The Home Depot

We have been using this Home Depot almost exclusively for building supplies for our bathroom remodel. We were pretty disappointed when we drove all the way there for last minute drywall and they refused to cut the dry wall! It is incredibly unlikely that a homeowner has a vehicle large enough to transport regular-​sized drywall! Too bad they won’t go the extra step to help out loyal customers!

This is not specific to Home Dept in Waltham but I was just over there and am shocked at how much HD has decided to carry inferior brands. It’s all throw away junk from Mexico…
Making matters worse, I have seen the recent publicity of them selling plants treated with chemicals that kill bees and butterflies.
More and more I chose to go to my local hardware store. I may pay a bit more, but I get quality!

Absolutely terrible customer service. Worth paying a premium elsewhere rather than put up with the incompetence and arrogance of everyone we spoke to today. Stay away.

This is a typical large store. I’ve been here 100’s of times for construction projects. The worst experience was waiting all day for a rental truck I really needed to finish a job. After talking to someone new waiting 7 hours, they had one the whole time. There have been decent experiences where I’ve had helpful people. In general, people don’t really have trade expertise or even Home Depot expertise.

Time to replace my appliances after a fire destroyed everything. This can get expensive, pretty quickly. I searched and searched online to find the best appliances at the best price and then I headed to Home Depo in Waltham with my list.
I worked with Batrice, who walked me through my list, making sure to ask key questions, such as, do I need a set-​up kit or do I realize that my appliance handles will not match because they are from different manufacturers. She was very knowledgable and easy to work with. She was able to price match to Lowe’s lower price and at the end she gave me all available discounts so my final price beat any other price around. (Thank you Batrice and Home Depo!!)

I’ve never had a problem at the store itself, but we just had a bad experience when we took the extra step and hired Home Depot for a cabinet refacing job. The jobs are farmed out to subcontractors, and although the salesperson told my husband verbally that the job would be scheduled 3 – 4 weeks after we signed the paperwork (and had to put 90% down as a down payment), a month went by and nothing. He had actually written 4 – 6 weeks on the paperwork, so we felt we couldn’t complain at first, but it took several efforts by phone and email to get the job scheduled 8 weeks after we signed the papers. The person on the phone was apologetic and said it was a very busy time, etc. so we again were reasonable and nice about it despite the fact that the delay caused us problems. Then the day the fellow came to do the job, he came at 10:20 a.m. instead of between 9 and 9:30 as we’d been told (he was apologetic and said he thought the warehouse always told people 10 a.m. on Mondays) and my husband missed a client at work due to the delay and it was a real problem. By this time I was pretty upset and called the store and gave them an opportunity to apologize or give us a credit, saying I wanted to give them a chance to make things right before I wrote a negative review on Unilocal.I really don’t want to harm anyone’s business with a negative review, but this had caused us inconvenience and problems, and now my husband had his own client who was upset. The guy told me he understood why I was upset and his boss got in at 2 p. m and would call me. Three days later, no call ever came. So here I am giving my review. The only saving grace was that the guy who did the work was very nice, and although it took longer than expected, he did a great job. If he didn’t work for Home Depot we’d hire him again. But because of the delays in scheduling and the inconvenience of it all and the lack of response to our complaint, we won’t use Home Depot again for future installation jobs.

This is by far the worst customer service I have experienced anywhere on this planet. The staff at this place are either rude, totally inept, or sometimes a combination of both and mind-​bogglingly unprofessional. Makes me wonder about how Home Depot is treating them because they are SO hopelessly bad at their work and looks like they feel OK with that.
Don’t bother asking for help here, you will definitely get wrong (and expensive) answers from them. In any damn department – plumbing – someone here sold me the worst kind of plaster for my bathroom (and then I realized it was much more expensive than what I needed to get), electrical, gardening, hardware – you name it. The same atrocious non-​service. They don’t know anything about the products they sell. They definitely don’t know much about store specials and seasonals that they sell. They just don’t care.
I am taking my business elsewhere from now on. I am tired of the crappy service I receive here.

This is not the store to get your custom doors and windows at. Staffing is poor in that department and I have made multiple trips to try and order two storm doors. When I have found Joe or Marshall on duty things go well but otherwise forget it… Three trips and after waiting around for 15 – 20 mins and getting the Customer desk involved still no one could be found EACH time I was there… Go to Home Depot in Somerville or find an independent if you want less hassle.

Very unprofessional they are not trained well for what they are doing

They use shitty delivering company. Makes things up just for not delivering my stuff.
I called 3 times already for a grill that I ordered more than half a month ago. I took half day off yesterday and waited for them. They did not appear. Instead they said the driver arrived late at 8pm, and had some problem. But we were all home at 8pm, not even heard the noise of truck arriving. Liars! I wanted to cancel the order, but the person said it was not possible cause the grill is shipped. Shitty Home Depot, shitty shipping company! Never order online with Home Depot again!

Every time I have been to Home Depot, the associates have been VERY educated and helpful in helping me with my needs — from building a table leaf, to a new toilet seat, to paint. But not this time.
This time I was in the nursery looking for a plant that is not going to KILL my cat. (there are only like 4 plants that are safe for house cats). The first guy I asked blew me off to another guy who totally looked at me like i was insane… then a third guy also acted like it was a weird question… I feel like this is something you should know!!! Everyone has a cat or a dog!
Thanks to google I found a plant that is safe for cats but it took me 45 minutes and should have taken me 10 min.
Fast, nice checkout which is always appreciated!

Oh, happy day — they finally repaved the road to this location!
But that’s nothing compared to the consistent high quality customer service I’ve received in the years I’ve come here for home repair /​maintenance parts.
Take tonight — we were calling around to see who even carries moth blocks (those discs of moth ball ingredients in a plastic hanger) since my elderly father was looking to replenish his stash. We got in touch with a rep named Bill and he personally confirmed that they had moth blocks in stock.
My first thought was, ‘We’ll see when we get there.’ It’s healthy skepticism, really!
When we arrived and were unable to find the product, we asked a sales rep to help us out. Lo and behold, it was Bill! He quickly pointed us in the right direction and he was friendly about it to boot.
The only suggestion I have for this location is to improve pricing — certain items are more expensive than those sold at Wal-​Mart (lightbulbs, caulking material, etc). Big ticket items tend to be less expensive, which I suspect is due to contracts with various suppliers.
Thanks goodness for DIY stores!

I am renovating my house and I frequent the Waltham, Everett, and Somerville Home Depots regularly. Waltham has the best returns though I believe the really good returns guy, Mike, has been promoted to customer service. We also always use Waltham for plants (excellent nursery), custom orders like doors and windows, and online order pickup.
In addition the Waltham store has the largest lighting section of the 3 stores in the area.
The Everett store has a bigger lumber supply though for things like 2x4s the Somerville had the largest inventory turnover which is nice for getting strait boards. Everett also has the largest plumbing and electric selection and the most knowledgable paint mixers.

The guy (J) at the paints was so lazy and did not want to help or give any advice at all. He ignored me even though I called him many times so I had to shout «Excuse meeeee??? How long I have to wait for you?» then he looked at me. Instead to say «May I help you? or «Oh, sorry, How can I help you?» He said to me that «You didn’t stay here! I didn’t see you.»
HELLO? I WAS IN FRONT OF YOU FOR OVER 15 MINUTS. HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT??? ((((((((educate those employees how to treat customers))))))))

I got my new toilet, hallway light fixture, kitchen light, and bedroom ceiling fan here. What can I say? Home Depot’s my one-​stop-​shop for home improvements. Even my electrician frequented HD like a madman as he was working on my place.
Plus, through the month of June, if you use your Discover card at a home improvement store (like HD…), you get 5% cash back. It’s as if the stars aligned for me. Thanks, credit card gods. I was able to get cash back on all sorts of goodies that I normally would never have even thought of. I would’ve thought this past quarter was a wash – home improvement stores? what?
Luckily, I was able to find a lot of good stuff here thanks to help from very helpful and friendly employees. They have a cool little clearance section closer to the front where I actually found my cool modern hallway light fixture… which was still full price at the Watertown HD.
So, yeah, another word to the wise: all Home Depots have different merchandise and different sales, so shop around!
Thanks, HD, for helping make my new home beautiful and functional.

I found this location easy to find items, clean and helpful staff. Not too crowded and close to me. They had a good selection of flowers and plants for my garden and the best price on mulch I have seen any where.

This is one if the best Home Depots I have been to. Everyone is very helpful & nice and go out if there way to help you. I ended up here after a bad experience at the Watertown store but once I walked into Waltham. The service I got far outweighed how angry I was in Watertown. I had the lumber guy help me find everything I needed in all the other departments and bring me to the customer service desk. Thumbs up on professionalism and being helpful

Always very helpful! Staff actually asked me what I was looking for and took me to it!

Beware random raised prices. Three years ago I noticed that a small item I purchased seemed very expensive. When I got home I compared it with on-​line prices and the Ace Hardware and True Value prices. It was 3 times the cost that it was elsewhere. When I returned the item they said that there was a mistake and that they will fix the price. Which they did.
Since then, when I shop at Home Depot, I have been checking the prices for the little items I buy like screws, light bulbs, cleaning supplies, etc. I have found out that there is a regular trend at Home Depot to jack up the prices of these little things for a day or two and then drop the price back down. When challenged they give me the same response: «Sorry there has been a mistake, we will fix it».
But a mistake once is a mistake. A mistake 4 – 5 times a year is not a mistake it’s a policy that skirts very close to stealing.
Scary

OK, I am giving this HD another star for two reasons:
1) Went back to see my designs for my kitchen. LOVE them! Really great, free service Home Depot offers though Scott — the chap who mocked up the designs — suggested I take them to a branch in NYC who might be more familiar with small spaces but also was interested in having me come back after I do the remodel to see how it turned out. I like that kind of personal investment!
2) When my Mom and I went to check out the appliances again, the chaps that were a little grumps a day before were nice as pie AND helpful? It was like 180 but fair credit where credit is due. Nice turnaround, HD!