On 03/22/09 I went to Home Depot to shop for a storm door, and I found one I liked. I went back on 03/25/09 and placed the order. The salesman was professional and knowledgeable, and he clearly knew his products. He offered me a mail-in rebate along with 10% off for opening a Home Depot account. He told me delivery would take 10 days. I figured on 15 days to allow for ordinary delays.
On 04/08/09, I phoned Home Depot to ask if the storm door had reached the store, so we could pick an installation date. A sales associate told me it was due at the store on Friday evening, 04/10/09. That made sense to me, and I was glad that the door would at least be in the store.
On Monday 04/13/09, I phoned to book the installation and was connected to a manager whose title is Expediter (ironic, since her job is supposed to be speeding up your order, ha). To let her find my order, I read out my phone number. I said I hoped to book the installation sometime this week, even today. Her entire response was that the door had not even been delivered and that installers would not be available for another 2 weeks, assuming we could book them at all! I bit my tongue and tried to follow what she meant, but it did not help, since she just repeated herself over and over. At that point I ended the conversation and contacted Home Depot Corporate with a complaint. My only wish is to get a storm door put in soon, not next season.
With the economy this bad and customer budgets shrinking everywhere, keeping loyal customers should be a company's top priority, or at least is supposed to be. That is clearly not so here. I came back to buy, opened a credit account, and followed the salesman's advice, and Home Depot no longer values any of that. The only fix I can offer is advice to everyone reading: pay an extra dollar and go to Lowe's. My mistake was not going to Lowe's, thinking I would save some money. I would rather hear the truth about delivery and pay a dollar more than be put off repeatedly after being promised something different.
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