In part I blame Mercury. As a Virgo with sensitive Mercury positions in my chart I usually get the preview of Mercury Retrograde tampering with all things communication and transportation a week or so early. This was just one of several things that went wrong over the past twenty four hour period but, it was a very frustrating thing. In hopes someone may learn from my experience with Lowes, I am publishing this mail I wrote here as the only customer satisfaction I likely will ever have out of this is to get it off my chest. Following is the letter I sent to corporate and feedback mail accounts along with a copy of the delivery notice and a picture of what I eventually got attached. All three listed email addresses to Lowes I tried bounced back with Recipient address rejected - so none of them went through. How not surprising! (Update to add a surprise happy ending!)
Subject: Customer Service? Nightmare - or Why I will never order from Lowes online again - FW: Your Lowe's Delivery Confirmation
Hello,
Today I got multiple texts and a message stating our delivery was on its way and then delivered. Only one problem, it wasn’t and my husband was standing right at the physical address it was ordered to. So – First I looked online for quite a few minutes before I finally found the corporate number to call for customer service. The lady there told me there was nothing she could do about it and to call the local store where the product was shipped from and ask for the delivery department.
*Here, I want to add it surprised me that the items came from the local store because prior to ordering online, we visited that store and didn’t find any of the items on the shelf and after asking about it was told they were out of it.
I then called the local store and was immediately asked to hold which I did for ten minutes and then had the operator pick up and ask me to hold again. I told her I’d already been waiting ten minutes and she said she was the only person up there and again put me on hold. Five minutes later when she took my call I told her my problem and that I’d spoken to the corporate customer care person who directed me to call the local store and speak to someone in delivery directly. Again, she put me on hold to transfer and after a few more minutes I ended up guess where - back – to the corporate number.
So again I repeated my problem and this time the customer care person said she would internally get me through to delivery at the local store. I was put on hold again and when I got through to whoever picked up eventually after many rings, they put me on another hold for a few minutes. Finally I reached someone in the delivery department.
For the fourth time now stating my problem and giving information, I was told they didn’t deliver the item but that a third party called One Rail did. She told me that it was because I chose next day delivery. I don’t recall choosing that just that the site said next day free delivery. I would have chosen pick up at store next day but as stated above, I was told the store was out. Nowhere did it warn me on the site that my order might go to a third party delivery driver either.
She then informed me that I had to contact One Rail. I was really taken aback by this. I asked why I the customer had to follow up with their delivery service and was simply told that was just how it is. That answer fell in line with what I recognize as a failed customer service system at Lowes. She had to look up their phone number so I was put on hold again while that happened. By now I’ve lost count on how many times and for how many minutes I’ve been on hold.
Finally I got the number and I asked why it is that I should have to call them as the customer and why they didn’t provide at least that service for me and sort things out. There was no reason given just that is how it is, I had to call. I asked what information I’d need to give them and what would happen if there was a dispute about the items being delivered. She had no answer. I asked since I was the one calling them how Lowes would even know if things got sorted out and she indicated she had to wait to hear back from One Rail. I thought the odds of that happening were slim to none and dreaded thinking what I might have to go through again if there was no resolve.
By this time I had no reason to have confidence in any help from Lowes at all.
I called One Rail and was put on hold for another few minutes. By now an hour and forty two minutes had passed since the order said it was delivered.
One Rail took my information and the man mentioned he didn’t know what happened because it was one of his contractors involved. So – my delivery was basically double farmed out first to One Rail who gave it over to someone else to carry out. He confirmed that I mentioned to leave it at the Rivers Edge Marina office at the address on the order. That is the only thing at the address on the order but there are other businesses on the same property. I had only added that to be helpful when thinking ahead Lowes might not deliver here often. He said the person had uploaded a picture of where it was dropped off but then noted it was just something red and black like maybe his finger was over the camera lens. (HOW LAME!) He even admitted the driver probably couldn’t find it and just gave up. He said he would find out what happened and get it straightened out.
I asked what will happen when he figures it out, and he said he will either contact Lowes and have them reship the product, or find the product and bring it to us and that he would get back to me. I asked him when I can expect to hear back and he didn’t know. I pinned him down to at least a time frame of one to two hours and he finally said at least by 1:00 PM.
By now, I am thoroughly disgusted at my experience. The time taken to follow up so far is quite frustrating and lengthy beyond imagination for 2024 customer service. Having someone ready to use that product after getting those notices – well that’s another inconvenience that I will just have to suffer through.
So I waited, and waited and waited and no call, text or mail from One Rail ever came in. Finally after the end of the day a man who lives in a nearby house down the street from this address called me from the information on the label to let me know the package had been delivered there at 63 West Street. What is most interesting about this besides the fact it obviously was not a marina office, is that to get to that address one has to pass right by a large sign at the driveway of Rivers Edge Marina. Don’t the contractors who sub out to other delivery contractors have google maps or some other way to find their target locations?
My husband had to walk down to that house to retrieve our package. And guess what – they sent two dented cans of the WRONG PAINT. Instead of white gloss, they sent Oyster White – which is a cream color and not at all what we need. Did this surprise me? By now NO especially due to the fact the store employee had actually told us the store was out. Tomorrow I will be taking it back to the store and reporting all of this to the manager even though I feel pretty sure they will not care in the least.
If you can think of one reason I would ever want to order from Lowes online again after all this, I’d like to know. In fact from here forward I’ll be visiting Home Depot instead unless it is something they just don’t carry that I need.
You need to first of all warn customers that Lowes itself does not do the deliveries online when ordering and you need a better response method that doesn’t require a customer to waste literally hours trying to track down a missing order as well as you need to require people who pack orders to be sure it is the right thing as well as keep online status of products up to date reflecting what is actually in stock. I can think of other things that need to be done and I am sure it is hard to get a lot of good help but turning a long time steady customer like myself away from future purchases is no way to achieve success.
With regards,
Wanda Hope Carter
PS My initial mail sent to custcare@lowes.com found on your website, came back as no such address. Not at all surprising but an insult added to injury. Nest stop, my blog space, google reviews, Facebook and anywhere else I can post.
PSS The other two addresses I subsequently sent this to under feedback and corporate came back as well. Again HOW NOT SURPRISING!
WOW Update! Lu the manager at the local store took time to listen, investigate, and even find us some paint that no one knew they had and gave it all to us for 14$ instead of the almost 60 it would have cost. A happy ending to this story was never expected. --->>> This still shouldn't have happened though!
