Using an AMEX gift card at Home Depot turned out to be a big mistake. I returned an item and was told to come back the next morning for my refund, which is a 40 mile round trip for me. Then I was sent away to return four hours later, when a manager would be there to issue the refund.
AMEX had first misled me by saying I would get cash back, because gift cards are "non-rechargeable". I believed that because on earlier large purchases made with VISA/MC that I returned to Home Depot, the store handed me cash without even asking whether I wanted it credited to the card.
AMEX gift cards are supposed to work anywhere the card is accepted, and gift cards are like cash. Yet AMEX IS A SCAM! When you try to return a product, first the store does not know how to process it (Home Depot Manager Debbie Lee and her staff are completely uneducated). Second, AMEX lets the store refund only to the card itself, and here is the scam, folks: you cannot use YOUR MONEY for 3-7 days according to the Amex brochure, while Amex Customer Service told me it is more like 5-10 days. What a terrible way to treat a customer.
My advice is to NEVER buy these cards for any reason. As of today I have lost access to $1,000. I cannot use MY money and I am BEING PUNISHED for using Amex! Once you buy the cards, you will never see your money again. In the fine print, Amex says it is not to blame for anything. Basically you are in serious trouble if you buy their cards. HOME DEPOT is at fault for NOT handling my AMEX card as it handles Visa/MC. Why is the store so generous with refunds on my Visa/MC, yet with this Amex gift card it suddenly can hold my money and delay giving it back to me? Isn't this theft, people?
Do not buy these cards, and do not go to Home Depot to use them if a return is possible, because either Amex does not care whether merchants understand how useless the cards are, or Home Depot staff are simply incompetent.
Either way, that leaves me $1,000 poorer. Thank you very much, Amex and Home Depot. I could have paid my mortgage this month, but apparently I am lending you my money interest free. A rip off, plain and simple.
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