I have tried on several occasions to make purchases at the Home Depot stores in Westbury, NY, and Jericho, NY, and both seem to be poorly staffed with sales help. On one occasion, I attempted to purchase and have installed floor tiles. I could not find an associate to help me. I waited 15 minutes while the cashier associate tried to page someone to help me. The person never came. I then attempted to contact the store manager, whom I finally got after another 10 minute wait, and who also tried to page an associate in that department. The sales associate who finally came told me he had been busy with another customer all this time and would be with me shortly. I waited another 10 minutes and finally gave up. As I was leaving the store, I went back to the manager to tell her they needed more help. She made no comment and just looked at me blankly.
At this point, I decided to go to the Home Depot in Jericho. To my astonishment, I had the same experience. The associate I saw in that department said he was busy and would help me when he could. Meanwhile, there were two other associates sitting at the department desk, apparently doing paperwork, while I waited for the first associate to finish whatever he was away doing. I stood at the Flooring Department desk for about 12 minutes. The other two associates never even looked up to say, "Can I help you or are you being helped?" I then said to one of the two, "Is there only one person working in this department?" Her reply was, "Oh, I thought you were waiting for someone else." At this point, I decided to see if I could get better service at Lowe's. I might add that neither store was crowded.
More recently, I saw a Labor Day weekend sale on entry doors advertised in an email from Home Depot. I went to the Westbury location and went immediately to the customer service department to tell them I wanted to buy and have installed a new entry door and storm door. I waited in one long line that had 5 associates standing behind the counter. All of them except the one helping the long line appeared to be busy doing something else. Finally, after 5 minutes, one of the others asked me what my problem was. I said, "I don't have a problem, I want to buy and have a door installed." It took him a few minutes to find out if they installed the doors they sell. He finally told me I had to go to the department and see the associate there. Knowing from experience, I asked if there was a sales associate in that department who could help me. He said there was, but when I got there, he was too busy to spend much time with me. So I again went to Lowe's. You would think that prior to a big sale the store would be prepared for a crowd of people, and again, at the time I went, there was not a crowd.
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