The Home Depot — Local services in Tampa

This review relates to a visit on March 6th.

So I order from Home Depot a lot, but usually online, store visits I reserve to urgent needs. I have given two stars because usually I have a 3 star, basic needs met service at this store, but this time it was 1 star.

The urgent need was an, I assume moderate, roof rat infestation in the ceiling of my apartment, totaled 6 rats after I eradicated the problem, so whatever scale of infestation that happens to be. There had been a major leak from the upstairs apartment that had destroyed the dry wall on the ceiling, resulting on a vent falling off. So there is a large square hole over the ceiling, that's not really a big deal so I've left it. Unfortunately this was also where the rodent activity was, and I had set a camera up there to see what the noise was, and 'lo and behold I caught rodents running and jumping across, even knocking the unsteady camera back down, so my concern (creating the urgent need) was one would fall down with the camera and the problem would be in the apartment.

I went here looking for bait stations to put outside, because I didn't at this point know the point of entry, the bait stations were tomcat refillable and didn't work, not even touched, not even by non-target pests. I bought an attractant gel, and this worked wonders, eliminating 4 of the 6 rats by luring them into snap traps. I spent a lot of time in this aisle trying to find the best products before settling on those.

The next part of my trip was finding something to seal up the gaping hole in the ceiling, that I could easily remove to deal with dead rodents, and later the two caught in glue traps (last resort but there was a camera set up, with motion alerts, allowing me to deal with them quickly so they didn't suffer, as they weren't going into snap traps. I find them horrible and cruel too). I didn't know what I wanted so I was moving aisle to aisle, going back on myself, picking up things and putting them back, like the two sided sticky plastic for rugs to not slip, didn't think it would adequately stick to the dry wall. Eventually settling on an aluminium insect screen and some duct tape, which didn't stick to the dry wall and I resorted to screwing it into the drywall instead.

So as a result of aisle to aisle moving, I guess someone at the store got suspicious, and I was confronted for theft. Now my wife had finished work and there was a backpack that had been in the trolly with the 4 items since the beginning, I had no issue with them looking inside it to see her work stuff and work shoes, but this was dismissed, obviously whoever it was didn't actually want to know either way, they just wanted to make an accusation. Maybe $46 of rodent control, duct tape and an aluminium insect screen has street value to buy drugs, who knows. So already annoyed we go to pay and obviously they want to do the scanning and take the card themselves, the guy scanning only scans 3 items, even though there are clearly 4 items in the trolly, I'm annoyed so I say nothing so I can point out how incompetent they are. He realizes the 4th item as he bags, because it was right there in front of his face the entire time. Despite this being entirely his incompetence, this somehow proves we were stealing, because I didn't jump and say "you missed one". Well I wouldn't have missed one scanning a mere 4 items, laid spaced apart in a shopping trolly, and you don't pay me to supervise your workers, which is probably a good thing because they'd be finding employment elsewhere, that said, Home Depot probably pays the bare minimum so is likely a get what you pay for situation.

If someone walking aisle to aisle not knowing what best to use raises suspicion, perhaps having one of the many staff I passed by asking if I needed help, may have been the solution here. I didn't feel I needed help to bother a staff member until I needed to find the duct tape, but had it been offered I'd have happily accepted the help. Far better than being accused of stealing, based on absolutely nothing, because I...

Today, I walked into the paint department at Home Depot feeling completely out of my element. I’m preparing to take on a do-it-yourself home project…something I’ve never done before, and to be honest, I was overwhelmed. I had no idea where to begin or what products I needed, and I fully expected the experience to be stressful and confusing.

Instead, I was met with exceptional customer service that completely changed my outlook. Michelle, a team member in the paint department, went above and beyond in every possible way. She took the time to walk me through the aisles, almost hand-in-hand - patiently explaining what products would best suit my needs. She genuinely considered my skill level and made sure to recommend items that would simplify the process, not complicate it.

Thanks to Michelle, what originally felt like a daunting task quickly became approachable and even exciting. Her knowledge, kindness, and attention to detail lifted a weight off my shoulders. It’s rare these days to encounter customer service this outstanding, and Michelle’s care and professionalism are exactly what every customer hopes to find.

I sincerely hope that Home Depot’s leadership takes note of the incredible asset they have in Michelle. Her dedication not only made my day, but also restored my faith in customer service, which often feels like a lost art in today’s world.

A heartfelt thank you to Michelle and the entire paint department at the 8815 N Florida Avenue location. You turned an intimidating project into something I now feel empowered to tackle. It truly is the little things and Michelle, you made a big impact.

Phenomenal...

If you need help from an associate, plan on asking multiple times. We went in wanting help with a Grill one time, the worker told us she'd get someone, never came back/brought anyone. Went in for flooring one time, spent over an hour being told someone was looking for it. Manager kept asking his crew, nobody knew where this item was, and nobody could figure it out. We went to pick up an online order item, and were told to go get it ourselves because "it'll be quicker than asking anyone around here to do their job." That was one of their own cashiers talking.

Most recently, we went to the Paint department at around 5pm on a Sunday, it was fairly slow, told him we had an order that would end up around 15 gallons of paint. I apologized a dozen times, but said that you can't order tinted paint online, and there's no "orders," so the only way was to come there. He was annoyed that I didn't want 5 gallon buckets (I explained they go to different houses/projects, so that wouldn't work). 2 different people helped us, they refused to open the cans and put the sample on the top, they were rude and they didn't even tell us when it was done. Just left the last can on the counter and walked away. We spent $450 in paint, but they were rude because they didn't want to work. We didn't ask them to rush, didn't even hover. My hubby stood there to grab what was done, and I went and shopped. They clearly don't care about customers here. The closest Lowe's is another 30 minutes from the store, but it's...