So, Lowes is doing Stubbs 15# bags of charcoal for $4.25/bag, which is half off. After getting some quick research on charcoal for my WSM, it seems that Kingsford isn't in good favor with many because of the chemicals/fillers used compared to an all natural charcoal like the Stubbs.

Anyway, here is their 20 minute pick up guarantee word for word(exclusions not copied because none of them applied):

With our exclusive 20-Minute Pick Up In Store Guarantee*, you can get what you need, when you need it. Always free, and always fast.

Simply place an order on Lowes.com and select "Pick Up In Store - Free" as your shipping option, and your order will be ready at the store in 20 minutes. Guaranteed*.

I place the order this morning and get a confirmation at 10:30 am that my order for 20 bags of charcoal will be ready for pick up in 20 minutes. I arrive at the store at 7:30 pm (yes, 9 full hours later) and present my pick up confirmation and it hadn't even been pulled. They had to find the d-bag to find the 20 bags (as there weren't that many on the floor) and get it down from 4 rows up on the selves still on a pallet. Then they had to go off to the parking lot to find a cart to put it on.

The Lowe's "20 minute guarantee" is only a guarantee that you'll wait another 20+ minutes for them to actually retrieve your order once you arrive and not a minute sooner. Sadly, there's no meat to to hold them to it in their guarantee like it's free or anything.

:-):-):-)

Dumbasses anyway...
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I worked at a Lowes several years ago, sadly I think I was the most intelligent person there. That speaks VOLUMES about how stupid of people work there.

Seriously I could rant for hours about how dumb these people were.

Your experience is nothing surprising to me, sorry to hear that happened though.
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Home Depot FTW
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20 bags? That's what I'm talking about. You'll be smoking a while on that, bro!
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Dang I missed it. Not on sale in Raleigh.
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So what else did you buy while you were waiting?

I can't seem to get out of a big box without some "extras".
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I shop at lowes over HD. I usually use a harbor freight, or osh, coupon for %20 off or $20 off $50. Never had a problem, unlike at HD.
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Yep,that's a butt load of bags.
Knowing I was getting 50% off on that many bags,they'd have to take a hell of a lot longer than 20 minutes to piss me off :-)
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:-)

I buy 240#-320# of KF at Home Depot every Labor Day and then again at every Memorial Day when they have it for 50% off, and I'm more than happy to do all my own lifting, lugging and standing in line for those prices.
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It's pretty easy to make me mad, but even I am with Dave on this one.
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I just can't get upset over things like that. There is obviously a flaw in the system but it's not necessarily the fault of the folks working there. I spent a lot of years in retail and restaurant management and got to know many good people living at the poverty level or below. I would have spent that 20 minutes getting to know some of the people that were working and giving them that little bit of kindness that everybody needs. BTW: Being nice to people in stores and restaurants pays off. They remember you and will go out of their way to help you next time they see you.


MCS
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Consider yourself fortunate... its full price at my Lowes :-)
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I won't shop at Lowes anymore for similar reasons...I purchased a stove from them with free next day home delivery, but apparently I didn't see in the terms at there convience and I went with out a stove for 5 days...I'm now a Home Depot guy
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Brother IMHO this is probably the best post I have seen anywhere in a long time, Good on you! :-)
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I work at Lowe's....:-)

If your order isn't ready in the alloted time, I think you are supposed to get a discout on the order or something like that.

Customer Care line is:
1-800-44lowes

I'd suggest giving them a call, then they get the store management to call you and kiss-ass....
Raising sand will get you far with them... like I said, they are Kiss-asses when that number gets called.


Thats partly the salesperson's fault & your fault.
They have special order displays on the sales floor. There is a green sign that says "Available in X Days"... But they should have told you that at the time of purchase. Like I said before, call the customer care line!
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I have had issues with both stores. I go with the best deal. It may be HD one day than Lowes the next.
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:-)

They are across the street from each other, here.
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I Prefer Lowe's. Seems Like They Have Better Quality & I Have Never Had A Problem Returning An Item.:-)
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So I ordered a special order door this past fall from Lowes. It was an inside door, and i planned on it taking a little over a month. When i got it, i was told that it would be in by a certain date. A couple days went by after that date and I called just to see what the status was, they told me that it wasn't supposed to be in until the two weeks later. Ok, not a huge deal. So that date came and went, I called on a Friday, was told it was in the warehouse. I said "great, I'll pick it up tomorrow" Was told that the warehouse was in CT (I'm on the NH/MA line) and the truck didn't go to the warehouse on weekends. So now I was a little upset. Asked to talk to a manager to see what I could do because I had someone coming that weekend to put it in. 4 days later the manager called and told me that the door was never in the warehouse, it was still at the manufacturer's!!! I asked why i was told that it was in the warehouse and he told me that he didn't know. I asked if there was a message to call me that weekend, there was not. Anyway, it was going to be another 3-4 weeks now and I did talk him into a discount for every week it was late.
It comes in, my father-in-law and I spent and entire day trying to get it in (we are both pretty handy around the house) and finally gave up. Got a friend who's a contractor to come over, he had the same problem. After much sratching of the head, we found out that the door, with glass window was warped and because of that couldn't close. By this time i had already chopped the bottom off because I was going to do that anyway because I don't have clearance in the ceiling so I couldn't return it.
Sent an e-mail to complain and let them know that I wasn't happy. Got a call and was told they are going to have a meeting with the store about the poor service and how to give me the best information next time and he was going to call the manufacturer.
So after 2+months of waiting, i have a warped door that I then had to sand the corners down so it would shut.

Now saying that, I also have bad things to say about HD as well!!!
So the moral of the story........ Shop at your local mom and pop lumbar/hardware store. They usually have everything that you need and the knowledge that you need about any project that you have as well.
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To me, if you're going to have a "it's ready in 20 minutes guarantee" and it's not ready when you come in 9 full hours later, we have a problem. I was already stressed out enough as I was just taking what I thought would be a short break from studying and I thought I'd be back in time for my son's bedtime routine, but he was already asleep when I got home.

Did I get a good deal? Yes...I'm happy with that. I'm just not happy that someone advertises something and completely fails to deliver it. Would I have been upset to show up 20 minutes after the confirmation and they had at least been in the process of getting it down? No. The upsetting part was that over the course of 9 hours, nobody even knew about the order and had to search all of the rows to even find it on the 4th row.

In the meantime, I did just get a response from the store from my submission to the store about my experience and he's offering me a $25 gift card for their mistake. :-)
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