Sharkboy

I went to two cash registers located at the mall entrance and that is where my problem began. I was the only customer in line and both cashiers were awaiting customers. I chose the closest one and put my lumber on the counter. It seems that I interrupted a conversation happening between 5 different employees standing in the area, they seemed to be having a good time so I thought nothing of waiting a bit. When my cashier finally came to her station, she scanned the larger piece of lumber with barcode stuck to it (the one that was cut in 4 pieces of 19″) and then started looking for the barcode for the smaller pieces, there wasn’t one to be found. She looked at me and asked where it was. I said I didn’t know. She then asked how she would know what to charge me if I didn’t have it. I was a bit taken aback and realized that she was serious. I said that she could do two things, either call the lumber department or go see for herself. I really didn’t like her “common” attitude with us, it’s not like we were pals. She then asked if I knew the measurements of the lumber, I said it was 6′ long and that I thought the price to be approximately $3.50. She then turned to look at me, giving me a very condescending look and said: “what about the width and depth?”. I told her I didn’t know but that if she had a measuring tape I could definitely check it out “for her”. “Well, I don’t have one” was her reply. I was getting a bit annoyed and a tad insulted by her silly questioning. She then finally paged the lumber department but no one called back. Again, I was taken aback by the way she was dealing with this situation. I looked at the other cashier who’s station was empty and she looked away in what seemed to me a bit of embarrassment, but I might be wrong, it’s only an assumption.
After my cashier paged the lumber a second time to no avail, she turned to her co-worker and asked if she had a measuring tape. She did. She passed it on to my partner who in turn passed it on to my cashier. She took it from him, put it on the counter and pushed it in my direction with a smirk on her face. I understood that she “needed” me to measure it. I told her that I didn’t need a measuring tape to see that the piece of lumber was 1/2″ deep by 1″ wide and that as an employee of a renovation store, she should be able to see that for herself. At this point, I told her that her customer service skills were extremely poor and that I would make sure to report on her before leaving the store. She invited me to do so. It was only at this time that she looked up the item in the cash register/computer and found a 1x2x6 piece of lumber to match the approximate price I had quoted earlier.

She then asked how many cuts I had done, I quickly counted 3 cuts for the large lumber and 7 for the smaller one for a total of 10. She added them in and pressed for the total: $25.25. At this point I didn’t really want to deal with her anymore but needed the goods so I asked my partner to take care of the bill and I started putting the wood in a bag.

Needless to say I was totally unhappy and totally insulted by the experience especially since I live above a Home Hardware store myself and only came to your store on a Sunday because the person who cuts wood at my local store doesn’t work on Sundays. I started to think that I could’ve saved myself the 2 streetcar fares and waited one extra day to complete my project. And now to add insult to injury, it turns out, I really should’ve waited, because when I got home and started measuring for the placements of the shelves, I realized that the larger pieces of lumber had been cut to the wrong size, 2 pieces were at 19.5″ and 2 were at 19.25″…

This afternoon (Monday August 11, 2008) upon my return from work, I went to the Home Hardware downstairs, purchase a 1x8x8 piece of lumber, had it cut in 4 pieces of 19″ each, paid $2.00 per cut and finished my project. $22.24.

I’m now left with 4 extra shelve pieces that I guess I’ll use for firewood on my next camping trip, a pricey firewood, wouldn’t you say?

Next time I KNOW I will wait until the Monday to buy my products and go to my local Home Hardware. In fact, even if they don’t carry my favourite Behr paint as you do, I will still go down there and buy whatever they have in stock to avoid another case of gross apathetic service from your staff.