Home Depot Drives Away Another Customer Forever
Two months ago, Mike and his wife decided to re-do their floors. They're expecting a child in November, so they made sure that they ordered the materials in plenty of time to get everything taken care of before the end of August. Mike even scheduled time off work and had family members come in from out of town to help out.
Home Depot promised delivery within 12 days. It ended up taking 63 days—and it turns out the coating on the material is defective. Mike writes, "I never want to buy another thing from Home Depot ever again."
Here's his full story. It's long, but we thought you'd want to see just how many times Home Depot failed to deliver even a minimum of customer service during most of the ordeal.
I have had the absolute worst experience in my life with Home Depot over the past 2 & a half months. Let me start by saying I feel like I have given Home Depot many opportunities to make things right along the way and I have been very nice and patient for far longer than my friends and family have advised.
This ordeal began this past summer when my wife and I began looking for a floor to replace our aging carpet in our home. We have 3 dogs, a toddler and another baby on the way. We needed a floor that would be durable and cost effective, but that would be comfortable for everyone, too. We looked at the options available and spoke to 2 or 3 different Home Depot employees about the best solution. We came across Trafficmaster Allure as a possibility and began to inquire about it. Each time we asked about it, the Home Depot employees said it was great. They said it was durable and would stand up against dogs and kids, that it was easy to install and looked good, too. We brought home a sample and after a few days, decided that we would go with the Dark Walnut color. It was the best color match to our home's decor. We had to wait a couple of months before we purchasing and continued to probe for other options. Every time we spoke to someone in the flooring department, we got the same response about the Trafficmaster Allure.
On August 7, 2009, I placed an order for 24 boxes of the Trafficmaster Allure in the Dark Walnut color from the Home Depot at Howard Lane in Austin. I paid Home Depot $1240.80. I was told that day that the order would be in no later than August 19th. That week, I requested some time off work to take care of some prep work and to give myself time to install the floor. We also arranged for some family members to come in from out of town to help out. This was the beginning of our nightmare. It was our plan to have the floor installed and behind us before September. Our second child is due the first week of November and getting a floor put in is pretty critical.
I was notified ON August 19th that the order had been delayed and that they should receive the order by 9/2. This completely derailed our plans to have our floor installed before September and made the days I took off from work useless.
The next couple of weeks were marked by numerous phone calls to the store, trying to determine the delivery date so that we could plan appropriately. We had to move both the date & location of our baby shower, too. When 9/2 came, I received no call. I called late in the day on 9/2 and was told that the order wasn't there and that the daytime person would call me back. I called twice on 9/3 only to finally be told that the order had only partially arrived (13 boxes) and that the NEW expected ship date for the rest of the order was on 9/25!! I called again on 9/10 (after NOT receiving the status call I was told I would get) and was told again that 9/25 was definitely the arrival date. I explained that I would be removing my carpet and that the ship date was critical. I was continually told 9/25 and given no sign that it would be a problem.
On 9/12 - 9/13, I removed the carpet from my house in preparation for the arrival of the flooring in less than 2 weeks. This left bare concrete floors in 60% of my house.
On 9/21 and 9/23, I called both days to verify that the ship date was still valid. Each time I was told that 9/25 was the day. I had called after receiving NO status calls (after being told I would).
Friday, 9/25 came and I received no call. I called at 3p.m. or so and spoke to Jenny, who told me that the order had not arrived yet, but may come in on the late delivery. At 7:15 p.m. that evening, I received a call letting me know that the order had NOT come in and that they were expecting it on Monday or Tuesday of the following week. Needless to say, I was mad.
On 9/26, I called in and asked for the store manager. I was put in touch with Stephen, one of the assistant managers. After explaining this long and really frustrating process, he actually sounded like he agreed that this was a bad situation and that he would get someone to look into it. I inquired about compensation for the trouble. He said that he would get Megan on the issue and would have her call me back that day. I received no call that day.
On 9/28, Stacey called me to give me a status update on the order. She stated that the vendor said 10/9 was when the floor would be available!! I asked to speak with Stephen about it. She said that he was in a meeting and would have him call me back. Megan called me back. I asked her when they would know when the shipment was on its way. She said that she might have tracking info that Wednesday (9/30), but that 10/9 was when the order should arrive in store. Megan stated that she could not discuss compensation until the order had come in. She did not sound interested in resolving my problem and overall seemed like I was bothering her. After disconnecting, she called me back a few minutes later. She had even worse news. She informed me that after speaking to the vendor, the date of 10/9 was NOT CORRECT. 10/9 would be the date that the VENDOR was to receive the order. She could not say when it would arrive in store. Ultimately she was not helpful and the overall tone was that of condescension and disinterest. At no point did she provide a solution to my problem.
I called the next day and asked to speak with Stephen. He was not working. I called the day after that and explained what I had been told. He was mildly apologetic, but kept blaming the vendor for all the problems and he kept dancing around the topic of compensation. I was offered the opportunity to come in to get a different color, but after discussing it with my wife, we decided that we didn't want to settle for a color that we would ultimately not like.
The next week or so we struggled with the decision of getting a complete refund and starting over with another company, picking up the boxes they did have and getting a different type of floor for the kitchen or waiting out the fulfillment of the original order. We ultimately decided to wait for the original order. We didn't want to have to wait for a different product to come in and we also did not want to settle for something we didn't want to begin with. On 10/2, I stopped by the store and explained to Stephen that we would prefer to wait for the original order. He briefly mentioned at that time "about $100" off the order.
On 10/9 I received a call that the product had actually been delivered to Home Depot. Stephen stated that he could knock off about $100 - $150 for the trouble. I asked him if that was the best he could do. He said it was. I asked if there was anyone who could do better and he told me Mike Klein, the store manager. He was not working that day and would be in the next day.
On 10/10 I called and spoke to Mike Klein. He was not aware of the situation. After briefly explaining the situation, he said he would have to get with Stephen to talk to him about everything. He said I could pick up the flooring anytime I wanted to. I explained that I would not pick up the floor until we had agreed upon compensation. He said he would let me know as soon as he spoke to Stephen.
On 10/12 Mike called me and stated that after speaking with his employees, he could only offer me $200 off the order. He said that his employees did everything they could to get the product from the vendor. I explained that his vendor problems were his. I didn't pay the vendor, I paid Home Depot. I had no recourse with the vendor and I couldn't call the vendor. I was fed info from Home Depot employees that continually turned out to not be true. I was repeatedly told that I would be called and updated and was not. I asked if $200 was the best he could do and he said yes. I explained that I did not believe that was acceptable, but that I had to accept and pick up the floor. We were less than 1 month before the baby arrives.
On 10/13, I picked up the floor and was given a $208 refund.
On the weekend of 10/17 & 10/18, I installed the floor with almost no trouble and began to feel like the nightmare was coming to an end... until...
Less than 24 hours after installing the floor, we began seeing scratch marks on the floor. We initially thought they were simply scuffs that could be wiped off, but we soon realized that we were seeing marks from our dogs, as well as from shoes, toys and other daily life stuff. The marks can only be described as shiny spots that do not wipe away. We're afraid to do anything on this floor now.
Upon looking into this issue further online, we've found numerous complaints / reviews about this same problem. This seems to be a giant issue for this product and Home Depot should not promote or sell this inferior floor. There appears to be a defect in the coating that the manufacturer has neglected to resolve. We want our money back or a comparable floor that lives up to the promises made by your employees.
This is where I am today. This is why I never want to buy another thing from Home Depot ever again.
On the plus side, Home Depot did give back $200 to apologize for the delay. But if the floor material is substandard to begin with, no partial refund is going to erase the memory of Home Depot selling shoddy merchandise that, for a while, didn't look like it was even going to arrive.
(Photo: Neubie)
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Comments:
Damn. I was quoted $845 for 415 sqft of Natural color, stranded bamboo flooring (pre-finished/nailess install). The delivery is a whopping $258. That is after I did all the research.
I'm sure this guy's sqft is more, but didn't ya do the research on that brand first? And that they are vinyl planks?
@Topcat:
While I agree he should have done some research before making the investment, what's done is done. The point is that he received awful service from Home Depot. If his story keeps someone else from purchasing flooring from them it's a good thing.
I don't understand why companies seem to think there's this endless supply of customers out there and they can, therefore, treat their existing ones like crap.
@Topcat: Sometimes, if you don't already knew a specific problem to look into, it is hard to find even you google for the product.
Whenever I make large purchases, I always scour the internet for issues with the product like what the OP is seeing with his flooring. But don't take my comment to mean that I am blaming the OP. He shouldn't have to question the recommendation of multiple employees that all recommended the flooring to him.
@SigmundTheSeaMonster: I discovered the best kind of flooring research to do was to ask a friend who works in remodeling (cabinetry) who she likes for floors. She sent me to a local place and told me to ask for Ben, who helped us figure out what we needed and set us up at about 70% of the cost of the same product at Home Depot or Lowes ... and the measuring was free, the delivery on time, and a nice little "FAQ" the store developed on installation came with it. (We installed ourselves.)
Should have gone to Lumber Liquidators. They probably would have done much better.
$200 off of a $1240 order is pretty substantial. I strongly doubt that Home Depot is making more than 16% profit on this order, so they actually took a loss on the deal. There is no excuse for the runaround and numerous misleading statements from Home Depot employees but I suspect that much of this was actually out of their hands. I don't understand why Stephen hadn't already escalated this issue to the store manager, unless the store manager was playing dumb on the issue.
Has the OP looked into the warranty on the product? It sounds like he definitely should be in the warranty period.
@Bob Lu: I dunno, if the problem is major, you should be able to find out pretty fast with just a cursory search. It's minor issues and quirks. Things you may not like personally but are not major defects in the product itself I could see as being hard to find. Unless the product is so new that no one's had any time to have a problem with it.
To me this show's the definite disadvantage for companies to be marketing driven, because marketing driven companies just care about the hottest new product, or pushing old crap...
Instead of delivering on what customers need, want and absoltuely must have...
If your selling crappy products, and pushing it, it will come back to haunt you again and again and again...
Come on companies, wake up, we need good product and good service...at the bare minimum...
@fantomesq: Hopefully the warranty is not only valid for the first 60 days from the time of purchase...
I don't get why people will stand up to companies on principle, but will buckle for money.
Personally, there is no price for my convenience. If a company can't deliver the product I need when they promise, I get my money back and use a different company.
At the first sign that they weren't going to be able to fulfill their end of the deal I'd have cut and run.
These days, there are people right behind you in line to spend their money (at least there were) so big-box companies don't care about losing a customer here or there, so the onus is really on the consumer to look out for themselves. They have to make sure they get the best deal or are at least treated fairly, because there is absolutely zero incentive for the company to do it for them.
Usually you just need to Google/Bing {Product Name} and SUCKS, and you can find anything you'll ever need to know about what you are about to buy...
Try it with TrafficMaster...
The flooring has a manufacturer's warranty. Look on the boxes to see who the manufacturer is and what the warranty is (probably 5 - 10 - 15 years?).
If HD & Mfg. refuse to do anything, if you paid on a charge card, you can do a chargeback. You can also file a claim in court. This may exceed small claims, since you have your initial cost + the value of your labor + time lost from work + the cost of a replacement product and installation. If there are many online complaints and a known (missing coating) problem, you may be able to get an attorney interested in a class action.
...we thought you'd want to see just how many times Home Depot failed to deliver even a minimum of customer service during most of the ordeal.I have had the absolute worst experience in my life...
Wow. You're life must be pretty awesome.
@Bob Lu: I found information about the scuffs in the first link I clicked after googling just the product name.
Not to downplay this guy's plight , but this actually represents IMPROVEMENT over the days when Bob Nardelli ran the company.You could have done several of these stories every day back then. At least now they pretend to care (vide $208 refund). Nardelli's regime would have tol the guy to piss up a tree.
@Topcat: I agree with the researching the product aspect - i never make a purchase without looking into it for a while. On the other hand, i would hav edumped them when they were late for the delivery the first time. I would have went to another retailer and likely gotten better service.
@fantomesq: Yes HD took a loss if they just accept that the company took forever to get it to them. HD should be seeking restitution from that company, and should give the customer a better discount.
Small claims court. Stop banging your head and just do it.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): We went with real hardwood (oak and maple)- stands up pretty well to twins girls who are really into throwing toys and our 120lb dog and his nails. Urethane coating holds up very well, and when we want to in the future, we can resurface (sand/recoat with urethane) for way less than the replacement cost of vinyl/engineered hardwood.
As a former Home Depot Manager, I'd like to apologize to this gentleman, that he had to go through all that. In fact, I ran Flooring and Decor for awhile, and while I never had to deal with a situation this poorly, I know the potential. Once I had an inkling things were heading downhill, I would have cancelled and refunded this customer's order, and tried to find them something that would have worked. Oftentimes, we were truly at the mercy of the vendors. I many times worked behind the scenes to try and resolve issues; I can't count how many times I took care of stuff/had to deal with complete crap from vendors in order to get the customer what they needed. But I was always the fall guy for the customers.
That being said, this Home Depot store dropped the ball. Makes those of us who tried to work our butts off look bad.
@gover57: "and our 120lb dog and his nails"
I'm sorry, I can't resist. Live vicariously through your dog much?
Note: I'm not blaming the OP, but I'm just making a blanket statement.
Laminate flooring sucks? Say it isn't so!
I mean, seriously, we're talking garbage scraps of paperboard bonded to a veneer. It's the Ikea furniture equivalent of flooring.
You want something that will last a long time? Buy real hardwood that you can sand. Or tile/marble. Or, heck, even decent carpet will last longer than this stuff.
If I see this crap on the floor in any home I'm thinking of buying, the first thing that comes to my mind is "That's $3,000 off the price right there for the fact I'll be ripping up the floors in a few years, at best."
@Topcat: Hindsight is 20/20, as is spectator vision. Generally people don't look up problems for items until they're having the problem.
I have learned this kind of thing the hard way over the years. I don't buy anything that isn't physically in stock there in the warehouse and make them check before paying. I could go on about the long drawn out nightmare of the couch we bought only to find out it was not in stock, had to be made, took longer than stated, was the wrong color and ended up being a total lemon.
Before I buy anything big like flooring or furniture do some in depth googling for the model and brand in general and see if you find people complaining online. It also has to be in stock and they have to prove it before I pay for it.
I'm with uber_mensch, take HD to small claims for the cost of new flooring and all your wasted time and effort.
Yes, small claims court, odds are HD won't even bothering showing up.
For the future I would recommend contracting out to get some real hardwood flooring installed. Sure with concrete you have a do some more prep work for it, but long-term you are looking at a big increase in the value of the home. Odds are you would have paid more though, but at least around North Carolina you could have bought the material (cut and ready to install) for what HD charged for that other stuff. Rent floor nailer and a sander and you good to go.
This EXACT same Home Depot did about 1/8th of what they did to this poor guy, to me & my flooring order in January of 2005 and I've spent every home improvement cent since at Lowe's or elsewhere. Back then the managers didn't give a flip, no huge surprise to hear it's still going on.
@Bob Lu: We ran into exactly this with the last two car purchases. We googled for recalls and general complaints and only found a few. Of course after the fact if you google for something like "ball joints" or "ignition fire" and that specific car model THEN you will get results.
I had a very similar experience purchasing a microwave with "installation" from Home Depot.
First - they don't really install anything... I had to do the electrical work, they just screwed the thing into the wall.
Second - they told me the delivery date and that someone would call me the day before with my 2 hour delivery window. I waited until 5pm the day before delivery (which I had taken off to be there for the installation) then called the store. The store staff basically said they weren't responsible for anything and that it was the company that they outsourced delivery to that was responsible. I told them I had a contract with them, not the outsourcer and that this was unacceptable. They basically just gave me the number for the outsourcer.
I called the outsourcer and they were using a third party to install the product. They stated that they hadn't received delivery of it yet and that there was no way it would be ready on time.
I placed several more calls to the Depot, the outsourcer and the outsourcer-of-the-outsourcer before that third company ACCIDENTALLY CALLED ME with a different shipment. I kept them on the phone until I could get my order (now two days late). My retired father-in-law swung by my house to wait for it during the 6 (not 2) hour window.
Throughout the whole experience Home Depot and the store refused to take accountability for anything... even for following up to find out what the heck had happened to my order. I called the manager daily until he gave me a $50 gift card (to shut me up). I spent it at home depot (as close as I could get to the total without going over) and now will never shop there again. I will drive out of my way for a Menards, Ace Hardware or Lowes to avoid the Home Disaster.
My friends and I have a list of companies that we will never do business with. Thanks to this experience (and a similar issue where a friend was trying to have lawn furniture delivered) the Home Depot tops this list.
@crosenblum: Menards, Home Depot & Lowes are all within 1/2 mile of each other where I live. Just hearing about this kind of thing sends me to their competition because the hassle of going elsewhere is so minimal.
@AllanG54: We were extremely happy with Lumber Liquidators. Very pleasant, sent us samples for free, had the product delivered (to the store) promptly and we easily installed it.
@shepd: How much do hardwood floors cost? I'm wondering whether the OP and his wife chose this particular type of flooring because it was what they could afford, and they didn't want carpeting again. And who wants to tile every room in the house?
Could he have purchased everything Home Depot had in their store in the color he wanted and then wait for another shipment, eventually getting all 24 boxes?
Sorry for the OP. His patience is epic here - I would have blown my lid long before that.
That said, my approach would have been to wait out one or maybe two failed delivery dates and then have demanded a refund. There are other stores that carry flooring products, it is not that difficult to find.
Lastly, just about any wood floor is bound to see scratch marks from dogs, especially if they are any bigger than a chihuahua.
Good luck with the warranty claim - try just to get the value of the flooring refunded from the manufacturer or HD to begin with. The moment you start claiming for lost wages and installation costs, you are literally costing them more than they made, and they are likely to try to drag it out, just because of that. A simple product return/replacement might be your fastest solution.
Alternatively, get everything photographed/filmed and documented, and have someone from HD come and take a look at it for documentation purposes> Then, tear it up, stack it somewhere it won't get further damaged, and buy another floor and put it in. That way, you don't have to wait for HD to make up their mind and will have more energy to fight them down the road.
As a Home Depot insider, I know that this sort of thing happens all the time. It's pretty much standard operating procedure. If you read the Customer Agreements, HD is careful to print that all deliveries and orders have "estimated" shipping dates. And unfortunately individual stores have no recourse over vendors. They ship things whenever they like and even knowingly ship defective merchandise.
@DeeJayQueue: Thank you! That was his first mistake in this entire ordeal. If a company can't deliver on a promise you take your business elsewhere and get a full refund. If they delayed once, why in the hell would you expect them not to delay again?
@lehrdude:
Just googling "Trafficmaster Allure" came up with a very long thread on DIY chatroom. Lots of good/bad/marketing opinions in there including one that says dont install it over concrete because there are lots of failures being reported.
Chris - I work at The Home Depot and would like to offer my apologies to Mike and his family. I am disappointed to read his account of what should have been a simple flooring order with us. We are contacting the store today to get more details about this order. I invite Mike to contact me directly - I would like to connect him with our customer service team in Atlanta who can investigate this matter fully.
Sarah, Home Depot Communications
Atlanta, Ga.
sarah_care@homedepot.com
While this sucks and I feel for the OP but a few things I learned about ordering things like flooring. I worked at Lowe's for about 3 years and I dealt with special orders like this all the time. Best advice I can give is NEVER schedule anything(contractors, family members) until you have your product at your house and its right. Can't tell you how many times people get so pissed because a piece of their kitchen didn't arrive and they have contractors standing around. Shit happens and 90% of the time its not stores fault its the manufacture.
Though Home Depot could have done a lot more to get the situation handle. Sounds like the people at the store kept blowing the OP off or passing the blame to someone else.
@shepd:
You are wise and people would do well to heed the advice you give.
I just finished renovation on a house built in 1952. Under the ugliest carpet imagineable there lay some of the most beautiful Number 1 select red oak flooring that just needed a moderate sanding , a new coat of natural color stain ,some polyurethane and BAM ! a "new" floor for about $350. It's the first thing people notice when they look at the house.
Real wood has real value.
If you making a big purchase like that, you should do some research on it first.
And secondly, Home Depot doesn't make the product, so it's not their fault for it being late.
And being that it didn't come in time, he should have just canceled his order.
It may not be the floor, it most likely his dog nails are scratching the surface, and also his kids are scratching it with their toys.
But his first problem was getting vinyl and not real hardwood floors.
When Home Depot has to buy a commercial construction product through a vendor, they basically become your subcontractor. Remember that and treat them as you would treat a subcontractor in order to setup the proper paperwork and contracts up front.
I find that depending on the store, my mileage varies. My wife and I absolutely refuse to shop at the HD which is 5 min from my house (or the Lowes directly across the street for that matter). We drive almost 25 min to get to the next one, and we have had great service through them. We do alot of home improvement, most of the large ticket items we buy custom (BR111 wood floors, kitchen cabinets from a cabinet maker, appliances from appliance store etc). We buy the incidentals and support materials from home depot or lowes, as well as electrical stuff and what not.
The one item we did buy from HD, was a french door glass door and frame for my backdoor to my yard, it came in broken (small crack and wood chip right where the barral latch pushed up into the top of the frame to lock the second door into the frame). They offered to order another door, which would have taken a few months, or knock $500 off the price (we paid about $1600 for it I think).. That was a substantial discount, and the manager did not argue or treat us like idiots (I am an IT person, I do not exactly look like the diy type, although I replace an entire kitchen from bare wall, doing everything except the gas line work, and the countertop, the cost of the granite included installation).
So, while yes big box store service can sometimes suck horribly, sometimes, its not bad at all.
As for my issues with the lowes and hd across the street from each other, never any registers open (always self checkout.. kind of a pain for large items, and my wife hates those). Staff are rarely helpful. You would think the competitors being litterally 1 intersection apart, they would try to outdo each other instead of being asses...
I am a four-year Associate and Flooring Department Supervisor for a Home Depot store in the midwest.
First of all, he shouldn't have taken the days off and removed his existing flooring until he knew a definite arrival date. Secondly, the store did mishandle the process. The service desk is supposed to call customers as soon as they receive word from vendors regarding backorders, etc. There are associates who avoid this like the plague because they're afraid of having an upset customer on their hands and it's a constant battle to keep associates contacting customers when required. There have been associates who have been terminated for that very reason. Not contacting a customer when required is actually a code of conduct violation.
He mentions being told it would arrive "no later than" a certain date. Nothing ever says that. An estimated arrival date is right on his paperwork.
Overall, it looks like the store didn't set correct expectations for their customer in the first place. I always add a few days to the expected arrival and I always suggest that customers not take time off of work or remove existing materials before they have their material. This would've nullified practically everything in that report.
As far as the scuffing goes, I'm guessing it's because the customer chose such a dark color. Most of the colors we regularly sell are lighter in the first place. I never recommend dark hard surface flooring for customers with dogs and kids, simply because any injury to the floor is going to be that much more obvious. Allure resilient flooring is exactly what its name suggests, but no floor is bulletproof. He could also be looking at the light wax protectant that would be on the surface from the factory.
The customer was being rather difficult in that he didn't consider a different floor once he spotted the "defects" he mentions. Both I and my boss (an assistant store manager) step back and look at it from the perspective that our products and services reflect on our Brand and our Image. We've paid off customers who have been the victim of horrid install errors (not necessarily Home Depot's problem in the first place). I paid a customer $700 because the installers installed the two different color carpets the customer had ordered in the wrong rooms. It was less than buying all new carpet and reinstalling, which was the only other option at about $1800. The store manager in that store should've taken that perspective and realized that the customer could have just boxed up all his flooring and returned it, leaving the store with $1240.80 in useless merchandise that they would have certainly had to mark down and pitch, thus trashing their total markdown percentage goals.
Ultimately, if the customer had called our customer care line, he would've gotten an immediate response from that store manager, since the district manager would've seen it and lit a fire under some rear-ends to make it go away.
Home Depot is a large corporation made up of more than 1800 stores in the United States alone. There are bound to be customers who are the unfortunate result of store management who are more concerned about the bottom line than the individual customer. But if every manager in every store would embrace the Home Depot founders' philosophy that if we take care of customers first, employees second, and the rest takes care of itself, stories like this would few and far between.
If he is still within 90 days of the original credit card transaction, his CC company may cover the floors. Many times credit cards have a Damaged/Stolen coverage within the first 90 days of a purchase. He may want to look into it.
I used to go through issues like this at Best Buy when I sold appliances. Every Special Order item had an automatic delivery date that was three weeks out but that was wildly inaccurate. Sometimes it would take us months to get a specialty piece. I learned very quickly to NOT promise anything and to let customers know that it could turn into a long and frustrating wait. Sometimes we lost the sale, but I would rather under-promise and over-deliver than the other way around.
Where HD failed here is by repeatedly making promises they did not deliver on, be it missing multiple delivery dates or updates that were never made. It's true, HD cannot control their supplier and if the supplier is out of stock, that is not the store's fault. However, I suspect that if HD has been more earnest in keeping in touch with the OP and if HD had been more understanding and apologetic, the OP would not have left with such a bitter taste.
I'm going to go for the obvious- why not do a little internet digging on the product before buying it? They waited a couple months to decide to buy the floor, but couldn't Google it to find out what other customers had to say about it? It's a big purchase that you live with every day...might want to get a better opinion than from some leotard in an orange apron who knows only what the manufacturer and managers tell them.
On the other hand, epically bad customer service.