Doug E. Pudge

This Is A Great Story

You know, I was thinking. Yesterday was the big day! It was the day that the MHG was scheduled for deliver.....................at least that was the plan. At about 3:15 yesterday afternoon I was in a meeting when my wife called. I couldn't take the call so she left me a voicemail. Apparently the delivery people from Home Depot made the decision that they couldn't deliver the grill because we "requested" an after 4 p.m. delivery time and they wanted to reschedule. Now, let's start with the first few things that went wrong. When we were making the purchase of the grill we made it very clear that we "preferred" an after 4 p.m. delivery time but since they couldn't schedule a specific delivery time and since there were home health care workers at the house all day caring for my mother-in-law then they could deliver it anytime. I had also given them my cell number as the primary contact number. Niether of this pieces of information made it on to the paperwork. They left the message at the office where my wife works and she called me when she got the message.

Well, Rachel provided me with the necessary information that I needed to call Home Depot to work this whole thing out. Rachel said that when she spoke to them they were really nice and that I better not read them the riot act! Now, I am a patient man but I paid $60 bucks to have my new grill delivered on Tuesday and that's exactly what I wanted. So I called and spoke to a gentleman in the delivery department. I did not read him the riot act and he checked things out for me to see if the grill was still on the truck and if they could still make the delivery today. Well, as luck would have it they never loaded the grill! The decision was made by the dlievery people that since they could not deliver it after 4 p.m. then they would have to reschedule. Basically the grill was still sitting in the store. I told the gentleman who really was very polite through this whole thing that they were going to have to figure out a way to get my grill to me as I had planned for them to do. He transferred me to a manager (which is really what I wanted at this time).

I now explained this whole story again to Manager Ed! Manager Ed was trying to figure something out when I asked the question "do you guys have your rental delivery truck there today?" He said yes! I suggested that they refund my $60 bucks for delivery and I would then rent this truck and take the grill home myself. He suggested that they refund my $60 bucks for delivery and not charge me for the rental truck. We went with his plan. I was about half way to the Home Depot when I got a call from manager Ed. He said "Mr. Mollette I must appologize to you. You requested that we deliver the grill in the box but the delivery people have already assembled your grill and I don't have another one in stock still in the box." I told Ed that it was alright and that I would accept the pre-assembled grill (because they didn't charge me for assembly...another $30 saved). I get to home depot, they refunded my delivery charge and I went down to get the truck and my new grill. The grill was sitting there fully assembled so I went to look it over. Everything was there except the cover! I said to the gentleman at the rental desk "I thought the cover was included with the grill?" He called manager Brian (manager Ed had left for the day). Manager Brian looked at the card and I was mistaken, not a problem I could buy a cover later. Before the paperwork was finished manager Brian showed up with a grill cover in hand. He told me that the grill right next to mine (another Charmglow) did say that the cover was included and since I had so many problems that day he would give me this very nice $30 cover. I thanked him for this unexpected courtesy!

Now, this has already gone on too long for a normal post so I am going to get into the adventures of bringing the grill home tomorrow. Needless to say I have the warm fuzzies over the way that I was treated by all of those who helped me at the Pontiac Home Depot yesterday. What started out as mistakes and miscommunications turned out very well for the Pudgeman. During this entire process I never raised my voice in the least (or read anyone the riot act) and I was treated with kindness and courtesy during the entire process. I think that have secured me as a customer for many years to come. Tomorrow I will share with you the "I should've listened to my wife" story, for today be blessed beyond belief.

posted by Doug E. Pudge @ 6:35 AM