84 Lumber

On Saturday, May 1, 2021 my friend and I were trying to locate 20 treated 2"X6"X16' lumber for a fence. I called the 84 Lumber near Douglasville, Ga. and inquired about whether they had the material and the gentleman on the phone said they did. By this time it was mid-morning and the store closes at noon, so we hooked up our trailer to our truck for hauling the long lumber and started the 20 minute drive to the store. As we passed through Villa Rica, Ga. we were delayed by a train crossing so we called the store to let them know we should still arrive before noon, but that we just wanted them to be aware what we would be picking up when we got there in case they wanted to prepare. We were told, that they could not gather anything in advance as it was corporate policy, which was fine. We were just trying to be courteous to the employees by letting them know in advance. We arrived and my partner walked inside asked for the material and paid, but we were told just to wait and that the material would be brought to us in the parking area. My partner also told the employee that took the payment that we need boards that are straight and in good condition overall, but that was our first clue this was going to end poorly. The employee acted as if he did not hear anything and walked away. My friend joined me back outside and told me they would be bringing it to us and that he informed them it should be straight boards. In a few minutes we see a forklift carrying boards over to another shelter a long distance away where it appeared (and we guessed) an employee was strapping the boards. Next the forklift approaches and the boards are not even slightly straight and some boards have broken ends which was ruining several inches of the length making them useless for our fence. We quickly look before they lower them on the trailer and tell them to take the boards away. We return inside and ask for our money back, which the price of lumber has more than doubled, so to be given the scraps from the yard was unacceptable. The employee that was operating the forklift walks in behind the cashier and my friend tells him that it probably would have been best to select good boards or let us select them since we were willing to do it. He snapped back, "I am not going to sort through 200 boards looking for what you want." That statement set the stage for us both to say, "We were not going to pay for the crap he brought and that selecting the material is part of his job." But we also stated that, "We offered to get the boards ourselves, but this attitude is the last time we will deal with 84 Lumber". In hindsight if he had 200 boards it should not have been much trouble to find 20 good ones, but better yet just let us select them would be our advise. So we went out of our way to drive an extra 10 miles to 84 Lumber instead of Home Depot and even called to be courteous and this is the treatment we received.

By the way, I am not a big fan of Home Depot, but we phoned them and drove straight there and they even unstrapped a new bundle of lumber so we could select some truly good boards for our fence. Thank you to Home Depot for understanding the quality of the material matters since the 84 Lumber employee has probably never built anything in his life except an ego that will not serve his future well.