As part of the daycare changes at Mom’s on a Mission, the exit door locksets needed to be changed. I needed to change them from a lever entry set with a separate deadbolt, to a combined lever and deadbolt that will allow the lever to open the deadbolt at the same time.
So I went on the net to see my options. Most of these are commercial sets and look like what you see in most motels. Boxy and functional looking. Not quite Eloise acceptable. However, there were a couple of manufacturers that make attractive sets. So I surfed the net to find out where I could find them local. Oh yeah. good luck with that. No stores listed or showed them online.
So. Like most slow thinking consumers, I stopped by Home Depot the next day. I looked in their lockset section. 6 entry sets that all looked alike and were on every entry door in Sacramento. So I walked up to “Customer Service” and asked for the commercial locksets. I was told to go to the Door section and try to find someone to help me. I actually found someone fairly quickly. They told me to go up to the “Contractor Service” counter. I went back to the other side of the store and waited in line there. They sent me to the “Customer Service” counter and told me to ask for the special order lockset catalog. I went to the other side of the store and waited in line there. (If this lockset wasn’t required, I would have left before this) “Customer Service” told me that the Contractor Counter would have to order any commercial locksets. I went back to the Contractor counter and grabbed the guy that I had talked to by his orange apron. He assured me that “Customer Service” had the Schlage catalog. He walked with me over to the “Customer Service” counter, went behind to the shelves and pulled out their catalog. After 20 minutes looking through the catalog, I found 2 “single action” locksets. $410.00 each and fairly ugly to boot. I was in there over 2 hours doing this!
Back home, I went on the net, determined to find these locksets for under $400 and anywhere but Home Depot. Building supply stores have been chased out of the area and the few left have very little information online. I called a few and they said that they could order them. I called a few hardware stores (Ace) and they didn’t know what I needed. I called Lowes and they said that they had a few. right, them and home depot. Orchard Supply didn’t know. Well, I did find a place online that I could order them from. Less than $400, but not returnable…?
Eloise wanted to go the Capital Nursery, so I thought that I would stop in a few places on the way. As expected, OSH didn’t have any. I walked into Lowes and there was a guy walking through the lockset dept. “Sure”, he said. He led us over to where they had 5 different “single action” entry sets. Wow! They had them AND he knew where they were. And in less than 2 minutes. These are Baldwin locksets too. Good looking and great quality too. AND WELL UNDER $300 APIECE. Since we needed more than 1, he offered to key everything we needed to match. We picked out 2 entry sets and then we picked out 2 more deadbolts, 2 privacy lever sets, 1 door knob and 5 lever sets. This way all of the downstairs doors match the brushed nickel lever sets. Much better quality and looks and for less than what it would have cast to order 2 entry sets from Home Depot and had them keyed alike.
So. Don’t run your business like Home Depot, Natomas. Run your business like Lowes, Citrus Heights. Saving the money was wonderful, but I would have paid the Home Depot price and not looked any further, if they would have had the service I received at Lowes.
