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Last week I tried order a new "Work Sharp 3000" sharpener from Home Depot. This tool is normally $200 but they had it on clearance for $67. This tool is very highly rated in the woodworking world and is rarely on sale for less than $150.
The thing is, the tool was already sold out on Homedepot.com. However it was shown as "on backorder". So I go ahead and order anyways. I certainly don't mind waiting a few weeks for such a huge discount.
Fast forward to two days ago, I get an email that my order has been canceled. Looks like someone screwed up by saying it was on back order. This seemed to tick off quite a few people on the various woodworking forums I frequented.
So I found the email address of the CEO for Home Depot and wrote a quick message explaining the issue and pointing out the various forums that had been discussing this sale. I make sure to remain very polite and state that I was a regular customer and I intended to remain a regular customer. I also didn't ask for any specific compensation, but I was hoping for maybe a 20% off coupon. I gave this advice to the guys on the woodworking forum, one guy took my advice, several others laughed at me saying that there was no way the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company would give me the time of day.
Today I got two calls from Home Depot. The CEO (or someone in his office) forwarded my email to them. They called the manufacturer and they are having this tool OVERNIGHTED to my house. Oh, and it's FREE! I offered to pay the sale price but she was having none of it.
The one guy on those message boards that followed my advice got a $150 HD gift card. Pretty much the same value as the tool I'm getting.
Sometimes it pays to be nice.
The thing is, the tool was already sold out on Homedepot.com. However it was shown as "on backorder". So I go ahead and order anyways. I certainly don't mind waiting a few weeks for such a huge discount.
Fast forward to two days ago, I get an email that my order has been canceled. Looks like someone screwed up by saying it was on back order. This seemed to tick off quite a few people on the various woodworking forums I frequented.
So I found the email address of the CEO for Home Depot and wrote a quick message explaining the issue and pointing out the various forums that had been discussing this sale. I make sure to remain very polite and state that I was a regular customer and I intended to remain a regular customer. I also didn't ask for any specific compensation, but I was hoping for maybe a 20% off coupon. I gave this advice to the guys on the woodworking forum, one guy took my advice, several others laughed at me saying that there was no way the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company would give me the time of day.
Today I got two calls from Home Depot. The CEO (or someone in his office) forwarded my email to them. They called the manufacturer and they are having this tool OVERNIGHTED to my house. Oh, and it's FREE! I offered to pay the sale price but she was having none of it.
The one guy on those message boards that followed my advice got a $150 HD gift card. Pretty much the same value as the tool I'm getting.
Sometimes it pays to be nice.
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