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Do they actually do anything or handle it? I had a customer that “demanded” I mix tint in the oops paint and I told her we can’t. And she started throwing a tantrum and I kept repeating the same thing until she got tired or understood…well, she wanted to talk to my mgr and demanded corporate number. Yeah, like going to corporate about oops paint is an answer lol
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Most corporations have layers and layers of people before you get to anyone meaningful. Most people just need an outlet for their deep-seeded and untreated anger issues.
The customer was just being rude, she wanted us to pour two and a half gallons of ceiling paint into two separate 1-Gallon buckets which we can’t do for many reasons
Been with HD for 21 yrs. We are NEVER allowed to pour anything from one container to another.... as for Oops paint... it is sold AS IS. We do not alter it at all. I once had a situation exactly like this. ( wanted me to pour some of the Oops into another bucket to make room for more colorant) She called corporate, who explained to her it was a Hazmat situation. How do I know? Because Costumer Service put me on a 3 way with the customer. I don't know if we still do that. Probably not. But the basic rules still stand.
Heh. As a key-carrier, I asked a customer to call corporate (she even had the “actual corporate phone number, 1-800-466-3337!”) 😬 and put it on speaker so we could both communicate with corporate. It was a non-negotiable delivery request and the fellow in Atlanta told her, in no uncertain terms, that we would NOT be honoring her request.
It was extremely satisfying to be able to hear and watch her on the entire conversation.
We add a little colorant so people don’t come back and get their previous return for 9 bucks instead of like 60 per gallon.
…sounds like we really aren’t supposed to do that?
Yes, you do alter the returns.
This person wanted them to change the oops paint again instead of buying it 'as is'.
No, that's what you're supposed to do. However, once the Oops process is completed, those paints are sold as is. We don't color match them and we don't alter them any further.
Yup that's what I learned at the service desk. Just take the beating and let them and get mad at you even though you were not involved. Don't fight it, don't argue, just go with it. The more you argue or deny the customer the worse it gets and makes it harder for the next person above you to take care of the customer.
I always tell my employees if the customer starts getting belligerent you say "I'm sorry I am unable to help you. Let me get you someone who can." Walk away and call me or another manager. You all don't get paid to be yelled at.
This is what I always do. I’ve been fairly successful defusing most situations, but when I can’t, I will tell them I’m calling a manager and walk away. I’ve had customers continue to try and communicate, I’ll just keep repeating that I called a manager / supervisor.
No, customers don't realize this but corporate doesn't care, so the issue just gets directed back to store management. The only exception is when store-level management refuses the customer's demands or lawsuits are threatened.
In the first case, after a review, they will either give their fix (usually worse than what the store offered) or side with the store and it ends there.
If legal is called on corporate they'll either refer to the steps I lined above or wait for formal papers to be filed.
Just tell them to call 1-800-HOMEDEPOT and walk away.
As someone who answers the phones lol, thanks
“Sorry Karen, I cannot breach company Standard Operating Procedure. My manager nor the Corporate Office has the authority to approve such a violation.”
Funny thing is, she would still call because she wants to complain to someone, that’s all they want to do lol
Never wast your time trying to please people who only want to be displease.
There are people who will completely stone wall you and give you nothing to work with when you are trying to generate leads or get credit cards. Then these same people will complain about how much you “suck” to other associates/people in general, because you realized you were wasting your breath speaking to obviously disinterested people, bided them ado and moved on. If they aren’t complaining to you about something or someone else they’ll likely be complaining about you to other people.
I had a phone call and I do my normal shtick of “Doors and Windows department! How can I help you?” And she says “yes I’d like to speak to a manager” and I was a little confused and said “ok! I can transfer you, however, may I ask what exactly your reason?”
She said to me “yes I filed a complaint with corporate and I just wanted to make sure punishment was handed out”
I chuckled on the phone and she didn’t like that. My manager walked by and I told him to stop for a second to talk to the customer and he deadass took the phone, tried to talk to the customer until he got a word in and went “yep yep we’ve all been very harshly punished bye” and hung up before any more words could be said
This is exactly why I don't trust phone calls that list an external number as the inbound caller. If it's an internal extension I'll answer unless I know it's an @-department trying to get an equipment operator (the only reason receiving ever calls garden) or if I've been told "no, I'm looking for X, hang up and don't answer when it rings again". If it's the MOD I'll definitely answer since they only ever call specific phones and not the whole @-department number (meaning it's important and they're looking for me specifically)...
“Corporate” is just a call center that calls the store. Officially the store has final say but people do sometimes get the email for members of the executive leadership team and that seems to have an effect. Again the store does have final say but generally speaking unless is illegal or unethical the store manager doesn’t want their name involved with an issue that goes that high so the customer gets whatever they want.
I’m not sure if this applies to paint or regular merchandise. However, for orders, I know that if a customer talks to whoever they talk to at “Corporate,” it turns into a Customer Care case, which is top priority whenever my store has one.
Lmao. I had ppl ask me that too. Told them if they wanted a specific color I would be happy to mix them and they can pay full price for what they want. Or they can take what’s there at a discount.
Calling corporate over paint that cannot be re-tinted??? Good god why do so many people have so little in their lives they would waste time on such silly things? Anyway to answer your question it depends on the issue. If your customer calls them about that I’m sure the person on our end would have a good laugh. I’ve seen resolutions to issues get expedited through a call to corporate, but we’re talking actual issues, not a can of oops paint.
I had a customer today who was "going to report us" because we wouldn't sell a paint sprayer for $2.50. It had a sticker for a can of orange spray paint on it and she wanted that price. Threw a fit at self checkout. Before she even got there, the manager covering paint told her that wasn't going to work how she thought.
A lot of people don't realize that unless you're a Contractor or doing a big ticket item like appliances or flooring, Corporate doesn't give a shit, nor does the local Store Manager. It's a Multinational Billion dollar company. Most individual stores measure their sales in the millions. The $20 you were about to spend means literally nothing to them.
That is why when we got oops pain in we tinted it to dark colors so can do a lot with it
I understand that being complained about is just part of this job. If I lose my job as a result of a customer complaint, I'll take my concern to an employment lawyer. Middle finger to these disgusting customers and the useless people at corporate .
I work for our corporate customer care team and take complaints about store associates all the time. We usually document the customer's complaints, apologize, and then close the case after sending a copy to the involved store's management team. Occasionally we have to leave the case open when the customer is still looking for a call back from the store directly.
Yeah, just like this one …..
https://youtu.be/3XmsOK_K_Vg?si=bzgYVjPY6DFDoHnI
No they don’t do anything especially if a co worker complains about a manager I’ve learned that when this happens they are protecting the company from you if you write a statement they gotta look out for number 1 but I’m some cases they do help you I guess 🤷🏽
I’m not sure what difference there is between calling corporate and a “customer care” complaint. The latter is tracked, and it’s a negative for the store. The complaint goes to the DM, then the SM, who has the handle it, and report back to the DM how it was handled.
Does the same apply to Better Business Bureau complaints?
Corporate is just a call center. They will "call corporate", It will then bounce back to the store as a customer care complaint and the managers will handle it. "corporate" doesn't actually exist.
mental health is real with these psycho customers
Nothing will happen. Now if she complained about you on the survey at the bottom of the receipt and gave the store a 4 of 5 stars... then maybe you'd be spoken to.
Customer Care immediately defers to your store manager and your district manager will have visibility of the issue. Unless it is a crazy circumstance, it won't get escalated further. In this situation, just add the tint and have a manager explain that the desired color may not be achieved. Also they should reiterate that the paint is not returnable. The only reason we wouldn't add tint is if the can is almost at capacity or if it is more than a one gallon can.
I always wondered about that. I had a customer call 1800 number right in front of me and tells someone on the phone that I did a fantastic job bla bla bla... nothing crickets.....
If the customer was just nice and not busy I would give them some tint in a sample can.
If it's something we can get sued for then maybe
In my experience, the SM pulls you in the office and tells you that you wasted you’re time and just should’ve taken care of the customer because now they are getting more then what they originally wanted.
I felt defeated.
Our store put a lot of "sold as is, cannot retint" signage around our oops rack. That deters MOST of the karens
I always tell them that if they want to waste their time, go ahead. But I'm following corporate policy. I'm just a messenger, not the one making the rules. Above my pay grade.
Customers' can be difficult. Do what you can, what you're supposed to do, and leave it at that
Customers' can be
Difficult. Do what you can
And leave it at that
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I used to work tech support at a company and these real morons would get these kudos certs from our shift supervisor when they held the hands of people[but didn't fix anything-generating multiple subsequent calls with unrealistic expectations-like defragging computers and setting up anti-virus remotely-insane stuff for residential internet service providers.]
Me and a buddy figured out how to get corporate recognition by using the customer response page on the company website to conform connectivity. <we'd direct them to the correct page and have them cc our response address.>
Our supervisor couldn't figure out how the two cold engineers were getting corporate recognition but his moron pets weren't. We received a new supervisor at the end of the month, and were laterally promoted to tier two.
Probably not very much or anything because they hear countless “customer says” stories. Where a customer presents only their “version” of events and not everything that actually happened or didn’t happen. And wouldn’t you know they always seem to be the “wronged” party.
Maybe a sign stating policy about oops paint, or even have a printed paper laminated at the paint desk. Even if the customer calls it's going to management back to your store.
Went to return an item at home depot. They ask to see my drivers licence in order to be able to complete the return. I said I did not drive or have a licence. They said to bad then no return then even with receipt. I pointed out that nowhere in the store does it say you must drive and have a licence to shop here. This kind of policy is why so many Canadians stopped shopping at Canadian tire and had the entire Toronto film industry boycott them gor asking for ridiculous information in order to do a return. I will pass this along to family and friends and all my colleagues. Good bye home depot.