Home Depot vs Lowes Customer Experience (appliance, kitchen, cabinets, lighting)

[psurangers11]

I know this in the HOUSE section of the forum but I had the best experience ever at Lowe's 3 days ago because one of the employees went above and beyond to help.

My car was about to over-heat and I was in desperate need of coolant... I went in and my luck they were all out... well the kid went out of his way to get a bucket of water and put a little water in my radiator so I can make it somewhere to get the coolant.

He was a savior because I never would have made it without overheating!!

[Fancy-Schmancy]

Lowe's is my favorite because while my dh is off in the back getting lumber or endlessly comparing one thing to another, I can go look at curtains, carpets, light fixtures, and such in the much better lighting than they have at HD -- plus HD got rid of most of their 'decor' items a couple of years ago.

[Ted Bear]

My experience is that it is store specific.

NEITHER is cheap...they charge pretty high end prices for routine stuff. You have to be careful. When it is a toss up, I prefer to try and patronize my local hardware store--which prices are usually the same, or better than either LOWES or HD.

Lowes seems to be cleaner, better organized, and a more 'pleasant' environment in which to shop. I really don't like it when the materials are piled up like spaghetti and I have to dig through wire, pipes or boards to find the pieces which are unscathed.

I have to say recently I bought several bags of Concrete mix at HD. 80 pound jobs. I loaded them on my cart and took them to the checkout. A kid followed me out and loaded them from the cart to my SUV. I was pretty impressed, and appreciated what he did. It almost felt like service....

[don1945]

We have a Lowes and HD within a couple of minutes of our shop, so we shop at both. My impression is that Lowes has a better selection (at least the items I go there for.......tools, bolts and nuts, pieces of steel, etc) but beyond that they really are similar.

Maybe the Lowes store is better lit and cleaner, but they also seem to be constantly omitting products from their inventory. You will buy something there one time and the next time you go it has been discontinued. When I questioned an employee about that one time you could tell he was frustrated and said he didn't understand why they pulled some very popular products and replaced them with ones that rarely sold. But that seems to be a pattern in retail, the bean counters drive the inventory selection.

But all things considered HD and Lowes seem pretty evenly matched to me, at least here. I usually do not need assistance so I can't say anything about how good the employees are in knowledge.

Don

[scolls]

I don't know why people need customer service so much. I try to avoid people and favor Home Depot because they have self checkouts. I have no idea why people think that because a person who only needs a high school diploma and gets paid $9 an hour would know more about home improvement because he puts on a Home Depot or Lowes shirt.

[rrtechno]

Originally Posted by scolls

I don't know why people need customer service so much. I try to avoid people and favor Home Depot because they have self checkouts. I have no idea why people think that because a person who only needs a high school diploma and gets paid $9 an hour would know more about home improvement because he puts on a Home Depot or Lowes shirt.

Believe me (and I don't generally shop either place) there are many of those high school diploma holders getting whatever they are getting who know much more about home improvement than the average shopper at those places. However it has nothing to do with the shirt they are wearing. It has to do with their upbringing at home.

There are way too many people out there who think they are experts at home improvement because they watch the shows on the home improvement channels on TV. Those are the ones that scare me. It is really unfortunate that so many of the education "experts" at the state and college levels have decided that learning practical skills in the schools is so unimportant that those programs have been eliminated so many places.

[wit-nit]

Lowe's caters more to the DIY residential customer. Their stores are cleaner laid out better and their customer service is far better. They seem genuinely interested in helping you.

HD's caters more to the commercial contractor. In most cases it's nearly impossible to get a HD employee to stop running and hiding from you so you can get some help finding a product.

We've had both Lowe's and HD do some home improvement installations. HD seems to get the lowest quality contractors to do their work. We've had to have them come back with different contractors to re-do the previous contractors poor workmanship. I guess they use the lowest bidder to do their work.

Lowe's has consistently been on the ball with their contractors installation, more friendly and the job done correctly the first time. Lowe's also sends someone out from their store after the job is finished to see if you're satisfied and that the job was done correctly.

Lowe's and HD will also match or beat each others price by 10% on identical products if you mention it to them. Both Lowe's and HD offer military discounts, though I find many HD's more difficult to deal with in this case.

All retailers have their plusses and minuses, you make the final decision whom to do business with.

[wireyourworld]

I've always though of HD for what goes inside the walls and Lowes for what goes on the walls.

I generally only need help when I can't find what I know exists. I research online before I walk in.

[TimeMachine]

I just don't know. Home Depot contracted out the install of our storm door, but it went fine. Lowe's has always mixed great paint for us.
But many times I have wandered each store without an employee in sight to direct me.

[remoddahouse]

Home Depot wastes a lot of space by carrying useless products made by various home cooks like Martha Stewart. Sorry, but when I go to a store, I want real products. I greatly prefer Lowe's.