tips for getting service at homedepot manhattan - (in 20 steps or less)

[rkt]

1=wander around trying to find staff to direct you to the product you desire.
2=be given vague directions.
3-wander about until you find the section.
4=wander the aisle trying to find the object of your desire.
5=stare at the items trying to make sense of what product matches what price.
continue.
6-hunt down a staff member to assist.
7-watch as staff member stares and the group of you figures out the price.

7 by now, you know that the price of your item. and that your item is on the top shelf. you wait for staff to return to assist in the retrieval of the bulky item.
8.you wait. you wait some more.
9. you wander around hoping to find a staff member but can find none who are willing to help.
10.you wait.
10.5. you do not break anything.

11-you decide to climb the shelf to retrieve the item.
12.you maybe even step on boxes that are on the bottomest shelf to increase your height.
13. a comment is made about suing/lawyers.

14.FIVE staff members materialize out of thin air offering assistance.
15.a ladder is brought over.
16. staff member climbs up.
17.you get your item.

18. you leave to repeat the process all over again for a much smaller item.

Comments

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

You need to come to Boulder and go to McGuckin Hardware at least once. They actually have it organized so you can find what you want quickly, or, sometimes more importantly, you can actually find someone who is an expert in whatever it is you are looking for. It's even cited as an example of how to optimally organize intelligent agents in the computer science literature^*.

Seriously, people visiting Boulder from out of state specifically have the hardware store as a destination.

^*Fischer, G. & Reeves, B. N. (1992): "Beyond Intelligent Interfaces: Exploring, Analyzing and Creating Success Models of Cooperative Problem Solving," Applied Intelligence, Special Issue Intelligent Interfaces, 1, pp. 311-332

[rkt.livejournal.com]

damn....
such efficiency really exists?

[brienf.livejournal.com]

How pleasant. Maybe next time you could bring an attorney with you so that you could skip right to #13.

[rkt.livejournal.com]

if not a lawyer, the only potential one i know we're mutually not talking, i'm sure i could dig up a law student or 2.

[jadedjade.livejournal.com]

heh... i hate home depot... i hate ikea... i hate hating... i hate customer service ... they lie... oh how they lie! well at ikea it's expected... but home depot has no excuse... we could burn it down.

[rkt.livejournal.com]

we could use their fireplace logs (the real ones, not the electric ones) to do the deed. . .