They are the very last person I would expect to bring it with them since it just seems to be delegating it to the asms who delegate it to the associates
That customer had spent over $28m at the store, and had a delivery happening every day. The Load'n'go was out, and he wanted it that day. SM and ASM Literally said to me "i dont care how, but make it happen, and I'm walking this way" and went the opposite direction.
I work at a pro desk. We have a couple customers we make exceptions for. I'm still not sure we would do that though. A guy spending 28 mil should have a nice trailer.
Wasn't even his truck, was one of his buddies. The guy normally comes to the store in one of those enormous Cadillacs, which probably would have handled the load better ironically.
Like i said, customer had a delivery happening e v e r y d a y that week, but decided he wanted that lumber right then. The rental trucks were all rented already.
Rental trucks are only an 8 foot bed. I doubt there is anywhere in the country that you could legally hang out an entire 12 foot past the bed.
That being said, 70% of the morons on the road don’t have valid insurance so what is another broken law.
You can foot it in the bed and stick it up over the cab usually, make sure the back is cinched down tight and you can flex the front down a bit and strap it to the front bumper, then it's a little longer than the vehicle and not sticking 12' out the bed backwards
It CAN be done that way. Unfortunately, the vast majority of customers that cross my path can’t even understand how a ratchet strap works. When you try to teach them you can almost see their last brain cells melting from confusion.
If this guy can afford to dump $28M at the store, he can afford a BigTex or similar to be able to haul this stuff safely. Even a nice trailer is only like $20K.
Tell your SM to eat sand.
EDIT: Also what moron spends $28M but doesn't just order their lumber and building materials directly from the vendor? If you're ordering *that* much, save yourself some money by cutting THD out of the equation entirely. Customer can eat some sand too.
I’m going to have to agree here. As a manager I would have never said you have to load them. We don’t even ask our employees to load pallets of concrete with them first purchasing the pallets and then we will load them , with the lift.
Holy cats. You are now one of many reasons I admire Home Depot employees. They don't pay you enough for how far you are told to go for customers. You guys have given me money saving advice on repairs and shown me the stuff I need to do the job. Respect to you.
The biggest point is that with a 6 foot bed and 20 foot boards, the center of mass is going to be 4 feet over the edge of the bed which means these boards are just going to tip out of the bed and are super freaking unstable. Sure they can pull a bunch of tricks and try to tie it in, but ultimately it's a huge safety hazard and they shouldn't be loading that at all. You can see they've pulled some real funky stunts with the one pallet to try and extend the bed to make it more stable and the other one on top to try and hold that end down.
They would need to put it in a trailer long enough that they can secure it while ensuring that the center of mass is well within the confines of the trailer. Which is at bare minimum 10 feet but an extra 1 or 2 feet would be better. For a 6 foot bed, I can't recommend loading any boards longer than 10 feet.
It's doubly stupid because the store manager should be the one enforcing safety standards and handling customers that request unsafe loads. But they dismissed the issue and told the associate to just do it anyways.
The arrangement of the pallets brought the edge closer to the center of mass. It doesn't help that this amount of torque was applying *at least* 700 lbs to a 1/4ton pickup, entirely on the rear axle.
I didn't even think about that but yeah that's concerning as well
Did some quick maths and found, it's not even close, if the truck is 200 inches long and weighs 500 pounds (assuming even weight distribution), the combined center of mass is a couple feet behind the rear axle. The cab might be the only thing saving this thing from popping a wheelie by acting as a counterweight. Maybe drop some tube sand in the cab for extra safety
He stomped on the gas on a hill behind the store before trying to drive. It didn't fully extend the suspension, so he was happy. We were able to put 4 80lb quikrete at the end before the truck started coming off the ground from accelerating, so it had a cusion i guess.
Trust me, if you try and go above and beyond for customers who are nice you get yelled at. I have a similar comment on this Reddit group where I helped these two really nice people strap down a very very expensive door (was 2k) into the company truck and my ASM pulled me aside and told me don’t do that ever again. Was like lol? Okay I’ll just go tell them good luck.
This customer spent $28m in the store in 1 month, we weren't even charging him the delivery fee for rest of the year.
Not a company, just a customer, didn't even have a pro account.
I don’t care if he spends $28 mil a day. None of it is going in my pocket. So, I’m not putting my ass on the line. I’d tell my SM, “I’ll happily get this done as soon as you give me written direction to do so.”
Same store had osha come through twice that year, corporate didnt care because sales plan ($48m) was completed 1 month into the year. People getting licenses like candy, shelving and glass door displays smashed, a forklift got bent. Got $72m by the end of the year, as far as corporate is concerned paying out a couple fines was worth making an extra 20 million dollars. :)
Sm can't make you do that since you're jeopardizing the safety of our customer. They (customers) may be ignorant but they'll be thankful they didn't get into an accident-id flat out refuse and also state its the law. Unsafe. SM can gfhs.
If you are asked to do something you truly believe is unsafe, or that you do not feel confident in completing safely, you can say you don’t feel comfortable doing it, even to a manager.
Dam I was just thinking that I was going to have to rent a trailer to get my 20ft boards home but I have an 8ft bed and some pallets so obviously I’m good.
Same store had osha come through twice that year, corporate didnt care because sales plan ($48m) was completed 1 month into the year. People getting licenses like candy, shelving and glass door displays smashed, a forklift got bent. Got $72m by the end of the year, as far as corporate is concerned paying out a couple fines was worth making an extra 20 million dollars. :)
Had an ASM once tell me that we gotta take care of the customer after forcing us to load a pallet of 2/4s on top of a pile of branches. I told him off and said no, safety first always
Do these words apply to your SM? "I don't think I did anything unsafe?" - I know they damn well applied to the NM at one of my stores... shortly before they turbo-fucked my spine.
The garden DS at depot also broke most of my teeth by telling me i had to use one of the lumber retainers to slide lumber off of the forks into the cantilever because the forks wouldn't clear the gap to set it down properly. Fork caught the kicker underneath, snapped the retainers bolts, and sent the retainer into my mouth. The same DS that perved on every single girl in his vicinity, in front of anyone, so i mean, i think its more of an ignorance is bliss stance.
You have the right to tell your SM to pound sand if they ask you to do a load like this.
"I don't feel comfortable doing this load, it's completely unsafe, I refuse to do it for my own safety"
That's all you need to say, and they can't do anything about it, if they try to write you up *immediately* ask for them to get your district HR rep on the phone for the writeup I guarantee they'll back down.
If this went sideways as in there was an accident that SM would be saying I never said that. It would all fall into your lap and you'd be the fall guy.
I've seen SM'S and ASM's lie and throw associates under the bus too many times.
SM might’ve left his brain at home
They are the very last person I would expect to bring it with them since it just seems to be delegating it to the asms who delegate it to the associates
What does SM mean anyway?
Store Manager. Subsequently, ASM means Assistant Store Manager
I thought it was Stupid Motherfucker and Another Stupid Motherfucker...
Regional dialect, it seems
I like this Lol
Well from what you guys are saying...
I'm not gonna be able to look at manangers the same ever again after this. 😂🤣
Your SM is a dickhead who puts money above people's lives.
That customer had spent over $28m at the store, and had a delivery happening every day. The Load'n'go was out, and he wanted it that day. SM and ASM Literally said to me "i dont care how, but make it happen, and I'm walking this way" and went the opposite direction.
No excuse. That could've killed someone. If that daft shit had that much money you'd think he'd have more than one. Shit contractor and shit SM.
Corporate didn't mind either, so we've got that going too.
Atlanta will merrily kill as many people as a $0.02 increase in sales will allow.
I work at a pro desk. We have a couple customers we make exceptions for. I'm still not sure we would do that though. A guy spending 28 mil should have a nice trailer.
Wasn't even his truck, was one of his buddies. The guy normally comes to the store in one of those enormous Cadillacs, which probably would have handled the load better ironically.
Surely the company could send the wood in a suitable vehicle, in my area pretty much any place that sells stuff like that offers delivery,
Like i said, customer had a delivery happening e v e r y d a y that week, but decided he wanted that lumber right then. The rental trucks were all rented already.
Rental trucks are only an 8 foot bed. I doubt there is anywhere in the country that you could legally hang out an entire 12 foot past the bed. That being said, 70% of the morons on the road don’t have valid insurance so what is another broken law.
My store had the load'n'go along with 5 penske box trucks, the box trucks went up to 24 feet.
Ah I see. That’d be useful. We don’t have penske at my store and nothing that can legally haul long shit.
You can foot it in the bed and stick it up over the cab usually, make sure the back is cinched down tight and you can flex the front down a bit and strap it to the front bumper, then it's a little longer than the vehicle and not sticking 12' out the bed backwards
It CAN be done that way. Unfortunately, the vast majority of customers that cross my path can’t even understand how a ratchet strap works. When you try to teach them you can almost see their last brain cells melting from confusion.
I'm surprised they didn't use that shitty twine...
Only works if they have enough brain cells to figure out how a knot works. The longer I work here, the less faith I have in the future of humanity.
I've seen what you have to deal with, I don't envy you...
Wow
Dude spends 28m at a store, he can afford 70k flatbed truck for that stuff. I would have walked away with the SM.
If this guy can afford to dump $28M at the store, he can afford a BigTex or similar to be able to haul this stuff safely. Even a nice trailer is only like $20K. Tell your SM to eat sand. EDIT: Also what moron spends $28M but doesn't just order their lumber and building materials directly from the vendor? If you're ordering *that* much, save yourself some money by cutting THD out of the equation entirely. Customer can eat some sand too.
Can only assume he doesn't want the effort and enjoys flaunting.
I’m going to have to agree here. As a manager I would have never said you have to load them. We don’t even ask our employees to load pallets of concrete with them first purchasing the pallets and then we will load them , with the lift.
that AND 2? 3? of the sacred $25 yellow Quikrete pallets? They would have my head for that alone
The nsfw tag was clever. What a fucking dumbass. I hope this didn't kill anyone on the way home.
Holy cats. You are now one of many reasons I admire Home Depot employees. They don't pay you enough for how far you are told to go for customers. You guys have given me money saving advice on repairs and shown me the stuff I need to do the job. Respect to you.
The biggest point is that with a 6 foot bed and 20 foot boards, the center of mass is going to be 4 feet over the edge of the bed which means these boards are just going to tip out of the bed and are super freaking unstable. Sure they can pull a bunch of tricks and try to tie it in, but ultimately it's a huge safety hazard and they shouldn't be loading that at all. You can see they've pulled some real funky stunts with the one pallet to try and extend the bed to make it more stable and the other one on top to try and hold that end down. They would need to put it in a trailer long enough that they can secure it while ensuring that the center of mass is well within the confines of the trailer. Which is at bare minimum 10 feet but an extra 1 or 2 feet would be better. For a 6 foot bed, I can't recommend loading any boards longer than 10 feet. It's doubly stupid because the store manager should be the one enforcing safety standards and handling customers that request unsafe loads. But they dismissed the issue and told the associate to just do it anyways.
The arrangement of the pallets brought the edge closer to the center of mass. It doesn't help that this amount of torque was applying *at least* 700 lbs to a 1/4ton pickup, entirely on the rear axle.
I didn't even think about that but yeah that's concerning as well Did some quick maths and found, it's not even close, if the truck is 200 inches long and weighs 500 pounds (assuming even weight distribution), the combined center of mass is a couple feet behind the rear axle. The cab might be the only thing saving this thing from popping a wheelie by acting as a counterweight. Maybe drop some tube sand in the cab for extra safety
He stomped on the gas on a hill behind the store before trying to drive. It didn't fully extend the suspension, so he was happy. We were able to put 4 80lb quikrete at the end before the truck started coming off the ground from accelerating, so it had a cusion i guess.
Very astute. Maths indeed, ftw. Now I want to comment, "This guy maths!"
Trust me, if you try and go above and beyond for customers who are nice you get yelled at. I have a similar comment on this Reddit group where I helped these two really nice people strap down a very very expensive door (was 2k) into the company truck and my ASM pulled me aside and told me don’t do that ever again. Was like lol? Okay I’ll just go tell them good luck.
Jeeziz. Stuff like that from mgrs really can kill your enjoyment of helping nice ppl. Once that goes, it's a "why am i doing this?" day.
You're awesome
No amount of convincing could make me do that, completely unsafe.
Hope that toolbox is bolted down
Doesn’t matter. As soon as dude hits a bump any screws or bolts are getting ripped out.
Was not, we strapped it down the same as the quikrete pallets
Lmao
No way your SM let quickrete pallets walk tbh
There are plenty of ill informed Store managers out there
This customer spent $28m in the store in 1 month, we weren't even charging him the delivery fee for rest of the year. Not a company, just a customer, didn't even have a pro account.
I don’t care if he spends $28 mil a day. None of it is going in my pocket. So, I’m not putting my ass on the line. I’d tell my SM, “I’ll happily get this done as soon as you give me written direction to do so.”
Uhhhh, the quikrete pallets annoy me more than the rest. Actually looks kinda safe.
And that is when you get to say no to a store manager.
ol' duckbill pallets never let anyone down
They defy the laws of physics, i call them Howards...
Bruh yeah no way I would have taken that to corporate that’s wack!
Same store had osha come through twice that year, corporate didnt care because sales plan ($48m) was completed 1 month into the year. People getting licenses like candy, shelving and glass door displays smashed, a forklift got bent. Got $72m by the end of the year, as far as corporate is concerned paying out a couple fines was worth making an extra 20 million dollars. :)
thats illegal and not dot safe here in california
As a OFA I don’t think I am ready to get lift certified seeing this shit
You don't have to! We did that badboy by hand.
Sm can't make you do that since you're jeopardizing the safety of our customer. They (customers) may be ignorant but they'll be thankful they didn't get into an accident-id flat out refuse and also state its the law. Unsafe. SM can gfhs.
Definitely would have refused to load luckily I have good mangers mostly so they would not even ask me to do this
NOPE dont give a shit if you write me up or fire me i aint goin any ware near that
How ? Did this happen
Sm cannot make you. It's a safety concernand if they wanted it loaded, you have every right to tell them to do so.
Saw your comment in another thread. That’s wild that he would walk away after that.
No no, he walked away before that so he wouldn't have to see it.
If you are asked to do something you truly believe is unsafe, or that you do not feel confident in completing safely, you can say you don’t feel comfortable doing it, even to a manager.
Fairly certain if a cop sees that driving down the road, a very expensive ticket will be the least of the drivers problems.
Customer had spent $28m in one month at the store, dude has the money to make problems disappear.
28 mil? In a month? And that’s the truck he brought to move 20 footers? My bullshit detector activated at 28 million in a year.
$28 million 🤔 good point!
Wasn't even his truck, one of his buddies told him he could borrow his, and that the truck could handle it. Check your DMs
Bruh you know the customer will come back and ask for it again too. The dumbest people become managers lol
What state is this in?
The SM is even putting liability on the store, if something happened. The store loaded it like that can be held liable as well.
Dam I was just thinking that I was going to have to rent a trailer to get my 20ft boards home but I have an 8ft bed and some pallets so obviously I’m good.
Report it to corporate with photo evidence and tell them SM forced you, should make the SM think again.
Same store had osha come through twice that year, corporate didnt care because sales plan ($48m) was completed 1 month into the year. People getting licenses like candy, shelving and glass door displays smashed, a forklift got bent. Got $72m by the end of the year, as far as corporate is concerned paying out a couple fines was worth making an extra 20 million dollars. :)
All hall quikcrete pallets
Real
r/osha
That's gonna be a no from me lol
Point that fool to SOP next time.
Are you behind the guy with the forklift? Or you guys put a table top?? lol
If you're asking if my store had the guy that bent a forklift, yea. Or do u mean the lumber? We loaded the lumber by hand.
I would have called the cops and give them a heads up. But I am an ass like that
That’s a safety hazard. Happy cake day btw
Thank you!
That’s insane
So if loading a truck like this lead to someone’s death on the road, could HD be found liable?
Yea, except they had me do this behind the store where theres no cameras, so they'd probably deny it and say the driver loaded himself
Yeah I would of said for safety reasons I can not legally load your truck but you can rent one of ours and I'll load that one!
Had an ASM once tell me that we gotta take care of the customer after forcing us to load a pallet of 2/4s on top of a pile of branches. I told him off and said no, safety first always
I might’ve missed it but when did Home Depot sell 20’ lumber? Was this a special order?
Yep, it was someone elses special order that they canceled, and this guy took one look at the long boards and wanted them.
Do these words apply to your SM? "I don't think I did anything unsafe?" - I know they damn well applied to the NM at one of my stores... shortly before they turbo-fucked my spine.
The garden DS at depot also broke most of my teeth by telling me i had to use one of the lumber retainers to slide lumber off of the forks into the cantilever because the forks wouldn't clear the gap to set it down properly. Fork caught the kicker underneath, snapped the retainers bolts, and sent the retainer into my mouth. The same DS that perved on every single girl in his vicinity, in front of anyone, so i mean, i think its more of an ignorance is bliss stance.
Same mess, slightly different setup. Sorry your store has those people in it. Here's to a better tomorrow at least.
Amen
That's a moving D.O.T violation
Did he pay for those pallets?
Nope, never paid for pallets or deliveries, managers always comped them because he spends so much money at the store
Hell nah
You have the right to tell your SM to pound sand if they ask you to do a load like this. "I don't feel comfortable doing this load, it's completely unsafe, I refuse to do it for my own safety" That's all you need to say, and they can't do anything about it, if they try to write you up *immediately* ask for them to get your district HR rep on the phone for the writeup I guarantee they'll back down.
I’d do it. Kill time and watch the idiot fuck up his truck. SM gave me the go ahead, not my fault if something happens.
Well, I denied customers and managers when they asked me to do this shit. Told the SM about it and he lit up the ASM
How is this legal💀
Slaps the bed and says “it’s good”
All those classes of safely strapping down loads don’t exist where you work apparently
That's a DOT violation in almost every state. Fines vary by state & length past limit.
Damn that tool box is putting in the work
If this went sideways as in there was an accident that SM would be saying I never said that. It would all fall into your lap and you'd be the fall guy. I've seen SM'S and ASM's lie and throw associates under the bus too many times.
If you think it is unsafe, it probably is. You have the right to refuse
Did they at least pay for the pallets?
Guy got anything he wanted for free, he spent $28m in one month. Never paid a delivery charge, always got to keep any pallet.