OT: Treatment of Women In Hardware Stores (Yes, this is a Rant)

[farmgirlie1031]

I worked at Menards. Men always came in a just knew I was always wrong when they asked for help so I had to find a male co-worker who would tell them exactly the same thing. I got really fed up with it and then when Menards messed up my transfer and placed me in a lower position then I was working in at my other store I just quit. I am so much happier now even though I am currently looking for work since my self-employment card sales are not making me enough money.

ETA: LOL it happened at Menards. I hate that store and never do business there. I go to Lowe's great customer service Menards is known for poor customer service and I saw it going on all the time even though I tried to give great customer service and the men refused to think a female would know anything.

 

[seminolewind]

I think that some men don't think that you'll raise a stink. I would start yelling , or at least get real loud about your discontent. I also think that helpfulness is different in every store, even if they're the same company.

 

[halo]

We have a new Lowes in Ocala and I love it. Ive rarely had a problem there getting help. Now the older Home Depot is another story, I refuse to step foot in there again. Impossible to get help from anyone. Im a Lowes gal.

 

[mom4morecritters]

Yanna, you go girl!

I would have done the same thing! I'm in my 40s now, and I don't have time to put up with crap. I've had very little problems with CS at our Home Depot. There have been times when I couldn't find someone to help me right away, but no one has ever treated me like an "airhead". I even had one guy tie kennel fencing to the roof of my van for me when I was over-eager and didn't realize my van wasn't big enough to load the fencing inside. Duh! He was right there with me from finding a cart, loading it on the cart, pulling the cart to the front after I made a quick stop in a different department

, and securing it to the top of my van! MAJOR brownie points for that kid!

There have been times when I've picked stuff up for DH, the builder, and been pretty dumb about what I was looking for, even then I was still treated with respect!

If the employees had treated me as horribly as you were treated, I would have made sure that my body language, verbal replies, and facial expressions cued them in on how dang stupid they were!

~Anne

 

[dacjohns]

Would you like a guy's perspective? You're going to get it anyway.

I have seen for myself how women are generally treated in a "man's world." Pretty badly.

My wife hasn't had too much trouble but we do about half of our project purchases from local guys and about half from the big box.

Poor customer service isn't only received by women though. Customer service is pretty bad in a lot of places. I have walked out of stores, griped at managers, and so on. I really love it when I get an internet customer satisfaction survey note on my receipt. It probably doesn't do much good though.

Yanna, I'm with you. Don't forget to follow through with the manager contact or it will all have been in vain.

 

[bluie]

My DH has probably had more bad CS experiences at Home Depot than me (but not by much). However, after reading this thread, I wish our Lowe's was not 5 miles farther away than our Home Depot!

I would love to try it.

 

[Yanna]

Quote:
Sadly, this is the third time of the last three visits I've made to a local hardware store that has resulted in my contacting their manager. I will say, though, last time I was at Menard's, when one of the young hardware guys pretended not to hear me as he walked by, the hardware department manager immediately paged ALL of his staff when he heard what had happened and gave them a dressing down.

You're absolutely right, though, customer service has declined rather sharply overall. People aren't teaching their young folks how to do honest work and when they're unleashed into the work force it sure shows.

Laugh if you must, but sometimes I wish I could hire someone to go act tough with the car repairmen or the hardware clerks so that I wouldn't have to.

 

[FarmGirl01]

I went to Lowe's to but some sheets if Tin. The employees watched as I got eight of them and put them on my cart. Not very easy, I will add. That stuff will cut your hands off. Then after I paid for them the stock boys watched me outside trying to get them in my truck.
The same thing happened to me a home depot. I had bought a roll of flooring. I waited outside for the stock guy to help me load it in the truck. I asked the cashier before I paid if there was someone to help me. She said yes. I waited twenty minutes. The boys would just walk by and not even offer to help. It was easy to see that I needed help. They just keep walking by me. I was PI$@ed. As soon as I started to try and load it, two men (other customers) helped me..I will never forget them.
Don't even get me started on the vehical inspection thing.

 

[2 Beauts]

I have seen both sides of this fence! I worked for Lowe's for 11 years in 5 different stores. 1 in MD, 2 in VA, and 2 in KY. The only departments I've never worked, were plumbing ( I know enough to fix my own, but would not pretend to know how to help you), electrical (too scary), and cabinets (no interest).

At the ripe old age of approx. 23, I had worked my way up to Department Manager of hardware. At that time, that meant taking care of all that misc. odd ball stuff, plus all the usual stuff, like locks and ladders. So, here I am, all 5'4" 120lbs, in charge of the department, with a staff of 4 other full time women and a couple guys who are part timers. My supervisor was a guy (who knew absolutely nothing about the department). We would be discussing something, and a customer would look at both of us, and ask him for help. The guy would ask him the question, he'd look at me, and I'd answer the customers question. This guy kept asking different questions, he kept turning to me, and I kept answering. The guy never once looked my direction.

Then I've had them ask for a 50# box of nails off the top shelf, and be surprised when I went up the ladder to get it. Like "Hello?? Who the heck else is gonna get??"

You should have seen some of the looks I got while 9 months pregnant and driving a forklift! HA! HA!....

Then DH and I went to build our chicken coop, and we were buying the concrete deck blocks where you can put either a 4X4 or a 2x whatever in it. So, I'm stacking them on the cart, and this guy customer over heard me talking to DH, and saying here get 8 of these to put the 2X6's in. The guy says " You can't use those for 2X6's." I turned around and looked at him. Rolled my eyes, and said "what do think these are for?" pointing to how the 2X would go. He looked at me like " Oh!" I said, "I worked in a store like this for 11 years, and did 100's of materials lists for house plans. I think I understand how these work." His wife and my DH were both grinning at me from ear to ear.

I learned enough to general contract my own 4000 sqft farm house.

For the service side of the coin, I loved the part of helping out people who knew what they wanted to accomplish, but was not quite sure how to get there. I liked the puzzle part of it. I also liked the old, old, guys who came in the store, I learned so much from just talking to them. I hated the people who it took 30 minutes to convince them that this was the correct package of $.78 screws, when there were literaly 10 other people waiting to be helped. I hated the person who thought their time was worth more than anyone elses. I hated the person who when asked "What size do you need?" answered, "the usual." DUH! I can only help you and much as you help yourself!

As to why people get crappy service. There's only one reason. Poor work ethic.

And on the cutting charge....as of 5 years ago, I believe company policy was, first 2 cuts free, after that it was $.50 a cut. Most of the time, we never charged unless it was A LOT of cuts and it was the weekend. There is never enough help on the weekend in the lumber department, and having someone standing at the saw all day costs a lot of money and while he's standing there, he can't be helping someone else. Plus, if he cuts it wrong, the store easts the cost. If you cut it wrong, too bad, so sad.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I've not had trouble in hardware stores but, in mechanics and equipment shops.

We dairy farm and it is usually up to me to do any parts running as DH works out. I now have the Equipment dealers that I use trained! But I did have one I refused to go back to! DH couldn't get to the part without having to take more apart because of his bigger hands so, I took it out. Then once it was cleaned up some I headed for the dealership. When I got there the parts man thought he knew what we had for a tractor. It was one of those that they switched a part in the middle of a series and if you had a serial number before a certain one you needed the old part, etc. Well we had the older one. He insisted we had a newer one.

I let him argue with me until we had everyone's attention (they were busy too

). Then I said "Oh really, that part (pointing to the older style) looks just like this one" and I slammed the old part, that was in my hand below counter level, on the counter top! He turned extremely red!!!!! I never set foot in the place again and I never will as they have closed due to poor business. Hhmmm, I wonder why they had poor business?