November 26, 2006

An exercise in frustration

What is it about male sales clerks, particularly in departments like plumbing, that makes them think that a woman, because of her sex, cannot possibly know what she's talking about?

While Dad was cutting moulding yesterday at Home Depot, I wandered off in search of plumbers' grease, as the newest canister in our filtration system has a bit of a leak (due to the O-ring not quite sealing). We've encountered this problem with each of the others that we've installed, and have discovered that a wee bit of plumbers' grease, applied to the O-ring, seals the canisters without problem. Unfortunately, the plumbers' grease that I know is somewhere in the house lives in a small, blue plastic container about 3/8” thick and the size of a loonie. It's currently missing in action, likely to be found by the dog at some later date.

After searching up and down the relevant plumbing aisles, I came up empty-handed. There were sales clerks around, but they were either busy with customers or completely ignoring me. When I finally did get a clerk to make eye contact, I quickly asked him where they kept their plumbers' grease. Now, had he been paying attention, he would have known that I had already spent five minutes wandering up and down the aisles, obviously looking for something. Rather than showing me where it was, he indicated that I could obviously find it half-way down the previous aisle, in small white tubs with red writing.

No plumbers' grease to be found there. What he'd described was the brand of plumbers' putty that Home Depot carries. When I went back to ask, again, he suggested looking at the other products in that particular location, as one of them would surely suit my needs—still, he didn't volunteer to walk over to the next aisle with me to ensure that I actually got what I needed. Now, I didn't ask him for epoxy putty, plumbers' putty, any of the various plumbing cements, teflon tape, or pipe joint compound. What I specifically wanted and needed was plumbers' grease, which they didn't have. There's a big difference, especially because we need to be able to retain access to the filtration canister so that we can change the filter.

This was a completely unnecessary exercise in frustration, and one that is becoming increasingly common in the plumbing department of our Home Depot. If it weren't for the fact that they have the largest selection of stock in the city, I'd likely stop shopping there. It's pretty obvious that volume, and not customer service, is their priority. I just find it rather amusing that they're trying to attract more female customers with new programs and seminars designed specifically for women, when their sales clerks seem to think that communicating with women or, heaven forbid, actually helping us find what we're looking for, is so obviously beneath them.

Posted by plainstext at 09:28 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 30, 2006

Further fridge confusion . . .

Dad dropped by about 45 minutes ago, picked up the keys, and went out to the other house. He just phoned us to tell us that the fridge is sitting in the middle of the driveway. Apparently the delivery company didn't feel it was necessary to attempt to contact us again. So, now Dana & one of his brothers are headed out there to move the fridge into the house, something that neither of them really has time for right now. I'm very curious as to how they figured that leaving the fidge in the driveway, at an unattended home, was a good plan . . . especially considering that part of the delivery fee went towards having them physcially move it into the house for us.

Posted by plainstext at 01:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 27, 2006

Fridge?

It seems that we're finally making some progress in figuring out where our fridge, which was originally supposed to have been delivered April 13, then April 22, has ended up. We were gone only for a little while to get lunch, but seem to have managed (until now) to neglect to check the answering machine. There's an odd message on it that sounds like it's from a trucking company, with a cellular phone number for us to call. I'm really hoping that this is the fridge. Must keep fingers crossed. I'm really curious as to what happened to it and why we never heard anything--which isn't, to my mind, the best exemplar of good customer service. *sigh*

Posted by plainstext at 10:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 20, 2006

Delivery?

About a month ago, we bought a new fridge online, as the one that came with the house, while functional, has so many broken shelf brackets and missing parts that it's not too particularly usable for anything aside from beverages; plus, it has a nasty habit of freezing produce. The new one was supposed to be delivered sometime around April 13th, but we found out that, despite the fact that there were supposedly 40+ in stock at the time of purchase, they mysteriously didn't have one. So, we had to wait for new stock to arrive. Now, it's supposed to be delivered on Saturday--my busiest day this week. The delivery company just phoned to confirm . . . and they were going to deliver it to Abernethy, not Aberdeen. That's over 230 miles away! *sigh* Let's just hope it gets to the right place.

Posted by plainstext at 02:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 28, 2006

Notes to self

Note #1: Not having a window in the bathroom isn't necessarily a bad thing. Having a bath in a tub that's directly underneath a very drafty window is not a pleasant experience, especially when the wind is blowing directly against the window. :-(

Note #2: In addition to detailing what we did on any given day/project, I should likely also be adding more details regarding how we did what we did. Not only would this be useful for us (so that we remember how we did x, but I hope that those who arrive here via search engines looking for things like " remove+rotten+bathroom+plywood" will find something useful. And, considering the number of pictures that I'm prone to taking, I could then get some of my photos off my laptop and onto the server, thus clearing up space for more photos ;-)

Note #3: Do not get too irate with chauvanist salesman, even those who blatantly lie to you. As Dad's always said, one displeased customer can undo the good work of ten pleased customers. I don't appreciate being called "little lady," nor do I appreciate being told, 2"x10" doesn't come in 20-foot lengths. Why on earth would you want such a thing anyways, ma'am? You really should leave big construction projects to us men. It is far more effective and efficient to refuse to frequent the businesses at which they are employed. I won't name the building supply dealer in question because, unfortunately, it's part of the same chain as my parents' business . . . although deductive reasoning leaves only one option here in Saskatoon.

Note #4: Surfing HouseBlogs.net, while entertaining, doesn't get marking finished. Those assignments won't mark themselves. And, tempting as it is to use the Tasha method of marking (how many investigatory sniffles does it get?), that's just not right, especially considering the amount of effort that the students put into these assignments. It's not the content, but the horrendous handwriting (as these are in-class assignments) that's putting me off. *sigh*

Note #5: Last, but definitely not least, is a reminder that Varathane's new Premium Wood Stains have actual samples available for testing (which look like they'll cover between 4 and 6 square inches). No more guess-work or barely touched 1/2 pint cans of weird stain colours! I can hardly wait to test these out.

Posted by plainstext at 05:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack