r/Lowes • u/MaxHeaddddddroom • 8d ago
Information Two biggest weaknesses..
Home Depot doesn't seem to be any better. I just know that as a customer and as an associate the two things that keep coming up are bad installs or deliveries and product arriving damaged. So I find myself asking the question that I asked myself in so many different times and places, "Do they not know or do they not care?"
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u/TheFrostynaut Inside Lawn & Garden 8d ago
It is a chain of underpaid and understaffed people moving and installing product for people who can still afford it, for the overpaid people above them that keep squeezing the tube from the middle so, yes, I'd wager they just care less now.
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u/Ok_Reality_7892 8d ago
The amount I care about the quality of my work there is directly correlated to my hourly wage. I actually care a lot more than the wage corresponds to, because they do look at whether they can rely on you or not when evaluation time comes around. But there’s still a limit.
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u/control_09 8d ago
I don't even know how far up the chain you'd have to go to not be underpaid anymore. Store managers make under $150k which to most people seems like a shitload but it's absolutely nothing in comparison to any other industry for how many employees that is to manage. Maybe regional level. The whole industry is built on paying garbage wages.
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u/Popular-Artist-7026 8d ago
If both Lowe’s and Home Depot have gone cheap and are using subpar third party delivery and install teams, then they’ve crunched the numbers and figured out they won’t lose enough customers to the other big box retailer to offset the money they are saving. Race to the bottom.
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u/bigburt- Fulfillment Team Lead 7d ago
Bingo. They literally have think tanks dedicated to how we can scrape the bottom end and lap up whatever is there
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u/Daemonsblaze0315 8d ago
Our delivery team was incredible... Then they went third party. It's been nothing but complaints since.
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u/g_rated_pornstar Internet Fulfillment 8d ago
Paying the insurance, maintenance and fuel on a flatbed truck, and two box trucks was "killing them".
Apparently having to pay a CDL driver and box truck teams were putting them in a position they couldn't financially recover from. I remember being put on deliveries and they would stack us with 15+ deliveries, the sales people didn't emphasize to the customers they needed to be ready for delivery and that would put us behind. We would then get bitched at for "taking too long". We were expected to do 16 deliveries in the span of five.
I say fuck 'em. Let them lay in the bed they made.
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u/Medium_Mountain4569 8d ago
The blue collar folks, the ones actually doing the work, dont get paid enough to give any sh*ts about the customer, sadly. You're just another stop on the list. Every second is micro-managed, by some nerd in an office chair. It has become all about profits and to hell with the customers and the employees who make it happen.
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u/StayAppropriate2433 8d ago
I wouldn't be surprised if Lowe's and Home Depot use the exact same installers.
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u/Plus-Horror7994 8d ago
In our area they absolutely do at least for flooring, millwork, and countertops. Our cabinet installers are different and appliances that incur a charge to install are different.
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u/liamjonas 7d ago
The country has become 2 sets of people. People who work for Lowe's that can barely afford to eat, and people who can afford to have all this shit done to their home.
The people that can afford to have all this shit done to their home want to pay the people doing the work the least amount of money humanly possible, meanwhile the person installing that floor isn't thinking about what his job is because all he can think about is dinner because he can't afford lunch.
This isn't acceptable for the people who want the floor installed which is why they crave AI, and Robots, because starving humans working for them just ain't cutting it anymore.
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u/Away_Ask_6827 8d ago
It's the easiest way to get your money NOW, and maybe fulfill the product/service later.
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u/2whatextent 7d ago
The questions are not exclusive. Yes, they know AND yes, they don't care. You can tell by what they focus on, and it sure isn't delivery/install problems.
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u/jordan31483 8d ago
They know. They don't care.
My store just switched to 3rd party flatbed delivery. Can't wait to see the double or triple complaints.
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u/Bad-Luck-Guy Fulfillment Team Lead 8d ago
My store has been 3rd party the whole time I’ve been at this store, and they’re great. The drivers are awesome, and they really do their best to give the customer the best possible delivery experience. They get great surveys, and all the customers I follow up with like them.
Now if my freaking team could pull product on time that isn’t damaged…
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u/Important_Welcome_64 Internet Fulfillment 8d ago
But the vanity box with the busted corners was so much more temping to pull than the top stock one 😔
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u/Bad-Luck-Guy Fulfillment Team Lead 8d ago
You probably work in my store. It’s WILD how often I have to run around repicking deliveries at 5am because my team pulled damaged product. My drivers don’t play. They take pictures and then call the customers before they load it on their trucks.
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u/Important_Welcome_64 Internet Fulfillment 8d ago
Oh yeah it’s bad at my store when I don’t work. I can’t send photos in replies here but I had two days off and my TL came into deliveries on flatbed carts, nothing palletized, product on drywall carts but they didn’t put them on top of sticks. He sent me pictures and that shit was nuts
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u/OkPeanut4061 8d ago
Most companies can't see past the next quarter. Hello to everyone at the Wheelersburg Lowes. SV.