# At Menards today



## abacab (Sep 16, 2009)

You know the place -the lumberyard with the food aisle, you can find diapers but only a poor selection of table saws- and I was checking out. The cashier still had his baby teeth in, and the person in front of me was buying an lvl beam. He first wrote it up as a 1x10 #2 pine, then asked the guy if that was right. He said no, so the cashier then put in 2x10x10' fir at 7.85. The guy in front likely new it wasn't right but played dumb. When asked about the price, he said he never looked at the price. so the guy walked off with an lvl that was likely $30-$40 for 7.85.


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

That is so dishonest.


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## Cole82 (Nov 22, 2008)

I like the chocolate milk at menards. Have seen that all too often, watched a guy buy treated 3/4" ply and rang up us 7/16" osb. Menards is the only family owned and the only one that doesn't install stuff. It is the least evil of the 3.
We call it 
mynards
home creepo
blowes

Cole


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## Jaf (May 10, 2010)

I once bought a lift of sheetrock from HD. The cashier scanned it with that hand-held thingy. They're wrapped in twos and well they all scanned as one piece. I didn't realize she made a mistake till she told me the price. I wrestled with my conscience as I wrote the check. Not sure If I won or lost by not telling her she made a mistake. But I didn't fess up.

All the other times, I point it out. All but that once. Probably because it was HD, I didn't lose any sleep. But normally those things bother me.

I killed a frog once as a kid with a rock, that still bothers me.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

I once went into Menards and got four items, the most expensive was probably 4 bucks or so. The cashier picked each up one at a time, and after scanning the third one, another cashier asked her a question. She answered, then picked up the same item she had just scanned. 

She told me the total, and I told her that she missed an item. She looked at the receipt, which said 4 items, and said she got them all. I said, "No, you missed this, and you charged me twice for this." The item she missed was the most expensive.

She got all defensive and tried to prove to me she had scanned it, so the scanned it again.














Then she changed the aisle light to blinking, the 'head cashier' had to come over with keys and cancel the transaction and she started all over. 

She told me (in a huff) the total was $17.42. I gave her a twenty and she just stuffed the change in my hand.



It wasn't until I got out to my truck that I realized she had handed me $17.42 in change. With her pissy attitude, no way was I going to go back in.


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## A. Spruce (Aug 6, 2010)

Jaf said:


> I once bought a lift of sheetrock from HD. The cashier scanned it with that hand-held thingy. They're wrapped in twos and well they all scanned as one piece. I didn't realize she made a mistake till she told me the price. I wrestled with my conscience as I wrote the check. Not sure If I won or lost by not telling her she made a mistake. But I didn't fess up.


While it may be dishonest, Evil Orange does everything in it's power to screw their customers. Their stores are never organized, shelves and products are never clearly labeled or priced. What takes 10 minutes in a real store, easily takes 30 minutes or more at Evil Orange. The way I look at it is for the amount of my time that they waste, and the games they like to play, any "freebies" I manage to walk away with are justly deserved.

Sparky's story about not being able to run the register properly or count out change is another one of those incidents of 'justly deserved" rewards. Had the employee offered even a modicum of respect and service, I'm betting that Sparky would have gone back and done the right thing. Again, IMHO, it's the cost of doing business when you're dealing with incompetence.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

A. Spruce said:


> ........Had the employee offered even a modicum of respect and service, I'm betting that Sparky would have gone back and done the right thing.........



Yeah, if she didn't have that "How dare you tell me I made a mistake!" attitude, I'd have gone back in. But I preferred to keep my head attached to my neck.


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## TxElectrician (May 21, 2008)

A. Spruce said:


> *While it may be dishonest*, Evil Orange does everything in it's power to screw their customers. Their stores are never organized, shelves and products are never clearly labeled or priced. What takes 10 minutes in a real store, easily takes 30 minutes or more at Evil Orange. The way I look at it is for the amount of my time that they waste, and the games they like to play, *any "freebies" I manage to walk away with are justly deserved.*
> 
> Sparky's story about not being able to run the register properly or count out change is another one of those incidents of 'justly deserved" rewards. Had the employee offered even a modicum of respect and service, I'm betting that Sparky would have gone back and done the right thing. Again, IMHO, it's the cost of doing business when you're dealing with incompetence.


I know I do not get the service at the big boxes like I do at my supply house, that is whyt I try and avoid going to them. When I am forced to go I still treat them with the same respect that I expect to be treated with.

If they make a mistake, I will tell them.

One dollar or one thousand - my reputation is worth more to me than any amount I may be able to "walk away with".


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## HandyHails (Feb 28, 2009)

I was standing in line at home depot the one day for way too long. I finally got my turn at the cashier and I had a bunch of odds and ends on the cart. My cashier leaves to the next register for a moment to help a newbie figure out how to scan a pallet of insulation. She then steps back over to me and starts to check me out. Since they sell molding by the foot instead of by the piece, she stood each and every one of those pieces up against their stupid measuring pole that she could not see the top of. 20 minutes later she gives me the total, I swipe my card and split. Jobs waiting. At the end of the day, I go through my receipts and notice that she charged me for the full pallet of insulation!!!

Talk about pissed. Next morning back to evil orange and explain to the customer service desk what happened. Oh that cashier is not in yet. She won't be here for another half hour. I find the girl on her way in and talk to her about it. She looks all confused. I go back to customer service and demand some sort of answer as to what they are going to do to make it right. We had to have a pow-wow w/ the cashier and I finally got her to admit it was probably a mistake on her part. I got my money back, but I ended up having to invest at least two hours to make it happen. I HATE home depot.


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

You can't justify stealing. Going to Home Depot is an option and a person doesn't have to buy from them. If you do buy from them you already know you will get failed service.......you got that by choice, they don't owe anybody anything....they are what they are.....it's an option. To steal and say "it's ok because they have bad service" is horse sh##.

Mike


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## Steve Richards (Mar 7, 2006)

Once when my oldest kid was younger, maybe 9 or 10 ...we were at DQ.

Gave the girl a 10, and she gave me change for a 20.

I showed my son her mistake, and when she came back to the window, I handed her back the 10.

As we drove away, my son said, "you know you didn't have to do that".

We had a long talk about being, and not being a thief.

I'm certainly not gonna win any parenting awards...but my kids don't steal.


My grandkids steal from our candy dish though.


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## Big Shoe (Jun 16, 2008)

I was jerked aruond by a supplier waiting for something I was trying to order. it finally showed up,I picked it up , went to install it and realized they shipped two in one box:shutup:. I was so pissed off at them I kept it.:shutup: Not my style but I was steamed about the whole episode.:shutup:

Boy that free second one sure looks good in my house:shutup:

Forgot to mention they lost my order 3 times and cost me at least 1/2 a days time. And any future business.


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## rotarex (Mar 31, 2008)

i cannot or rip off any one in fact i cannot even think of it because as soon as i do think of it something bad will happen.
I personally think they took off 10% price match on lumber from HD because of me and completely remove it from another big box 
what i would do is buy lumber from my supplier, price match it at HD, then go to another box store and price match the receipt from HD, then back to HD with the other box store receipt and i would wait for the dumbest person to be at the service desk, one season i saved about $14K in price match and was kicked out from one HD as the manager caught up with it and told me i took material 25% cheaper than what they buy at, and did show me his buying cost that same year i went 50K in the hole 
that didn't stop me then i did smaller schemes along the way but you will always loose more if that's not who you really are 
there is contractors out there that really take people to the cleaners and are very successful with money but i really don't know how they sleep at night


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

This thread really bothers me. Stealing is wrong, how can this be a topic on a professional forum?

Mike


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## Kevin M. (Feb 28, 2010)

Cole82 said:


> > *I like the chocolate milk at menards.*
> 
> 
> Have seen that all too often, watched a guy buy treated 3/4" ply and rang up us 7/16" osb. Menards is the only family owned and the only one that doesn't install stuff. It is the least evil of the 3.
> ...


:thumbsup: And......... chocolate covered peanuts, beef jerky and beer nuts.


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## Steve Richards (Mar 7, 2006)

Looks like the closest Menards to me is in Scottsbluff Nebraska.

Figures....finally hear about someplace that's easy to steal from, and it's 200 miles away.


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## abacab (Sep 16, 2009)

I've never stolen from the box stores, even when they made the mistake, but I have been stolen from by them, many a time, mostly through lost productivity from having to stand in several lines before getting my problems fixed, or through mistakes made in my special orders. And forget about returning anything you have special ordered, even if it is something that is mass produced and not made especially for you. The main problem at the box stores is that they have so many procedures and guidlines that their employees must follow, and the company has zero trust in employees to make the right decisions or to do the right thing. I've been going to the same stores for 15 years and I'm still treated as a stranger. I'm sick of being told, "no we can't do that" when I've done it dozens of times at the same store. The problem lies in that my local lumberyards no longer have the stock or services they once had, and seem to be focused on installations rather than providing contractors with a service.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

There's a difference between stealing & honesty. 

If a cashier, whose job it is to receive and give money in the proper amounts makes a mistake & I don't notice it until later, how is that stealing? If they short-changed me & I didn't notice, do you think they are going to track me down later that night when they balance the registers?

Stealing is when you take an item from a shelf and plan on leaving the store with no intentions on paying for it. 

Most other situations are accidents. Whether that accident is rectified or not equates to honesty.


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## Tscarborough (Feb 25, 2006)

I went to Home Cheapo today for hardware cloth. I asked 3 people, 2 young, one old, 2 male, where it might be located. None of them knew what it WAS much less where it lived (It was in the garden center in fencing, which was my first guess). 

I can not advocate stealing under any circumstance. If a mistake is made, you should either be told or tell them. Karma is a *****.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

angus242 said:


> There's a difference between stealing & honesty.
> 
> If a cashier, whose job it is to receive and give money in the proper amounts makes a mistake & I don't notice it until later, how is that stealing? If they short-changed me & I didn't notice, do you think they are going to track me down later that night when they balance the registers?
> 
> ...


The next point is, how far would you go to rectify an error, and at what dollar amount?

Would you drive 15 miles to 'return' a couple dollars? 50 miles for half a C-note? Then, once you get there, would the store even have a process in place to handle such a matter?

Most likely, they'd just look at you as if you were from Jupiter.

My take on it is this: I've gotten the better end of enough deals, and I've gotten the worse end of enough deals, that by the time I get planted six feet down, it's all gonna be even..... and everyone else is going to be the same way.


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