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Something in the Water Today

Wednesday, 5/28/08. I guess I'll actually have to talk to some people in real life today.

Top 10 Reasons to Avoid Home Depot

Home Depot, (a.k.a. "Home Dopey"), has gone down hill. It just doesn't make sense to shop there when there's probably a Lowe's not far away. Following are reasons why, as well as a couple of areas where they do get a couple of things right, just to be fair.

First, background. Over the past few months, I've been into three different Home Depot's and two different Lowe's stores while doing major home renovations. My experiences there have led me to believe it's just not the place to shop for home supplies anymore.

What they Get Wrong

1. Their stores are not well kept
   It used to be Home Depot stores were reasonably clean, from the store stocked shelves to the bathrooms. No more. Merchandise in a variety of sections is all over the place. It's hard to find items and several things seem out of stock.


2. Their personnel are no longer the kind of quality they once were, (though there are some exceptions.)
   Their people don't know their products as well as they used to. Even personnel assigned to a particular department don't know where stuff is or how to use it.


3. Their paint is low quality
   I'd used Home Depot paint from Behr to do a couple of rooms in my house. So I used them again to get some stuff for kitchen. The guy either did a poor job of mixing or their computer just has lame color matching based on the swatch. I decided to go to a local paint store to see what they could do. In fact, I went to two different stores; one for the kitchen and one for the bathroom. For the kitchen, I ended up using Benjamin Moore paint and for the bathrooms, Sherwin Williams. Both of these products are far superior to the Home Depot brands. They went on smoother, less spatter, and the end result just looks and feels like higher quality.


4. Safety
   They store tons of propane right out side their exit door. On multiple occasions, I've seen guys smoking right next to them. They may have big signs saying, "Don't blow yourself up here," but lets face it... people don't read. Bottom line is this is a big mess just waiting to happen. I wrote to them about this suggesting they do something about it; no response.


5. Their management is obviously a mess
   Read any business news magazine. Their CEO... well, I think any one of us would be happy to get many millions of dollars for poor performance. The thing is though, most of us kind of have to perform well in our jobs to maintain our salary, maybe get a promotion or raise, and so on. True enough, this happens with other companies as well.


6. Crappy Customer Service on Returns
   A counter top was delivered with a huge crack in it. A phone call got a replacement coming. Or rather, a 2nd reminder phone call a week later got a replacement coming. They were asked, "Do you need the old cracked one back or can I throw it out because it's just taking up space." They said they didn't need it. Almost 4 weeks later, the new part is in. And they won't release it without the old one. (Or $250) I still haven't quite worked this out yet. What I do know is I'm out $250 and will have to dispute charge with credit card company and go up the customer service chain. In any case, a new one will be purchased from Lowe's or elsewhere. (And, even though I think I was reasonably courteous and didn't yell at the customer service woman on the phone, she was still kind of snotty.


7. They don't re-stock well
   In the lighting section, for example, it seems a lot of replacement stock is stored up high in their rafter area and I suppose at night they use the lifts to gather up replacements and re-stock. Though clearly, they don't check often. At one Home Depot store, (on two separate trips), no one could help retrieve fresh stock.


8. Cashier Lines & Self Checkout
   I appreciate the self checkout. It's actually fairly quick for most items most of the time. However, sometimes you have bulky items or things where you really need the cashier line. But they've gotten so reliant on self-checkout that the cashier staffing, (at all three stores I've been to on multiple occasions over the past couple of months), had poor staffing. On two trips, (admittedly at later store hours), there was NO ONE staffing the cashier lines. One of the lines appeared open as the light was on, but the cashier had stepped away for a least several minutes.


9. They don't police their shopping carts well
   While we've all maybe gotten used to self-serving when it comes to carts and cart return areas, these guys just don't care at all about this. This may be part on customers not returning them, but at Lowe's you can always just grab a cart from the cart area. And there don't seem to be too many all over the parking lot. At Home Depot? It's a mess.


10. They're Just Stupid Regarding Future Business
    I've spent a fair amount of $$$ there recently. And based on the broken part they're not making good on alone, they're basically losing me as a customer; probably for life. As well, the contractor that worked on some of this project is sour on them now. And he represents both his own supply needs as well as steers untold number of future customer to various sources. For the $250 they're costing me due to their mistake, they're basically going to lose thousands to tens of thousands in sales. Stupid. I understand that some people may try to rip them off, but the customer rep I was dealing with saw my purchase history. She's either too foolish or just not empowered to make what should be an obvious judgement call regarding a good customer. (Or a former good customer I should say.)
    

Taken together, the above items result in... basically a really poor overall experience. There's better alternatives. They've done very well by me the past few months in that I started and completed a fairly large project with them at least in terms of a kitchen renovation. But they've lost a lot on other projects. And going forward? I may have contributed to one quarter's profits, but that'll pretty much be the end of that from me.

What they Get Right

1. Kitchen & Bath Design Rep was Great
   The woman who helped with my kitchen design and product ordering knew what she was doing and the whole project turned out very well. Their install contract guy also did a great job. A few minor glitches, but nothing worth overly complaining about given minor things are going to happen during a major project.


2. In the wood section, they had a guy there that cut up some boards for me for no additional fee, (even though I went a couple of cuts past where they do charge.) Based on my measurement, his cuts were spot on and the boards fit perfectly into the places they were designed for.


3. In spite of the stock problem mentioned above, at another Home Depot, one worker did go out of his way to retrieve an item for me.

In the end, as with any large company, there are some standout employees. Unfortunately, overall they don't make up for the overall lack of quality and service at the company. The company was once known for better. But I suppose that's why they're not doing as well these days.

Update: While talking to a co-worker of mine, I've come to learn he too had a recent issue with Home Depot. Apparently, his 60 year old mother, (after spending $20K+ with them), needed to return a toilet. She called; they said fine. She brought the thing back to the nearest store, but they'd only offer her store credit. Alternatively, she could bring it to the store at which she'd purchased the product, which was just a bit further away. She didn't need store credit as she was done with the work in her home. Quite simply, what should be a benefit of working with a major chain that should have its systems linked up turned out to be just another thing in which they're lacking.

Pioneer car stereo CD Player Head Units and the iPod Adapter

Solutions to Navigation difficulties and poor interface

(Skip down to Solutions)

Introduction

First of all: If you JUST bought a Pioneer head unit that has the navigation problems about to be described, consider returning it immediately and getting something else. Either a newer Pioneer product or something from another brand. This writing isn't meant to bash on Pioneer, though they arguably have done some wrong things with the iPod adapter product. Personally I like their products. But there is a design flaw here. This page is for those of us that upgraded to the iPod adapter after already owning an older model head unit, or got stuck with it after having it 'sold' to us not realizing its shortcomings are are now stuck. (Unless we want to eBay it and spend more for something else.)

Anyone that's come here to deal with the poor interface and navigation controls in Pioneer's car stereo head unit products in association with the iPod adapter CD-IB100 knows frustration. My head unit is DEH-P4700MP and I'm using the Pioneer CD-IB100 iPod® Interface Adapter for Pioneer Head Units. I bought it at Circuit City and they installed it. After trying the bulky cordless options to get my iPod on the older radio, I was thrilled to have a direct connection.

Until I tried to navigate my playlists and such. It's all but effectively unusable.

The History

Apparently, the CD-IB100 adapter was created for more advanced models of head unit - such as the AVH series - than the ones "we" are using and having problems with. Apparently, it just happens to turn out that the interface does "work" with many of their pre-existing units. So the product is justifiably sold as a solution. Though no one will tell you of the playlist navigation challenges.

The Basic Problem

The most basic problem is probably that salespeople don't know exactly what they're selling or how the products really work. Essentially though, the head unit where all the typical control buttons are for radio, CD player and so on, doesn't have either display or control buttons that work the iPod well. The display is understandable as you easily can see that going in. (Though you'd think it would scroll the available data as it seems the product will overscroll other data not from the iPod.) Anyway, the core issue is that to navigate through longer lists, you have to use a down press on the rocker control for every step down. Holding it down does not automatically scroll or acclerate a list scroll. Either by design or some likely fast and vocal customer feedback, newer models have what they call the "Rotary Commander." They seem quite proud of this in their literature, when it's actually just a solution to a design flaw they as likely as not became aware of based on complaints. One could argue that it's not really Pioneer's fault as they maybe didn't intend to have the iPod adapter work with some older head units. Those units just happen to be able to handle the interface. But then they should be telling their dealers to either not sell it for such units or MINIMALLY, at least be clear as to its limitations. And also at the very least, have better documentation as to how to handle the obvious and known challenges in using the product.

If Pioneer had any serious marketing brains, they'd offer any existing customers of older head units who also purchased the iPod adapter a drastic discount on newer units. It's more likely than not that even after adapting to the interface, such customers are unlikely to ever buy another Pioneer product without some consideration.

Some Solutions

Trick the Radio to Allow iPod Control Use

Description:

Trick the head unit to let you use the iPod to navigate your iPod instead of just showing the charging screen.

Instructions:

• Shut off auto ignition.
• Make sure iPod is not connected to the adapter.
• If the unit was on, the Pioneer message should go away and the iPod menu should display.
• Turn the Ipod off.
• Use the Hold switch to put the iPod in HOLD mode.
• Plug in the iPod adapter.
• Wait at least 5 seconds.
• Turn the automobile on.
• The Charge message will come up on the iPod.
• Switch OFF the HOLD mode switch.
• This should now show the Pioneer display.
• Press MENU on the iPod and you should now be at the iPod menu.
• Use the iPod to navigate your playlists, songs, etc.
• Obviously, only navigate with your iPod once you are safely pulled over on the side of the road; not while driving.

NOTE: If this trick works for you, you may want to consider NOT updating your iPod software. It's possible some software upgrade could accidentally elminate this workaround.

Customize Your Playlists for Car

Description:

Since you can use, (in at least some Pioneer head unit models), the Band Button to access and then scroll down in the top level Music menu, setting up Playlists for auto can save you from having to tediously navigate deeply into alphabetical artist and song lists.

Instructions:

• The head unit's navigation uses the same stack control features as a huge hidden CD changer would use.
• So first, set up Playlists for your car.
• You will most likely not go to the effort to print or otherwise try to become aware of the specific track numbers for all of what may be thousands of songs. That's ok. You're just going to be able to mitigate your problem a bit, not solve it.
• Once your in a Playlist, use the remote control to make an educated guess as to about how far forward you want to go and type in a number, then press the [OK] key. So if you're in the Artists section, and have 2,000 songs and you're looking for something starting in the R's, try entering 1,000 and see where you end up. Once you've done your intial iPod load, it's unlikely additional updates will radically change about where the artist breakdowns are. Over time, you should be able to get close enough that it'll still be a hassle, but it won't be effectively unusable.

Manual Single Song Selection

Description:

If you just absolutely have to listen to one particular song and you haven't set up a playlist or have an easy way to get to it.

Instructions:

• Unhook the iPod from the adapter.
• Navigate to the song you want using the standard iPod interface.
• Start playing the song.
• Plug the iPod back in the adapter.
• It should play from that song. You can use the left/back button to back up to the beginning of the song.

Random Shuffle

Description:

This is not really a solution to the navigation problem. Just another option that's available to you. The instructions for this should be in the product manual under the MP3/WMA/WAV Player chapter under "Repeating Play" and "Playing tracks in a random order" sections. In my manual anyway, these are the instuctions...

Instructions

• Press FUNCTION to display the function names.
• Press repeatedly until you get to RPT.
• Press the <  or  > buttons to select the "repeat range" which will be FLD - Repeat the Current Folder, TRK - Repeat the Current Track, or DSC - Repeat all tracks. Perhaps obviously, you're going to want to select either FLD or DSC, (probably DSC), not TRK.
• Now press FUNCTION again, repeatedly if necessary, until RDM is in the display.
• Press the up button ^ to turn Random Play on. RDM:ON should appear in the display.
• Press the down button to turn random play off. RDM: OFF should appear in the display.

You've Tried These Hacks and They Don't Work or Stopped Working

Description:

An iTunes or similar upgrade, possibly to Version 7, MAY break the ability to use these workarounds.

Instructions:

• The following MAY fix the problem...
• Start iTunes
• Find the "Revert iPod Back to Factory Setting" option
• Select it
• See what happens (may work, may not. If it doesn't, I don't have any additional solutions for this one.)