Why you should treat your customers nicely

Yesterday, I had to go to Home Depot on Dallas Hwy. to purchase some items for the lawn - fertilizer, a spool of string for the edger, some light bulbs. Little things.

I took Alex with me because, well, he likes Home Depot. At least he normally likes it.

Anyway, I went inside, and needed some help in finding some items.

Everyone that I asked gave me a flippant, sarcastic, or snide remark. Not fun.

I finally got everything I needed and went to the self-service checkout. When one of the items read for the wrong price, I asked the cashier for help, and immediately got more snide sarcasm.

At this point, I decided to let my wallet and feet do the talking, and we left. We went across the street to Lowe's, and the store was much nicer, the staff friendlier, and the layout nicer. In and out in about 6-7 minutes for a very good experience.

Note to Home Depot: It's probably a good idea to treat your customers nicely. Especially when they need home improvement items all the time. Especially when they own stock in your company. Which I did, until approximately 3:56 this afternoon.

After having stuck with it through bad public news (backdating options, withholding same-store numbers), it was finally a bad personal experience that made me want to get out. Their service has been slipping for a while now, but this seems to be more the norm than before and, well, I don't appreciate that too much.

I think I'll be going to Lowe's from now on. Buh-bye.

/end rant.