I found a Scotts 20-inch Manual Walk Behind Reel Mower with Grass Catcher on Friday July 10th at my local Home Depot. This turf mower reminded me that both of my grandfathers had reel mowers.
The scissor-like cut of a reel mower is far superior to consumer-rotary mowers. No wonder golf courses use reel mowers. For instance I begin cutting my turfgrass during a very hot and dry summer day in almost dead silence. The cut quality was amazingly clean.
Hearing my neighbor’s various lawn tractors is a bit startling by contrast. Its amazing to stop for a moment and absorb how easy and lightweight this reel mower makes your weekend task somewhat effortless. In addition, pushing this lightweight mower becomes a rather enjoyable walk listening to podcasts, audiobooks, or music at a ‘normal volume level’ due to the reel mower’s near silent operating environment.
Yet on day nine, a small wheel (back left) broke loose. However, due to Scotts’ manufacturing assembly process, you cannot physically access the nut to tighten that wheel with any standard socket wrench. Clearly under warranty I packed it up on Tuesday after work. I drove back to Home Depot on Saturday July 24th to return the mower.
Customer Service fail:
To no surprise there were no 20 inch units in stock. Certainly, I can see why. That cut quality is amazing. However, my local Home Depot had plenty of Scotts’ 16 inch reel mowers. For accuracy, the Scotts 16 inch mower does not include a grass catcher and I have a really big yard.
Surprisingly their Customer Service desk quickly located a replacement unit less than 10 miles away at another Home Depot. I was told to expect a call when it arrived later that week. I waited for that call…and it never came. Took a screenshot of my iPhone’s call log.
Checking in with my local Home Depot a week later (July 29th) they did not have any news on the delivery of that replacement. Their Customer Service desk shared with me that many 20 inch units were in stock at three locations around Greater Milwaukee. All three local stores are less than a 30 minute drive from my house. Surprised no call the following week? Not anymore. Same no call the week of August 7th either.
To make matters worse, on Sunday August 16th Home Depot called to indicate my replacement unit was at their Service Desk. I zipped over. However upon arrival, found a Scotts 16 inch mower, not their 20 inch unit I purchased at the Customer Service Desk. Did they just pull a 16 inch from their shelf and try to pass that off on me?
That was a very frustrating drive back home. Surprisingly a Customer Service team member (again) told me their store manager would pickup a 20 inch unit at a nearby Home Depot and drive it in the next day – Monday August 17th. Yet, another Monday came and went.
My wait time: almost 7 weeks for a product in stock at 3 stores less than 30 minutes away…
Meanwhile many neighbors offered to let me use their lawnmowers during this prolonged period. Grass grows in the summer…
I literally had to call and demand to speak directly to the Manager on Duty, expressing my frustration, their many dropped promises for a brand new product under warranty.
Finally, a call to confirm my 20 inch reelmower replacement was onsite came August 29th. Six weeks of waiting. The three area Home Depot stores continued to have stock of the Scott’s 20 inch model over this entire process. Customer Service fail.
Customer Service opportunity:
Since this is one of my rare non-book review posts in the pandemic year of 2020, may I suggest Home Depot managers read any of the following to learn how to establish their Customer Service teams back on track. Each has lessons applicable to my experience – which indicates clearly they drop the ball with other customers:
Take your pick. Any of the above, embraced by their local store would eliminate my experience. And for my local store…I was asked to provide my mobile number each time I visited or called. Each Customer Service specialist wrote my number down on paper. Clearly there is no CRM application deployed. This also reveals no workflows between teams and store managers.
Actually John Doerr’s Measure What Matters would be a tremendous asset for Home Depot as a corporation. Their need to establish Objectives and Key Result (OKRs) as conveyed by Doerr. This will make every Home Depot store a much better choice. My TrueValue and Lowes are within the same driving distance.