The Home Depot

There’s a pattern with Home Depot: If you happen to get lucky and ask the right person you might get some good advice. The chances of this happening are extremely rare. You usually get someone who is just grateful to have a job and can tell the difference between a phillips head and a flat head screw driver. You really need to know exactly what you need when you go to Home Depot and for someone like me that’s unfortunate. You cannot go in seeking advice because you will be given wrong advice by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. If they were knowledgeable in the plumbing field, they’d have a job in the plumbing field and so on.
Bought a house in the vicinity to this Home Depot so I’ve been coming here a lot lately (more often than I’d like) for little odds and ends projects. Here are some of the things that should have been a breeze but that I’ve run into trouble dealing with at this particular location:
1. I was sold the wrong width blinds despite showing the salesperson a picture of the tape measure against the window so he could see the exact size of each window down to 1/​8″. I thought the blinds would be a little snug and should be trimmed a bit but the salesperson said no and assured me they’d be fine. Guess what? All 4 sets of blinds were TOO WIDE and had to be returned.
2. I bought a lamp and when I got home and opened the box the shade was smashed and crinkled but not only that, some disgruntled person who bought the lamp before me threw it back in the box — MINUS THE ESSENTIAL HARDWARE TO ASSEMBLE IT — taped it back up and Home Depot re-​sold it to me missing all the pieces I needed to put the thing together. Shame on Home Depot for not checking, and also shame on the customer for passing their problem on to someone else. Maybe I should’ve opened the box and checked that all the hardware was intact, but the seal didn’t look broken so I never questioned that Home Depot would take something back and resell it without checking.
3. I have a pet gate that I’ve been trying to put up for the last week and have made 5 trips back and fourth to Home Depot trying to get the proper hardware to get the job done. Each time I ask someone for help I’m given different advice and am sold different hardware to get the job done. I always bring the brackets with me to show the «experts» (I use that term loosely) what I’m doing and working with, but can never seem to get what I need to finish the job — it should be simple, just some screws and possibly wall anchors?! One guy sold me a box of screws he swore were the right ones but wound up being too wide for the mounting brackets (which I brought into the store to show him!). Another day one of the «experts» pointed at a chart of wall anchors, told me to look at the chart to figure out which one I needed and walked away. Mind boggling.
At this point I should just pay someone to install the pet gate and never set foot inside a Home Depot again — especially not this one.
4. Today I needed a level to finish hanging those blinds and some oversized mirrors and pictures. I inquired in the tool department what type of level I should buy (laser, aluminum, magnetic torpedo mounted on a yardstick or??? Give me your expert advice!). The salesperson tried selling me a «post and fence level»!!! He told me to put it on the corner of the mirror and hold it against the wall. I pointed out that it said right on the package that it was a fence level and he said I could still use it anyway. I told him it was a 4″ depth and my mirror was only a 1″ depth so it wouldn’t even sit flush against the mirror. He said that didn’t matter. Another customer overheard him trying to sell me this and he started shaking his head because even he knew it was incorrect. I got the attention of another salesperson and even he told the first guy that was the wrong level but he didn’t want to admit it so he kept trying to convince everyone that it could be used. Unbelievable. I walked out without buying anything and went to Ace Hardware instead.
I give two stars because the store is neat and seems to be well stocked, but if I am rating on helpfulness and knowledge of the staff that would be –5

good stock on items, employes are helpful if you ask the right one. Some are more clueless than customers.

Usually in stock on most items. Has a larger nursery than the Selden location.