The Home Depot — Local services in Goleta

Another update, 5/24/25: Inventory accuracy continues to be a problem at this location. When I'm standing in the store, looking at the app that says there are 91 of a particular product yet there are six on the shelf, that's a problem. Sure, there are probably more in the overhead somewhere, but that doesn't help me when I don't want to make a multi-hour trip to your store. Fortunately for me, I was able to find what I needed this time, just barely. The person who shows up after me looking for the same items likely won't be as lucky. Again, friendly employees and inadequately managed systems.

Updated review: On Saturday, October 8, 2022 I dove my truck to the Goleta, CA store to pick up 60  1 in. x 2 in. x 8 ft. Select Kiln-Dried Square Edge Whitewood Boards.  I headed out with high confidence that I would find the quantity I needed to complete my projects since the online system listed 135 of these boards in stock.

I arrived at the store, grabbed a lumber cart, and headed straight back to the lumber section as I have many times before.  I found aisle 33, bay 4 and I found the tag for the product, but nothing on the shelf.  OK, not ideal, but with listing 135 in stock there must be some on a pallet either in the overhead or out in the yard, right?  I checked in with a lumber associate who immediately looked up the product, checked the stock location to confirm there was no stock in the retail space, and then started searching to find the boards.  He looked everywhere it was reasonable to look; he looked out in the yard and in the lumber overhead as well as in overhead areas where the material shouldn't be, but might be, just in case.

No boards.  The inventory system has 135 in stock and there is not a single board for this SKU to be found anywhere.  I came to this store with a reasonable expectation of being able to buy something and I instead bought nothing.  Unfortunately, this is NOT the first time this has occurred at this store.  By my count, this is the third time this calendar year the inventory system has shown something in stock but it has not been available to buy. I understand that numbers can be off slightly (damaged product, shrinkage, inventory miscounts) but listing 135, 8' boards and having none?  That is a system failure, either in the system itself or the execution of the system or both.

Please, Goleta store managers, do better!  As a professional, one of the things I cannot stand is other professionals wasting my time.  The current state of things at the Goleta store is decidedly not professional with regard to the execution of appropriate inventory control.  Unless these inventory problems get rectified soon, going forward I will try to source this material from a professional lumber yard. The out of pocket costs might be a little higher, but it will be well worth it if I don't have my time wasted.

I sincerely hope you will take steps to rectify the situation.

P.S. The helpful, honest, and straightforward lumber associate who helped me is the only reason I didn't go down to a 1 star rating.

Previous 4 star review: I can generally find what it need here. Employees vary widely in their helpfulness from amazing to useless, but there are more that are helpful than not. Pick through lumber carefully; DON'T just grab and go unless you are buying firewood. If you have the option, I recommend going on a week day rather than a weekend. I generally get better help and find more stock on weekdays than weekends because the store serves the trades more than DIYers because that's where...

Mixed and largely negative experience. I am disabled and the disabled cart was not working. SIGH. It took a little over one hour to buy a BBQ grill even though it took me 5 minutes to decide. ANGRY SIGH. After my decision the nightmare began. My daughter helped me to get to the Customer Service area where someone told us the price. Then I had to go to an entirely different area to purchase it which I couldn't walk to, so my daughter had me sit in my walker while she slowly wheeled me there. This not a good thing to do by the way but I could not walk that far. Home Depot is a large store. So the clerk couldn't find the code to buy the grill, explained she was new, and called for help. She was very nice even if she couldn't help. Help arrived in the name of Christina who didn't appear to know anything about the grills so she suggested I go and show her which one. I politely informed her I could not walk there and the disabled cart was not working. So she went to the the grills and took some pictures and came back and asked me to select the one I wished. I must say they all looked very similar. I told her Cust. Service had told me it was $199 so we figured out which one it was. She said she needed to get the code so I could buy it and would come back. I sent my daughter and her boyfriend to get his truck so we would be ready for when the code came back and I could purchase it. WARNING: DO NOT LET THE CLERK WHO IS SUPPOSED TO HELP YOU, LEAVE! Alas Christina never returned. So the kind new employee in Gardening tried to call Cust. Service again to no avail. So when my daughter returned she and her boyfriend went to Customer Service, they ran into Christina who scampered off, and so they went back to the Customer Service Desk who gave her the code which was then given to the garden shop clerk. So I proceeded to try and buy it but then the clerk asked if I wanted the warranty plan. I asked what the store warranty was and she said she didn't know; that I'd have to go back outside and look at the grills to see what it was. By this time, one hour after my original decision, I was a little upset and said to forget the extra warranty and said let's just take the thing. So we did. A clerk named Austin helped us load the grill but when we got home we realized the one that had been unlocked and given to us was not stable and was in fact, somewhat bent. So, I called and miraculously Austin answered the phone, remembered me, and said that if brought back the receipt he'd immediately exchange it. So that was what my daughter and her boyfriend did. We started this whole thing about 3:45 pm and ended at 5:15 pm. If you ask, "why did you stay and buy it? the answer is that as a disabled single woman I do not get many chances to get rides to a hardware store to buy a grill in the company of someone who has a truck. Most of my friends are women who don't have trucks. I was just fortunate that my daughter's boyfriend who has a truck was available that day. After so long I did not want to trouble him or her to go to ANOTHER store. But had I been able-bodied, there is no way in Hell I would have stood for that kind of terrible experience. So,...

Went in to Home Depot to get one desk fan. I checked the inventory of the store on the Home Depot website to make sure that the fan I wanted was in stock at this location and the website said that they had 5 in stock at the store, however, the website did not tell me where the fan was located in the store. So after searching around the store with no luck in finding the fan, I go up to one of the employees and ask him if he knows where they could be located. Without even looking up at me from stacking shelves, the employee tells me that they only sell ceiling fans at Home Depot. I then tell him that the website says there are some in stock. He then says that the website is wrong. So, I go find another employee and ask her if she knows where I could find the fans and she immediately goes to an employee and tells him to help me and then he goes back to a computer. That employee then tells me, without even opening a computer, that the website is wrong because it does not account for people stealing items. So I then go to the customer service desk to see if they could help me locate a fan or uncover that indeed every fan in the store has been stolen. She actually starts by going on the website to look up the product that I am looking for, this is the first employee to do so, but then stops helping me and starts a conversation with the employee next to her while I am still standing there waiting for an answer. After she finishes gossiping with the employee, she goes back to the computer, finishes finding the product on the website, and then tells me that they appear to have some in stock but that she cannot find where they are located. So, as I am leaving the store I see another employee who is restocking items and ask him if he would know where to find a fan. This employee actually opens a computer, checks the inventory amount for the item in the store, sees that there are some in stock but that the map does not show where it is located, and then in a bizarre twist he offers to help me look for it. He leads me to where he thinks all the fans in the store would be located and then in a even stranger turn of events, there it was a whole shelf filled with all 200 of the supposedly stolen assortment of fans. The employee then finds the one I have been looking for for the past 45 minutes and then helps me checkout. Out of the five different employees I talked to he was the only one who seemed even remotely interested in helping me. Three of the five did not even spend any time thinking before telling me that all the fans in the store have been stolen or that Home Depot does not sell any fans except ceiling fans. This was honestly the most appalling and disgraceful customer service I have ever experienced at a store and I look forward to...