[email protected] writes:
>
>Ma'am,
>
>I am not the one who refered to anyone as a "yuppie housewife." I was
>merely quoting a poster to my original response.
Silly, I knew you didn't. You merely brought it forward which is why the
devilment in me could not resist. Hopefully you noticed the grin directly
below it.
I apologize if seemed I was annoyed or offended; I wasn't.
>
>I agree with you. The ego kicks in when it comes to most of these guys
>out here. This is why at least a couple of them are getting so
>defensive over their Ridgid tools. Hey, it keeps Home Depot in
>business. That must be a good thing in these guy's minds.
>Unfortunately, they don't realize... Home Depot is slowly gaining
>momentum in almost every aspect of home building and mantinance,
>something some of these guys do for a living. Eventually, Home Depot
>will be the only place you'll be able to buy your power tools,
>gardening equipment, have a roof installed, windows installed, doors
>installed, counter tops installed, carpet installed, tile installed,
>etc. You can buy all your materials there all your tools there and if
>you don't want to do that, they will do the work for you! These people
>are patronizing their soon-to-be #1 competition! They're already HUGE,
>they're getting bigger, and these people are fools not to see that.
>Soon, they won't be competition for Home Depot, they'll be PART of
>Home Depot's Pro Installation Team or whatever they call themselvs.
I so agree with you! I do shop at Home Depot, but for only a very small
percentage of what I buy (and usually when everyone else is closed).
There are many reasons for that, the chief one being I like having folks I
can relay on stay in business. It's our local lumber stores that really
know what they are doing and consistently offer good advice. I've been
fortunate to never be treated in a condescending manner by our "local
boys" (not even 20+ years ago) which I cannot always say that for the big
name warehouse types. I'm always amazed at the knowledge each individual
has at the local stores; it's not just one area but many areas of
knowledge. Of course, I do have my favorites and have been known to leave
and revisit another time when one of those favorites is there.
>
>
>Some of my best customers are female. I appreciate their business.
>And, I try my best to advise them on the best tool for the job.
Perhaps I can represent at least some of my "sisters" in saying thank you.
:-)
> My
>posts to this group were never intended to bash anyone (person, group
>of people, or otherwise).
It seems doubtful anyone would think differently.
One of the things I appreciate about this group is the acceptance of
everyone, including us gals. :-)
I am a utilitarian woodworker who will someday be a real woodworker, but
likely not for a while. Victoria's cedar chest is still many projects
away. I have lots more to relearn and learn before building heirlooms for
those two precious granddaughters. My advantage is that I know I'm
basically ignorant about much of what I need to know; the next advantage
is that I'm willing to learn. Then comes many hours of effort, probably
some failures and, hopefully, many successes.
>
>
>I do not advise any of my customers (male or female) to buy Ridgid
>tools. I don't advise my customers to buy Hitachi. Not because Hitachi
>makes poor quality or over priced tool, but because in MY area Hitachi
>does not have good LOCAL service. Hitachi, Makita, Dewalt, Bosch,
>Porter Cable, Bostitch, in general, all make very good tools. Ridgid,
>however, does not. They have very poor after the sale service. Their
>service centers (all authorized - no factory) only get paid on their
>labor once a year (this is why most repairs take a minimum of 3 months
>to complete). They discontinue tools and within 4 years parts are no
>longer available. Their only distributor is Home Depot.
Love your type of person! And, yes, even a good product can be "bad" if
it doesn't get support. Customer support is an important part of my
purchases. One of the reasons I am now primarily a Mac user is because of
the incredible local support of fellow Mac users in our area. P.M.U.G. is
awesome for that sort of thing. It's great to be able to call a stranger
and have him/her take the time to help which is what customer support is
all about.
I stopped shopping at Sears ten or more years ago where I had shopped for
decades because of an attitude about a defective weed cutter. The tool
lasted only ten minutes; I returned it. The second one lasted less than
half an hour. I returned it; the salesman told me they would not replace
it again! My response to that was not the most ladylike, but to
paraphrase: "You sold me a product and it *will* work or you *will*
refund my money. I did not, and will not, pay for a tool of any kind that
lasts less than an hour, which in this case two didn't last more than half
an hour." It was accompanied by a most direct and icy expression from me
to the little jerk, leaving no question even in that little moron's life
that he was not going to intimidate me. Additionally, I told him if they
would bother to purge the defective batch of weed cutters, folks like me
would have no need to return them repeatedly. Oh, well.
In fairness, I had to go there to get a part for my router a few months
ago. The salesman was extremely helpful. Not only did he have an
excellent customer attitude, but he also had a brain!
BTW, if you should ever want to relocate your business, consider our area
of the world!
Glenna