Shoring up sagging image at Home Depot

The Baltimore Sun

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business, whether it be the mom-and-pop store on the corner or the big box down the street.

If you don't believe it, take a look at what's been ailing Home Depot.

This month, the Atlanta-based home improvement chain cut its sales and earnings outlook for the year. Sure, the housing slump and a misguided business plan played big roles in the company's present misfortunes, but new Chief Executive Officer Francis S. Blake has also repeatedly acknowledged that poor customer service has contributed. In 2005, Home Depot scored dead last among U.S. retailers in the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction index.

In an effort to get out of that hole, Home Depot is trying to bring back the superior service it was known for when it built itself into a powerhouse. That means devoting the toll-free 800-466-3337 (spell HOME DEPOT) to resolving complaints, retraining employees, increasing staffing in stores and renovating aging stores.

But making 2,000-plus stores customer friendly again will take time. After all, the precipitous slippage didn't happen overnight.

Whether consumers will hang in there surely will have a lot to do with how seriously Home Depot takes problems that inevitably pop up at all large companies.

John Kantorski has his doubts, especially after a recent run-in he had after buying $5,000 worth of appliances at a Bel Air store.

On May 18, Kantorski requested that his newly purchased LG washer, dryer and fridge be delivered to his new White Marsh home on June 15. But that same evening, the missus decided that having appliances a week earlier would be useful for the move.

"The next day, we called the number for the subcontractor that Home Depot told us to call if we wanted to change anything," said Kantorski, a 32-year-old information technology project manager. "We asked them to change the delivery date from June 15 to June 9. They, a GE delivery company, said sure and then told us that they would call us the night before to tell us what time they would be there the next day."

Alas, June 8 came and went with no such call from the delivery company.

When Kantorski called the next morning, a Saturday, to inquire about his appliances, he discovered after much time spent on the phone with GE and the Home Depot store in Bel Air that the delivery change order was never transmitted to the warehouse.

"They admitted they were at fault," Kantorski said. "The employees at the local store were very nice. They gave me a loaner refrigerator, but I had to wait for my appliances. The subcontractor said they'd reimburse me for my inconvenience, but that they did not discuss reimbursement until the items were delivered."

Kantorski recalled that he then said to the operator, "My fear is that you'll deliver these items to me, and when I call for reimbursement, you'll offer me something like $25."

"Since I'd already wasted a day of my time, an offer of $25 would be unacceptable," Kantorski said. "The woman from GE laughed and said she was sure they wouldn't do that."

Yet, on June 13 when the Kantorskis' appliances were delivered and he called the subcontractor for reimbursement, the operator on the line offered him, yes, exactly $25.

Kantorski said the offer was unacceptable. The operator's supervisor, Kantorski said, then offered him $50. Unacceptable, he replied. The supervisor then offered him $100. Again, unacceptable.

"I felt like two days of my life were worth more than $100, and I didn't just buy some $250 washing machine," Kantorski said. "Someone who spends $5,000 on items should expect better from the company. I went to Home Depot in Bel Air, filed a complaint with managers and told them I wanted 5 percent of the purchase price back for my troubles."

No manager from the local store or the subcontractor ever called him back, despite several attempts to reach both.

"I was just going to drop it because I wasn't sure if I was being a whiner or if I had a legitimate complaint," Kantorski said. "I know there's a fine line."

I contacted the corporate office July 10 about Kantorski's problem. Eight days later a spokesman e-mailed me back to say that Kantorski accepted their compensation offer.

"A man from customer relations called and asked what I paid and what I wanted," Kantorski said. "I said 5 percent or $250. He said, 'Done.' That was it. Even though we kept calling and calling and calling, they either wouldn't budge from the $100 they offered or they didn't even bother calling us back. Now the check is in the mail."

So what's the lesson learned from all this? To be honest, I'm not really sure.

Could this resolution have happened on its own? Possibly.

Home Depot assured me that had Kantorski called the toll-free number or sent an e-mail to customer_care@homedepot.com, the company would have resolved the problem to his satisfaction.

I'd like to believe that. There's really no way to know for sure if Kantorski would have met with success had he continued pushing on his own.

But let's give Home Depot some credit for trying. The local store did give him a loaner fridge. An offer was made to compensate him, albeit at a level that wasn't to his liking. Someone else might have jumped at that offer. Kantorski didn't.

With that said, when an effort is made to right a wrong and the customer still isn't happy, some person with authority should have stepped in.

Someone should have immediately apologized for the inconvenience. Someone should have explained why a 5 percent refund wasn't feasible. Or someone should have made that exact offer to him or presented some other arrangement to help Kantorski feel that his business wasn't being taken for granted.

Someone should definitely not have ignored him. As it stands, Kantorski can't be sure whether his complaint was taken seriously or whether our intervention was key.

Kantorski says he'll continue to shop at Home Depot, but without the utmost confidence.

"It's like spinning the wheel," Kantorski said. "I bet on the same day I had bad service, 20 other people got their stuff just fine. I drew the short straw this time."

That's not exactly a ringing endorsement. The hope is that such missteps happen less and less over time, the company says.

"There was a breakdown on our part," said Stephen Holmes, senior communications manager for Home Depot Home Services. "Unfortunately, the systems that we had in place just didn't work. We're not happy the way it played out for this customer, but we are happy we were able to bring it to resolution to his satisfaction.

"What we really wish is that we had delivered the appliance on time on the day he wanted them," Holmes said. "The situation he ran into should be rare. It seems to me that this could and should have been resolved at the local store level or at our 800 number."

It seems to me those are exactly the words that Home Depot's very patient customers have been dying to hear.

Reach Consuming Interests by e-mail at consuminginterests@baltsun.com or by phone at 410-332-6151. Find an archive of Consuming Interest columns at baltimoresun.com/consuming

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