Ask a guy who works here anything

[Anonymous No.524103]

Did one of these a few months ago and people seemed to enjoy it.

I work in paint & building materials. Ask me whatever you've wanted to know about this glorious hell hole

[The Australian with koala powe(...) No.524109]

>>524103
So you are making 18USD an hour or so? I heard Home Depot over pays for it's workers

[Anonymous No.524108]

Why would someone put the water softener salt RIGHT next to the lawn chemicals? The fuck man?

[termi as fuck No.524112]

>>524103
Why doesn't anybody working retail know and understand their products?

auto parts salespeople don't know shit about cars

home depot employees don't know shit about building houses

best buy employees don't know shit about electronic devices

OP maybe if you actually knew something you would have your own crew and making bank instead of wearing a hideous neon orange apron all day.

[Anonymous No.524113]

>>524109
i wish. 12.50 part time
>>524108
i can't answer this because i don't know. come with me to the garden desk and we'll get someone who can.
>>524112
... because its retail? duh? if we actually knew how to build a house from the ground up, of course we'd be running a construction company. do you wonder why the kid at mcdonalds doesn't know anything about how to cook? do you wonder why the gas station attendant doesn't know how to extract and refine gas?

derp?

[termi as fuck No.524114]

>>524113
but dealing with know nothing fucks makes finding the right shit that i need so much harder. why can't large companies like home depot just hire knowledgeable former skilled workers?

[Anonymous No.524116]

>>524114
because they won't pay them the $30/hr + they got at their union jobs. they pay people like me and give us 20 hours of video training and send us out on the floor

[Anonymous No.524117]

>>524114
that said btw, there are always a few of those people around. dudes who want to work 30 hrs a week just to keep busy after they're done doing hard work

[Anonymous No.524126]

How much do you hate it when people need sheets of material cut down on the panel saw? I build a lot of speaker enclosures, and some guys seem to hate it when I need a sheet of 3/4" MDF cut down. I always keep it under 3 cuts and try to slip the guy $5 for his time, but so far no one has taken my tip, which kinda makes me feel like more of a jerk.

[Anonymous No.524197]

I've applied there about 6 times now and never got a call back, the only thing I lied about was where I went to high school because I figured if I didn't get hired it was because of the local kids who went to the same high school as me nearby.

How does I get a job there?

[Shitcunt !!t1xxBjJu4E3 No.524210]

>>524114
If you knew anything you wouldn't need help finding your shit. Also not all retail employees are complete idiots.

[Anonymous No.524215]

>>524126
doesn't bother me a shit. and i'll take tips all day
>>524197
no clue. my resume is pretty decent actually, and i got hired first time out. try again in late winter/early spring - that's their busiest time of year and they do a lot of hiring then

[Anonymous No.524223]

I am going to be building a bed frame soon but do not have much for wood cutting tools. If I bring in a sheet with dimensions, will they cut everything (accurately) to size for me? Is there an additional charge for that?

[Anonymous No.524226]

>>524114
I know a 25+ yr plumber who couldn't continue from injuries, had enough to live on and wanted to just work part time. Anyone who walked into his plumbing dept. would be quite lucky.

[Lost customer. No.524231]

>>524103
could you direct me to a small obscure part that isn't in store but only available on the website?

...well maybe it wasn't on your website. It was on another website...i think...

Actually maybe it was a dream.

Have ten minutes so I could describe it to you in painful detail?

[Anonymous No.524316]

>>524113
...the fuck? I worked there for 5 years and got up to 10.75, and I was getting paid more than most of the idiots there. I'm pretty sure my store was hiring new blood at barely over minimum wage.

[Anonymous No.524317]

Having worked at one of these stores for 5 years (ugh) I can tell you why no one knows anything. They don't care about hiring people who are good, but people who are cheap. They have terrible computer training that new employees go through that's supposed to make them competent, but is so dumbed down and out of context that it's utterly useless.

[Anonymous No.524318]

Is home depot really full of faggots? Why does home depot let fags get faggy and throw fag partys in their store, why does home depot support fag marriage? Are you a fag home depot worker?

[Anonymous No.524319]

>>524126
They're not supposed to take tips, it's against the rules handed down from the corporate overlords. If you want them to take something, just stick it in their apron and wink and walk away.

[Anonymous No.524326]

>>524318
Yes. I worked at home depot for about a year during one of the darker periods of my life. There was a disproportionate number of fags and dikes working there.

[Anonymous No.524371]

I work on the met team at my store. They put bleach and ammonia next to each other on the planograms with a second facing of ammonia above the bleach. And of course i can't deviate from the POG lest my manager come in and bitch at me. This place will be the death of me.

[Anonymous No.524381]

>>524223
They won't. I asked for only 4 cuts of equal size. I know they don't do precision cuts, but god damn, at least get the cut to within 1.5"!!! One was 19", another 21.5", another 20", another 20.5".

Buy a table saw, have them cut little pieces, then re-cut down to size at home.

[Anonymous No.524386]

I just bought some bolts and plugs from here for fixing to brick. Every single bolt snapped when I tried tightening them. Think I'd get a refund?

[Anonymous No.524402]

>>524371
I used to be a manager in yard/receiving at menards. And they used to ship both of those items on the same pallet. One day we open the trailer door and whattya know first pallet had tipped over inside. Leaking bottles of bleach and ammonia all over. The DC got a nasty email from me.(after I got my got guys outta the docks of course)

[Anonymous No.524404]

What's the shittiest thing you have that people buy all the time?

[Anonymous No.524406]

garden center reporting in.

[Anonymous No.524407]

>>524404
in garden its those crappy pocket hoses.

[Anonymous No.524418]

/o/ here, I just bought a used car and after a week of having it have realized how glue-crazy the previous owner was. I mean, glue on the door handles, door panels, center console, etc.

My question is, I found the OEM dimensions of the screws that belong in their respective places, so if I were to bring them in, do you think they'd know what I need? Or am I stuck paying $2 a screw "because it's an import car"

Thanks gents.

[Anonymous No.524592]

>>524418

Do you even junk yard? All the screws you need, for free!

[Anonymous No.524668]

>>524386
demand one, yes

[Anonymous No.524669]

>>524402
lawdy thats insane. thank god our met team isn't COMPLETELY retarded (just mostly) and those items are kept in separate aisles

[Anonymous No.524670]

>>524404
>>524407
good answer. in paint/building mats i'd say... probably the caulk tool that one uses to smooth the bead. just use your finger! put a glove on if you don't want to get dirty.

on a variation of that question, i would say the least popular selling item i can think of in our department is either japan drier or the large paint shields. i can't every remember a single person asking me for them or having one in their hands/cart

[Anonymous No.524699]

i *any problem* with my product, will i get a refund? = yes
MET team here. Heard about tons of people that will go to Home Depot, buy a tool, use it (successfully) and return it.

[Anonymous No.524720]

I will be doing some spray painting in a few weeks and I need to know exactly what products I need to use to premier bare metal.

Thanks

[Anonymous No.524741]

fellow building materials reporting. enjoying your "success sharing" free money?

also y do customers always walk in the path of forklift wit reckless abandon? always.

[Anonymous No.524759]

>>524741
Met team here, haven't seen mine yet but supposed to see 430 pre tax. How looks your bonus?

[Anonymous No.524818]

>>524720
prime? get a very fine steel wool or sandpaper and give it a once-over. buy a can of the painter's touch spray paint with the primer in it of whatever color you want. paint.
>>524741
ppl r stupid
>>524759
probably like 120 or so

[Anonymous No.524838]

>>524109
It really depends on how long you've been working there and how knowledgeable you are. The department heads and upper management make good money.
>>524114
I wouldn't say home improvement stores are exactly high turnover, but at my store I didn't even bother to learn people's names until they had been there longer than 3 months. It takes time to learn where everything is and then you have the MET teams that come along and move everything every month for some god forsaken reason.

[Anonymous No.524874]

>>524838
we get new people every month. if it weren't for the aprons i'd have no idea who people were

[Anonymous No.524910]

Just signed my contract for kitchen department, how fucked am I?

[Anonymous No.524937]

>>524910
Poverty might be a better idea.

[Anonymous No.525146]

>>524874
new people every month. lots canned before 3 months. and managers are all like "y are there only 3 licensed drivers in the building per shift.".

[Anonymous No.525240]

Eurofag here. Something Ive learned the hard way: never ever by tools made in US. Shity quality, soft "steel" and if one buy an 13 mm wrench it should be 13 mm not 13-ish mm. But then again you get what you pay for. So my advice to anyone wanting to buy drill bits, wrenches, plyers or whatever buy Swedish, Japanese or German.

[Anonymous No.525258]

>>524316

When I graduated college, Home Depot was my first job right after. $8.25 as a cashier.

I hated that job. I would stand there and think of different ways I could kill myself using the materials I could see from my work station. I worked with all women on the registers - that was awful. I ended up stealing money while I worked in the Garden Dept. register. I couldn't make ends meet making $8.25 working 34 hours/week. I was never caught (or at least they never said anything)

I also really enjoyed telling people that things were in certain places, and having what they really need be on the exact opposite side of the store. They only awkward times with that, was when they came back to my register and were like "Oh by the way, ______ wasn't in isle 12, it was in Isle 2, right where we were looking at first" Even then I'd just be like "oh, thanks for letting me know!"

[Anonymous No.525276]

>>525258
Why would you be a dickbag to customers just because your job sucks? That's probably part of the reason your pay was so bad. Worthless employees get paid accordingly.

[Anonymous No.525293]

>>525240

>buys shitty cheap tools
>bitches about it not being to spec

Maybe you shouldn't be a cheap ass motherfucker and go for some quality next time.

[Anonymous No.525296]

>>524592
>nigger do you think I didn't think of that

lemme just go see how many vintage porsches they have in my local junkyard

[Anonymous No.525301]

>>525240
Cheap is as cheap does.

What you probably bought was a 9/16" wrench that was stamped 13mm because some jew looking to be jewish figured that 14.2875mm was "close enough" to not justify the cost of another mold size. What brand was it?

[Anonymous No.525306]

>>525240
Name a brand actually made in the US. So much of this shit is made in China then assembled in the US so they can have a Made in US label.

[Anonymous No.525490]

>>524838
Met moves shit constantly because our vendors are fucking retarded. They tell our higher ups to fuck everything up, then hand us planograms that don't fit the bays. We have to end up moving 4 bays for a 1 bay project then get bitched at for taking too long. Mother fucker, you give us 3 hours to move 8 tons of tile across 2 bays, plus displays, and require only one associate. Then the planogram is wrong so we have to move 4 more tons to make shit work. Hard to fucking do when your store hides the reach trucks and fires all the licenses drivers.

[Anonymous No.525503]

>>525490
I know it's not really the MET's fault. I don't even work at HD anymore but one of the things I really hated was when I told someone where something was supposed to be and then they would go all the way back to my department just to yell at me and call me a dumb shit because it wasn't there. My ladders aways mysteriously disappeared as well. This and "Why did you guys get rid of product X or why is product X so much more expensive now?" were some of the things I don't miss. The people on the floor don't have any fucking clue. I swear to god I almost put a hammer through some old guys head one day because he was convinced that I was the reason Crown bolt sold brass screws and brass nuts in separate packages. Unfortunately I stayed there for far too long and even six months after I quit I was still having HD dreams. I don't think most people realize this but those ads that they play every 10 minutes aren't for the customers, they're there for the workers to brainwash them into thinking HD is the hottest shit around. I don't know how department stores are allowed to get away with this type of brainwashing.

[teka No.525514]

>>524381
Those panel saw rigs are never accurate, never.
Maybe one guy in lumber has figured out how to call down a minor god of home improvement to make the cut perfectly straight, smooth and where you want it.. but today is his day off. So is tomorrow. Next week isn't looking good either.

>>524103
And if you see someone dressed like either of these two shift managers you can probably save time and skip asking them anything.


>>524418
The hardware section at a big box store is tricky. Find a hardware store, or better, a bolt and fastener dedicated store like Arrow and you have a chance of getting something that fits. You will pay a premium but you might get the right thing.

[Anonymous No.525519]

>>524910
enjoy being bored. i'm never over in that section and hardly ever have a customer ask for something from there

[Anonymous No.525551]

>>525258
what do you do now?

[Anonymous No.525552]

>>525301
AmPro
Now I only buy Sandvik, Bacho or Kamaaza.

[Anonymous No.525675]

>>524418
If you have a fastenal local to you, they have what you're looking for, or you can try the motormite fastener section at any auto parts store, or you can order them on the online.

[Anonymous No.525696]

>>525514
>Those panel saw rigs are never accurate, never.

I work as a cabinet maker. I use a panel saw for all the rough cuts. We're accurate to within 1/4" often better. Granted I use the same saw every day multiple times a day five days a week.

[Anonymous No.525725]

>>525696
>went to the home debot in manhattan
>mfw they don't cut lumber and have no roofing materials

[Anonymous No.526497]

ffs muricans I cut 17mm plywood sheets with panel saw and ruler (?not shure what u call them) with 2mm or less accurasy. meashure twice cut ones!

[Anonymous No.526536]

>>525696
>>526497

I'm sure you can cut accurately on your panel saw, but do you have idiots coming into your shop and cutting plywood by tossing it hard as they can against the saw blade, to the point where the entire saw assembly has had to be replaced twice in a 6 month period because the blade seized up? Or forklift drivers backing up into your saw to give that "slightly off-level and warped" quality to the frame so it's visibly bent if you look at it from the side and when you place plywood on it two of the rollers never spin or make contact with the piece? Do you hire people to somehow manage to knock off the plate with all the number doodads on it and then "fix" it by gluing a cut section of measuring tape where the plate used to be, painstakingly placed to be "close enough" and noticeably off-kilter?

If you can't answer yes to all of the above questions then your panel saw is not up to rigorous Home Depot spec.

[Anonymous No.526538]

>>525696
>>526497

I'm sure you can cut accurately on your panel saw, but:

Do you have idiots coming into your shop and cutting plywood by tossing it hard as they can against the saw blade, to the point where the entire saw assembly has had to be replaced twice in a 6 month period because the blade seized up?

Or forklift drivers backing up into your saw to give that "slightly off-level and warped" quality to the frame so it's visibly bent if you look at it from the side and when you place plywood on it two of the rollers never spin or make contact with the piece?

Do you hire people to somehow manage to knock off the plate with all the number doodads on it and then "fix" it by gluing a cut section of measuring tape where the plate used to be, painstakingly placed to be "close enough" and noticeably off-kilter?

Is your panel saw operated by a new hire that never cut wood before joining the ranks of Home Depot, whose training consisted of 15 minutes of being shown by a manager--who's worked unrelated retail jobs their whole life and had to print off a sheet to pass on this knowledge to the new hire--how to turn on the saw, "I think it's called a cross-rip when you cut it this way and a regular cut when it's this way, wait no that's not it", and "yeah but anyway if anyone complains just point to this sign that says no precision cuts."

If you can't answer yes to all of the above questions then your panel saw is not up to rigorous Home Depot spec.

[Anonymous No.528121]

>>526538

I work in building materials at Lowe's and this entire thread is awesome. I can attest to everything OP has said here. And this panel saw talk ruffles my jimmies so hard. The biggest thing at our store is jerk offs who throw the wood through the saw at 200mph even though you can hear and feel the saw struggling then when the motor seizes they slap their thighs and say shit like "stupid equipment, why can't lowes buy quality tools to do our jobs?" or people that bitch when I say I can only guarantee a cut accurate within a 1/4- 1/2" because the frame is so fucked from reasons listed above^^

Now don't get me wrong, if you need a piece cut to fit in your vehicle I get it not everyone owns a truck but FFS I will not cut your entire project for you.. I've owned a tablesaw, jigsaw, circular saw, and Router since I was 20 (not all acquired at once). Everyone complains against retail workers especially at home improvement stores but you fuckhead customers can be so goddamn helpless.

[Anonymous No.528127]

>>524699

I did this with a pipe bending tool that I needed to make a wort chiller for homebrewing. I only needed the 1/4" diameter one, but the Home Depot only sold them in packs of 4 different sizes. So I paid $12 for 4 tools when I only needed 1, you bet I snapped that package back together and returned it when I was done.