My Love/Hate Relationship

I love Home Depot but they are really trying their best to break our relationship up. I have always found Home Depot to be a Mecca of everything I could need for whatever ailments my home needed. I would drag the kids with me at least twice a month for everything from sprinkler parts to random tools. The kids could get a hot dog if they behaved which quickly made this store Madison's favorite store 'in the whole world". I don't know if I was ready to make that same proclamation but I was close.

Last night at 9:15 April and I decided it was finally cool enough to try and erect the patio canopy we purchased at the Depot. After arranging the 50 pieces in neat organized piles we began to decipher the random photo descriptions included to assemble this beast. The first vertical support we pulled from the pile was bent. It was late and I was tired and now I was pissed. We called the Depot to see what we could do to make this work out for everyone involved. 1) Product is out of stock (at both local stores) 2) I could return the canopy and purchase the floor model 3) Just do a full return and by something else 4) Just return the entire thing and give the finger to the Depot.

So we packed up the 50 parts and pieces and loaded the beast into the minivan to make our return purchase. Since it was 9:45 and the store was on the verge of closing I am sure the lady working returns was not too happy to see me rolling in with my canopy. I ran through the options for return and decided I should check out the floor model to see if was going to be worth the $200 they are selling it for. She did inform me that if I returned the canopy for the floor model that I would no longer be receiving the promotional pricing and terms we received last week (makes no since to me). The canopy in the store was in real piss-poor (is this a hyphenated word?) so I decided against a trade in. The other options jumped up to over $300 which is more than I was ready to spend on a tent....

I left my Home Depot thoroughly bummed as I am not going to have a canopy this year since it seems that summer is over (as if it was not going to be in the 90's in October).

JERKS! Can't they just carry decent (unbroken) supplies that I need....