WI, (it's Jude's wife btw) you are absolutely correct in the statement that it would be very helpful for the associate to hit the highlights of the agreement while the transaction is in process. I cannot agree with you more and feel that it should be done every time to ensure that each customer is told the same thing across the board so as to avoid problems down the road. Whether it was done in Maddy's case or not, I don't know. But again, I stand strong with my statement that it is the customer's responsibility to read the contract before putting their signature on the dotted line.

I also believe that most of us go to work to earn the Almighty Dollar. That said, most of us work for companies that want to earn a profit. Forget about the fact that I work at HD and they make millions of dollars in profit, at what point do you as a business say that if a customer exceeds a certain dollar amount then they should get some service for free? 5K? 10K? 25k? The point I was trying to convey is that we hear "I've spent thousands of dollars" so many times because people want something for nothing. Does HD have deep pockets? You bet. But what about the mom and pop stores that don't have that luxury? Every delivery is a loss for them because of the cost to own the truck, insure it, maintain it, but they still offer it because not every one has the means to deliver large amounts of product or large size product. If that means that Mr & Mrs Customer will come back and shop their store then its a loss they're willing to take.

Again, I wasn't present during Maddy's transaction. If the sales associate grossly under calculated the amount of product or even over calculated it, then it is the stores responsibility to make things right. Even though I work for HD, some customers cannot understand that we are at the mercy of our vendors. We can't control back orders on product or the fact that one of our freight lines had a horrific accident and all the product was damaged in that accident and product had to be reordered. Instead, one of the first things that I get asked about is how much are we going to compensate them for lost time. I cannot stress enough that not all customers do that but I get my fair share of them.

I care about my customers. On the day of their scheduled install I call them during the install to make sure that the installer arrived on time and that that everything is going ok. Sometimes problems do occur and I give them my direct phone number so that they can call me instead of having to go through a bunch of people and adding to their frustration. Unfortunately that didn't happen in Maddy's case and for that, all I can say is I'm sorry. I realize that the customers are the ones that sign my paycheck. I have understood that concept since I started working when I was 16 and worked at Dairy Queen after school. Without customers patronizing your store, you are going to fail.

I take pride in the fact that I have earned many awards because of my commitment to the customer. But it still does not excuse the fact that with any agreement, the customer needs to read the contract before signing on the dotted line.