Recently, my grandfather (Estimate # 30038012) decided to add a steel roof to his pole barn, replacing the existing shingles. Since we have a Menards on the other side of town (store # 3241) it would probably be easier to order the steel from a big box store instead of locating, screening and hiring a contractor.
We soon realized the mistake we made.
The first red flag was raised when my grandfather asked an associate how to assemble the roof and trim. He received a non-specific answer of vague measurements. When he inquired regarding directions or other instructive literature he was told there was none. This floored us. How can you sell products to do-it-yourselfers without any sort of directions and expect them to complete their projects competently?
Once my grandfather began sorting the steel at home he realized he had been shorted on closure strips. A return trip corrected this. On June 29, 2009, I stopped by his house and took a look at the steel I'd soon be helping him put up. I immediately realized he was also missing the ridge cap he’d paid for. Returning to the store that evening we registered our complaint. Several associates looked high and low for nearly an hour before sending us home with a promise to call before the close of business. No call was received that night nor the next day. My grandfather had to initiate the conversation again and was told a special order would be placed and that a rush would be placed on the order and that no further trips would be required on our part; Menards would deliver the trim to the house.
By Friday, still having not received a phone call, I stopped by Menards to discover that the trim had indeed arrived and that no one had bothered to alert us. Arranging for the trim to be picked up I too inquired as to the assembly of the panels and trim. I too received the reply that no such directions existed. Working peripherally in the construction industry I knew this to be completely untrue. Every steel manufacturer readily supplies a nailing pattern diagram based on their engineering calculations. Either the Menards staff is completely ignorant of the products they're selling or Midwest Manufacturing is the only company in the world that doesn't care how its steel is assembled. Upon pressing an associate with this logic he conceded he didn't know and brought another associate into the conversation. The same answer was repeated: there are no instructions. Again I presented my industry experience. At this point the associate conceded that there is a manual but that it's impossible to keep stocked. He explains that the powers-that-be decided to create a new edition of the manual and as such stopped production of the old one before the new one had even gone to print. After some digging he’s able to locate and print off the old manual which turns out to be an extremely helpful 31-page PDF showing application details and containing nailing information. Why this was so difficult to achieve remains a mystery to us.
On July 5, we were assembling the roof when it became evident that our felt had been shorted by one roll as well, prompting yet another trip to Menards.
Once the roof had been felted and we began nailing we noticed that only 60 feet of roof edge trim had been ordered for our 32-foot long barn. Frustrated, I called and spoke with a very apologetic associate named Justin. Once I related what can only be described as a saga at this point he told me he would order another length of roof edge trim for me. I asked him how long it would take, to which he replied "About a week." I told him this was unacceptable. I re-asserted my position and he told me he'd put a rush on the order, it could be available in perhaps two days and that someone would call us. I thanked Justin and asked for a manager, feeling that someone with some authority should be aware of how mishandled the situation had been. I spoke with a gentleman named Nick and related the experience to him. He explained that the steel would take about a week. Again, I told him this was unacceptable and that I had been assured by Justin that this was to be a rush order. I asked for his assurance that the steel would be available in two days as promised and that we would be called. Nick refused to guarantee anything and informed me we wouldn't be receiving a call as calls are only made for customers utilizing your delivery service.
I literally sputtered.
At first I had rebuffed Nick's offer of delivery, envisioning a bewildered neighbor receiving the shipment instead. However, I relented and told Nick to make the delivery and make the phone call.
The punch line to this whole mess came when I was contacted by my brother later in the day after I had left: we had been shorted on rake trim as well.
Quite simply, we are outraged and our perception of Menards may be irrevocably changed. As management I put the question to you: what do you intend to do to rectify the situation? Anecdotally, I'm relating this tale to every contact I have in my address book, Facebook, MySpace, AIM, ICQ and my personal blog.
Hoping to hear from you.
I know my brother and dad are headed up there today to have a chat with the fine gents. If Menards were a person I would want to punch him in the throat. Updates as warranted.
*********7/7/2009 Update*********
My brother and Dad went to Menards to confront them on the problems we'd had and to order the gable trim. They asked if the gable trim could be included in the same order as the roof edge trim I had ordered over the phone on Sunday with a credit card. They then informed them that the Sunday order had not been placed because the credit card number they'd written down had not worked. Again, no one called us to alert us to the situation. Ostensibly we'd have just waited a few more days before calling to discover we'd been waiting on nothing. Beyond this, we're talking about a man who had in the last week paid this company over $1000. No one thought to just say "You know what? I'm gonna say we order this one piece of $20 trim and they can pay for it when they get here. We know they're good for it."
Unbelievable.
My brother and Dad spoke to Justin and again he was apologetic. They then spoke with the assistant manager (Matt?) who offered excuses but no apologies. When he pointed out that the original order had been placed by "Don" and that Don was only human, my Dad agreed that we're all human but this was the fifth trip in a week and approximately the eighth time they'd dropped the ball on a single order. My Dad pointed out that he was an EMT and my brother was a nurse and asked the assistant manager how he would feel if they were serving him and kept forgetting things. "Oops! I forgot the syringe! Oops! I forgot the defibrillator! Oops! I forgot the penicillin!*. No real response to that. So yeah, five days constitutes a rush order. No one had an answer for what happened to the original two-day rush job. Considering that Menards owns the steel company (Midwest Manufacturing) you'd think they'd have a better response time.
Retail apathy, eh, Anonymous? I think you're right.
*********7/7/2009 Update*********
An hour ago I re-sent the letter to Menards corporate Guest Services division as well as sending it to the other nine managers at the Clio store. About 20 minutes ago I received this e-mail:
Jon
We have replied to [grandpa's name].
charles reese
General Manager 1st Asst
Kind of terse, no? Apparently he called my grandfather wanting to know who I was and saying that there had only been one problem with this order. Did he even read my e-mail? Chuck tells grandpa that the steel will be there in three days. Grandpa says "We''ll see about that." He then told grandpa if he'd come in with his receipt the store would refund him $100. Grandpa just told him he'd think about it. The $100 is nice but the real point here is that no apology was offered. Sigh.
At this point I guess it's over. It's not a great resolution but at least we're better educated about a shitty chain store. Bonus: I'm the second Google result for "Menards sucks"! That's even better than being the number one Google result for "Arby's roast burgers". Fear me, corporate assholes!
*********7/9/2009 Update*********
Really there's only one way this could have ended: with a final screw-up.
Yesterday morning grandpa received a phone call around 7:00 A.M. He picked it up on the second ring but no one was there. Hanging up, he decided it was probably time to start his day anyway. While making some coffee and watching Good Morning America, grandpa thought he heard a truck nearby but paid it no mind. About 30 minutes later he receives a phone call.
"Mr. McCarron's Grandpa?"
"Yes."
"This is Menards. We delivered your steel. It's under the RV."
They couldn't even be bothered to knock on the door. But they did deliver it, just over two days from the date of ordering. I guess you were wrong on that score too, eh Nick, you worthless piece of shit. Learn your fucking job, mouthbreather.
Sigh.
Oh well. I hope this has entertained and educated you.
Good guys win. Kinda.
*Note: I can't imagine a medical scenario where you'd need a syringe, a defibrillator and penicillin all at once but I'd be forced to admit that individual probably has an interesting life.