Calgary Lowes Blows

Ya I said it, Lowes Blows

Maybe you haven’t had the pleasure of getting mistreated by snooty bilingual Steward on an Air Canada vacation to Cuba for a few years, or perhaps you miss sitting on hold with Rogers trying to figure out why your $48 cell phone plan costs you $135/month, or maybe you’re nostalgic for a fun conversation with a temporary foreign worker about why your local Tim Hortons is out of 4 of the 6 types of muffins they carry, the iced cap machine is broken, and they want you to donate $2 to Hockey Canada. Well my friend you are in luck, just a short drive to your local Calgary Lowes store will quickly remind you just how lucky you are to not have to shop there on a regular basis.

Old King Calgary is getting grief from Queen Calgary because the Castle apparently needs a new fridge, stove, microwave, dishwasher, washer and dryer. (are you reading that list? WTF) Now I am not going to argue about whether we do or do not need them, I’m just happy that I only ever am allowed to operate 2 of the 6, but that sure is a lot of appliances to replace at once imo. Since Lowes is the closest retailer to our Calgary residence near Signal Hill, that was where we went first to shop for the appliances. (This was a mistake, as was using Richmond Road Registry for the same geographical proximity reason, in the future I will check reviews first.)

Overall the shopping for the appliances went pretty easy. The Mrs had already scoured the internet and read the good Calgary business reviews and bad reviews and had made up her mind which make and model she wanted of each appliance. She had also price shopped most of the big box retailers to have an idea of what the regular and sale prices were on the items she wanted. We walked into the appliance department in Lowes, chatted with the appliance sales lady for less than 10 minutes and had a price list in hand which included a discount for buying the entire lot in one place. Now all we had to do was to place the order and wait…..and wait some more……

Fast forward 2 months, we have a new microwave, dishwasher, and the washer & dryer delivered. No stove and no fridge to be seen yet. We call the store to ask for an update on the arrival of these applainces and leave a message, nobody calls back. Over the next few days we call countless more times, leave a couple messages with customer service but most times the switchboard sends our call to the appliance department where it just rings and rings and rings but nobody ever answers. Probably 20 calls over 7 days trying to get an update on where our fridge is and when it might arrive, 3 messages left at customer service and about 17 calls ring endlessly in the appliance department with no answer at all.

Eventually, we drive to the store to try to force somebody to look it up for us. I’m not happy by this time. At the store there is nobody in the appliance department, nobody at all. We go up to the front and there are 6, yes 6 staff standing around the customer service desk doing nothing. At this point, I am looking for a manager and they find me one. I explain my frustration, the lack or returned messages, the endless unanswered calls, she can’t believe it or chooses not to, but says she will personally look into it and get back to me the next day. To her credit, the manager did get back to me the next day and told me she had no idea when it would arrive, tentatively one month later at least. She offers we can cancel the order and go buy it elsewhere if we wished. At this point we have already considered that and have looked elsewhere for that item, its not available anywhere else either, and at some retailers they have now slightly raised the price, so we have little choice but to continue to wait.

Now I realize that the delay in the production of the appliances has nothing to do with Lowes or their customer service. But the failure to return messages and the failure to answer the damn phone in the department is 100% their failing. I’m not exaggerating with the number of times we attempted to get a reply, it was beyond ridiculous that nobody would pick up the calls there. All we wanted was some sort of update or even to be told there was no update would have at least been courteous.

Fast forward again another month, we phone the store and ask customer service (since we have given up on the actual appliance department staff) if the arrival date has been updated, the lady says yes, its being delivered tomorrow. This is great news, but sure comes as a shock since they have not arranged for anyone to be home to accept the delivery or even told us that it had arrived and was to be scheduled. Again, horrible lack of communication by the Lowes store. We made arrangements and made sure someone was home to receive it after it had been such a pain in the ass to get it in the first place.

That was our terrible experience at Lowes. I wish it ended there, but it continues to remain shitty. As I go to install the appliances I need a few parts for the dishwasher and the microwave mount, etc. I head over to Lowes with my list because its so close and convenient. Unsurprisingly, of the items I went to the store to purchase, they don’t have the majority of them, like not at all. It’s a huge store but if you want something as simple as a 20L plastic bucket, NOPE they don’t have any. Lowes blows. In the future, I will drive 20 minutes to any other big box hardware store before I give that poorly run store any more business. Very disappointing by almost every measure.

The Exception

Just to be fair, I have had one good experience using that Lowes store that I feel I need to include. A few months back I bought some furniture that was too large to transport in my vehicle and I knew that Lowes rents cargo vans. The process to rent the van was pretty simple really, as simple as renting a regular car from a rental agency. The collected a copy of my drivers license and my own vehicles insurance, took a deposit of $150 on a credit card, did a quick walk around of the van to confirm that there was no damage and that the fuel level was full, then sent me away with the rent me the cargo van for $25/hour. My short trip was back and forth in about an hour, I returned the key, the inspected the van and made sure it was full again, then refunded my deposit, and sent me away having only paid about $30 bucks with taxes in. This was a super convenient and reasonably cheap service and the customer service desk lady who took care of it all for me was decent. I have to give the Lowes store credit for providing this service, it is a bit unique and surely there are some people who really need to rent a van for short haul occasions.