Finishing the Back Basement Walls

Last week, when I went to the Lowe’s in Chatham only to find that the concrete I wanted wasn’t actually in the store (despite their inventory listing 32 bags)… I decided to order the bags online.

I had a wasted trip out there last Saturday. And on Wednesday, I placed an online order to pick up the concrete at… the Chatham location again (since it’s the closest one to me).

The webiste was still showing that the Chatham location had 32 bags available, which I determined with some employees last weekend was likely a mis-identification error. So I decided to call customer support, and ask them to verify things.

I talked to a woman on the phone, explained what I went through last weekend, explained that the inventory was likely incorrect… and could she contact someone at the store, and have them visually verify that the concrete was availalbe?

After waiting a good long while on hold, the woman returned and told me that yes, she called the store, spoke with someone, and they had the cement there. Great.

The following day, I got an email from Lowes saying that my order was available for pickup.

This morning, on arriving, the woman at the online orders area did not see any of my concrete set to one side. She tried contacting someone from the lumber department. I stood around and waited. She tried three different times to page someone over the loudspeakres, and got nothing.

So she then called directly and got a hold of someone. And that person then went about trying to gather my order. More time went by. And then we got a call back saying… wait for it… they couldn’t find the concrete.

So I walked over to the concrete aisle to look, and verified with another young man that what I was looking for wasn’t around. He said that in talking with some others, they all hadn’t seen that particular type of concrete in a few weeks.

A few minutes later, I’m in my car looking for other Lowes location nearby. I call the Orland Park location and ask them to visually verify the bags. They had them there, so I headed out – an extra 30 minutes there, and an extra thirty back.

Here are the two bags. And it just took me an extra hour and a half, is all.

Pretty frustrating, as I did pretty much everything in my power to try to avoid the exact scenario that happened. I called and warned them, and asked for a verification. Either the woman I talked to didn’t actually call the store, or the woman at the store didn’t actually go and physically look. Had either of those things happened, they would have verified that the concrete wasn’t available at the store.

Also, not sure why I got an email saying my order was ready to be picked up. Obviously, no one had attempted to fill the order. Had anyone actually tried to fill the order, they would have discovered the same thing – that the concrete wasn’t actually at the store.

I’m not upset at Lowe’s not having the item in stock, originally. It was a mis-identification error, and maybe the wrong palette of concrete got marked. Lowes is a big store, and that kind of thing happens. Unfortunate, but it happens.

What’s upsetting is that after I made an online order – I called to explicitly ask that someone verify the bags. I was told verbally they were there. And I also got an email saying my order was waiting to be picked up.

Wasted a lot of my morning, driving unnecessarily.

The back wall, almost done.

Liz, filling up some water and getting ready to mix.

We were more gunshy this time around at making the mixure too wet, and ended up with things much, much thicker. Liz ended up doing this whole area herself (two full bags), while I went and added a new layer of paint to the front walls.

Getting all the cement in between the existing pipes wasn’t an easy thing, but Liz did an amazing job. It looks awesome back here, and this covers up the last remaining bits of brick along the perimeter of our basement!

Related:
A No-Supply Supply Run