By Brian Nelson

The following email exchange took place Thursday, August 19, 2021.

7:00am: “We are writing in praise of two terrific Florida Home Depot associates in the Nocatee/Durbin Paint Department: Bart and Gage. In our opinion, they deserve high commendation and recognition by their superiors for representing Home Depot at its best! And in that same vein, we also commend John Wanchic, Asst-Mgr. of the St. Augustine Home Depot.

The Story:

After spending nearly $1,600 for 30 gallons of Home Depot’s top-line Behr Marquee paint, we discovered we hated the color once it hit the exterior walls of our home. We liked the color online, liked the color on the sample card in the St. Augustine store, and even brought both a sample and a gallon home and painted a section of our home beforehand.

But when the painters came in force and went to work on the front of our home, we realized the paint was not the yellow we wanted. We unfortunately ended up with limeade, a sort of greenish mating of a canary and a parrot. Terrible!

$1600 was now on the line. I returned to the St. Augustine Home Depot on the morning of August 6, 2021, desperate.

“Can you squirt some brown, or a deeper yellow, or anything into these cans that would modify the yellow in line with our tastes and expectations?”, I asked.

I was met with wide-eyed bewilderment by the associate that morning.

“There is no way to do this”.

A manager was called, who was equally lost, and said pretty much the same thing.  

My hopes of a simple fix were quickly dashed.

However, I was politely informed there was ample supply of this paint at the new Nocatee/Durbin store, and if we’d like to drive up there, we could get some more and select a new color.

Resigned to what seemed inevitable, I drove up to the Nocatee store within the hour and met Gage behind the counter. But, before I ordered another supply of this expensive paint, I took a chance and posed a question to this young man.

“Is there any way to rescue an unfortunate paint selection by adding some counterbalancing color to amend the hue?”, I asked.

“Sure”, he replied. “There’s a chance. I’ve done it, but my boss is even better at it than me”.

Imagine the relief!

Soon I was introduced to Bart, Gage’s manager. Once he was briefed on the details, Bart joined Gage in a wonkish back-and-forth about potential solutions. Out came the pens. And soon, with the fervor of lab technicians, they were working out formulas on the absorbent felt used to dry their fingers after color-spotting each can of paint they give to customers.

“This should work”, said Bart. And he produced a formula, later dubbed “The Rescue Formula”, while Gage fetched a sample of our unfortunate original color (Sweet as Honey). To it, they added the new formula.

• 

• 

VOILA! … we had ourselves the paint we wanted.

Bart and Gage entered that Rescue Formula into the Home Depot system and told me to bring my paint back there, or to the St. Augustine store that day, before the system’s daily paint files are wiped clean. Anyone could make “the fix”.

Just in case, Bart printed me off a new label containing the Rescue Formula, which I still guard in safety today.

Lugging our 29 or so remaining gallons that afternoon to the St. Augustine Home Depot Paint Department, I was first met with a brisk “You need to go to the Service Desk”.

So, I did.

At the Service Desk, I was then met with a chilly “I don’t have the authority … you need to go to the Paint Department”.

Now very frustrated, I said (almost screamed), “Get me a manager, please”.

Directed back to the Paint Department, I came face-to-face with Assistant Manager John Wanchic, waiting for me.

I explained the problem with our paint, and the Bart/Gage solution, and Mr. Wanchic understood immediately. He turned to the nearby Paint Department associate and asked that he begin adding the rescue formula to our paint cans.

Immediately, new pushback.

“I don’t think it will fit, all that extra color”.

Mr. Wanchik assured him the 4 ounces would be no problem in a 5 gallon can, and he gently encouraged the associate to give it a try.

Reluctantly, he did.

And …. EUREKA!

The additional coloration easily fit into the cans, which then went through another round of “the shakes”, and the new “rescue” formula came home to our painters and up on our walls. Today, this almost-condemned paint looks lovely on our home.

In summary, Bart, Gage and John Wanchik’s “rescue” saved us $1,600 in perfectly good, expensive paint. (We have since purchased an additional $500+ more). We are impressed by these three. And Louise Nelson, the wife in this partnership, is a former Home Depot HR employee at the Store Support Center in Atlanta who also feels proud of these three associates. However, we both wish to see a greater consistency in training and customer-focused motivation among the Home Depot workforce in our area. A lesson learned.

Epilogue

The 8-19 workday barely underway, this email arrived from Home Depot’s JAX Regional Manager:

8:59am: “Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know about these exceptional associates! We will make sure that they are recognized properly for taking care of you”.

Just past noon, an email arrived from Bart:

12:48pm: “On behalf of Gage and myself I want to thank you for the wonderful words and I am pleased to be able to help you with fixing the color. We had a walk (HD lingo for inspection tour) today and Bill Raya (Jax Regional Mgr) was here and he presented Gage and myself a Homer Award because of your email … he even told us he forwarded to his boss. They took pictures of us I thank you again.”

Our takeaway:

For Home Depot: “A Tale of Two Stores”.

For us: We strongly felt the need to praise good service. And it paid off, the point made.