Home Depot Tool Rental Review
I had a bad experience with Home Depot Tool Rental. I attempted to rent a tool and ended up sacrificing about 4 hours of my life. Perhaps this short post will give me some perspective.
The Problem
Monday’s post was about fixing a jammed floor nailer. Just before that, I decided to rent a nailer from Home Depot. I only had a small area left and I really wanted to finish. So I called the local HD Tool Rental and sure enough, they had a cleat nailer. I was there bright an early, picked it up, and was on my way.
At home, I connected it to my compressor and began working. But the nailer didn’t work. Everything was connected correctly but the nailer didn’t load cleats properly. I called HD Tool Rental. They asked me to bring it back. I was already frustrated and they offered me a 10% discount for my wasted time.
They worked hard to get the nailer functioning. At one point it was completely disassembled. HD didn’t have any other cleat nailers, so I waited. They never got it working despite a thorough effort. They refunded my money. And then things got a little strange.
The Solution
I asked how my discount would work. The tool rental supervisor seemed confused. I reiterated that she had promised me a discount for my wasted morning. I don’t think she counted on me holding her to that promise. She offered to discount a tool rental, but they didn’t have anything I needed (like another cleat nailer). I asked if the discount could be applied to a future purchase in HD. That was fine. All I had to do was “find her when I make my next purchase”. This seemed a bit shady so I asked to get something in writing. At this point, she let me know that: 1) she couldn’t give me anything in writing, 2) she couldn’t give me any kind of coupon, 3) she couldn’t give me any kind of store credit, and 4) she wouldn’t give me her full name. But she did provide the Home Depot Customer Care phone number (1-800-553-3199).
I called the Customer Care line from the Tool Rental Department. I spent some time on the phone explaining what had happened. They were sympathetic and sent me a gift card in lieu of the promised discount. Do I feel compensated? Sure. I’d rather the whole thing never happened.
Leason Learned
The real frustration lies in my expectations. I’m OK with spending some money to rent a tool. I’m even OK with that tool failing. But what I’m not OK with is that Home Depot doesn’t have a mechanism to deal with these situations. Instead, I get vague promises and passed along to their Customer Care line. Maybe I’ll try ABC Rental next time.
What do you think? Was I unreasonable?
Image courtesy of Zach Klein
August 27th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Not at all, the problem you had is representative of the box stores in general. Typically their employees have little to know training, lack of knowledge and an overall lack of customer service. Don’t get me wrong, I shop there occasionally, but only for specials and when I can’t find something at the local hardware store. I have a serious love hate relationship with box stores and the customer service issues are at the root of it all!
August 27th, 2008 at 8:16 am
That’s too bad! We’ve rented a few things from there (luckily with a positive experience) and a few things at the local Rental Station, which is MUCH further from my house. What I don’t like about HD is that they won’t reserve somethingfor you… if you call to make sure it’s there, they won’t hold it until you get there. Luckily we live 10 blocks away, so we’ve never had a problem (also why we go there a lot).
August 27th, 2008 at 11:41 am
This is a classic example of botched customer service at the employee level, the customer-facing employee level who was even a manager.
Companies via their employees, focus too much on making it hard on customers. They make it hard to get a fair deal, they make it hard to return bad goods. And by doing so, they make the consumer less inclined to be a repeat customer.
I had a similary bad experience with Z Gallerie home furnishings. After waiting 4 months for a mirror to get delivered, it wasn’t even in good condition. My wife got a decent % discount on the price prior to delivery (did I mention they charge you immediately upon taking your sale, not when the good is delivered!) but they refused to give us a coupon or gift certificate when we returned the scratched mirror. It was like they wanted to piss us off and have us never come back.
I find your story to be atypical for Home Depot though. I find they are pretty good in general, and even better when they know you by face (making relationships with the main people in paints and lumber is key, lumber guys will cut your wood for free and give you stuff at greatly reduced prices).
August 27th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I’ve never rented from a Home Depot (there’s a local rental place much closer, with better selection and service), but I’ve had enough negative experiences with HD that I’m not surprised by your experience. Not all HDs are created equal; unfortunately the one nearest to us is on the low end of the scale.
I still shop there when closer stores don’t have what I need, but sometimes I wonder why. This morning was another example. I wasn’t in a huge rush, but it was early (~8am), so most of the people there were contractors buying lumber or other larger items. So what did they have open for registers? One plus the self-checkout. You can’t use self-checkout for lumber, so there was a line of 8 or so contractors all waiting at one register. Some time later they opened a second register, but not before they’d raised more than a few blood pressures.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
One of the big questions a situation like this raises is what obligation does a company have to you for wasting your time? I think that the courts would generally rule that your wasted time has no monetary value, especially if the company was operating with “reasonable care.” In this case, HD probably didn’t know the tool was broken, and they did their best to make it right for you. Basically, the penalty the big box pays for this isn’t direct compensation to you; rather, it pays in lost future business and a negative review (like this one).
I’m sure that in Home Depot’s situation above, the tool rental customer service representative didn’t actually have the authority to issue you a 10%-off discount, at least not on a future purchase, and possibly not even “on the spot” as she probably meant to imply. She was likely going to use some kind of discount they had available (e.g., a coupon in the desk) to give you a 10% discount for your troubles. When they couldn’t fix the problem that day, she couldn’t give you a voucher because she wasn’t really supposed to be giving you *anything*…
In reality, she should have been honest and said that she didn’t have the authority to issue any type of discount, and that you should call customer service to register a complaint.
Just another way to look at it, I suppose. The clerk in this case didn’t follow a good procedure for making things right. It would have been better to be honest, direct you to HD’s customer service line, and then let it go. HD customer service did issue you a credit for your next purchase in the form of a gift card. Had the path for you to obtain some type of compensation been clearer and more direct, perhaps the situation would have been perceived a little differently.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Good comments all. @Fred, You raise a good point about HD’s obligation. Point taken. I completely agree except that the employee offered the discount. If she had the authority or not, I’m not sure. It never came up and it was never questioned by customer care (as far as I know). But she offered the discount and even said I could apply it toward a future purchase. I simply held her to that. Hopefully, it’s a situation I won’t ever experience again.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I have had a recent, nearly identical situation with the HD tool rental for a wet saw. However, Natalie and I just ate the wasted time and vowed never to return. ABC rental has been a great experience for us since then.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
This is exactly why it is better to deal with places that specialize in whatever the service or materials you are looking for, whether it is tool rentals, lumber, plumbing parts, or any other resource you are in need of, I always try to use a supplier that deals specifically in that service or goods. I know this isn’t always possible as most plumbing, electrical, fence, and other suppliers won’t sell to the public, but if possible, it is worth it to avoid the “big box” (as Todd and many others refer to them).
Keith
September 29th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
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