I'm in an area with tremendous growth and opportunity for residential building and can tell you that as a GC, there are very few tradesmen/companies that like to do business at Lowe's. We have 6 Lowe's stores in my area and for the past 10 years, they are all alike. Employees that are supposed to be "specialists", have very little knowledge. Customers are rarely approached for help to find items or load them onto trailers or vehicles. Lumber carts and other specialty carts are few and in between or loaded down with special orders waiting to be picked up. Checking out times are too lengthy and are a burden to people demanding to be at their job actually doing work. The ordering and delivering of materials, esp cabinets and appliances are so bad that I REFUSE to send customers to Lowe's stores to choose materials. I speak for A LOT of people when I tell you that it is almost too late to try to win over the heart of professional tradesmen in the construction field. Lowe's has steered toward the "Do-It-Yourselfer" for far too long and such, has pushed people who drive daily sales away. I'm not a Home Depot lover, but between the two, there is a night and day difference on who the professionals would rather use.
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Prime example of not enough people to do the work and being treated poorly makes employees get to the point that they just don't care.
I was Pro Specialist in Orangeburg NY for many years, Store 1192. I was recently fired for nonsense. Under this store manger who is a lying, hide-in-the-office, coward, he ruined our Pro department. He came in 4 yrs ago after Frank was fired because a g-- man in flooring was harassed, sued Lowes, and won. ASM's, and managers harassed him constantly like bullies and were all guilty. I saw it 1st hand. Many though still work there and have been promoted by George the new store manager.
This store manager took away the corporate schedule that made perfect sense to serve the Pro customer, and made us work every weekend, even though one full weekend off was corporate policy. We cant call vendors or serve pro guys on weekends. When I left, we worked at Pro 0% a week. Never. Hear that? We worked in lumber, millwork, cashier, and everywhere but pro. This man broke more policies than Hitler and had friends in corporate Human Resources who covered for him. He literally threatened us every day (and all employees) behind the scenes and is one of the most unethical people I have ever met. He knew I felt this way, and why he targeted me and fired me. I spoke openly about it because its simply not right.
Our Pro dept went from great, to terrible. Customers yelling all the time and complaining they can never reach anyone via phone. All pro customers have left. But George makes employees sell LBA, LAR, and business account credit cards instead of consumer cards so it appears their Pro is great. Every time someone uses that cc it goes to Pro so hes cooking books. This is how he operates, but hes smart enough to cover his tracks on everything. I hope you are listening MARVIN ELLISON & JOE MC FARLAND.
As a pro specialist, all I did was run register (they never staffed lumber or lumber cashier) and worked in lumber. We were told we will do as instructed or be fired. When we told George and and ASM's we had estimates to do and customers to serve, they basically said too bad / f them! Do what we saying (such as sweeping floors).
They have hired literal "r----ds" as managers. One guy Michael is lumber manager who is literally, r----ded. He yells at customers, throws phones on ground, punches walls, and has temper tantrums. Instead of his behavior being addressed, he calls others into the office every day for nonsense that doesnt even make sense.
A few months ago they brought in a new guy as specalist and he questioned all the weird policies at pro and now he is labeled a trouble maker and too dumb to see they out to fire him. Hes actually good w/ customers and knows what hes doing and means well but management simply doesnt care. They want him unloading lumber trucks like we did but at least he had balls to question it although he will be fired. We tried telling him that its Georges way or the highway. Do as your told, shut your mouth, and just hope they like you or they target you and fire you. But look at me! I was canned after 12 years of great service so WTF do I know?
So the poster of this topic is right. Lowe's will NEVER get pro customers. Not until they read my words carefully, understand them, and fix it all. Corporate doesnt see the store level, day in, day out stuff. All they see is digital, artificial paper scenarios. Not real life applications. until they put competent managers in charge, and know at store level the staff and how it runs from specialist to pro customer, they just pissin in wind. No one cares, they all just collect big checks and pretend they do.
FACT: Lowe's does NOT have a pro department. Pro employees are used all over the store, and never at desk. Store 1192 is a terrible place to work for, and I am so glad Im gone. I feel bad for the very good people left there as employees who want to help pro customers, but are not permitted. My advice is leave asap, and to any pros falling for Lowes's BS marketing lies, dont! Its all lies. If you dont believe me, call the store in Orangeburg NY and try and get the pro desk. You cant! They unload trucks outside every day 4 x a week.
Oh yea.. as Marv says ------- GOD BLESS.
What a joke Lowes is.
Had a “pro” from Lowes call the other day to ask if he could do anything to earn my business. Apparently he was reviewing a permit list the city keeps online and found our company.
I told him I appreciated his diligence and that I was sorry he worked for such a c-appy company.
Then I asked him if he could check and see when the delivery that was set for that very morning was going to arrive. It was 3 in the afternoon.
I can't tell you how many times we scheduled to have sub-contractors on site to perform a job for Lowe's and were not able to perform the task. A 3 hour project turn into a week long project because not all materials are on site or something was damaged. The customers get upset that their simple project is being ran with poor communication and nobody has answers for the customer. Customers have paid in full prior to starting the project and are left in limbo. It'd be nice to have communication letting you know that only 7 of the 11 items needed to do the job were delivered. Construction jobs have to work in methodical steps. Lowe's wants the profit off these jobs but doesn't care to learn how the gears of construction projects actually work. That's why their programs fail.
I was at Burger King for lunch the other day. I could see my order in the rack. No one thought about scheduling a person to get my food from that rack to the counter for me to pick up.
My first thought? It’s just like Lowes!
Recently had a fence delivered. Order like this. Posts on bottom, 2x4 material, pickets top. Concrete uncovered and top 5 bags ruined.
Sat at site for 2 days because they didn’t have any other open dates.
The way Lowes does delivery for building materials in laughable. Orders get placed days in advance and dont get pulled until the night before. By then something on the order sold out. The right way to do it is to sell it, pull it, have a manager verify and sign off on it, palletize/shrink wrap it, and stage it in a holding area. But no. Lowes doesnt have an infrastructure for that. God forbid your flatbed puller calls out. The overnight managers just act like its not their issue. Then XPO sends a single truck no matter how many stops you have and the driver tells you what he will and wont take.
There are very simple process changes that could make a massive improvement, but stores wont do it. Each store needs a large designated area to stage flat bed orders and each pro specialist needs to be getting their stuff pulled.
Awesomely correct. Only thing I can think you left out is credit. Ever try to manage a draw schedule and Lowes credit? Start with terms. Then pay in full before orders can be placed with their vendors.
You wind up out of pocket and short on cash flow.
Lumber company I deal with gives net 30 terms on stock lumber and 50/50 on special order items.
I agree, they are just to unreliable. I’ve had roofing packages delivered to homes being built and they won’t even call when they get rescheduled. You call and to get put on hold for 20 minutes to get told it didn’t get pulled the night before. Then they finally deliver it and your missing all kinds of items from the orders which they fail to call you about. I was an Assistant Manager 8 years ago and one of the reasons I left is because the company is more worried about dusting under the shelf than taking care of the customers or pros. In my opinion they are the worst home improvement supplier in my area for the GC.
Those who seek to be everything to everybody, end up being nothing to nobody.
Yep, you will probably not get much of an argument from anyone on here. Neither HD or Lowe's is very good for a lot of contractor use, especially regarding new construction building materials. I mostly used HD back when I did property preservation work. Lowe's tries to please everybody, the pro, the do it yourselfer, and the do it for me customer, and in trying to please everybody, they fail across the board. Lowe's has been having an identity crisis since before I've been working there, it's hard to be good at everything if you can't be good at anything.