God help business owners

God help business owners with businesses dealing directly with the public. Last month I had experiences with employees at home improvement warehouse stores, most of which tested my patience. My experiences were also perplexing: Why did so many employees lack initiative, curiosity? How much were these employees costing business owners in money and customer relations?

My tale starts mid-week, the second week of March. I packed my Ford Focus with tools, clothes, laptops, and other household items, heading out alone to St. Petersburg, FL, one thousand miles south.

My mission? Work two weeks installing laminate flooring atop new plywood sub-flooring in five rooms at Camp Marlene South. My plan was to buy 36 boxes of Pergo ‘Coastal Pine’ laminate flooring and matching floor molding, work two weeks in the day/early afternoon on my regular jobs, installing the flooring late afternoon/evenings. Eileen was flying in the last week of March for vacation.We wanted the floors done before then.

Near Camp Marlene South were home improvement warehouse stores. I’ll call them Maze stores. When Maze was first opening locations 40 years ago, their advertising promised customers would find Maze employees were professional craftsmen. Need lumber for a project? Talk with one of Maze’s skilled carpenter/employees.

These days? Not so much.

The ‘Coastal Pine’ flooring, I learned from a nearby Maze employee, was a special order, deliverable in a week to 10 days.

Did any area Maze stores stock ‘Coastal Pine’? Yes, a Maze 100 miles north. I called and verified that Maze had the flooring. They would deliver within two days. We closed the sale by phone.

Next day, the 100-mile Maze store calls to say the saleswoman was wrong. They can’t deliver.

I cancel the order.

After two wasted days, Eileen and I decide on Pergo ‘Seabrook Walnut’ flooring at a nearby Maze. The salesman tells me it’s in-stock and they have matching floor molding. “We can deliver in three to five business days,” the salesman promises. He also tells me this flooring needs three days to acclimate to the room where it’s being installed, or the flooring could buckle.

I buy the ‘Seabrook Walnut’ floor and molding, thinking, “This job might cut into vacation week.”

Eileen suggests I pick up nine boxes of flooring ahead of the full delivery so I can start flooring one room sooner.

When I’m getting those nine boxes, the salesman tells me they don’t have all of my matching floor molding. I end up driving to three Maze stores — 15 miles and 35 miles away — for the molding.

The day my remaining flooring is scheduled for delivery, Maze’s subcontracted trucking company calls.

“Will I be home to accept the delivery?” Yes.

Hours later, a Maze employee calls to tell me my flooring delivery is canceled. The trucking company refused the order. It was too heavy for the truck to deliver.

What??? Did the delivery truck sub-contractor know what they were delivering? Why send a truck unable to handle the job?

Finally, I canceled the delivery, instead renting a large Maze truck. Two Maze employees forklifted my flooring into the rental truck. In one hour, I drove the truck to Camp Marlene South, carried the 30 boxes of flooring out of the truck, into the house; returning the empty truck to Maze.

There were also Maze employees keeping the It’s-Not-My-Department excuse alive-and-well. Asking one employee for help finding a sheet metal vent for a range hood, he said, “Try plumbing.”

“It’s a piece for a range hood over a stove. It has nothing to do with plumbing,” I said.

“Then I can’t help you. I don’t work in this department,” he said, walking away.

But all those employee stories will have to wait for another column.

My neighbor, Joe, and I had the flooring installed ahead of Eileen’s vacation.

Scott K. Fish has served as a communications staffer for Maine Senate and House Republican caucuses, and was communications director for Senate President Kevin Raye. He founded and edited AsMaineGoes.com and served as director of communications/public relations for Maine’s Department of Corrections until 2015. He is now using his communications skills to serve clients in the private sector.