Home Depot Tool Thieves

[Natural Citizen]

It's all of the time anymore.

I went in there yesterday because I'm doing an upper intake manifold job on on of my cars and I needed a 3/8 ratcheting boxed end swivel wrench to remove one of the bolts holding the EGR valve to the intake manifold. I may as well replace that while I have it all apart.

And, of course, you have to buy a whole damned set when you only need the one wrench, as usual.

So they had one set left. It was like 70 bucks or so, I forget exactly.

Anyway, long story short, I get home and I noticed that the set is one wrench short. It's missing the 3/4 inch one.

The way that it was packaged, anyone could just open it, remove the wrench and close it back up. It was just a case without any exterior wrapping.

Obviously, it's my fault for not checking, especially since so many thieves tend to target tools in Home Depot. I should know better by now.

Used to be it wasn't like that. At least not as common anyway. Now it's all of the time.

But if I go into the pharmacy, the four dollar toothpaste, unlike the 70 dollar wrenches at Home Depot, is locked up and I have to ask for it.

 

[luiza]

But his neighbour with exactly the same problem borrowed that same required wrench from the garage he regularly uses and later found that two of his near neighbours could have helped him , if he had bothered to ask .

 

[sparky]

HD has a no q's asked return policy Natty.....~S~

 

[tyroneweaver]

It's all of the time anymore.

I went in there yesterday because I'm doing an upper intake manifold job on on of my cars and I needed a 3/8 ratcheting boxed end swivel wrench to remove one of the bolts holding the EGR valve to the intake manifold. I may as well replace that while I have it all apart.

And, of course, you have to buy a whole damned set when you only need the one wrench, as usual.

So they had one set left. It was like 70 bucks or so, I forget exactly.

Anyway, long story short, I get home and I noticed that the set is one wrench short. It's missing the 3/4 inch one.

The way that it was packaged, anyone could just open it, remove the wrench and close it back up. It was just a case without any exterior wrapping.

Obviously, it's my fault for not checking, especially since so many thieves tend to target tools in Home Depot. I should know better by now.

Used to be it wasn't like that. At least not as common anyway. Now it's all of the time.

But if I go into the pharmacy, the four dollar toothpaste, unlike the 70 dollar wrenches at Home Depot, is locked up and I have to ask for it.

ya, I know what ya mean. I bought a used car and found my wifes dress in the back seat.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

HD has a no q's asked return policy Natty.....~S~

.

Except they can never replace the time it takes to go back to the store to make the exchange.

.

 

[Natural Citizen]

HD has a no q's asked return policy Natty.....~S~

Yeah, I called em this morning and took it back. I think that's the first time I've ever outright returned anything from there.

Think I swapped out a faulty outdoor security light that didn't work out of the box once.

 

[Natural Citizen]

.

Except they can never replace the time it takes to go back to the store to make the exchange.

.

True, but it wasn't such a big deal in that regard.

I was more annoyed that I didn't check it before I bought it. I usually know better.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Theft is off the charts these days, though.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

True, but it wasn't such a big deal in that regard.

I was more annoyed that I didn't check it before I bought it. I usually know better.

.

Hard habit to get into for those of us who grew up believing that people were intrinsically trustworthy.

But, yeah.

.

 

[para bellum]

The way that it was packaged, anyone could just open it, remove the wrench and close it back up. It was just a case without any exterior wrapping.

You really have to watch home depot and open boxes. I have bought non-working tools from them more than once. When they get returned H-D just puts them back on the shelf and it's up to the next guy to make sure everything is in the box that's supposed to be there.

And cordless tools may or may not work- if the seal is broke assume the tool is too...

 

[progressive hunter]

It's all of the time anymore.

I went in there yesterday because I'm doing an upper intake manifold job on on of my cars and I needed a 3/8 ratcheting boxed end swivel wrench to remove one of the bolts holding the EGR valve to the intake manifold. I may as well replace that while I have it all apart.

And, of course, you have to buy a whole damned set when you only need the one wrench, as usual.

So they had one set left. It was like 70 bucks or so, I forget exactly.

Anyway, long story short, I get home and I noticed that the set is one wrench short. It's missing the 3/4 inch one.

The way that it was packaged, anyone could just open it, remove the wrench and close it back up. It was just a case without any exterior wrapping.

Obviously, it's my fault for not checking, especially since so many thieves tend to target tools in Home Depot. I should know better by now.

Used to be it wasn't like that. At least not as common anyway. Now it's all of the time.

But if I go into the pharmacy, the four dollar toothpaste, unlike the 70 dollar wrenches at Home Depot, is locked up and I have to ask for it.

 

[para bellum]

The other thing with H-D is their online inventory is all over the place. I would search the stores online to find one that had the item in stock, then drive all the way to get it, and find out it's not there.

Anything residential electrical is really hard to find. Just try to buy a 320 amp single-phase panel. You can find 200a, but 320a is scarce as hen's teeth. I had to hit 3 or 4 different stores to find a whole-house surge protector, something that's required by code now on all new installs...

 

[Natural Citizen]

The other thing with H-D is their online inventory is all over the place. I would search the stores online to find one that had the item in stock, then drive all the way to get it, and find out it's not there.

Anything residential electrical is really hard to find. Just try to buy a 320 amp single-phase panel. You can find 200a, but 320a is scarce as hen's teeth. I had to hit 3 or 4 different stores to find a whole-house surge protector, something that's required by code now on all new installs...

So far I haven't ever had that problem. Usually if they say they have it it's in the spot.

Now watch, the nex time it'll happen .lol...

 

[Natural Citizen]

Anyway. The way that all ended up was that I took the set back that was missing the 3/4''wrench and swapped it out for a full set thtq asnlt missing anything.

That was an SAE set. So while I was there I picked up the metric set, too.

But..I get home and I noticed that both sets I picked up, while they were gear wrenches, didn't pivot like the other ones.

So then I went back, bought another SAE set and another metric set. And these ones both pivot and have the boxed end ratcheting gears.

So now I have a total of four sets.

Two sets of SAE, both ratcheting boxed ends , one set pivots and the other other set doesn't. Same with the two metric sets.

So I spent around 350 bucks for a total of 30 wrenches.

And all of that because I only needed the one wrench for that one stupid bolt that I couldn't get to.

lol...

 

[Natural Citizen]

While I'm here thinking about it, here's an old school tip...