I’ve been waiting a while for a thread like this. F**k Home Depot. They have a department called Home Depot Interiors - do not have your home remodeled by HDI, people, come on.
The specific department I worked for was Cabinet Refacing. I was a salesman for about 4-5 months before I got the f**k out of there. Here’s the deal:
Any time you have a salesman come into your home, to give you a pitch and he/she brings samples and has a little presentation, please know that their commission on your remodel job is sometimes as high as 20%. That means if you buy a kitchen remodel for $20,000, your salesperson just took home up to $4,000 of your money just for selling you this ripoff remodel and sitting in your house for a few hours. That’s $4k you could use for all top of the line, new appliances.
Also, when it comes to cabinet refacing, it’s a waste of f**king money. They work so hard to spin the information to make you believe that you’re getting this incredible service when, in reality, the ONLY benefit is that they can remodel the kitchen in like 3-4 days versus a couple weeks if you pay a contractor to do it properly. I have had customers show me a bid from a contractor for, literally, half the price of refacing and they would receive an actual full remodel with all new cabinets.
The sales process is dishonest. You are taught to bend the truth as far as possible without technically lying but THEN, once you start working with the salesman who have been there a while, you are taught to full on lie and cheat and, basically, steal from people. This comes in the form of over-measuring everything. Countertops. Cabinets. Flooring. Everything is measured keeping a huge cushion so when the customer inevitably tries to haggle with you, you can bring the price down and still make money.
This type of stuff is so pervasive in virtually 100% of in-Home sales. Solar panels, windows, vacuum cleaners, security systems - you are getting ripped off. Your haggling skills don’t mean s**t because these people eat, breathe, sleep thinking about clever ways to rip you off. True salesman are sharks who adore money and nothing will stop them from getting yours. It’s totally crooked but because it’s a deeply engrained mentality in the entire sales culture, it’s hard to weed out the few good ones.
TL;DR - In-Home sales are a huge ripoff at best and a legit scam at worst. Save your money and try to find companies who simply give normal estimates without a big dog and pony show with some dickhead wearing pleated khakis, a polo shirt and briefcase showing up at your door. Real workmen wear regular clothes.
NOTE: Home Depot, I told your CEO, your national HR director and your legal team that I would do everything I could to sink your stupid cabinet refacing ship. I worked out of the HDI San Antonio office and you know how bad you f**ked me and all those other hopeful salespeople by being dishonest about earnings. Come at me bro.