I get a call at 4:00 am from my mother saying that her water heater is leaking. Great! That 40 gallon GE water heater lasted 7 years, yet the warranty is for 9 years. I call HD down the road, and they say to bring in the sticker plate with the serial number. I go in to the store on Craig Rd in North Las Vegas, and the customer service clerk says I need to bring the whole water heater in. I go back and bring in the heater, but now I am told to call GE and get an authorization number. So I call GE and give them the serial number, and GE says the heater is expired from the manufacture date of 2000. But it was purchased in 2003!
So HD says to show them proof by bringing in the receipt.
OK, now 2 hours have gone by. I go home and find the receipt showing the water heater was purchased in 2003, but I decide to go to the other HD in Centennial Las Vegas. I am the only one in the customer return line, and I have the sticker plate, along with the old GE 40 gallon heater and my receipt. The girl says I will have to pay the difference of $328, which I am fine with. Just get me on my way so I can finish the job at Mom's house. The clerk gets an approval check from her supervisor, but her supervisor says the tank expired in 2000. But I have the receipt for 2003 when it was purchased. She says that HD only has a shelf life of 1 year for their products, and the item number on the check comes up on their computer for a 30 gallon tank! So I am told that the receipt is for a different water heater. You have to be kidding me! I have never installed a 30 gallon tank in my life!
So I tell the supervisor lady that I will go back home and check my files for the right receipt. She tells me to take the old tank with me because it is taking up space. I wanted to tell her what she could do with that tank. Instead I said not to worry, Honey, I will be back to buy the new heater. Needless to say, I went to Lowe's and bought a 12 year warranty Whirlpool for $20 more. After wasting 5 hours of my day driving back and forth to these numbskulls at Home Depot, I took my HD $20,000 credit card and shredded it to pieces. And you can sure bet that everyone will hear about this story at work.
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