The Home Depot — Local services in Blue Springs

Home Depot has always been my favorite hardware store, and I have always gone out of my way to choose it over other options. That will no longer be the case. For one, they have a large garden center, but strangely they have very little in the way of garden irrigation supplies, which I am constantly buying from the Columbia, MO location. I thought I was just looking in the wrong place, but after asking 4 different associates, no luck. (Looked everywhere outside and also in plumbing). Then one evening I was there about 30 minutes before close, looking for plants for a family garden project the next morning. They had the outside garden center door closed, so I looked everywhere that I could for a specific plant with no luck. Then I noticed a shopping cart full of them (salvia) in perfect shape, all piled in haphazardly. I asked an associate if they were for sale, because I couldn't find them anywhere on the shelves. He said that they "were in bad shape, so they had been pulled from the shelves", and also that "they were 75% off, because they were going to be thrown away". He told me to tell the front cashier about the discount, which I did, with no issue. She looked like she had done it a hundred times. I left feeling happy that I found the plants at a discount, and that I was able to give my local HD some money that they would not have gotten from throwing the plants away. Several days later I am back looking for soaker hoses, and notice the piled-up cart is there again, and naturally believe that it's the "trash cart", with items at 75% off. I pull a couple of things off the top that I could use, and continue shopping. I notice 2 young associates staring at me, so I go up and ask them if the plants are for sale. They were clearly ready for an interaction, and said that they were not for sale, because the distributors own the plants, not the store, and so the store can't make decisions about discounts. Makes perfect sense - strange that it's a different story from the last time, but no problem. I thank them for the information and place the plants back in the cart, just in time for a manager to come skulking out, stalking around, clearly looking for an argument. He goes up to the two associates and they talk, while looking at me. Incredibly rude. Here's an idea - if you don't want customers to pick up items, consider putting a sign on the cart that says "not available for purchase". Also, consider training your staff to all have the same response when asked about a clearly touchy subject. It's not fair to them or to customers to have moving goalposts. No one wants to unknowingly be a problem, or to be talked about by the associates and management, when they're just there to spend hard-earned money. There are plenty of other places...

I will say in a time where good customer service seems rare, I had the best experience by far from the employees at the Home Depot in Blue Springs. I found a cheaper deal for prehung door at Menards, but decided to check out Home Depot since it was on the way. I also wanted to check out to see if they had any good grills on clearance since it was out of season.

When I walked into the store after the man at the register pointed me in the direction of the grills, I didn’t find what I was looking for. As I started back towards the doors, I ran into Manny. Manny was great! He took me over to where they had some other grills that were on clearance. He pointed out what was wrong with the ones that were there and helped me find a really good deal. I ended up getting a floor model grill that was originally priced at $400 for 100 bucks and found me a protective cover for it. He then asked if there was anything else that I needed.

I told him I was looking for a prehung door and he walked me back to the doors where there wasn’t an employee. That’s when he went and found Dave. Then he told me when I was ready to load up anything I purchased to page him and he would help me load my purchases.

Dave was also amazing! He was really helpful and explaining the differences between the steel and fiberglass doors, the difference is between the inswing and outswings. He took me over to the storm doors and went through each series of doors and the difference between them and the cost. He helped me find everything I needed to hang the door from the shims to the foam and nails.

While looking at the door knobs and deadbolts, I ran into Jeff who was just walking by being extremely helpful. I asked him about the aisle that had all the parents and kids building stuff. I asked him how can I get information so that I can bring my kids up to do the projects And he gave me the information but also told me that even if my kids weren’t there I can go and get a project from the other employees and do it at home with my kids as I went to finish working with Dave when I came back to my cart Jeff handed me two projects to take home and build with my kids and had them in bags ready to go. I did not expect that, and it was super mind blown because he saved me a trip. He even offered to help me load my stuff once I was done with my purchases. All in all these three men and several other like Jackson was extremely helpful. So helpful I forgot about Menards.

I got everything I needed at Home Depot. Even the customers at Home Depot were extremely nice as a random customer offered to help me load the doors and grill into my truck, but I told him one of the employees was coming out to help me. This Home Depot will be my first stop and go to...

We were walking through the store after getting materials for grouting. Looked at refrigerators and countertops. As we were walking with our kids, one on the front of the cart holding on, an older male employee made a comment to us about it being a hazard. We kept going and he told us it was no laughing matter and asked if we would be there at the front of the cart to catch him WHEN he falls. We kept going minding our own business. We walked back after looking at countertops to head toward checkout. He seemed to be waiting for us to see if we would come back that way. We should not have to avoid walking a certain way because of an employee. As we walked by he started yelling at us and was following us down aisles literally harassing us. I told him we had it under control and we are the parents and he needs to stop following us and harassing us. He told me that he worked in that department and could go wherever he wanted and that he really wanted to ask is to leave. My husband decided in that moment he would no purchase anything from there and left all items in the aisle. I asked for a manger. When the manager came to talk to me he acted more annoyed that he was there talking to me receiving a complaint about the employee than the actual employee harassing us. He said it’s policy they tell us it’s a safety hazard. Ok that’s fine. From there I make the decision, it’s clearly not store policy kids can’t be on the carts as it happens all the time. This type of behavior is not acceptable. We were within our rights at that moment to report harassment. The manager claims he will speak with the employee but his actions don’t indicate that will actually happen. If this is how this man treats employees, it’s time...