Home Depot
In a recent post requesting info roofers, someone suggested Home Depot. We have used Home Depot in the past some some contrators services with mized results.
Today I came article was in today's St. Pete Times. Here are some excerpts. Read the whole article:
Who's on the roof?
"When you hire Home Depot to work on your house, it hires contractors to do the work. And it is supposed to make sure they are licensed. They can do it, but you better help."
. . .
"But the home improvement giant, it turns out, has repeatedly found itself under fire and saddled with fines from local and state construction regulators for permit and inspection problems and use of unlicensed subcontractors."
. . .
“A contractor can have his privileges revoked in Pinellas County; then he can just go across the bridge and practice over here in Hillsborough,” said John Heisler, an inspector who oversees the Hillsborough Building Codes Compliance Team. “We need a statewide database on contractors.”
. . .
"Experts say homeowners should contact the Better Business Bureau along with county and state licensing and enforcement agencies to review the history of every contractor, whether an individual or one hired by Home Depot or Lowe’s."
. . .
"Asked how contractors and qualifiers with licensing and legal issues could be hired by Home Depot with a policy of background checks in place, Harrison replied, “I don’t have an answer for you there. ... We obviously need to do a better job.’’Lowe’s does background checks, requires training and maintains a code of ethics for their subcontractors, said spokeswoman Jennifer Smith"
Some websites:
ConsumerAffairs.com
The Hillsborough County Contractor Licensing Center
The Hillsborough County Consumer Protection and Professional Responsibility
Better Business Bureau (West Coast Florida)
While we are on the subject of Home Depot. I went into the store on Florids Ave today and yesterday. Yesterday I asked the guy in plumbing section for chrome drain pipes for my cast iron tub and chrome intake piping. He took me to three different aisles of the plumbing section clearly not understanding what I wanted. Finally he took me to someone who knew what I was looking for. He showed me the drain piping and indicated I would have to a speciality plumbing store for the intake piping.
Today I went to get some lumber and some building paper or kraqft paper. The building supply guy had no clue as to what I was talking about. Someone else directed me to the right place. However they were out of it.
After we left the store, Susan told me she had heard the Home Depot was now hiring professionals from the trades to staff the stores. Interesting since I thought that is what they always did. Based on my experiences in last two days, I quess not.
6 comments:
We had Home Depot come out for a roofing estimate and a painting estimate. We were impressed when he told us that we still had a few years left, so we didn't get a price. However, the paint estimate was three times what the next highest estimate was and the time estimate(not how long before they could do it, but how long it would take to complete once they started) was out of this world- almost 2 weeks to paint our 1200 sqft housem with less prep work included in the cost than the other estimates. I hate to think what the roof would have cost.
Scott, how much kraft paper do you need?
Wouldn't it be nice if we had a Lowe's?
I would be leery of hiring any contractors through Home Depot. They have had MANY issues throughout the state, especially with regards to roofing after to the explosion of roofing replacements due to the hurricanes.
In regards to the poor service in the store, hiring trade professionals to work in the store went away in 2000 when Nardelli took over. A sad story for a once great company.
Given the responses from the Home Depot reps in the article it seems clear their position is "spin" rather than "fix". The contractor wasn't convicted of a crime? Didn't have his license suspended? DOes that really matter - he did a crap job while representing your company! Give him no more work, apologize to the customer and make it right. OF course that would require Home Depot to have some ethics . . .and a positive customer orientation.
Actually I have a friend who has been doing cabinet work for more than 20 years. His business has the contract to install all the cabinets for Home Depot in Hillsborough county. I would use that service only because he lives in the neighborhood and couldn't hide. The others, ummm
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