What do Enron and Home Depo have in common?

That manager was bang on. you came in expecting something in stock and
they fixed the problem. Now you know there is an issue. Maybe they are
made in an area that is in distress (ie New Olreans last year). All
you needed to do was pick up a phone and call before you left, and ask
if they have any. When i do that i know its there before i even leave.
And if they are out of stock, they also tell me who is in stock.

Home Depo--isn't that a type of self-administered birth control shot?

This letter should be rewritten using capitals, properly spelled words
and punctuation. Abbreviations like "u" rather than "you" make a
world of difference. I'm not an English teacher by a long shot but
even my 8 year old son was able to point out the mistakes in this
letter.

Companies respond more favorably to properly written letters than
poorly written ones.

Unless I'm missing something here, according to the letter, I don't
see where they were promised anything. She was just told that it
wouldn't happen again. It sounds like she used selective listening.
It just sounds like she was told no and she didn't like it.

Poor spelling doesn't make a consumers' concerns any less valid.
Robert has been accoustumed to finding a very specific group of items
at his local Home Depot store. The first time he went to purchase the
items and they did not have any, he didn't go ballistic. He asked
about it and was told that the item had not been discontinued, and
would be reordered. When he again found the items out of stock, he
inquired about it again, and while his issue was resolved, it was in a
rude and negative manner.

It is never ok for a company to be rude to a paying customer. While
some individuals would like to believe that it is not the customer who
pays every employee's paycheck but the company, this thinking is a
classic example of false logic. The truth is, it is the consumer's
money that feeds the company's bank account - without it, there would
be noting to pay an employee at all. So, perhaps indirectly, it is
indeed the customer that pays the paycheck.

Every company teaches this principle in basic training. It is
deplorable that someone in a position such as management would have
forgotten it.

That someone came into their facilities and wiped them out of mops?
Who is to say that a cleaning company had just purchased the last mop?
Fluctuations in product do happen - I should know. I am a department
manager for a retailer, and I can tell you, sometimes you have changes
and fluctuations daily because of ONE customer. Because one customer
needed ten mops, now there won't be any for three days.

While I am not saying that the manager was not rude, but she did allot
the customer a more expensive mop at a cheaper price - right there
taking a loss for the team to keep the customer happy.

But she SHOULDNT (and stated she shouldnt) do this EVERY time he comes
in. That would be the defining factor that would cause them to go out
of business, not the rude manager that sees, ten maybe fifteen
customers a day. And don't worry, if this person is in and fact that
rude all the time, it will catch up with her.

I bet we are missing something from the conversation between Robert
and the manager.

The mistake in it all was with the first manager. Like I said prior,
no one can predict peaks in sales. Robert should never have been
"promised" that it would be there in the next trip.

Yeah, poor spelling DOES make a complaint less valid. If you can't
proofread your letter before you send it, then the letter is obviously
not important to you. And if it's not important to you, then why
should it be important to me?

The letter writer does not say how the manager was rude. What did the
manager say that came across as rude? Did the letter writer come
across as rude first? Maybe the manager was "rude" because she told
him what he didn't want to hear?

Indirectly, yes, the customer pays the paycheck. BUT, this should
NEVER be a reason to be rude to an employee. I'm sorry, but one
customer does not make all that much of a difference. Especially
customers with extreme demands.

What do Enron and Home "Depo" have in common? They both don't include
the letter 't' I guess.

I am really surprised that such an illiterate and error ridden letter
was picked for 15 minutes of fame while plenty of well written letters
are ignored.

I don't know any store that will do what you expected of Home Depot.
Stores do run out of stock from time to time. I don't see that you
have any kind of valid complaint.

You've made the mistake of showing loyalty to a corporate entity
incapable of showing any back to you. You acted as if you were dealing
with a locally owned business that cared about customers individually.
Lesson learned.