Stine Home & Yard Walker — Local services in Walker

I try to support local businesses whenever I can. So when I moved to Walker 5 years ago, I was happy to find Stine, which I previously had no experience with. That was the last time I was happy with Stine. I've given them as much business as I could over the last 5 years but I am just done with it. I'd talk to a manager but the problems are so consistent that it's obviously not just a simple fix. It's an issue of not giving a darn.

-Tool rental: You can grow a beard waiting for help in tool rental. My record so far is over 30 minutes of standing there with my father waiting for someone to rent us a tiller.

-Speed in general: Checkout is slow. Finding someone helpful is slow. No one's got any hustle. Everyone's pacing themselves.

-Cashiers: "Do you know how much this is? Want to go look for it and bring me the price?" This has been asked of me at checkout on no less than 5 occasions. One girl actually laughed at my assumption that she'd be able to price the item her store was selling, saying "Hahaha, I have no idea how much that is!"

-Cashiers Part 2: I've called a few times and asked to find out if they sell a product or provide a service because their service is so slow I don't want to wait around if I can't even get what I need there. On a few of those occasions (pop up lawn bags and refilling propane tanks come to mind), I was told they sold it or did it, only to arrive and find out I was told wrong.

-Help: Bought a christmas tree from 2 guys in the garden section. The guy who baled it for us started dragging it to my truck until I told him to stop and picked up the other end myself. There were two guys working the christmas trees. The other guy was standing maybe 6 feet away doing nothing and watching us. Here's a fun fact about the christmas tree: it was spray painted green. I found that out when I hacked it up to burn it after New Years. The trunk had taken some of the paint where it got through the branches and the tree burned green with a fun chemical smell.

-Help Part 2: Bought some large boulder-type stones. They sell them by weight. The only guy working the garden center had no idea how to work the balance beam scale to weight the stones. I pulled from my extensive training in high school science lab to get it done.

Stine is under-staffed, under-trained, and under-motivated. They don't compete on price, or selection with the Home Depot in Denham Springs, where the service is equally bad. Their "Buy Leauxcal" campaign is a guilt trip meant to keep you feeling bad if you shop at HD but after this many problems I'm just done with it, I'll drive the extra 10 minutes to go to Home Depot...

I actually went into Stines to purchase a new BG 86 STIHL Blower. I spoke to Kyle and Caleb from that Department about my old 2002 MODEL BG 85 STIHL blower and told them I was having a hard time keeping it running. Let’s face it, that bad boy was 21 plus yrs old. I purchased it and a STIHL weed eater at that same time at another locale. Kyle told me let me take a look at it , maybe I can save it, with a big question mark considering it’s age lol. I left it with him with a promise I’ll purchase the 86 if he can’t do anything with it. Low and behold he put a new STIHL service kit in it, and the thing runs like it’s brand new. I can assure you, I don’t know how long it going to run before it dies, but I’ll be back at Stines purchasing a new BG 86, and any other piece or lawn or BBQ equipment I need in the future. I will tell you this I never realized how much of a selection of everything there at Stines. It was a pleasure dealing with Kyle and Caleb at your store compared to the big box stores elsewhere. I’m sold on Stines in Walker La from...

Won't be back.

Went for the Memorial Day sale to get plywood.

Got charged for 1/4 inch when I wanted 3/4 inch.

Went to lumber yard and pointed that out. They tried to remedy the situation by charging the difference for the 3/4 inch. Their system went down and stayed down for over 10 minutes when we tried to pay.

Finally made the transaction only to find out that they didn't have the 3/4 inch. Young guy in the back was as helpful as he could be, but was new. We ended up with $560 worth of wood that we were charged $640 for. On top of that, the plywood I ended up with is pretty bad quality. Completely ripped off at a "No taxes sales."

I really liked this store and drove in from Ascension Parish just to shop there. Was very impressed with the help I initially received when looking at flooring and I had intended to go back and buy laminate next week before the plywood debacle. The nice lady in flooring could not have been more helpful and informative. That is not going...