Just about anyone at sometime has absent mindedly pocketed a borrowed pen or pencil after using it to write a note, check or other spur-of-the-moment thing. It is almost second nature since many of us carry our own writing implements most of the time, and are used to putting them back in a pocket or purse.

The idiot who humiliated that customer should have to take a course in "Spirit vs. Letter of the Law."

I have no problem with the people who work at HD, they've all seemed pretty nice. That said, I don't shop there if I can possibly go to a locally-owned store in a normal-sized building on a regular street.

I don't like some of the political stuff that HD has pulled, like undercutting an attempt to make ceiling fans more energy efficient. Some of their products are not quite as good as you'd find elsewhere - like American Standard makes "special" fixtures for HD that look just like the ones in the nice showrooms but have inferior fittings - plastic vs brass. etc. etc.

When you have 2 small kids and 1 bathroom, and you suddenly need a new toilet because your husband dropped the bathroom sink on the old one (while removing it from the wall to retrieve a toy that a toddler jammed down the drain) and it is sunday afternoon, however, then HD is a great place.

Saw that story on the news. I think their loss prevention person took their job description a little too seriously. I would understand if it were something nice like a Cross pen that the store sells. If they didn't want their pencil "stolen", then why did they let him borrow it?

As for shopping there.... due to our remote location, we usually end up at HD. We try to go to the local hardware store as much as possible, but they don't have a wide inventory.

At least HD apologized to the guy.
Once upon a time I had a VISA card from the well known nationwide bank.
Due to the obvious clerical/computer mistake I got a statement saying I owe them 17,000,000.00 (seventeen millions). Simple phone call solved that mistake, new statement for 1700.00 was issued and paid on time.
However, it took me about 6 (six!) years to remove from my credit history that 'transaction' that was reported as a 'late payment'.
No apology ever was issued.
As you may guess, I don't do and never will do business with this institution.

I don't think the situation represents HD policy, rather it's evidence of how rabidly the employee considered their position and did their job. HD appologies were nice, but really...beyond some public statement that the subject employee would be taken out of the store for re-training, HD could have gone a long way towards better public relations by giving the guy a few hundred dollars worth of gift certificates. That would be a drop in the bucket for HD monetarily, but a big thing for positive publicity.

Anyway, a local TV station in the Boston area is doing a survey regarding whether people would continue shopping at a retail establishment if faced with the same sort of situation that this fellow faced...

Currently the vote is running 11% (3600 votes) saying 'yes' they would go back to the store...

...and 89% (30,000 votes) saying they'd never go back again.

I tend to think a lot of that is simply folks having fun with the survey. But who knows....HD may find out...

I agree that it's not the corporation, but the individual "loss control" manager who was way out of line. The last think a company wants is bad press.

As I said, that manager is an ijjit! Reminds me of an experience I had at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, some months after 9/11. They always had a policy of not allowing knapsacks or large bags into the galleries, but customers in the gift shop were always permitted to bring their bags. I shopped their frequently, and use a large sholderbag or small backpack as a purse.

An overzealous young guard blocked my way and refused to let me enter the gift shop because I had a bag that he didn't approve of. He was incredibly obnoxious about it, too. I can appreciate the post 9/11 vigilence, but I was a longtime museum member and regular shopper in the gift shop! And, the posted rules stated "no backpacks or oversized handbags in the museum galleries," but said nothing at all about the giftshop.

I was ready to belt the brat (sooo tempted), but decided to just leave. None of the volunteers or other staff there did anything to agree or disagree...they pretended nothing was happening. I haven't shopped at the giftshop since, because it left a bad taste in my mouth.

IMHO: Shame on the media, and I work for a company that supplies TV to millions of homes.

When as much coverage is given THANKING HD for the millions of dollars worth of building supplies they donate for storm relief, I'll take stories like this to heart. HD is one of the largest materials suppliers to Habitat for Humanity, so their philanthropy is not flash in the pan. Their garden division also has several "quiet" programs to supply plants and supplies to inner-city schools that want to start green spaces.

Yes, I'd rather go through a locally owned business, but as mega-business goes, HD isn't as bad as most. The worst customer relations experiences I have had are with a mom and pop grocery store in my hometown, I think because it is truly a monopoly for high-end food stuffs. It goes all ways.

Martie

OTH Home depot employees are trained with your tax $$

http://www.sprawl-busters.com/search.php?readstory=1576

Today's Boston Globe says another HD noticed a guy who had just gotten a key made in their store, got a cellphone call, walked outside to get better reception (with the unpaid-for key). They followed him out, made him sign a statement saying he'd stolen the key (he's a Russian immigrant, wasn't sure what he was signing) and have since billed him for $350, then $625.

Sometimes when I'm in the garden section, I take a large plant outside, unpaid for, to grab a cart. No one ever stops me and I could just keep going. Maybe too many people have done that, and they're getting overzealous.

Bad policy.

Here's the story: He says an emergency cellphone call he received while getting his key copied at The Home Depot in West Roxbury on June 20 rattled him so much that he forgot to pay for the key before trying to step outside to improve his cellphone's reception. He barely made it through the door when security guards stopped him.

''I tell him I pay for this key right now and he says, 'No,' but I can come tomorrow and order key again," said Fridman, a Russian immigrant from St. Petersburg. ''He start to write documentation, so I told him that I did nothing wrong. He says this is a formality, like a report. I signed the paper."

No police report was filed, said Fridman.

Nat Reifler, a partner with the Florida law firm, said he could not comment on the case. But in a statement, Home Depot officials said its shoplifting rules are deliberately strict and the fees mentioned in the letters are to help offset the company's costs.

''The company's zero tolerance for theft is an important factor in helping maintain low prices for our customers," The Home Depot statement said. ''The civil penalty laws are designed to assist retailers recoup the significant costs incurred to deter theft in their stores. . . . Given that the customer admitted to intentionally failing to pay for the merchandise, we were within our rights to demand a civil penalty from him."

2 years ago, the Salem Mass. H.D. had police posted at the registers. When I asked an officer friend what was up with their presence he said., " they lost almost 2 million dollars in merchandise"

Well my take on it is, the place is a pig pen. its not clean, the isles are always cluttered with all kinds of products that's missing a place to go or belong in another dept. products unlabeled, and many things on the floor. Did I mention the low light levels. Don't get me going on the quality of some of their brass and copper plumbing supplies. The lost inventory was probably the crap that was all out of place on the floor.

I must admit I have used them only in an emergency Sunday afternoon.

I prefer to spend my money with the small local companies who sell better quality for a few cents more. Most of the time their prices are same and evan less. They also provide you with far more information about a product line.

DTD, your right. HD buys certain products in such volume that they can get them manufactured to lowers quality standards. BUT, they never tell you that. hot tubs, gas grills (Weber) are just several examples that I've run into.

Ron

I shop at Home Depot several times a year and I have never had a problem with them. I intend to keep shopping there.

MM

I won't buy anything at Home Depot. Did once, won't again. Even in our area, not exactly metro, we have two excellent hardware stores (both open on Sunday) and a full-service building supply store, plus several small mills you can buy lumber direct from. I'd rather shop locally, with people who are trained to know what they are doing and treated decently.

One of my neighbors used to work at HD. She hated it. Ran into her at the store a few weeks ago, and she told me that she and about 15 other people had quit the week before. Just laid down their pencils and left.

Up here, people act with their feet-- and on principle. The local building supply is actually expanding and so is the larger of the two hardware stores I shop at. The smaller one is doing a brisk business (it is only two blocks from where I live, they know me by name). In all the places I shop at, I find the products are better and equivalent or less expensive than HD. And returns are no hassle.

This is barely a year and a half after HD opened here. Think it says something about HD. May it happen elsewhere and may local businesses get the trade they deserve. It supports our communities and our neighbors.

As for the donations that HD made-- good grief, everybody was donating, just HD has the high-power PR to use it as promotion. Businesses up here got together and sent truckloads of stuff down-- this happened from all over the country. I work for the Forest Service and the crews that ordinarily would be out fixing trails and repairing ORV damage were down there helping out. There were crews of volunteer firemen and other folks from here and all over the country that went down and helped people put things back together-- on their own dime. What did Home Depot do that was so special?

Nothing.

Dayle Ann

I think that before this goes any further and gets any more negative a few things need to be pointed out:

1. Everyone has the ability to shop where they want. If you don't like HD, don't go there.

2. DH, who is an upstanding contractor, and I donate A LOT of time and effort to Habitat for Humanity and hardly ever see local vendors donating. The prevailing attitude seems to be: "let them pay for it themselves like everyone else." DH has severed several local business ties because of this attitude, and from reports up and down the east coast several other contractors involved with HfH have done the same thing.

3. Anyone can write a press release and have it published. Letters to the Editor are the general public's opportunity to do this, and, again, when local charities write their "thank yous" for donations. No big PR Department, there.

4. All charitable giving over $250 needs to be reported individually on taxes, and anyone donating over $5,000 to any 501-3(c) organization gets reported immediately. Check the IRS files to see what local places have donated NEARLY as much as the HD's and Lowes of the world. You'll be in for a shock, believe me.

4. It is very well known that the major manufacturers sell their lower-end lines at HD and Lowes and WalMart and a lot of other "big box" stores. If someone doesn't do their homework when buying a piece of equipment that costs several hundreds or thousands dollars, and doesn't realize that it's not the same thing as at a "dealership", shame on them. This lower-end equipment allows consumers to enjoy the same warrantees and service that higher-end equipment carries, without needing to spend the high-end price. Again, it's a matter of consumer responsibility.

5. THIS FORUM IS FOR THE DISCUSSION OF NEW ENGLAND PLANTS and, even with the format change, I'm really disappointed that the thread was not pulled earlier. Any sort of consumer oriented business (ie., the museum gift shop, mom and pop stores, AND DON'T get me started on "local" hardware stores that market themselves as being "local" but are franchised by conglomerates much larger than HD) has its skeletons, and to single one company out defies the spirit of GardenWeb, iVillage notwithstanding.

6. Yes, many governmental agencies and contractors responded to the several natural disasters. Last I knew, it's what they are there for.

I suggest that all of you who feel strongly about HD not go there, and let others make their own decision. Spreading negative information doesn't help anyone. Let's concentrate on the positive, here!!

Martie, who really hopes this whole thread gets pulled

"Spreading negative information doesn't help anyone. Let's concentrate on the positive, here!!"

martie, sorry for harboring less-than-posi thoughts about one of america's leading retailers (and on our biggest shopping weekend, o shame on me), but my stepford prozac wore off around 1965.

the two exclamation points, btw, are a nice touch.