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I tried ordering some things from Home Depot the other day, and they silently cancelled half of my order while still charging me the same amount for delivery fr

by ebg13 7y ago

I tried ordering some things from Home Depot the other day, and they silently cancelled half of my order while still charging me the same amount for delivery from the store and while saying that some things can only be delivered from a warehouse and that some things can only be delivered from a specific store and that delivery from each store has a $45 minimum purchase before they'll even consider delivery despite the fact that they're charging the same amount for delivery from the store no matter how much you order. That of course makes it difficult to then order the remaining items even if you call them and demand a refund for the first delivery fee, because the remaining items now don't meet the minimum. Then the delivery from the warehouse is some weird arbitrary calculation involving a nominal+ amount that then gets divided up across the items you're ordering (3.77 here, 2.83 there, and so on) such that if you remove any item the delivery fees for the other items all go up, and then there are some items that deliver for free if you order more than $45 worth from the warehouse which of course doesn't help you if some items can only be purchased from the individual stores. And then there are still things like cans of spraypaint that you can't get delivered at all and you're only allowed to pick up in person. I know that right now is an exceptional time, but this kind of shopping experience is part of why people choose Amazon first.

x0x0 7y ago
My favorite is how home depot lists stuff in stock on the search results page, but then when you click the individual item it's out of stock. It's a store. Why the fuck would a store ever show me an item -- at least by default -- that it isn't willing to sell me? Like who exactly wants that "feature"? It makes attempting to buy something from home depot's site an infuriating experience.
- ebg13 7y ago
  One of the items I tried ordering that was cancelled showed 34 in stock at that store while I was on the phone with them (immediately after the delivery person left) trying to find out why they cancelled my items and they were saying the items were probably out of stock in that store. And if you have three stores within a couple of miles of you that all claim to have a bunch of stock of an item but you order from one that suddenly (allegedly) runs out, you get to go all the way back down the hill because they don't migrate stock between stores.
  - bradlys 7y ago
    This is one of the reasons I don't buy things from Home Depot if I can help it. I've gone to multiple stores thinking something was in stock to only find they were all out of stock. On top of that, the staff there are almost helpless when it comes to finding things that aren't on the shelf itself. If it's up top, be prepared to waste an hour trying to get someone to fetch the item. (If it's there!) Their poor system can work in your favor though. Went to go pick up my order after it being cancelled at multiple places. Turns out, at this one, they only had 2 of the 4 items at pickup. I tell them it says there are more in stock, they confirm. We go hunting for the remaining 2. Takes 30 minutes for them to fetch the remaining two from the top with my help (without my help, they would have never found it!). We go back to the register, they punch in that they're giving me 2 more. I go home with all 4 of my items. I was never charged for the full order. Only the initial 2.
    - solotronics 7y ago
      I mean technically that is stealing but I guess its pretty low on the scale of "bad stuff".
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - bradlys 7y ago
        Is it? They rung me up with it - it's up to them to decide what to charge me. I'd put as "bank error in my favor." I only noticed later when I was making sure they didn't overcharge me when looking at my bank account. (They had to charge and refund about 3x)
        boomboomsubban 7y ago
        It's still stealing, the correct move would be to go back and pay the correct amount as you likely would have done if they overcharged you. That said, I doubt you could legally be held responsible and I see no problems with what you did morally either. If you noticed at the time I'd find it morally questionable, but you can't fix every mistake.
- dvtrn 7y ago
  This has long been an issue I've had when trying to use online shopping/curbside pickup for grocery stores, and this comes even before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and pushed more of us fortunate to live in cities where online grocery buying is a thing to....well start buying groceries online. Found myself just as baffled/apoplectic as you are: why would this be on your online storefront if you don't have the inventory for me to actually buy? Even Amazon Prime delivery via Whole Foods has this problem, to bring it back around to the thread topic. Interestingly it's something that small e-commerce stores are much better about, it would seem (though I don't really have any data backing that up)
  - justforyou 7y ago
    >> why would this be on your online storefront if you don't have the inventory for me to actually buy? Twofold: 1) They're betting that you'll still buy something once you're surrounded by merchandise. 2) This allows them to play games with shrink, imventory, and insurance.
    - dvtrn 7y ago
      They're betting that you'll still buy something once you're surrounded by merchandise. Hrm. Good point, that’s exactly what’s ended up happening. Just never actively considered it
  - goatforce5 7y ago
    Last year I tried setting up a subscription for some pet food from a mid-sized pet store chain. The first order went through fine. 3.5 weeks later I get an email saying my next order is about to be processed, now is the last chance for cancellations, etc. I ignore it, as I want the order to be processed. A few days later I get an email saying they're out of stock and they'll retry again later. I get these emails every day for 2 weeks, and then my order is automatically cancelled. This happens for 2 or 3 months before I get fed up and cancel the subscription. If I put in an order effectively a month in advance you'd think they could make sure they had enough stock for that upcoming order. (And it wasn't a complicated order, just multiple boxes of a single SKU.)
- justforyou 7y ago
  Even better, you can reserve items to pickup at Home Depot online which are not actually in stock. Website quantities are not tied to point of sale, and are instead manually enteted by staff when they have the opportunity/bandwidth. (Or at least that was the explanation given by Home Depot's customer support.)
  - markkanof 7y ago
    I feel like I'm using a different homedepot.com than everyone else on this thread. I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Every time I have done this they send an email when the order is ready to be picked up, and then I go there and pick up all the items. Not saying you didn't have the experience you did, just wondering if they actually do things differently in different parts of the country.
    - ebg13 7y ago
      > I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Those two things you just said are the same thing.
      - markkanof 7y ago
        I don't think they are. When the parent commenter said reserved for pickup, I assumed they meant some way to say "hold these at the counter for me to come purchase". What I am saying is that in my experience, you are making a purchase, someone at the store is pulling the items from the shelf and setting them in a special area, then you get an email/text that the order is ready, meaning that everything is ready to go, they had all the items, and no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered.
        ebg13 7y ago
        "hold these for me until I get there" is exactly the same as "don't let someone else buy them before I get there". Whether you pay before you get there or after doesn't change the fact that the item is being held for you so that no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered. We can break down your two statements and put them piecemeal side by side: I assumed they meant... "hold these..." What I am saying is... "pulling the items from the shelf..." I assumed they meant... "at the counter..." What I am saying is... "in a special area..."
- harrisonjackson 7y ago
  The first part sounds like a pretty terrible UI bug - it should be showing as out of stock everywhere :thinking: maybe the search results don't cross-check your selected store location but the detail page for an item does. (not excusing it just thinking where the issue could be) A couple of reasons to show items they can't sell you right now in the search results... 1. The best reason I can think of is if you click into it and it isn't available then they could show "similar" items and cross-sell you on those - and maybe actually help you find a good alternative. 2. If you are searching for a specific item then the result should show you that item regardless of availability or you'd just keep looking for it and be confused about it never showing up in their results. 3. Maybe SEO? More listings - even out of stock listings -> more SEO juice
- zo1 7y ago
  Personally, I think this is due to "Microservices". You have a separate "search" microservice whose data is out of date or misaligned with the "product listing" microservice. Same goes with Amazon and international delivery on some level. It's gotten better over the years, but there is still such a mismatch such that you can't "filter" only "international" delivery items.
sonicggg 7y ago
It seems the kind of charge I would dispute with my credit card company.
jakearmitage 7y ago
HomeDepot's ecommerce is a joke. Not only the shopping experience is poor, they treat logistics as if they were doing you a favor. And, on top of all that, you get damaged items. I made 7 purchases and all 7, in different periods of time, had to be returned or replaced. Same for Lowe's. There's a reason people shop on Amazon. Other than BestBuy, no other retailer "gets" ecommerce.
- coding123 7y ago
  This is a key point. Especially for prime items, but largely to other items they sell that are not fulfilled by them. It just feels like there is more responsibility through the amazon platform than other websites. I ordered a case of water through Amazon through a reseller. The shipment literally got lost. Amazon dispute, 20 minutes later, refund is done. I am waiting for a resolution through Paypal from another website - off amazon - since Friday for toilet paper that will definitely not be sent. After looking at policies, etc.. they generally don't do refunds. Though, I did have luck on one other site.
- kbash9 7y ago
  Never had an issue with costco.com where I've made some of my big purchases.
  - Someone1234 7y ago
    Just this week I had an issue with Costco.com. Ordered an item, their delivery estimate was 3-5 days. 7 days passed and the item hasn't shipped. No updated ETA or any information/communication on how long it might take. Decided to cancel and order from an alternative vendor (who would communicate better, frankly). Was unable to even cancel it online (cancel button was missing, in contradiction to their help docs). Tried to use Online Chat to cancel, which was seemingly offline/broken for multiple days. Finally called their customer service number, and it was cancelled within the hour (which credit where credit is due was one of the best telephone customer service experiences I've had). Took all of 10 days to NOT receive a 3-5 day item from Costco.com, the replacement item ordered elsewhere arrived in 48 hours. Still don't know how long the Costco.com item would have taken because they never communicated that.
markkanof 7y ago
I'm really surprised to hear so many horrible experiences with Home Depot ordering online. Over the past 2-3 months I have placed multiple orders for things that are shipped to my house, and that has gone off without a hitch. I've also placed an order for "express delivery" which seems to be a HD delivery driver coming from either a store or a local warehouse. I placed an order for a bunch of screws, insulating foam, joist hangers, etc. My ordered was placed around 1pm and I had the items on my porch by about 6pm the same day. I also ordered a bunch of lumber, sheets or rigid insulation, etc. that needed to be delivered by truck. The driver arrived on time, used his all-terrain forklift to navigate around a bunch of parked cars (I live in a fairly dense residential neighborhood), and place the whole load right where I wanted it on my front lawn. Couldn't be happier with the whole process. Just thought it was worth sharing some positive experiences, as a counter point to the negative ones here.
- wmeredith 7y ago
  I have also placed maybe a dozen Home Depot orders over the years with no issue. Including a fridge that was delivered last month. I also like their app. Apparently I’m an outlier.
kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
DO NOT order from Home Depot online. I made that mistake once and found out that they reuse SKUs for different product models. They will pull the wrong product off the shelf because the SKU is all they go off of. Support refuses to do anything about items delivered from a local store. The store employee won't be able to readily exchange the item.
- ebg13 7y ago
  > Support refuses to do anything about items delivered from a local store. Partially true. Support may actually contact the store and negotiate a refund for you. Allegedly I'll be refunded for the from-store delivery fee for my first order that had some of the items cancelled, and I didn't talk to the store directly.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
bluGill 7y ago
Depending on what you want you will probably have better luck calling (not online, a voice call) your local lumber yard. They deal with contractors all the time who call their orders in for delivery so this is business as usual. They wouldn't know how to help you if you walked in the door. Make sure you setup an account with a salesman. They work on commission, but if you know what you want they know exactly how to enter your order so your small order is easy to handle. (contractors often give them a blueprint and tell them to deliver materials which is work for them although it is more money)
richjdsmith 7y ago
Same story happened to me last Friday. I put in an order on their website, met their minimum delivery order amount, and yet when I got the confirmation email an hour later, I found out 3/4 of my items were being shipped to my nearest (35min, 60km) home depot. I called customer service and was told it was impossible to change the order so all get delivered, and that it was impossible to cancel the order. My only recourse is to go to their wharehouse, pick it up, then ship it back. I don't love amazon, but they don't pull this crap on me.
- thewebcount 7y ago
  I'm pretty sure if you call the credit card company and do a chargeback they'll side with you on this.
- rdtwo 7y ago
  I’ve had that happen too but I intentionally did it to get a discounted battery for my riobi drill. I got the batch discount for multiple items had the stuff I didn’t want sent to store and just had to show up to return it
monksy 7y ago
Let's face it Home Depot is garbage. From my experience they fail completely when at the store (employees running away from you, ignoring you, trying to avoid being asked for help, etc). The store, the way it's setup, tries to agressively cut corners. (The default for checking out is self checkout) I went to menards and I found the experience really rewarding. It's great. They're not a great company ecologically, labor rights, etc. However, 95% of the time I have a good experience when asking for help and with the prices.
- monadic2 7y ago
  FWIW I just ordered a bunch of shit from home depot, it arrived faster than amazon could deliver it and everything I was looking for was in stock. I've also never had any major complaints in person with unhelpful staff—just the opposite. My only gripe with them is the self checkout you mentioned (why am I doing the store's work for them?), which certainly is not going to improve if Amazon moves into the retail space. I have no clue where this impression of competence on Amazon's behalf is coming from—I must simply have radically different luck with the service they provide.
  - rainbowzootsuit 7y ago
    The "pro desk," garden center, and the returns desk are all places where I am able to have someone check me out. As you said, I don't work for Home Depot. However if you're getting penny clearance items the self checkout is the place to visit.
  - ckosidows 7y ago
    Perhaps it's different with a store like Home Depot where products are much bigger and perhaps harder to scan, but do people actually dislike self checkouts? "Doing the work for the store" seems like such a non-argument to me. I would much prefer to scan things myself as I feel I can often do it faster, and I don't have to wait in a line if the store only has two cashiers staffed at a certain time. You pump your own gas. Why is checking yourself out so much more controversial?
    - 7y ago
tmaly 7y ago
I ordered a chest freezer from Home Depot. When I ordered it, I double checked that it was not listed as out of stock. I got a notice they were delivering on April 4. It was never delivered. The delivery company told me they were never shipped the freezer to deliver. When I called Home Depot, they said freezers are on back order to June. They told me I could call the manufacturer. This is a bit crazy. I have never had a place tell me to call the manufacturer.
- light_hue_1 7y ago
  Exactly the same thing happened to me with Office Max. I told them to cancel.
- Exmoor 7y ago
  As someone who just got off the phone with Lowes not an hour ago with a very similar appliance delivery issue, I took a little solace in your comment since I at least feel like I didn't just choose the wrong hardware store. With that said, the problems with my order are somewhat mind boggling. I received an email notifying me that my appliance would be delivered on 4/7 and to be home in a 12hr window. When I, by luck, contacted the store to talk about another problem I'm having with this order they informed me it will likely be another 5-8 days until its actually delivered and that this is a known issue with their system. How does a known issue where you're telling your customers to be home for a delivery on a day a week+ removed from the actual delivery survive for long enough for it to be common knowledge?
- OJFord 7y ago
  > This is a bit crazy. I have never had a place tell me to call the manufacturer. I bought a stand mixer from John Lewis, a British department store with a (arguably fading) reputation for better service, its own 5y plus guarantees, etc. When I needed to call ok that guarantee for a replacement part, I had two months of email run around before getting a reference number and phone number for the manufacturer's UK distributor. It was a further 3.5 months of calling the distributor, being promised it was on its way, and on occasion receiving the wrong part (once) or no part (twice). When I complained to JLP about the experience, that I didn't feel I should have to contact some third-party distributor/wholesaler for assistance in a claim under the guarantee agreement with itself, I just got fobbed off with an email telling me to phone the number their colleague had already sent me, as if I hadn't read the email - comically ironic since it was clear from my own complaint that I had; so it was my email that hadn't been read. Anyway, rant over. Moral: if you're in the UK, JLP not what it was, think twice for purchases where guarantee relevant; relevance: I only very thinly veiled my description of how much better its 'online competitor' is in handling returns/replacements. John Lewis: 5.5 months emails, calls, waiting for a £20 replacement part. Amazon: 2 minute chat and until next day wait for a whole product (~£150) replacement due to defective (~£10) part. Original to be returned ~at leisure. Honestly even if Amazon's a few quid more expensive (at that price point), which it typically isn't, I'm at the point where I choose it just because it isn't painful when it doesn't go completely smoothly.
rkho 7y ago
I ordered some things from Home Depot the other day as well. They did not fulfill half the order, instead marking it as delivered. Attempting to resolve this issue, they refunded only 1/3rd of the missing items and then required me to go to a physical store to resolve the issue because their system literally could not fix the problem without them offering a physical cash refund. This is likely to do with the store which fulfilled the order; I've found Home Depots to be very hit or miss in their service quality and the location which fulfilled this order has been consistently bad in-person. Don't even get me started on how Home Depot uses location settings and keeps changing preferred stores when ordering. It's a nightmare.
mathattack 7y ago
This is the difference between delivery being your primary focus versus secondary focus.
- twblalock 7y ago
  I've ordered from other traditional retail places before, like Target and Walmart and Macy's, and I haven't had a problem. They care more about technology than most people think, even though their primary focus is in-store sales. Home Depot just isn't as good at delivery as they are. Ikea is also pretty terrible. What they both seem to have in common is a coordination problem between their inventory systems and the third-party delivery services that actually get the stuff to the customer. Most of the time the stuff they sell is too big to send through the mail.
quickthrower2 7y ago
I live in Australia, and there is Amazon but they don't have that much stuff compared to UK/US. So I order from other places, and it is super rare to have any kind of ordering or delivery problem. Things just arrive! In 2020 they are all using some order processing and tracking tech and it seems to go smoothly. Also same experience in the UK with both Amazon and non-Amazon going back to the year 1998 when I was ordering motherboards online. Ordering stuff online is never a problem where I would scream "agh! only Amazon can do this!". The only problems I have had is in the mid-late 2000's with second hand stuff from ahats on ebay, and paypal siding with the non-quickthrower2 person in most cases, I guess I got bad luck there.
sfj 7y ago
Over one hundred replies to this? How to get attention on hacker news, just gripe and whine about your interaction with a big corporation, I guess.
sigzero 7y ago
I ordered from Home Depot. We were finishing a bathroom a couple weeks into November last year. We ordered the beginning of October with a delivery date in October. Good deal. Good thing I like to check "status" often as the main item we ordered had its date changed to the end of November for delivery. So I make the trip in to talk to them. I go find the exact same item in-store and then I have to show them where it is because their system has it in the wrong place. Not a good experience with them.
omilu 7y ago
I ordered a car port tent thing, showed as in stock, shipping in a few days. 8 weeks later never arrived, no notifications, only an order confirmation that said shipping in a few days. I called Home Depot and they said they don't have them in stock, they refunded me and gave me a $200 credit so I was happy. Couldn't believe how broke the ordering process was though.
- dexterdog 7y ago
  I never get why there is not a department in charge of checking orders that are obviously stuck before they become a support issue.
  - antsar 7y ago
    Because that costs money?
    - dexterdog 7y ago
      As does dealing with this as a customer service issue. I would argue that for most companies catching this internally costs far less than waiting to handle an annoyed customer.
- patagurbon 7y ago
  It's because those notifications, at least from the store, are manual, associates have to manage each order in a horrendously ugly and complex system.
econcon 7y ago
India doesn't even have any homedepot/McMaster Car equivalent. There are some online shops which sell chemicals but they charge a lot for its delivery. Meanwhile, you can't buy Welding rod, helmet or machines online.

by ebg13 7y ago

x0x0 7y ago

My favorite is how home depot lists stuff in stock on the search results page, but then when you click the individual item it's out of stock. It's a store. Why the fuck would a store ever show me an item -- at least by default -- that it isn't willing to sell me? Like who exactly wants that "feature"? It makes attempting to buy something from home depot's site an infuriating experience.

ebg13 7y ago
One of the items I tried ordering that was cancelled showed 34 in stock at that store while I was on the phone with them (immediately after the delivery person left) trying to find out why they cancelled my items and they were saying the items were probably out of stock in that store. And if you have three stores within a couple of miles of you that all claim to have a bunch of stock of an item but you order from one that suddenly (allegedly) runs out, you get to go all the way back down the hill because they don't migrate stock between stores.
- bradlys 7y ago
  This is one of the reasons I don't buy things from Home Depot if I can help it. I've gone to multiple stores thinking something was in stock to only find they were all out of stock. On top of that, the staff there are almost helpless when it comes to finding things that aren't on the shelf itself. If it's up top, be prepared to waste an hour trying to get someone to fetch the item. (If it's there!) Their poor system can work in your favor though. Went to go pick up my order after it being cancelled at multiple places. Turns out, at this one, they only had 2 of the 4 items at pickup. I tell them it says there are more in stock, they confirm. We go hunting for the remaining 2. Takes 30 minutes for them to fetch the remaining two from the top with my help (without my help, they would have never found it!). We go back to the register, they punch in that they're giving me 2 more. I go home with all 4 of my items. I was never charged for the full order. Only the initial 2.
  - solotronics 7y ago
    I mean technically that is stealing but I guess its pretty low on the scale of "bad stuff".
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - bradlys 7y ago
      Is it? They rung me up with it - it's up to them to decide what to charge me. I'd put as "bank error in my favor." I only noticed later when I was making sure they didn't overcharge me when looking at my bank account. (They had to charge and refund about 3x)
      - boomboomsubban 7y ago
        It's still stealing, the correct move would be to go back and pay the correct amount as you likely would have done if they overcharged you. That said, I doubt you could legally be held responsible and I see no problems with what you did morally either. If you noticed at the time I'd find it morally questionable, but you can't fix every mistake.
dvtrn 7y ago
This has long been an issue I've had when trying to use online shopping/curbside pickup for grocery stores, and this comes even before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and pushed more of us fortunate to live in cities where online grocery buying is a thing to....well start buying groceries online. Found myself just as baffled/apoplectic as you are: why would this be on your online storefront if you don't have the inventory for me to actually buy? Even Amazon Prime delivery via Whole Foods has this problem, to bring it back around to the thread topic. Interestingly it's something that small e-commerce stores are much better about, it would seem (though I don't really have any data backing that up)
- justforyou 7y ago
  >> why would this be on your online storefront if you don't have the inventory for me to actually buy? Twofold: 1) They're betting that you'll still buy something once you're surrounded by merchandise. 2) This allows them to play games with shrink, imventory, and insurance.
  - dvtrn 7y ago
    They're betting that you'll still buy something once you're surrounded by merchandise. Hrm. Good point, that’s exactly what’s ended up happening. Just never actively considered it
- goatforce5 7y ago
  Last year I tried setting up a subscription for some pet food from a mid-sized pet store chain. The first order went through fine. 3.5 weeks later I get an email saying my next order is about to be processed, now is the last chance for cancellations, etc. I ignore it, as I want the order to be processed. A few days later I get an email saying they're out of stock and they'll retry again later. I get these emails every day for 2 weeks, and then my order is automatically cancelled. This happens for 2 or 3 months before I get fed up and cancel the subscription. If I put in an order effectively a month in advance you'd think they could make sure they had enough stock for that upcoming order. (And it wasn't a complicated order, just multiple boxes of a single SKU.)
justforyou 7y ago
Even better, you can reserve items to pickup at Home Depot online which are not actually in stock. Website quantities are not tied to point of sale, and are instead manually enteted by staff when they have the opportunity/bandwidth. (Or at least that was the explanation given by Home Depot's customer support.)
- markkanof 7y ago
  I feel like I'm using a different homedepot.com than everyone else on this thread. I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Every time I have done this they send an email when the order is ready to be picked up, and then I go there and pick up all the items. Not saying you didn't have the experience you did, just wondering if they actually do things differently in different parts of the country.
  - ebg13 7y ago
    > I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Those two things you just said are the same thing.
    - markkanof 7y ago
      I don't think they are. When the parent commenter said reserved for pickup, I assumed they meant some way to say "hold these at the counter for me to come purchase". What I am saying is that in my experience, you are making a purchase, someone at the store is pulling the items from the shelf and setting them in a special area, then you get an email/text that the order is ready, meaning that everything is ready to go, they had all the items, and no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered.
      - ebg13 7y ago
        "hold these for me until I get there" is exactly the same as "don't let someone else buy them before I get there". Whether you pay before you get there or after doesn't change the fact that the item is being held for you so that no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered. We can break down your two statements and put them piecemeal side by side: I assumed they meant... "hold these..." What I am saying is... "pulling the items from the shelf..." I assumed they meant... "at the counter..." What I am saying is... "in a special area..."
harrisonjackson 7y ago
The first part sounds like a pretty terrible UI bug - it should be showing as out of stock everywhere :thinking: maybe the search results don't cross-check your selected store location but the detail page for an item does. (not excusing it just thinking where the issue could be) A couple of reasons to show items they can't sell you right now in the search results... 1. The best reason I can think of is if you click into it and it isn't available then they could show "similar" items and cross-sell you on those - and maybe actually help you find a good alternative. 2. If you are searching for a specific item then the result should show you that item regardless of availability or you'd just keep looking for it and be confused about it never showing up in their results. 3. Maybe SEO? More listings - even out of stock listings -> more SEO juice
zo1 7y ago
Personally, I think this is due to "Microservices". You have a separate "search" microservice whose data is out of date or misaligned with the "product listing" microservice. Same goes with Amazon and international delivery on some level. It's gotten better over the years, but there is still such a mismatch such that you can't "filter" only "international" delivery items.

sonicggg 7y ago

It seems the kind of charge I would dispute with my credit card company.

jakearmitage 7y ago

HomeDepot's ecommerce is a joke. Not only the shopping experience is poor, they treat logistics as if they were doing you a favor. And, on top of all that, you get damaged items. I made 7 purchases and all 7, in different periods of time, had to be returned or replaced. Same for Lowe's. There's a reason people shop on Amazon. Other than BestBuy, no other retailer "gets" ecommerce.

coding123 7y ago
This is a key point. Especially for prime items, but largely to other items they sell that are not fulfilled by them. It just feels like there is more responsibility through the amazon platform than other websites. I ordered a case of water through Amazon through a reseller. The shipment literally got lost. Amazon dispute, 20 minutes later, refund is done. I am waiting for a resolution through Paypal from another website - off amazon - since Friday for toilet paper that will definitely not be sent. After looking at policies, etc.. they generally don't do refunds. Though, I did have luck on one other site.
kbash9 7y ago
Never had an issue with costco.com where I've made some of my big purchases.
- Someone1234 7y ago
  Just this week I had an issue with Costco.com. Ordered an item, their delivery estimate was 3-5 days. 7 days passed and the item hasn't shipped. No updated ETA or any information/communication on how long it might take. Decided to cancel and order from an alternative vendor (who would communicate better, frankly). Was unable to even cancel it online (cancel button was missing, in contradiction to their help docs). Tried to use Online Chat to cancel, which was seemingly offline/broken for multiple days. Finally called their customer service number, and it was cancelled within the hour (which credit where credit is due was one of the best telephone customer service experiences I've had). Took all of 10 days to NOT receive a 3-5 day item from Costco.com, the replacement item ordered elsewhere arrived in 48 hours. Still don't know how long the Costco.com item would have taken because they never communicated that.

markkanof 7y ago

I'm really surprised to hear so many horrible experiences with Home Depot ordering online. Over the past 2-3 months I have placed multiple orders for things that are shipped to my house, and that has gone off without a hitch. I've also placed an order for "express delivery" which seems to be a HD delivery driver coming from either a store or a local warehouse. I placed an order for a bunch of screws, insulating foam, joist hangers, etc. My ordered was placed around 1pm and I had the items on my porch by about 6pm the same day. I also ordered a bunch of lumber, sheets or rigid insulation, etc. that needed to be delivered by truck. The driver arrived on time, used his all-terrain forklift to navigate around a bunch of parked cars (I live in a fairly dense residential neighborhood), and place the whole load right where I wanted it on my front lawn. Couldn't be happier with the whole process. Just thought it was worth sharing some positive experiences, as a counter point to the negative ones here.

wmeredith 7y ago
I have also placed maybe a dozen Home Depot orders over the years with no issue. Including a fridge that was delivered last month. I also like their app. Apparently I’m an outlier.

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago

DO NOT order from Home Depot online. I made that mistake once and found out that they reuse SKUs for different product models. They will pull the wrong product off the shelf because the SKU is all they go off of. Support refuses to do anything about items delivered from a local store. The store employee won't be able to readily exchange the item.

ebg13 7y ago
> Support refuses to do anything about items delivered from a local store. Partially true. Support may actually contact the store and negotiate a refund for you. Allegedly I'll be refunded for the from-store delivery fee for my first order that had some of the items cancelled, and I didn't talk to the store directly.

deleted 7y ago

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bluGill 7y ago

Depending on what you want you will probably have better luck calling (not online, a voice call) your local lumber yard. They deal with contractors all the time who call their orders in for delivery so this is business as usual. They wouldn't know how to help you if you walked in the door. Make sure you setup an account with a salesman. They work on commission, but if you know what you want they know exactly how to enter your order so your small order is easy to handle. (contractors often give them a blueprint and tell them to deliver materials which is work for them although it is more money)

richjdsmith 7y ago

Same story happened to me last Friday. I put in an order on their website, met their minimum delivery order amount, and yet when I got the confirmation email an hour later, I found out 3/4 of my items were being shipped to my nearest (35min, 60km) home depot. I called customer service and was told it was impossible to change the order so all get delivered, and that it was impossible to cancel the order. My only recourse is to go to their wharehouse, pick it up, then ship it back. I don't love amazon, but they don't pull this crap on me.

thewebcount 7y ago
I'm pretty sure if you call the credit card company and do a chargeback they'll side with you on this.
rdtwo 7y ago
I’ve had that happen too but I intentionally did it to get a discounted battery for my riobi drill. I got the batch discount for multiple items had the stuff I didn’t want sent to store and just had to show up to return it

monksy 7y ago

Let's face it Home Depot is garbage. From my experience they fail completely when at the store (employees running away from you, ignoring you, trying to avoid being asked for help, etc). The store, the way it's setup, tries to agressively cut corners. (The default for checking out is self checkout) I went to menards and I found the experience really rewarding. It's great. They're not a great company ecologically, labor rights, etc. However, 95% of the time I have a good experience when asking for help and with the prices.

monadic2 7y ago
FWIW I just ordered a bunch of shit from home depot, it arrived faster than amazon could deliver it and everything I was looking for was in stock. I've also never had any major complaints in person with unhelpful staff—just the opposite. My only gripe with them is the self checkout you mentioned (why am I doing the store's work for them?), which certainly is not going to improve if Amazon moves into the retail space. I have no clue where this impression of competence on Amazon's behalf is coming from—I must simply have radically different luck with the service they provide.
- rainbowzootsuit 7y ago
  The "pro desk," garden center, and the returns desk are all places where I am able to have someone check me out. As you said, I don't work for Home Depot. However if you're getting penny clearance items the self checkout is the place to visit.
- ckosidows 7y ago
  Perhaps it's different with a store like Home Depot where products are much bigger and perhaps harder to scan, but do people actually dislike self checkouts? "Doing the work for the store" seems like such a non-argument to me. I would much prefer to scan things myself as I feel I can often do it faster, and I don't have to wait in a line if the store only has two cashiers staffed at a certain time. You pump your own gas. Why is checking yourself out so much more controversial?
  - 7y ago

tmaly 7y ago

I ordered a chest freezer from Home Depot. When I ordered it, I double checked that it was not listed as out of stock. I got a notice they were delivering on April 4. It was never delivered. The delivery company told me they were never shipped the freezer to deliver. When I called Home Depot, they said freezers are on back order to June. They told me I could call the manufacturer. This is a bit crazy. I have never had a place tell me to call the manufacturer.

light_hue_1 7y ago
Exactly the same thing happened to me with Office Max. I told them to cancel.
Exmoor 7y ago
As someone who just got off the phone with Lowes not an hour ago with a very similar appliance delivery issue, I took a little solace in your comment since I at least feel like I didn't just choose the wrong hardware store. With that said, the problems with my order are somewhat mind boggling. I received an email notifying me that my appliance would be delivered on 4/7 and to be home in a 12hr window. When I, by luck, contacted the store to talk about another problem I'm having with this order they informed me it will likely be another 5-8 days until its actually delivered and that this is a known issue with their system. How does a known issue where you're telling your customers to be home for a delivery on a day a week+ removed from the actual delivery survive for long enough for it to be common knowledge?
OJFord 7y ago
> This is a bit crazy. I have never had a place tell me to call the manufacturer. I bought a stand mixer from John Lewis, a British department store with a (arguably fading) reputation for better service, its own 5y plus guarantees, etc. When I needed to call ok that guarantee for a replacement part, I had two months of email run around before getting a reference number and phone number for the manufacturer's UK distributor. It was a further 3.5 months of calling the distributor, being promised it was on its way, and on occasion receiving the wrong part (once) or no part (twice). When I complained to JLP about the experience, that I didn't feel I should have to contact some third-party distributor/wholesaler for assistance in a claim under the guarantee agreement with itself, I just got fobbed off with an email telling me to phone the number their colleague had already sent me, as if I hadn't read the email - comically ironic since it was clear from my own complaint that I had; so it was my email that hadn't been read. Anyway, rant over. Moral: if you're in the UK, JLP not what it was, think twice for purchases where guarantee relevant; relevance: I only very thinly veiled my description of how much better its 'online competitor' is in handling returns/replacements. John Lewis: 5.5 months emails, calls, waiting for a £20 replacement part. Amazon: 2 minute chat and until next day wait for a whole product (~£150) replacement due to defective (~£10) part. Original to be returned ~at leisure. Honestly even if Amazon's a few quid more expensive (at that price point), which it typically isn't, I'm at the point where I choose it just because it isn't painful when it doesn't go completely smoothly.

rkho 7y ago

I ordered some things from Home Depot the other day as well. They did not fulfill half the order, instead marking it as delivered. Attempting to resolve this issue, they refunded only 1/3rd of the missing items and then required me to go to a physical store to resolve the issue because their system literally could not fix the problem without them offering a physical cash refund. This is likely to do with the store which fulfilled the order; I've found Home Depots to be very hit or miss in their service quality and the location which fulfilled this order has been consistently bad in-person. Don't even get me started on how Home Depot uses location settings and keeps changing preferred stores when ordering. It's a nightmare.

mathattack 7y ago

This is the difference between delivery being your primary focus versus secondary focus.

twblalock 7y ago
I've ordered from other traditional retail places before, like Target and Walmart and Macy's, and I haven't had a problem. They care more about technology than most people think, even though their primary focus is in-store sales. Home Depot just isn't as good at delivery as they are. Ikea is also pretty terrible. What they both seem to have in common is a coordination problem between their inventory systems and the third-party delivery services that actually get the stuff to the customer. Most of the time the stuff they sell is too big to send through the mail.

quickthrower2 7y ago

I live in Australia, and there is Amazon but they don't have that much stuff compared to UK/US. So I order from other places, and it is super rare to have any kind of ordering or delivery problem. Things just arrive! In 2020 they are all using some order processing and tracking tech and it seems to go smoothly. Also same experience in the UK with both Amazon and non-Amazon going back to the year 1998 when I was ordering motherboards online. Ordering stuff online is never a problem where I would scream "agh! only Amazon can do this!". The only problems I have had is in the mid-late 2000's with second hand stuff from ahats on ebay, and paypal siding with the non-quickthrower2 person in most cases, I guess I got bad luck there.

sfj 7y ago

Over one hundred replies to this? How to get attention on hacker news, just gripe and whine about your interaction with a big corporation, I guess.

sigzero 7y ago

I ordered from Home Depot. We were finishing a bathroom a couple weeks into November last year. We ordered the beginning of October with a delivery date in October. Good deal. Good thing I like to check "status" often as the main item we ordered had its date changed to the end of November for delivery. So I make the trip in to talk to them. I go find the exact same item in-store and then I have to show them where it is because their system has it in the wrong place. Not a good experience with them.

omilu 7y ago

I ordered a car port tent thing, showed as in stock, shipping in a few days. 8 weeks later never arrived, no notifications, only an order confirmation that said shipping in a few days. I called Home Depot and they said they don't have them in stock, they refunded me and gave me a $200 credit so I was happy. Couldn't believe how broke the ordering process was though.

dexterdog 7y ago
I never get why there is not a department in charge of checking orders that are obviously stuck before they become a support issue.
- antsar 7y ago
  Because that costs money?
  - dexterdog 7y ago
    As does dealing with this as a customer service issue. I would argue that for most companies catching this internally costs far less than waiting to handle an annoyed customer.
patagurbon 7y ago
It's because those notifications, at least from the store, are manual, associates have to manage each order in a horrendously ugly and complex system.

econcon 7y ago

India doesn't even have any homedepot/McMaster Car equivalent. There are some online shops which sell chemicals but they charge a lot for its delivery. Meanwhile, you can't buy Welding rod, helmet or machines online.