Over this past summer, I decided to tackle one of my home renovation projects, which involved me staining the fence in my backyard. While it seems as if staining a fence would be a relatively simple and straightforward project, to do it right, it is actually a somewhat long and hard process. As such, I decided to start the project by visiting my local Home Depot, on Billy Bishop Way, near Dufferin and Wilson. When I arrived at the Paint Department, an eager employee asked how he could help me, so I told him about my fence staining project. Based on the answers to my questions, he suggested that I would need approximately three gallons of stain to complete the work so I followed his advice, and bought three gallons.
As I embarked on the project, very quickly it was apparent that the employee really miscalculated the amount of stain I would require, as the cans were being used up and I had a looooooong way to go. In fact, given the amount of stain I would still require, I decided to purchase a pail, which consists of five gallons. Later on, I actually purchased a second, five gallon pail, and I still wasn’t finished!
Near the end of the project, I had to keep purchasing more and more gallons of stain, and not taking the “buy four get one free deal” (the pail is five gallons for the price of four) because of underestimation, until I bought a total of 13 gallons! It was still not enough to cover the entire fence, so to complete the project, I headed back to the store, on more time, for what should be the last gallon of stain.
When I walked down to the Paint Department, once again, a long-time employee noticed that as a regular customer, I was not my usual jovial self, and that I seemed to be a bit miffed about something. She asked me what was wrong, and how she could help me, and while I was reluctant to bellyache, I told her about the long and time-consuming fence staining project and the inaccurate initial estimation of the three gallons of stain, which ended up costing me close to $100.00 in extra purchases.
The employee apologized, without hesitation, and offered to give me the last gallon of stain for free. I expressed my concern, that she would somehow get into trouble, be she assured me that this wouldn’t be the case. She explained that she could justify the offer, as I would have had the last gallon free if I had purchased a third pail, and because she knows I am a regular customer, that I wasn’t trying to trick her. We filled out some paperwork, I got the free gallon of stain to complete my project, and I was on my way a few minutes later. I know that this was only one gallon of stain in a lengthy project, but this employee made me extremely happy, at a time when I was becoming increasingly frustrated.
The moral of this customer service experience is that the Home Depot at Yorkdale has amazing staff members, and they are empowered to make certain decisions that create the happiest of customers. While the Home Depot motto is, “You can do it, we can help,” another fitting motto would be, “We make it right when we make a mistake”. The team in Yorkdale’s Paint Department is very experienced, knowledgeable, and is composed of some great and caring people.
Home Depot
90 Billy Bishop Way
Toronto, ON M3K 2C8
416-373-6000
