Home Depot

[wbalsam1]

I know what you mean, being the "Electrical expert" or "Trade specialist" at Home Depot ..........
..........I always enjoyed interacting with people/customers, ..........What I really like about working at HD is the work environment; .......... the occasional cutie pie walking by.

"Typical" electrician. I've heard tell of inspectors like that, too!

 

[peter d]

you have no idea how much is taken from the department. Within the last three weeks someone grabbed three 500' spools of #2 copper, four 250' rolls of 10/3uf and who knows how many pairs of Kleins and testers were swiped.

It sounds to me this stuff is leaving out of the back door, and not the front door, if you know what I mean.

 

[c2500]

I called into the Depot the other day to make sure they had 4/0 4/0 4/0 2/0 SER in stock. The lady in electrical that answered the phone did not have a clue what I ask for. I went into great detail to verify before I drove over there (supply house was out) They had it, and I had the chance to see the manager right before I got to the electrical department. She was nice and said next time to ask for her(she understood what 4/0 meant)...cause the woman in electrical was new(ish). Then I ended up unrolling then re-rolling the darn stuff. I shoulda demanded at least 10% off....

c2500

 

[stickboy1375]

I called into the Depot the other day to make sure they had 4/0 4/0 4/0 2/0 SER in stock. The lady in electrical that answered the phone did not have a clue what I ask for. I went into great detail to verify before I drove over there (supply house was out) They had it, and I had the chance to see the manager right before I got to the electrical department. She was nice and said next time to ask for her(she understood what 4/0 meant)...cause the woman in electrical was new(ish). Then I ended up unrolling then re-rolling the darn stuff. I shoulda demanded at least 10% off....

c2500

You can do it, We can help!

 

[quogueelectric]

I like it...

It shows the 3 configurations for 3-way switches (near feed, far feed, center feed) At the same time it looks enough like Dr Seuss to scare away many of those who have no business attempting it. I could definitely come up with a better layout. Definitely would have printed the labels off a computer.

This is a good place to leave a stack of cards.

 

[csparkrun]

I Dont Mind Hd, Always A Good Back Up, Always 1 Within 15 Miles. The One Near Us Has A Guy In His 60's Who's Excellent And Has And Knows The Code Book.
By The Way Permenant Markers On Not Allowed For Phasing Conductors (oregon), They Determined It May Degrade The Coating.

 

[LawnGuyLandSparky]

It sounds to me this stuff is leaving out of the back door, and not the front door, if you know what I mean.

I say it's both. A poster on another forum recently began listing many Home Depot products for sale, brand new in the package, never opened... "I bought too many of these and..." or "I thought I need this for a project and didn't..."

The junkies used to comb through the stores, swipe tools, and return them for cash or a HD giftcard, then stand outside the store and sell the gift card for 1/2 it's value.

Once I rolled out of there with 6 250' coils of 10/3 NM on the bottom rack of the (amazingly perfect orange color matched wagon) and neither the cashier nor I caught it at the checkout.

Of course, after I got out to the truck I did the right thing.

I have seen people shove products into shrubs, and purchase the shrub. I have seen people stuff products into rolls of insulation.

 

[mark32]

It sounds to me this stuff is leaving out of the back door, and not the front door, if you know what I mean.

Surprisingly that thought never occurred to me, I do suppose the guys at night could easily pull that off, although I believe a customer did it. We caught the guy taking the UF but unfortunately he had already, on three separate trips, taken three rolls of it. He would rip off the shrink wrapping (I found the discarded wrapping, threw it out, then two hours later find another and then two hours later another) and go through the self check out and purchase something small. On the fourth time a cashier questioned him about his purchase and he ran out of the door. On another occasion I spied these two suspicious guys loading their cart up with spools of bare #8 and #4 and other pricey items. Also, most guys would bitch about the price of copper but these dudes just kept loading up their cart without a word. Our security was notified and the guys sensed they were being followed and ditched the cart but not before they had already made one trip out to their truck to unload. Oh I almost forget, last week we unwrapped a pallet of 12/2 nm only to discover the center row missing so yeah, that was an inside job, but before it even reached our dock.

 

[brian john]

On more than one ocassion I have heard the "Electrical Expert" giving incorrect information.

For years some supply houses posted signs stating that counter help were not qualified to give electrical information, for insurance reasons. These signs are now gone.

I wonder how the big box DIY stores would fair in court, for bad electrical information?

I did a quick web search and could locate any links.



Interesting HD read

http://www.sprawl-busters.com/hometown.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4782/is_200611/ai_n17404988

 

[wewirepgh]

scrap yard

scrap yard

:smile: i bought 6 rolls of 12-2nm for $30.00 each this week

 

[hillbilly1]

:smile: i bought 6 rolls of 12-2nm for $30.00 each this week

Don't be surprised if the local police come knocking at your door!
Added lights to the garden center fence of one Depot, thieves would get high dollar tools and stuff them behind pallets in the garden center next to the fence, then come back at night, cut the fence and load up the tools. I reckon the manager decided they needed more light to cut the fence by!

 

[SPARKS40]

On more than one ocassion I have heard the "Electrical Expert" giving incorrect information.

For years some supply houses posted signs stating that counter help were not qualified to give electrical information, for insurance reasons. These signs are now gone.

I wonder how the big box DIY stores would fair in court, for bad electrical information?

Brian,

Please define "incorrect information". Is it a major violation of local amendments to code, or just a perceived violation of the latest NEC, which may not even be adopted in your particular locality. As far as signs in supply houses stating that employees are not qualified to give electrical information, my former years at a supply house counter entailed both "contractors" AND union electricians coming in and looking to me for a "solution to their problem", in regards to finding something that would work for their application because they could not immediately obtain the proper products for the job. As far as i was concerned, it was not my problem, nor my responsibility to tell a "professional" what he could get by with for the job at hand. I had a guy once that came in with a 3" rigid nipple, and said he needed a 3" nipple, because what he had was not long enough, and stared at me like a mule staring at a new gate when i informed him he already had a 3" nipple. The point is, we all are professionals in our trade, and there is not any one of us that knows everything. Our trade can be a constant learning experience, and any one of us that claims to "know it all" will likely be the one we read about in the paper because he got careless. We can all learn from one another, and if we are privy to an error in someone else's advice, we all have an obligation to step up and correct it. Just my $0.02 worth

 

[mark32]

I agree with your post SPARKS40 in that we all have our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the trade and the code. I think there are some brilliant minds on here, Brian John being one of them, what he overheard at a HD could have been something minor or major. Typically the lesser experienced co-workers will come to me when they can't answer a question and most of the questions are basic in nature but sometimes I can't help them. A guy asked me for fire rated recessed cans last week, I told him that I had never heard of such a thing but after some research (When I got online at home) I found that they do exist. I felt stupid but that's how we learn right. There's a contractor that continually buys 3/0 copper for 200 amp services, I asked him why he uses 3/0 instead of 2/0 but he just kinda shrugged his shoulders. Another guy told me that his inspector in such and such a town doesn't require the neutral to be bonded at the main disconnect (I didn't even bother talking shop with this guy) and another guy asked me for a 25 amp breaker. The old timer moaned and groaned when I told him that we were either out of stock or we just didn't stock it. After moaning some more I asked what type of appliance he was hooking up. He said that his 20 amp breaker trips when he runs the microwave and dishwasher at the same time. I explained why he can't just replace a 20 with a 25, his response was "I know that, I had my own business for X amount of years". I said well if that's true then you wouldn't stick a 25 amp breaker on #12. (He then calmed down and admitted that he was a maintenance guy) So as you said SPARKS40, it's a constant learning experience.

 

[brian john]

I find utilizing SEC ok for dryers, NM can be used outside, telling a HO a permit is not required for jobs under a certain value. Now I am in Lowes, and HD 2 or 3 times a month, if I hear this over the course of 2 to 3 years, is it possible they are disseminating other bad information?

My point is, what is their liability if any in misinformation.

 

[SPARKS40]

I find utilizing SEC ok for dryers, NM can be used outside, telling a HO a permit is not required for jobs under a certain value. Now I am in Lowes, and HD 2 or 3 times a month, if I hear this over the course of 2 to 3 years, is it possible they are disseminating other bad information?

My point is, what is their liability if any in misinformation.

Brian,

Point taken....with a couple of exceptions. Did you happen to speak up when you overheard someone telling a customer that NM was okay for outside use?? I hope so. Regarding permits, depending on the scope of the work, they are not always required, at least in my neck of the woods, but to go strictly by the cost of the job is incorrect. Regarding service entrance cable for a dryer hook-up, this may be permissable depending upon where you are located. I am referencing the 2008 NEC, Article 338.10(B)(1,2) pertaining to type SE and USE service entrance cables. Due with the cost of copper these days, people are trying to cut costs where they can, as are most of us in the trade, and aluminum is always cheaper. As far as liability is concerned, how far can that possibly extend when the majority of DIY'ers shop the big box stores for a quick solution to their problem, with no thoughts of permits or proper workmanship. There still has to be some burden of proof, and that usually entails more than just a homeowner stating that "Someone at Home Depot told me it was ok to wire my addition with lamp cord", or something like "If those Home Depot people had told me that my outdoor receptacle had to be ground fault protected, poor Aunt Gertrude would never have gotten electrocuted when she got drunk and accidentally pulled her margarita blender into the pool because i wasn't told there was a minimum distance the receptacle had to be from the side either". Where does it end?? People can get advice that's either bad OR good, but it boils down to what they do with that advice. I cannot recall the times i have heard "It's gonna cost me WHAT??", and then decline the job, go to the local box store, and attempt something themselves, knowing it isn't right. How many times have you or anyone else reading this fudged a little on a job because we didn't have the right part handy, and the store was 20 miles away??? If you say never, i have some prime real estate for sale.....

 

[DanZ]

While I was at home depot today take a look at what display they had. They are showing haha wiring 123

I wonder if the guy that gave the presentation was an electrician, and handed out his card after the class :grin: