So I go in for some electrical and paint crap. Hit the paint dept and some women comes right up asks what I'm looking for. I think ok "yea I need this and this" She says sure, mumbles... something, has a name tag hanging around her neck, she grabs it and puts down again. And we start walking around, I have a list, she wants to see list. We find one of the things I'm looking after she asks a home depot employee in smock.

What in the ****, she then is like whats next. I was like "Im headed to another area, thx." Bam she hits with some kinda solar company sales pitch. Lucky enough I can be anti-social real fast. I laughed and was like nope.

I want to say what really gets me was not the 5 mins she wasted, more like ten, as she went down my list and mentioned I shouldn't get the red mulch --she heard online it was toxic.-- THX Roastie.

What really gets me, is the real home depot employee let me get molested by a dirty solar company and said nothing...

Do it again home depot and I go to Lowes forever. Watch out. Since real home depot employee knew to stay back, I assume this is now a thing.

What if Lowe’s does the same thing?

This was hilarious. Thanks for sharing.

LOL!

If she'll help me find the first thing I'm having trouble locating, then thanks and I'm outta there!

I can't wait for these scum to make it to my local HD.

I bought a blanket from Pendleton about ten years ago and they still won't leave me alone.

Home Depot has abysmal customer service forever.

As I'm walking through HD, I'll occasionally get accosted by somebody with one of those pop-up solar displays.

"How much was your electric bill last month?"
"$6.62"
"I guess you're not interested in solar then?"

Recently, the doorbell rang, and the young man on my porch started in on his sales pitch about how great his solar company was. After 3-4 minutes, he asked if he could set up me up with a consultation, without any requirement to buy on my side.

"I don't think that's a very good use of your time."4
"Do you mind if I ask why?"
"Well, the observant salesman would've noticed the obvious solar array that's already on my roof."

Sigh.

Lol.

FWIW, the person at your door isn't even the salesman. It's basically a cheaper pre-salesman.

How aggressive those solar people try to get people to sign up is highly dependent on how far away they're from their sales targets. Cancellation rate is obviously sky high, therefore they often have to make sure not to process those cancellations before the end of the quarter (or sales period) so those sales can still show up in the published numbers.

I have to show these "appointment setters" my solar array every time they come a knockin'. Some are even from the same company I went with.

You're right, madlex. I get easily frustrated when people don't even try to be more effective, especially when the improvement is trivially easy.

AzOther1, I was reading something the other day claiming that Arizona is difficult to get solar going/connected/approved, so they're lagging relative to the capacity. Did you find problems/hassles getting your system set up and going?

It's been a couple of years now, so things may have changed recently, but I found the whole process to be fairly easy. There were a few hoops to jump thru, mostly having to do with APS requirements. As a side, APS is not in the business of buying your power. They would greatly prefer to sell you energy, and they make that pretty clear. There were also City of Phoenix inspections, and Phoenix fire dept inspections to clear. I was happy for these, as the city inspection showed several discrepancies from the plan that the solar company were just going to gloss over that needed fixin'. First inspector was a stickler, called out a couple of things, and didn't pass the install. Sunpower came out a fixed some stuff. 2nd inspector came out and basically rubber-stamped the install, claiming he would have passed us the 1st time. Not inspiring confidence there, man.

So, as with all things, it depends.

I totally agree. But if they were motivated enough to make those small improvements they probably wouldn't work in that job or at least moved up to being the real salesperson instead of the pre-salesperson.

Yesterday I went for lunch inside our local Chick-Fil-A for the first time. Because it's a 90% white Midwestern suburb we already know that's the busiest "restaurant" in town even though I'm still not totally sure why that's the case. First observation: Restaurant was full of seniors and young people with small children. I guess people on lunch break use the drive through (like we usually do). Second observation: Staff was 100% white people between 20 and 60 who all looked like they would otherwise work in an office. I've never seen anything like that at a fast food place.

I doubt any of the solar pre-salespeople would get a job there.

Our local HD solar kiosk guy minds his own business and if you walk to close he'll stop you and ask one of their stupid opening lines. My response ranges from, "Already got an array and battery backup." to "I live underground."

Also, every Chick-Fil-A drive thru has been a huge line with ten people taking orders with pads and somehow they always give you the right bag, sometimes without prompting. Assuming they track your car to the order?

"The red car!"

They are FBI agents in training.

My HD solar dude works for Sunrun. He tried to chat me up one time, and I replied with the same line I give to the Costco salespeople before the exit.

"I'm homeless"

Same thing at In n Out. Looks like an LDS church on Sunday afternoon.

That was the place I thought of immediately.

Lowe’s > HD ainec

my HD is closer than my Lowe's. Location location location.

my HD gets my business by default unless I'm going to be in my Lowe's vicinity or I need a brand or something that my HD doesn't carry.

If I go to all the trouble of moving, it won't be to get closer to that particular Lowe's.

We get so many solar hustlers knocking on our door that I put up a sign saying, NO SOLAR SALESMEN

It seems like proximity is a key factor in your hardware store decisions. You typically opt for the one closest to you, unless you have a specific reason to visit the other store, like needing a particular brand. Given the effort involved in relocating, staying close to your preferred Home Depot makes sense.

My local HD and Lowe’s are basically side by side. And since blue > orange, Lowe’s wins.

Also, they have better customer service and I find the store easier to navigate. But really it’s because blue > orange.

obligatory Ron Swanson gif: