....
Labels: Crappy Customer Service at Home Depot, Home Depot Sucks
Late report on two more sessions
I did manage to get some more windsurfing in last week.
I had a rough day of work on the 27th of Feb, so I took the 28th off. It was a good call. We had one heck of a day. The peak wind gust was something like 41mph. And you can see from the chart below that we had some wild rides. I was on my old Mistal Classic 275 with an Ezzy 4.7 SE Wave (first time out on it) and a Finworks Wing 360. I managed a best speed of just under 32mph, which I was pretty happy with considering the rough water.
Then we did it all over again on Sunday the 2nd. I had to use a bigger sail (5.5 SE Wave), but the rest of the gear was the same. A few more holes today, but a nice crowd at Fire Ant.
The Democrats must be desperate.
The primary here in Texas is coming up Tuesday. The calls from politicians (mostly democrats) were hot and heavy. But tonite, they got out of control. We actually turned the ringers off on all of the phones after getting 4 calls in under 10 minutes.
Nuts.
