How to lose a customer in 45 minutes
 

If Lowes would ask me why their sales are lagging so far behind Home Depot, I have the answer. My wife and I went first to Lowes to look at buying a new washer and dryer. There were four male clerks in the Appliance area milling about and mostly talking to each other. After browsing for 45 minutes we settled on a Samsung washer and dryer. At this point we had some questions regarding the Samsung appliances. But lo and behold not a clerk in site !!!! I thought enough is enough, 45 minutes in Lowes and not a word, nor eye contact from any appliance clerk. Here we go, disgruntled and upset, out the door and on our way Home Depot. We walk into the appliance department, greeted immediately and the gentleman was willing to answer our questions about the same model of Samsing units. 20 minutes later, our new Samsung washer and dryer from Home Depot is paid for and will be delivered Thursday.

That was indeed a lost opportunity for Lowe's. However, I have come to only shop Lowe's because of the excellent customer service and products they provide. I stopped going to Home Deport long ago.

I am going to make a stop at Lowe's this week and will mention this lost sale ...generally of course no names

Always amazed at salespeople not interested in selling something and bringing in some revenues that might be needed to fund their paycheck.

I do like Lowes.

I have had that experience at both stores, so on any given day.

I have found the same problem at both stores. However, I've just bought all new kitchen appliances at Lowes. Great deal and on top of that Lowes gives veterans a 10% discount on every sale. HD doesn't do that except on vererans day and the 4th of July. Adds up on appliances and $1 and $2 dollar items. As a retired contractor, I dealt with both stores a lot and probably did 80% of my business with Lowes. (for business I wouldn't use my vet discount) didn't think it was fair. On the other hand, I had a bad sales experience years ago in Lowes kitchen dept and I bought somewhere between 30 and 40 kitchens from HD because of it let alone untold baths as well. Sales people can make it or break it. For real convience you can beat Ace Hardware.

Have had good luck with the Sears Hometown store on 441 in Summerfield. Good service and priced right during some of their sales. Kenmore Elite is the way to go.

My wife and I just bought all new Samsung kitchen appliances at Lowes. We had excellent service all the way around. Now, I do have to say that had I not looked to see how busy the salespeople were I might have been unhappy with the lack of immediate greetings. But having been in sales for 41 years myself I know what they can occasionally run into. Having noted that they were all quite (and legitimately busy), we waited "in line" and were then taken care of very professionally. Oh, and for political reasons, I only go to HD when I am forced to.

Lowes is a company that has adopted the Wal-Mart business model. I worked for another company that adopted that model. Basically no one is allowed to stand around and do nothing. Every person that you see, even the cashiers, has multiple job including stocking shelves and loss prevention measures. I was given so much additional work that I did not have time to properly service customers. When customers would write letters of complaint the people on the floor, those at the lowest rung on the ladder would get all the blame. I was in a management position so I didn't catch it all that much. They would never have enough people on the floor to take care of everything they wanted done and service customers. It was basically impossible to do both. When it was slow int he store, I along with other managers would be told to call staff members and tell them to not come in for their shift. The district managers get huge monthly bonuses depending on sales vs expenses. They can't control sales very much and the on expense that they do have control over is payroll which they try to keep as low as possible.

The problem is that even though people are upset, they put up with it and continue to shop at these places because of pricing. They don;t care about losing a few customers because in the big picture, they think they do better.

email CEO. My husband did this with amazing results. See post under Lowes

I shop both and have had a lot of bad experiences at Lowes. From now on I go to HD first and unless they don't have what I am looking for or there is a Big price difference (rare) I buy at HD.

My last bad experience was at Lowes just today. I am still mad as hell. Rented a carpet cleaning machine this morning. Before returning I cleaned out all the tanks and wiped down the machine. It is about 15 miles each way to Lowes. I brought the machine in and the woman at the customer service desk (that's a joke) did not look to see if the tanks were clean she immediately flipped the machine over and stated the roller bush looked dirty and stated I will have to charge you $10 for cleaning. When I looked there was a little hair which I pulled off. Mind you the directions only stated to be sure to clean the tanks. Apparently she was insistent on charging me a $10 fee. I said no way was I paying them $10 and she better get a manager. By now my BP was at about 180. The manager did not want to mess with me and agreed the machine was clean. She still refused to sign off on the paperwork and made the manager do it. No more Lowes for me!

Home Depot is our "go to" business. Great staff in the appliance department and there is always a staff member ready to assist in any section of the store.

Maybe it was shift change and the two going off was giving turnover to the two coming on? maybe they discussed not to be too aggressive and let the customers come to them? Or maybe they had BIG meeting to attend? or maybe it was break time.

GOOD POST !!! A few years ago both Home Depot and Lowes stock prices were going down hill very rapidly. Home Depot recognized the problem of financial losses were attributed to poor customer service. Yes, like the Summerfield WalMart. Home Depot added a lot of employees and stressed customer service above all else. Home Depot Stock is now one of the hottest stocks on the market and has shot up like a rocket.. Lowes still has the reputation of too few employees on the floor and poor customer service and flat stock prices.

I don't recall seeing the four sales clerks helping any customer. Both my wife and I comented that they seemed more involved with each other than anything customer. And just like magic, suddenly, they all disappeared without us being able to speak a single word to any of them.

Nothing should become more than their customers !!! Their customers are the key to everything.