I worked at home depot for 3 years,a nd retail pretty much my whole life. (witht he exception of the job I have now) And can tell you one thing. As a whole, customers are stupid and ignorant.
Their was a 4' tall by 10' long sign about 3' over my head proclaiming the desk I was standing at as ebing the "doors and window" desk. And yet, I would get customers asking me every 15 minutes, "Do you work in garden?" (or any other department.) WTF?
I have so many true customer stories it is not even funny. Small sample: Customer who argued for well over an hour saying we sold and installed the tires that were on her car. (this is Home Depot remember) The customer who put a skid of concrete in his S-10. (54 bags of 80 lb concrete. Yes, 4300 lbs) He almost made it out of the parking lot. The customer who rolled a Load-And-Go (rentable pickup truck) while trying to beat traffic out into the intersection of our parking lot wit 80 sheets of 4x8 drywall. he lost. The customer who refused our help loading 4x4x10's into his car, and while not looking, put one right into his windshield, cracking it. The customer who decided that if he ran under the baracades blocking an isle (becuase someone was getting something down in the next isle) and was not quick enough and took 2000 lbs of carpet on his head from 16' up (only a broken collerbone and arm. damn, almost a darwin canadate.
What relly annoyed me to no end, was the parents who broght their kids into the store and let them run wild. If I am moving 10,000 lbs of concrete on a 17,000 forklift, I can not stop in 3 feet. I may only be going 3 mph (forced speed with lockout on all our equipment) it still takes me 20 feet to stop. in 20 feet I need to get a squeege to clean up your kid.
Not that the parents were any better. while I was there, 2 forklift-car accidents occoured in the back of the store (which is closed to access except for trucks, which know to drive at like 5 mph) Both were while I was there (I was one of 2 forklift trainers at that store if anyone cares ) One was a minivan with a lady driving. She was going 25-30 talking on a cell phone trying to take the shortcut to the front of the store to save 30 seconds, and didn't see the forklfit coming out of the door beeping its horn. (it is a blind corner for us) Result? forklift:1, van:0. the bunk of lumber (I think it was decking boards) basicly tore off the whole passenger side of her van like it was tinfoil. The other was some punk kid who was racing or something with his camaro and hit bessie (our name for our 10,000lb lifting capacity diesel forklift) while it was parked at well over 50 mph (posted speedlimt: 5 mph) He was hospitalized for a very long time, and his car was turned into a sub compact. When a 4000 lb car hits a 17,000 lb forklfit (I think it was 17, I will have to look) the forklift wins. He hit it broadside, and knocked it over. The towing company just turned it right side up and we were using it the next day, and it got a fresh coat of paint later in the month.
Not that associates are immune to stupididty. We had an associate drive the slipsheet machine (electric forklift with 500lb capacity with 1.5' wide forks) drive off the loading dock because he was not paying attention. (the truck started to leave when he was still in it, and thougth he could beat the gap. whoops. We also had a guy who got off a forklift while it was still in gear without the parking brake on and roll over his foot. The same guy also tried to beat the automatic opening/closing door and tore it off the wall. One of the packout guys tried to drive out of recieving with a load held up 12 feet to clear some crap in the way. Only problem is the door is only 10' tall. The Reach fell forward (normal driving is witht he load behind you. you basicly drive backwards.) and dumped about 200 gallons of paint all over the floor and product.
The king is the guy in the paint department who hit a sprinkler head in the paint department with a skid, and set off the system. for those that do not know, the fire system in the paint department is not water. it is some wierd foamy mixture. when it went off, all the heads in the department went off spraying hundreds of gallons of this foam everywhere. He did this not once, but twice in a 2 week span. (2 different heads) He is also a good friend of mine 🙂
So I have some good stories 😛
