Home Depot Mobile: Great, Unless You Have To Use It, Associates Say
Written by Frank HayesMarch 3rd, 2011
Home Depot's mobile point-of-sale device looks like a big success: The First Phone was used for almost a million POS transactions in the last quarter of 2010, the company told investors on February 22. But store associates complain about First Phone shortages, bulky hardware, buggy software and lack of training—and the fact that IT either can't or won't fix problems with the devices, even when associates take the trouble to send descriptions of device problems up the chain of command.
Their consensus: The First Phone works, but it still has a long way to go. That's what you'd expect from a first try at a mobile POS device, though, and that first draft won't get better without lots of listening on the part of IT. The comments of the Home Depot associates go a long way to point out the challenges mobile POS faces as it rolls out at Home Depot, Nordstrom and other retailers.
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
I have strong reservations about the 'individual' certification and posting of that information for merchants. Can you imagine the potential employee poaching that might occur? The implications when competitors can look up how many are certified with each of their competitors? 
-Christine
