I love doing things online. I love to order my pizza online, and pay online. I like to send off emails to contacts rather than calling. Recently I discovered that I like online classes (at least up to now)…but there are some times that you want some face-to-face interaction with people providing a service!

As was mentioned before, my water heater died. It wasn’t flooding the house or anything, so we looked at a few different models online, saw what people were saying about them, online, and tried to find a plumber, online (no customer ratings for plumbers in my areas online though).

We looked at Home Depot online and decided to tentatively go with them since they hire local contractors. We decided to NOT order online, so that we may speak to a Home Depot associate about it and arrange things face to face. After all, major home repairs do require more TLC than ordering a pizza!

We went to the store, saw the hot water heater, it was in stock. I go up to the service desk, smile, and tell the person at the desk that I wanted to purchase a hot water heater. She smiled back and said I could do it at home (online or phone), or I can do it in the store. OK, well, I was in the store, so I wanted to do it at the store!

She pointed to a phone, and said that I can pick up the headset, and I will be connected to the hotline. “Sorry, what?” I asked. I then reiterated that I wanted to buy a hot water heater that I just saw 30 seconds ago. She said that I had to do it over the phone. “What about installation?” I asked. She said that I could do that over the phone too!

Well why did I drive in here, I thought to myself, and why would no one at my local store take my credit card, charge me for the water heater of my choice, and then act as an intermediary between me and a contractor to get me a quote? Is it that hard?

I humored them, sat down for 3 minutes, fiddling with the system - none of the options were “buy a hot water heater” so I hit the button for a customer service representative. I was on hold for 30 seconds when I decided to give up, and go home. What kind of customer service is this?

Now I know that I like to do most things online, but I don’t want any misunderstandings when I am about to pay $800 or more to replace my heater! According to our research there are a number of complaints against Home Depot’s contractors, so I wanted a real person to explain to me, face to face, exactly what the costs are for this kind of job. I don’t want to purchase online, I don’t want to call someone, I just wanted an associate to ring me up, and help me get a quote and arrange for installation. Is that too much to ask in this i(nternet)Age?