The Home Depot — Local services in Venice

I am a general contractor and have used many depot/lowes over the last 10 years with a very wide array of experiences. For whatever reason, the appliance services/delivery in the Venice/Sarasota region is TERRIBLE. By far, the worst I have ever used by a country mile. I ordered 5 new appliances on Black Friday and scheduled to have them delivered the first week of January. I then got a call on December 26 from a delivery driver trying to deliver them when I was not even in the state of Florida. I told them it was scheduled for January, they got upset and started cussing me out for no reason. Then, in January they rescheduled the delivery 3x with no phone call or notification that such had happened. When I called in and asked for an explanation, they claimed that I had called and asked for rescheduling (false). Finally, after delivery 3 of the 5 new appliances had issues. I had to call in 5x, go to the store twice to get techs out to fix the issues. On a washer, it turns out the delivery crew/installers had not removed the shipping bolts (or fully installed the washer despite being paid to do so). On a refrigerator, the unit came .25" bigger than listed dimensions which caused it to damage the drywall when opening/closing. It took 10+ phone calls, 5 visits to the local store over 2 months to get Depot to come pickup the fridge. When they finally did, the pickup crew marked the returned refrigerator as "scrap" and stole the unit. I had to go in again 3x, call 2x to get a manager to manually refund me. The replacement refrigerator arrived and the crew did not call ahead or on arrival so I was not there to receive them. They dropped it off on the end of the truck on my driveway and left! I had to wait 3 weeks for a different crew to come take it up my steps to 2nd floor kitchen. Lastly, a dishwasher has not worked properly/makes a loud electric buzzing when in use and the first repair technician who came out refused to service it because it was on the kitchen floor instead of screwed in under the countertops (lazy, bad excuse). Home depot is currently refusing to send a 2nd technician out to fix the unit insisting the unit was delivered dec 26 and we only called about it not working in January. I told them it was not delivered in December, they refuse to believe me. I was not even in the state. At this point, our Home Depot appliance order has 5+ pages of notes in their system and noone can decipher it. I am also still waiting on a promised refund to my cc for the returned fridge. This has been a complete, utter disaster for nearly 3 months and has seemingly no end in sight. Also just an fyi, if you are around within 25 minutes of closing time the staff will throw you out of the store ASAP in as rude a manor as they legally can. Tina the appliance manager here badly needs to be replaced and the delivery crews should all...

Another great experience happened at the Home Depot in Venice, FL off of Jacaranda BLVD. Unfortunately we had to replace a hot water heater that blew apart/went out early evening on Friday. It turned out that it couldn’t have been an easier project for somebody in the fix-it-now frame of mind. I’m typically not into naming just certain people, but so many employees of this location went beyond the normal call of duty while I was there making this last minute “have to get it done” big purchase.

Sadly, while finishing the final purchase around 8pm, we (customers and employees) all heard a lady screaming, crying and grieving over a phone call she received from another one of her family members. I was drawn over to the aisle to see what I could do to help, but some of the Home Depot team members had the situation pretty much already under control. Not a typical customer help on this night, only personal care and empathy from people were needed, and from my perspective, when I arrived, she was already was receiving it. Even the young kids (grandkids) this customer had with her were being helped out it... Great job everyone, the Home Depot should be proud to have you as above and beyond employees, this was a bad situation that went as positive as it could get late in the day at/after closing on a Friday night. It dropped me down to my knees in prayer after everything that has gone on with the world over the pandemic and society change. We all discovered hope on August 27th and I’m glad I was there to witness it. I will speak of this location and the great employees that work there, without any doubt, the rest of my life. We are all in this world together, this was proof we can still do it... with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint... A+ to the entire Home Depot team including Tyler, Angie, Andy, Brenda, Jimmy, Karen, Nate, Sheryl, Kristin and Tara and all else who helped...

Venice Home Depot, you gotta try harder. Gotta do better! Website offered one price, was $57 lower than the price that rang up at the register. Was sent to speak to the customer service counter. The elderly woman there told me there was nothing she could do. The price was as what rang up. So, in the middle of my nicely explaining the situation to her, she turned her back on me walked away. I asked the other gentleman working there if she was working on my case or if she’d just turned her back on me and walked away. He said that he didn’t know. So, I asked to speak with the manager. A different elderly lady ran to meet the manager as she was headed my way and stopped her to whisper to her. The manager arrived, I explained that there was a price difference between the website and the price at the register. How did I know if it’s the same product the manager asked. I showed her a photo I’d taken of the product a couple of hours earlier. I took the photo because I’ve been down this road before with Home Depot. Anyway, after a few minutes of talking, and many ridiculous excuses by the manager as to why she couldn’t give me the discounted price, and after I showed her that the full price had a line through it showing the marked down discounted price, she agreed, this once, to give me the discounted website price. I’m thankful for that. I truly am. I personally, though, don’t think that there should be any conversation at all in a situation like this. A loyal customer shouldn’t have to prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt, as in a court of law, in order to get the price advertised on the website. The manager was nice, the elderly gentleman who rang me up was useless, and the two elderly ladies at the customer service counter were as rude as they were useless. Do better HD! Not sure if the time I spent speaking with them was worth the $57. Next time I have to drive out to buy repair supplies...