Manager Katrina, Supervisor JP, Floor Associates in plumbing area Paul and Frank. All four are responsible for making our shopping experience at HD very stressful and unsuccessful. Decades ago when Home Depot first opened, we were all ecstatic. Finally a huge self-serve hardware store where DIY enthusiasts could purchase items and happily work on their home projects. Over the years, I’ve gotten increasing disappointed in the lack of help from HD personnel. It seems like only tradespeople who know exactly what they are doing can quickly find what they are looking for and be on their way. But amateurs beware. The personnel just won’t help you. Today was no different, actually worse. Today I went to the HD on 3rd Ave and 59th Street in Manhattan. Some plumbing parts from under my kitchen sink were rusted so I decided to replace them. I took the old rusted parts out with a wrench, took pictures of everything, then decided to go over to HD. The parts seemed pretty simple but I need help from HD personnel. If the project seemed too complicated, I would have called for a plumber. There were no customers in the plumbing department. An HD employee named Paul was just hanging around. He was supposed to be knowledgeable about plumbing. Well, he was completely clueless or just plain unwilling to help. I politely asked him if I could review the picture I had taken and the old parts I had uninstalled. He gave me a strange and rude look, then walked me over to an aisle and pointed at a bin on the bottom shelf. The items in there were nothing like the old items I had uninstalled. Again I asked him for two minutes to get some guidance but he rudely said he was busy and I should hire a plumber. Busy? No customers were there only stock-people. I’d like to add here that I went to HD mid-morning on a weekday. HD in Manhattan does not have a lot of customers on those days/times. Yet m, almost every floor person I saw on the lower level where Plumbing and many other important departments are located m, seemed to be goofing off, not doing any work and certainly NOT helping customers. I went back to the main aisle and saw two employees chatting. Seemed like a friendly personal discussion. I waited until they paused, then politely asked for help. One of them pointed at a stock or inventory person. I went over to that person and was informed he doesn’t help customers. I went back to the main aisle and encountered an employee named Katrina. She was pleasant enough and introduce herself as a manager. She summoned a plumbing supervisor who was called JP. The manager instructed JP to help me. Instead, JP handed me over to another employee that was just hanging around there named Frank, then walked away. Frank seemed as clueless and rude as Paul. He was not helpful at all and didn’t want to see the picture I had taken or the old parts. He also said I should hire a plumber. When I politely persisted, he sold me a kit and assured me it would work. I eagerly returned home and tried the kit, but it did not work! I am a man in my mid 60s with stage IV cancer. Hence I did not want to walk back to Home Depot, which is about a couple of miles away. I decided to go to the local True Value hardware store on 2nd Ave and 44th Street. I took the Home Depot kit with me as well as the old parts. Steve from the True Value store looked at the HD kit as well as the picture & old parts and immediately told me the item I had purchased would not work. He sold me the right part for a few dollars. I returned home and easily fixed my under-sink plumbing. Everything works perfectly. I thrashed the $17 kit that Home Depot sold me and decided I would never go back. I have a ton of friends and relatives in the area. Two of them were with me this morning when we went to Home Depot. We decided to never give HD our future business and also spread the word! I and sure, as a corporation, Home Depot doesn’t value its customers. That manifests itself in bad employee behavior. We will keep away!