I bought a heat gun from Home Depot

[Rakehellion]

I saw a good price for a heat gun on Home Depot's website. There's one a few blocks from me, so I decided to drop in.

Well, I get to the store and it costs $20 more. Apparently that was an online-only price. No problem, I'll order it online and arrange for in-store pickup.

So I place the order and walk around the store. 30 minutes later, still no confirmation email. I go back to the website, and it turns out the order takes 24 hours to process, then there's a 3-5 day waiting period while the item is shipped to the store. It's already in the store! I'm looking right at it!

And the waiting period completely defeats the purpose of me getting off my ass to have them upsell me crap. Home Depot knows I can order from Amazon, get it faster, pay less, and not have to leave my house, right? Let's not even touch the fact that every major business gets daily shipments.

So I take the item to customer service and tell them about the pricing discrepancy. The woman scoffs at me and says "I'll do it...just this once."

Thanks for the unauthorized discount and the attitude. Win for me!

And the heat gun works well. Over 1000 degrees of engineering satisfaction.

 

[brianmanahan]

that kind of attitude the woman had is why i usually get everything i can from amazon, unless i absolutely need it today (or tomorrow and prime 1-day won't get here in time).

i had enough of people in B&M stores acting like i was a jerk for asking them a question

 

[Strk]

It's a downside to how their online system is setup. Unless it says it is available at the store, it is coming from a DC. And the Depot is painfully slow at integrating technologies. I used to work there are it was so irritating having to deal with a computerized system that was designed by Luddites. It annoys you (the employee) and the customer.

 

[CZroe]

All you had to do was buy the one they had and return the other in its place once it arrives, if you're sure that they are the exact same thing.

 

[Engineer]

It's cheaper for Home Depot (and other B&M's offering website ordering) to have a warehouse fulfillment system (much more efficient) and ship the item to the store than to have some store employee run around the store and try to find items (that may or may not be in stock because of the dynamics of having others shopping live in the store). Walmart does this and I'm sure that it's a much more efficient model than having someone running around looking for stuff.

 

[Rakehellion]

All you had to do was buy the one they had and return the other in its place once it arrives, if you're sure that they are the exact same thing.

Or I could do it my way, visit the store only once, and pay only once.

Or just buy it from Amazon.

 

[Engineer]

Or just buy it from Amazon.

Home Depot is simply doing what Amazon does - warehouse fulfillment. If you need it quicker, simply pick it up at the higher B&M Home Depot price. If you can wait, order from HD or Amazon and get cheaper later.

 

[Rakehellion]

I guess so. They're just trying to pull a Best Buy on me and hope I don't know about better prices elsewhere.

 

[Kobota]

The WalMart ship to store says it can take 3 weeks to arrive. The one and only time i used it, it took 18 business days.

 

[CZroe]

Or I could do it my way, visit the store only once, and pay only once.

Or just buy it from Amazon.

When you said you "went back" to the website, I assumed that you meant you went home to do so. I would have said that I "pulled up" the website if I did it on the spot to show them.

Anyway, if the point is to have it now and end up paying the lower price, my way works fine. Ordering online and waiting would've been one trip too.

 

[DrPizza]

I find it really annoying to research a price online, and choose my shopping destination based on that, only to find out that the price isn't accurate in the store. They KNOW people are seeing the prices online and then going to the store, yet nowhere can they be bothered to say that the in store price is different.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It would technically come up to the same anyway because if you order you'd have to pay shipping.

What I hate is stores that don't even tell you what the price is. You go to their site, they'll have a catalog, but no prices, and no way to actually order.

 

[Rakehellion]

When you said you "went back" to the website, I assumed that you meant you went home to do so.

Who goes home to use the internet? What's this, 1996?

 

[Howard]

It's cheaper for Home Depot (and other B&M's offering website ordering) to have a warehouse fulfillment system (much more efficient) and ship the item to the store than to have some store employee run around the store and try to find items (that may or may not be in stock because of the dynamics of having others shopping live in the store). Walmart does this and I'm sure that it's a much more efficient model than having someone running around looking for stuff.

It wouldn't be more efficient if HD wouldn't need to hire more people to do it. If their inventory system incorporated b&m as well they would know exactly where things v were. A dude running around is a sunk cost anyway

 

[Engineer]

It wouldn't be more efficient if HD wouldn't need to hire more people to do it. If their inventory system incorporated b&m as well they would know exactly where things v were. A dude running around is a sunk cost anyway

Ok, what about the fact that some people want stuff shipped to their home? Is the typical B&M Home Depot equipped to efficiently pull the items, package them and ship them to the customer? Now you'll have thousands of shipping centers around the country instead of a streamline, warehousing few.

 

[alkemyst]

All you had to do was buy the one they had and return the other in its place once it arrives, if you're sure that they are the exact same thing.

There was a thread about this subject in the past which was mod-locked and people told that is unethical. Usually online orders benefit from some warehouse with lower overhead than a B&M store. You are passing logistics costs to the B&M as well.

If you need something TODAY, suck it up and pay the 'fee' for having a B&M flexing it's overhead to deliver that.

Also it's clear the OP didn't pay attention to what they were ordering and all that Terms and Conditions stuff they tell you to read.

 

[alkemyst]

I find it really annoying to research a price online, and choose my shopping destination based on that, only to find out that the price isn't accurate in the store. They KNOW people are seeing the prices online and then going to the store, yet nowhere can they be bothered to say that the in store price is different.

Most do state that in the Terms and Conditions on the website.

It would be idiotic to display all those terms and conditions on each item page in full.

 

[CZroe]

Who goes home to use the internet? What's this, 1996?

There are a million reasons you still might, especially when dealing with retail websites on mobile devices.

 

[Engineer]

Who goes home to use the internet? What's this, 1996?

Some of us do not have internet on our phones and want to keep it that way.

 

[CZroe]

There was a thread about this subject in the past which was mod-locked and people told that is unethical. Usually online orders benefit from some warehouse with lower overhead than a B&M store. You are passing logistics costs to the B&M as well.

If you need something TODAY, suck it up and pay the 'fee' for having a B&M flexing it's overhead to deliver that.

Also it's clear the OP didn't pay attention to what they were ordering and all that Terms and Conditions stuff they tell you to read.

That is vaguely familiar but I think they were talking about buying from two different retailers and involving home shipping (not site-to-store).

 

[feralkid]

All you had to do was buy the one they had and return the other in its place once it arrives, if you're sure that they are the exact same thing.

That's because you get it. OP needed some whine-time.

 

[chimaxi83]

Most do state that in the Terms and Conditions on the website.

It would be idiotic to display all those terms and conditions on each item page in full.

You're dense. It would be idiotic to display a single line of text stating "online price only"?

 

[alkemyst]

You're dense. It would be idiotic to display a single line of text stating "online price only"?

Most do. Are you dense?

 

[alkemyst]

some of us do not have internet on our phones and want to keep it that way.

dafuq?

 

[Mixolydian]

Who goes home to use the internet? What's this, 1996?

:awe::thumbsup: