Most Unhelpful Home Depot Guy Ever
As the day goes on, Brock finally gives up on the heat exchanger thing and sends me to Home Depot instead. You gotta love that ~ when he reaches the end of his rope with it, he thinks I’m going to do better? I’ll try to take it as a compliment, I guess. So I pack up Thing One and off we go.
On the way, we discuss the plan. Which is to give the damsel-in-distress routine a whirl. SB is shocked and appalled that his capable mother would use this approach, until I explain to him that it’s only one tool in a full arsenal of tools. He thinks it’s a bit unfair that he won’t ever be able to use that approach and we proceed to discuss the need for general competence in life.
Which is exactly what we didn’t find today at the North Seattle Home Depot. I brought the heat exchanger with me. Brock has had trouble with both 1″ and 1-1/4″ copper, neither of which fit quite right. When I tell the guy what I need (a 90 degree ending in 3/4″ male pipe thread), he just shrugs and says “I don’t know how to hook it up. It must be a proprietary size or something. You’ll have to contact the manufacturer.” When I asked if he had any ideas at all or direction for us, he just said “Nope.” Does he look at it? No. Does he think it through at all? No. Does he even pretend to care about this customer? Yeah, no.
I think I actually rolled my eyes at him (which I’m usually too polite to do; however, he really took the prize for Lack Of Customer Service) and said “Yeah thanks, we’ll figure it out from here.”
So we did. Put together a little system that I hope will work, along with a bit of Copper Bond, since the solder isn’t working at all. We shall see…
experience
At the "Sheds" here ! anything that is not on their product list or is unusual (like building your own hot tub, or actually being able to use their stocked items properly, not just for DIY ) is way beyond their comfort zone, and ability. So glad you didn`t use solder, in that salt exposed atmosphere !
We have Home Depot here and we've got a Canadian version called Rona and it is as equally useless.Through most small towns across Canada we have Home Hardware stores. The stores are a chain yet independently owned – so yes a franchise of sorts. I know the head office for them bends over backward to service their franchisees and that trickle down effect is evident. These are few and far between here in the big city with the exception of a place called Magnet Hardware. It is the oldest hardware store in Vancouver in the heart of the Commercial Drive area also known as Little Italy. The owners are Italian and it has been around for 55 years. Whenever I had a plumbing problem I would go straight to the for the Bowie had bits and pieces not unlike some of the old houses in that neighbourhood and I could always get good advice and help from them. Every time. Plus they always asked how the boat was going along. Big box retailers will never ever compare to this.
Wow, you guys are really going all out on this tub. I never heard of anyone building one from scratch before. You will so love it once it's done tho. Theres nothing like a good soak under the stars after a hard day. I miss ours tons.
Hi this is Stephanie from Home Depot Customer Care. I ran across your blog today and I’m sorry about your experience in our store. I would love to know which location you were in and any more details. Your feedback helps. Feel free to send me an email at stephanie_care@homedepot.com.Please try us again soon.Stephanie, Home Depot Customer Care
Tell Brock to heat the joint evenly and pull it apart. Then sand it smooth with sand cloth, flux it good, put it back together and re sweat the joint.Put you heat near the bottom of the joint till the solder sucks in.Hope this helps.Bill Kelleher