Which Do You Prefer, Home Depot or Lowes?

Lee

Lee

Senior Member
Location
Chatham, Ontario
Always have gone to Home Depot up until yesterday when I swore I would never enter those doors again after driving over 50 miles to pick up an online order only to find they only had half the order.....yes, that screaming witch in the parking lot was me talking to the manager on the phone. She did not want to come out to the parking lot.

Anyhoo, headed over to Lowes for the first time, found the staff friendlier, they had what I wanted, some nice merchandise, nice displays and was sincerely thanked when checking out.

I think I am going to be a convert.
 

The Home Depot near me, a five minute drive, is the busiest one in Austin, out of a dozen. It's kind of frustrating to deal with the whole scene, at times. Lowe's, about fifteen minutes away, is quiet, and everything is neatly arranged on its shelves.

When I can't find what I need at HD, it's almost always at Lowe's.

In truth, I'll keep going to HD, most of the time, because of its proximity, but I wish it was as clean and organized as Lowe's.
 
both, worked as a carpenter for 40 years the company had a Home Depot card so picked up most of our things there....i always say Home Depot for lumber and building and Lowe's for flooring, electrical and high end things. now retired i still use them but i tend to go to Lowes more they have a parking spot for Vets. :)............both give Vet discounts. then there is a third place Menards they are the wal-mart of lumber. like i said i worked and shopped at HD for years and they gave me many hats, Lowes not so much, one time i was walking threw HD and the worker offered me a HD hat if i would take off my Lowes hat, i did not trade. another time i was working on a home depot, we were doing the siding for the front. i had a lowes apron and made a point to wear it that job, the owners would walk by and i know they saw the apron and did not like it, but never said anything. another time i was working on a different Home Depot and needed something and a Lowes was right next to where we were building the HD, i went in and charged something on the company card and they asked for a job name, I said, "Home Depot" the clerk said I'm not putting that on there. so i said just put the "barn".
 
Last edited:
I bought a kitchen faucet from Home Depot that came with a life time guarantee. I don't think it lasted more than a year or two before it was broke and leaking. So I took it back to Home Depot for a replacement and showed them the life time guarantee. The employee at the return desk told me I had to send the faucet back to the company who made it.

"What am I going to do without a faucet in my kitchen while I'm waiting for the replacement?"
He said, "Just buy another one."

So I left the faucet sitting on his counter, went down and bought a replacement at the True Value store. We don't have a Lowe's and I don't do Home Depot unless I really really really have to ..
 
Well... I shop both stores and am generally satisfied with the floor staff of Lowe's and Home Depot. I live slightly closer to a Lowe's, so often go there first because it is near the Goodwill and other second-hand stores.

But, in fairness, I have gotten really bad service at the customer service desks of both places. They tell folks their orders are ready and then, when you get there, some of the needed stuff isn't with it and they didn't bother to mention that before you get there.

I backed away from one irate gentleman who was losing it - he ordered a mailbox and post. They sent him an email that his order was ready. He drove a long way, only to find that they had the box, but not the post. The dialog got frightening!

Both places will price-match with each other, so for large bulk purchases I definitely compare the going rates and then go to the store that is in a direction of other types of stores that I need to hit.
 
I use them both but not very often.

Lowes is closer to my home but Home Depot always seems to have what I need at a slightly lower price.

When I go to either one of them I need a couple of hours to wander around and gawk at all of the items that are new to me, holiday items, lawn and garden, etc.... It's more like going to the state fair than a hardware store.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I use them both but not very often.

Lowes is closer to my home but Home Depot always seems to have what I need at a slightly lower price.

When I go to either one of them I need a couple of hours to wander around and gawk at all of the items that are new to me, holiday items, lawn and garden, etc.... It's more like going to the state fair than a hardware store.
Click to expand...
Ditto! Next to second-hand stores, these places are SO fascinating to me! I could spend hours, just browsing and finding inspiration!
 
I shop Home Depot, Lowe's and Menard's pretty much equally. Since they are all at least 30 miles from where we live, I always verify that what I need is in stock....via their web sites, then go to the one with the best price. I've had good luck with all these stores, over the years. Last year, our old washer started making some nasty noises, so we went to Lowe's, and found a nice GE washer/dryer on sale, but they claimed to have a delay with their delivery services, so we went over to the Home Depot, and they honored the lower price at Lowe's, and were able to deliver within a couple of days.
I also like our fairly local Ace Hardware. They stock a bunch of Stihl products....chainsaws, lawn trimmers, etc., so I always go there for my outdoor forest/lawn care items, etc. We also have a good local hardware store in our small town, and I go there often for a lot of routine smaller items. Their prices aren't as good as the big box stores, but when I factor in the time and costs of driving to the bigger stores, it's more cost effective just to make a quick trip to our little town.
 
ronaldj said:
i always say Home Depot for lumber and building and Lowe's for flooring, electrical and high end things.
Click to expand...
Yup

Our Lowes sucks in lumber and other dimensional wood products

I'm pretty much married to HD since I rarely buy high end stuff

Our Home Dopey has lousy customer service, but I know where everthing is there, and even have shown their ignorant staff where things are.

I could easily do their job....and have, at times

I mean how hard is to grab an HD apron;

Associate_13 jpeg.jpg
 
I like having choices, so I can't choose one over the other. They are equal distances from our house.

We ordered some lights a few years ago from Home Depot and got caught up in a credit card hacking breech of their system and had to have our credit monitored for a year.

My husband prefers Lowes and has a cc with them so that he can get 5% off each purchase.
 
In general I can find what I am looking for a little better at Lowes, but there are a couple of areas where Home Depot is better: light bulb selection, electrical components, and ….. bird seed.
Our Lowes has a better Garden section, and a lot more repair parts for my sprinkler system.
It is a shame that a guy has to go to both of them for a single job.
 
I don't have a preference; I'll go wherever I find what I want at a decent price. In that type of store, I don't really care whether employees are extra nice to me or not.
A few months ago, I needed to replace my fridge. I went to Home Depot first but I couldn't find the model I wanted; they had very few to choose from & the ones they had were the $2,000 - $3,000 ones with the silly extra features. Lowe's had a huge selection & they also gave me a discount for opening a credit account & 12 months to pay with no interest.
 
HazyDavey said:
I bought a kitchen faucet from Home Depot that came with a life time guarantee. I don't think it lasted more than a year or two before it was broke and leaking. So I took it back to Home Depot for a replacement and showed them the life time guarantee. The employee at the return desk told me I had to send the faucet back to the company who made it.

"What am I going to do without a faucet in my kitchen while I'm waiting for the replacement?"
He said, "Just buy another one."

So I left the faucet sitting on his counter, went down and bought a replacement at the True Value store. We don't have a Lowe's and I don't do Home Depot unless I really really really have to ..
Click to expand...
You would have received the same response from any store. The warranty of an item is a manufacturer warranty, so any store would have advised you to contact the manufacturer.
 
We shop both Lowe's and Home Depot; they are located directly across the street from each other so if something we need isn't available in one, we drive across to the other. There is also a small family-owned hardware store closer to our house but they have a very limited selection of goods.
 
HazyDavey said:
I bought a kitchen faucet from Home Depot that came with a life time guarantee. I don't think it lasted more than a year or two before it was broke and leaking. So I took it back to Home Depot for a replacement and showed them the life time guarantee. The employee at the return desk told me I had to send the faucet back to the company who made it.

"What am I going to do without a faucet in my kitchen while I'm waiting for the replacement?"
He said, "Just buy another one."

So I left the faucet sitting on his counter, went down and bought a replacement at the True Value store. We don't have a Lowe's and I don't do Home Depot unless I really really really have to ..
Click to expand...
I had the same situation. I bought a "Delta" kitchen faucet from Home Depot & had my plumber install it. It lasted a year or two. After doing some product research, I replaced it with a "Moen." I contacted Delta for the warranty. They initially wanted to refund only the $150.00 for the faucet, but not the $185.00 for the plumber's labor. I contacted Delta again & sent them the receipts for the plumber AND the $50.00 Fed Ex charge to ship the faucet back to them AND the extra $185.00 for the plumber to install the Moen faucet.
I was rather surprised when I received a check for $415.00 for EVERYTHING.
Ya know, that squeaky wheel really does get the grease.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top