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Dumb Company Policies (1 Viewer)

wlwiles

wlwiles

Footballguy
Yesterday I ordered an air compressor from HomeDepot.com, to be delivered to my house.  I went back and forth looking at different models, comparing bells and whistles, etc.  Today I checked the confirmation email, and realized that apparently the model I ordered requires 220V power.  I am 100% sure I mis-clicked because I checked those specs, and I meant to order the 110V model.  

Called the customer service line to see if I could swap out models (and pay the difference if needed), or did I need to cancel that order and just re-order the right one.  I was told that the cancellation window is only open for 30 minutes after placing the order.  The order has been sent to the manufacturer to fill and ship, and HD has no way to recall it.  "How about you contact the manufacturer and tell them to cancel it" I suggested.  "Nope, it doesn't work like that" is the reply I got.  So no matter what I do, they're going to fill the order, ship it to me, then they suggested I call them afterward to initiate a return, and they'd come pick it up and take it back within 7 days of the return initiation.  Or if I happen to be home when it comes (I won't) then I can refuse delivery. I'm astounded that there's not some way to cancel the order. There's no need for a UPS/FedEx truck to come to my house TWICE to deal with this thing. Don't you guys want to save that freight money?  Nope, it's their job to deliver it.  Just cancel the friggin order!  Nope, can't.  Which also means that I'll have $1200 tied up on my credit card for at least another two weeks.  Makes zero sense to me why this is so difficult.  

 
I guess it depends on how often this type of thing happens. If it’s infrequent enough, it might not make sense to implement a system to pull the order.

 
It's probably UPS. Go to UPS.com and refuse it. Your'e going to need the tracking number, it should begin with a 1z.

 
Wanted to change my autopay date on DirecTV.  Went to their online chat.  Some guy named "Roger" from India told me his system wouldn't let him do it.  Transferred me to a supervisor.  "Ben" told me the same thing, but offered a phone number to a different billing department that would "definitely" be able to do it.  Called the number.  Spoke to someone named "Sophie" (again, off-shore) who said she was unable to do it.  Transferred me to a supervisor.  Nope.  Their "system" won't let them do it.  

Hung up, called back, asked for "billing supervisor" on the automated line and finally got a US-based person who did a lot of checking, and they still weren't able to do it.

Asked this last person if I had any discounts tied to me being on autopay, and she said no.  So I just canceled autopay and will pay online on the date that I want.

Every other company - electric, credit card, etc. - lets you change your due date and/or autopay date.  AT&T / DirecTV is just turrible.

 
Anything from Hertz. Only company I know of where customers lost points/miles for inactivity during the pandemic. Also can only transfer points to a spouse or domestic partner. I could go on. No wonder they are bankrupt

 
Judge Smails said:
Anything from Hertz. Only company I know of where customers lost points/miles for inactivity during the pandemic. Also can only transfer points to a spouse or domestic partner. I could go on. No wonder they are bankrupt
Click to expand...
That’s really dumb. American Airlines and Marriott are great about using points  for other people’s reservations. I can book a flight for anyone using my points.

 
wlwiles said:
Yesterday I ordered an air compressor from HomeDepot.com, to be delivered to my house.  I went back and forth looking at different models, comparing bells and whistles, etc.  Today I checked the confirmation email, and realized that apparently the model I ordered requires 220V power.  I am 100% sure I mis-clicked because I checked those specs, and I meant to order the 110V model.  

Called the customer service line to see if I could swap out models (and pay the difference if needed), or did I need to cancel that order and just re-order the right one.  I was told that the cancellation window is only open for 30 minutes after placing the order.  The order has been sent to the manufacturer to fill and ship, and HD has no way to recall it.  "How about you contact the manufacturer and tell them to cancel it" I suggested.  "Nope, it doesn't work like that" is the reply I got.  So no matter what I do, they're going to fill the order, ship it to me, then they suggested I call them afterward to initiate a return, and they'd come pick it up and take it back within 7 days of the return initiation.  Or if I happen to be home when it comes (I won't) then I can refuse delivery. I'm astounded that there's not some way to cancel the order. There's no need for a UPS/FedEx truck to come to my house TWICE to deal with this thing. Don't you guys want to save that freight money?  Nope, it's their job to deliver it.  Just cancel the friggin order!  Nope, can't.  Which also means that I'll have $1200 tied up on my credit card for at least another two weeks.  Makes zero sense to me why this is so difficult.  
Click to expand...
my guess they could have cancelled the order by going the extra 1/4 mile but you talked to someone that didn't care.  IMO

 
nirad3 said:
Wanted to change my autopay date on DirecTV.  Went to their online chat.  Some guy named "Roger" from India told me his system wouldn't let him do it.  Transferred me to a supervisor.  "Ben" told me the same thing, but offered a phone number to a different billing department that would "definitely" be able to do it.  Called the number.  Spoke to someone named "Sophie" (again, off-shore) who said she was unable to do it.  Transferred me to a supervisor.  Nope.  Their "system" won't let them do it.  

Hung up, called back, asked for "billing supervisor" on the automated line and finally got a US-based person who did a lot of checking, and they still weren't able to do it.

Asked this last person if I had any discounts tied to me being on autopay, and she said no.  So I just canceled autopay and will pay online on the date that I want.

Every other company - electric, credit card, etc. - lets you change your due date and/or autopay date.  AT&T / DirecTV is just turrible.
Click to expand...
I have Direct TV and AT&T wireless. After 3 years they are still unable to combine the bill, or provide matching due dates.

 
I was at Lowe’s picking up an online order a few weeks ago. Guy rolls in a brand new lawn mower he just bought that morning to return because it won’t start. Customer Service lady tells him she can’t take it because it has gas in it. After numerous pissed off shouting, guy rolls the lawn mower outside, tips it over and dumps all the gas out on the concrete in front of the automatic doors at the entrance. Then rolls it back in for a return and they process it.

 
Buckna said:
I was at Lowe’s picking up an online order a few weeks ago. Guy rolls in a brand new lawn mower he just bought that morning to return because it won’t start. Customer Service lady tells him she can’t take it because it has gas in it. After numerous pissed off shouting, guy rolls the lawn mower outside, tips it over and dumps all the gas out on the concrete in front of the automatic doors at the entrance. Then rolls it back in for a return and they process it.
Click to expand...
This happened to me with a chainsaw and sadly I did the same thing but near my car. No shouting though

 
Buckna said:
I was at Lowe’s picking up an online order a few weeks ago. Guy rolls in a brand new lawn mower he just bought that morning to return because it won’t start. Customer Service lady tells him she can’t take it because it has gas in it. After numerous pissed off shouting, guy rolls the lawn mower outside, tips it over and dumps all the gas out on the concrete in front of the automatic doors at the entrance. Then rolls it back in for a return and they process it.
Click to expand...
I’m sure it’s an insurance thing. 

 
This past March went to Lowe’s to get mulch. I normally buy 30-40 bags at a time. Before I went to the store I walked amongst the stacks of mulch on the side of the garden center outside the gate to make sure they had enough before I walked in to buy them.

So I go in and head straight to the check-out person and ask for 30 bags of mulch. I then say: can you just ring me up for 30 bags and I can then pull my vehicle over to the pallet and load up?

She of course has to call the loader guy, who proceeds to say no - we need to load up from the pallets in the store area. I tell the guy I have always loaded up this way since it didn’t make much sense to load 30 bags TWICE - once onto the cart and once into my car. Plus, I would then have to wheel two carts of mulch through a busy store.

So they call the manager, who comes over with another manager. So now I have three people telling me we have to load it from inside the store. So the 3 Lowe’s workers load up the carts for some reason, wheel them through the store, and then I load them into my car. So while I appreciated their help and all, one guy standing outside counting bags while I throw them into my vehicle seems more efficient.

 
ChiefD said:
This past March went to Lowe’s to get mulch. I normally buy 30-40 bags at a time. Before I went to the store I walked amongst the stacks of mulch on the side of the garden center outside the gate to make sure they had enough before I walked in to buy them.

So I go in and head straight to the check-out person and ask for 30 bags of mulch. I then say: can you just ring me up for 30 bags and I can then pull my vehicle over to the pallet and load up?

She of course has to call the loader guy, who proceeds to say no - we need to load up from the pallets in the store area. I tell the guy I have always loaded up this way since it didn’t make much sense to load 30 bags TWICE - once onto the cart and once into my car. Plus, I would then have to wheel two carts of mulch through a busy store.

So they call the manager, who comes over with another manager. So now I have three people telling me we have to load it from inside the store. So the 3 Lowe’s workers load up the carts for some reason, wheel them through the store, and then I load them into my car. So while I appreciated their help and all, one guy standing outside counting bags while I throw them into my vehicle seems more efficient.
Click to expand...
Weird. I just bought mulch. Walked into garden section. 15 bags of the black mulch. 

Ring out 

Drive to pallets start loading

 
SWC said:
this happened to me but with an ocean going oil tanker and sadly i did the same thing but in the gulf of mexico near my car and there was a whole crapton of shouting but it was texans so who cares take that to the bank bromigos 
Click to expand...
I actually just opened up the chainsaw and drank the gas until it was empty muchacho

 
belljr said:
Buckna said:
I was at Lowe’s picking up an online order a few weeks ago. Guy rolls in a brand new lawn mower he just bought that morning to return because it won’t start. Customer Service lady tells him she can’t take it because it has gas in it. After numerous pissed off shouting, guy rolls the lawn mower outside, tips it over and dumps all the gas out on the concrete in front of the automatic doors at the entrance. Then rolls it back in for a return and they process it.
Click to expand...
This happened to me with a chainsaw and sadly I did the same thing but near my car. No shouting though
Click to expand...
this happened to me but with an ocean going oil tanker and sadly i did the same thing but in the gulf of mexico near my car and there was a whole crapton of shouting but it was texans so who cares take that to the bank bromigos 

 
belljr said:
SWC said:
this happened to me but with an ocean going oil tanker and sadly i did the same thing but in the gulf of mexico near my car and there was a whole crapton of shouting but it was texans so who cares take that to the bank bromigos 
Click to expand...
I actually just opened up the chainsaw and drank the gas until it was empty muchacho
Click to expand...
one time i drank some gas and well yeah you have read my posts take that to the bank bromigos 

 
belljr said:
Weird. I just bought mulch. Walked into garden section. 15 bags of the black mulch. 

Ring out 

Drive to pallets start loading
Click to expand...
Yeah. It was baffling to me too.  I actually went back the following day and bought 40 more bags. The guy started going through the same routine, and I just told the guy it was ridiculous. 

Called the manager over, and I just told him: I have two more loads after this I’m coming to get. It is a colossal waste of time for me and for you to send three people to help when I can simply throw them in the back of my vehicle by the pallets.

He finally agreed. Was easy after that of course. 

 
most lowes have a policy that they do not trust just anyone and they have a policy that you have to have bought stuff six times and proven yourself honest before they will let you load stuff in your car without them watching its a horrible policy and speaks to the disintegration of this nations moral integrity take that to the bank brohan 

 
ChiefD said:
Yeah. It was baffling to me too.  I actually went back the following day and bought 40 more bags. The guy started going through the same routine, and I just told the guy it was ridiculous. 

Called the manager over, and I just told him: I have two more loads after this I’m coming to get. It is a colossal waste of time for me and for you to send three people to help when I can simply throw them in the back of my vehicle by the pallets.

He finally agreed. Was easy after that of course. 
Click to expand...
I mean there was a guy there to check my receipt and help load but yeah. And 120 bags?

Wouldn't it be easier to just get 8yds delivered

 
belljr said:
I mean there was a guy there to check my receipt and help load but yeah. And 120 bags?

Wouldn't it be easier to just get 8yds delivered
Click to expand...
The way my yard is set up it’s easier to have bags. That way I already have a vessel to carry the mulch in and I’m a little more mobile that way. Plus I don’t have to scoop a large pile of mulch into wheelbarrows all day.

 
Buckna said:
I was at Lowe’s picking up an online order a few weeks ago. Guy rolls in a brand new lawn mower he just bought that morning to return because it won’t start. Customer Service lady tells him she can’t take it because it has gas in it. After numerous pissed off shouting, guy rolls the lawn mower outside, tips it over and dumps all the gas out on the concrete in front of the automatic doors at the entrance. Then rolls it back in for a return and they process it.
Click to expand...
I was positive the punchline was going to be "What, this thing needs gas?"

 
Nick Vermeil said:
They should have a policy that anytime someone orders a 220 item they get a pop up that says "are you sure?"
Click to expand...
Couple of thoughts.

1. While it's obviously not convenient for you on this, I can totally see how a company wouldn't have a built in cancel the order function. I could see how that would be a big job and my guess is they're looking at how often this happens against how much work it would be to design a new way to stop the process and they're making a choice. It's a problem mature (old) systems have and a downside. It's why new companies can often soar as they're not limited this way.

2. The "are you sure" is exactly the kind of thing I see smart companies doing. We're trying to do some of that ourselves to catch errors in our rankings and projections. It's just guardrails to help the people. We do them for big things like "are you sure you want to delete this hard drive?" but the same principle applies for less important things. I think it's good business. 

 
Joe Bryant said:
Couple of thoughts.

1. While it's obviously not convenient for you on this, I can totally see how a company wouldn't have a built in cancel the order function. I could see how that would be a big job and my guess is they're looking at how often this happens against how much work it would be to design a new way to stop the process and they're making a choice. It's a problem mature (old) systems have and a downside. It's why new companies can often soar as they're not limited this way.

2. The "are you sure" is exactly the kind of thing I see smart companies doing. We're trying to do some of that ourselves to catch errors in our rankings and projections. It's just guardrails to help the people. We do them for big things like "are you sure you want to delete this hard drive?" but the same principle applies for less important things. I think it's good business. 
Click to expand...
So for number 2...

My old job was building in house customer service interfaces.  Basically we I built the dbs and screens our people would use managing other people's accounts etc 

So we would have a screen where you could delete multiple records.  A pop up box would come up and say you are about to delete "X" number of records ,  do you want to continue?  With a yes button and a cancel button.

So we setup online forms for bugs or improvement requests.... Someone requested that after the do you wish to continue and you select yes that another box pops up and basically asks "are you really sure ?" 

We had a good laugh about that one, my manager made a joke about just nesting 10 are you sures and adding an extra really every time

 
belljr said:
So for number 2...

My old job was building in house customer service interfaces.  Basically we I built the dbs and screens our people would use managing other people's accounts etc 

So we would have a screen where you could delete multiple records.  A pop up box would come up and say you are about to delete "X" number of records ,  do you want to continue?  With a yes button and a cancel button.

So we setup online forms for bugs or improvement requests.... Someone requested that after the do you wish to continue and you select yes that another box pops up and basically asks "are you really sure ?" 

We had a good laugh about that one, my manager made a joke about just nesting 10 are you sures and adding an extra really every time
Click to expand...
Truth.

It's fascinating though as I see so many people who don't understand the reality. And reality is you have to meet the customer where they are.

We can't sit back and say the customer just doesn't get it. We have to make our product so the customer gets it.

It's a challenge. But it's life. 

 
We'll see this next month as we have a new website design on the way. (Don't worry, the forums are staying the same for now)

I'm certain there will be pushback simply because it's new. It's on us to help the customer understand what we're doing and make it clear to them. 

 
Joe Bryant said:
We'll see this next month as we have a new website design on the way. (Don't worry, the forums are staying the same for now)

I'm certain there will be pushback simply because it's new. It's on us to help the customer understand what we're doing and make it clear to them. 
Click to expand...
Anytime there are changes there will be complaints. People don’t like change. Best you can do is communicate as clearly as possible and be honest with people.

We rolled out an all new (to us) software platform managing pretty much everything we do at work and despite attempts at advance training, management simply didn’t listen to user feedback and refused to communicate clearly about a lot of items. So the rollout ended up being really bumpy and engendered a lot of resent.

 
GroveDiesel said:
Anytime there are changes there will be complaints. People don’t like change. Best you can do is communicate as clearly as possible and be honest with people.

We rolled out an all new (to us) software platform managing pretty much everything we do at work and despite attempts at advance training, management simply didn’t listen to user feedback and refused to communicate clearly about a lot of items. So the rollout ended up being really bumpy and engendered a lot of resent.
Click to expand...
Change is hard for everything.  I was coming in here to post that dumbest company policy has always been "We do it that way because we have always done it that way".  There may not be a better way to do something but using that as the reason to not look into alternatives is terrible.  

 
ChiefD said:
This past March went to Lowe’s to get mulch. I normally buy 30-40 bags at a time. Before I went to the store I walked amongst the stacks of mulch on the side of the garden center outside the gate to make sure they had enough before I walked in to buy them.

So I go in and head straight to the check-out person and ask for 30 bags of mulch. I then say: can you just ring me up for 30 bags and I can then pull my vehicle over to the pallet and load up?

She of course has to call the loader guy, who proceeds to say no - we need to load up from the pallets in the store area. I tell the guy I have always loaded up this way since it didn’t make much sense to load 30 bags TWICE - once onto the cart and once into my car. Plus, I would then have to wheel two carts of mulch through a busy store.

So they call the manager, who comes over with another manager. So now I have three people telling me we have to load it from inside the store. So the 3 Lowe’s workers load up the carts for some reason, wheel them through the store, and then I load them into my car. So while I appreciated their help and all, one guy standing outside counting bags while I throw them into my vehicle seems more efficient.
Click to expand...
This reminded me of my own baffling ordeal with Lowe's.  A few years back I bought a bunch of concrete pavers to edge flower beds.  I loaded them onto one of the hand pallets and wheeled them up to the checkout, told the cashier I had 100 (or whatever number it was, I don't remember).  She seemed annoyed (for having to verify the count? I have no idea), and told me next time I need a bunch order online and they will have them ready for me.  Okay, noted.

Fast forward a year and I need some more, so I take the cashier's advice and order online.  $90 for delivery or I can pick them up - select pick up.  I get a call from the store about 30 minutes later - am I sure I didn't misclick, don't I want them to deliver them?  I confirm that no, I am fine picking them up rather than paying for delivery.  So the guy asks me when I can be there.  I reply I can be there in 20 minutes, which throws him off guard.  Well, how about a few hours from now?  He's not sure they will be ready by then either.  Well, why don't you just tell me when they will be ready?   :wall:   We finally agree on a time, I drive there, go to customer service and they have no idea what's going on of course.  After about 10 minutes of calling around they finally find the right guy who knows what's going on, and they direct me to drive around to the back where three workers help me load them.  So, that part was nice, but next time I think I'll just do what I did originally.   :doh:   

 
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