Lowe's Home Improvement Whorehouse, I Mean, Warehouse
My house needed new windows. I found it would be a relatively easy task to replace the windows by myself. I get the measurements, and head on over to the nearest Lowe's, roughly 30 miles away.

The guy tries to convince me that I cannot possibly do the job myself, and I need to pay them $90 per window (close to what the windows cost each) to have them do it. I tell him I know what I'm doing and he keeps quizzing me with irrelevant questions about window replacement (I hate contractors!) trying to confuse me and get me to buy the installation. On another occaision, I saw this same guy taking off his smock and avoiding customers while working.

Anyway, I place the order for the windows, specifying the energy saving Low-E film and argon-filled double panes (at about $30 extra per window, of course). The windows went in quick and simple, like I knew they would. Removing the labels off the windows, I see "clear-air-clear" on the labels, which I'm told at the store means no low-E film and no argon filled panes. Being a weekend, they are not able to do anything, and could I please come back during the week? (wtf?) Getting nowhere with these flatliners, I come back in the week. The guy from before is there, and he wants me to take the windows out and bring them back to the store (leaving my house without windows for six weeks). I tell him that if he just refunds me the difference, I'd go home happy.

For 90 minutes (!) I stood there while he tried to figure out the refund. He rang it at least three times, getting a different answer each time, and starting over. How hard can it be? The manager came and helped, but still got nowhere. Then we had to go to the front of the store and get my money, at which point they charged me for the delivery again. By this time the manager and the numbnuts and myself were getting so frustrated I left (after a few words) and wrote a nasty letter to the head office, bypassing the store completely. I got a nice, if paniced, call a few days later saying that yes, they owed me some money and where would I like it sent? So a happy ending, but what a bunch of idiots.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Mon 16 May 2005, 22:26, Reply)