As a contractor and home owner, I buy items from The Home Depot. As any guy I know who does repair work or any work on their home or a clients, we always buy more than we need or misjudge a measurement and have to return our extra leftovers. Extra trips would kill my business in costs. And besides, some of my guys will buy stuff, toss the receipt and leave behind the unused items on the job site. Then I'm stuck returning the items to recoup my costs, ugh.
Normally I have receipts for my returns but I also go through my collection of leftover purchases to return back to Home Depot as time allows (no receipt). This is what I had done at my local Home Depot but this time, their system known as "The Retail Equation" decided I had reached an unknown, unseen by me limit and denied my returns. This wasted my time, the stores time and the receipt I was given at the time of denial could imply that I am less than an honorable person (actually, as I read it out loud to the clerk, it does imply that my returns were not 'honest').
My receipts? I put them with my work orders for tax purposes. I had always shopped at Home Depot because they usually let me return my overages without a receipt. I always tell the clerks or manager that they can turn away anything they felt could not be easily resold. Since I never know when I made the purchase and the original receipts are put away... I always know I am getting back less than paid for the items. Considering the value of my time to track all of this, the lesser money is okay by me for the trade off. This company also does not allow for management to make an 'on the spot' decision on whether to okay a return or not (as per the hapless store clerk at Home Depot stated).
Now that the decisions are out of the hands of the local stores management to make an assessment of my returns on the spot, I've decided that my business can be taken elsewhere. Yes, I understand that theft is rampant and maybe some manager at corporate decided this program is a godsend... But not for the consumer. I always handed over my driver's license in the belief this information was being held by The Home Depot, a company I had previously trusted. BUT, upon learning MY PRIVATE INFORMATION is being forwarded to a privately held 'company' that I know nothing about that also happens to keep a FILE on me... Well, no more.
The Home Depot... I will from this time forward only do business at a company where I can look the decision maker in the eye, shake my hand, hear my story and decide what to do in the store's best interest on the spot.
And people reading this, shop local. This way you can look employees in the eye and they can determine your credibility, not some unseen algorithm that's designed to watch you.
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