Home Depot
$400 Gazebo Collapsed After Three Weeks, Store Refused Help

A gazebo costing $400 came from Home Depot. We followed the assembly instructions exactly and put it up on our deck. For three weeks it was a pleasure. Then on a rainy day the roof collected a pool of water, something it had not done in 3 earlier rains, and the entire structure collapsed, snapping the metal framework. Oddly, a second "roof" tier was built in to prevent pooling, and the canvas was pulled tight over the frame as directed, so I don't see how this could occur. Fortunately nobody was seated under it, and I'm amazed the sharp frame ends missed the French doors. The house shielded two of its sides on our deck, which makes it hard to blame strong wind or the like.

I phoned the store. With the manager away on vacation, the assistant manager declined to examine it or talk about it. "Act of God," he called it, yet he conceded that a gazebo of the same kind at his place was still up. It seems Acts of God skip his neighborhood.

Next we hauled the gazebo to the store by car. For 20 minutes the assistant manager paced near the entrance and ignored us, and in the end he still would not look at it. He said we were "threatening" him, which is crazy, because my husband is an ethics professor weighing 140 lb and is not frightening at all. He added that nobody would assist us and that we should leave the regional manager alone.

I wrote to the Customer Service Dept and even to Investor Relations, hoping SOMEONE would reply, and received nothing but the standard, brief, templated "thanks for emailing us" answers.

Shame on them. We lost $400 and will never shop at Home Depot again! A company ought to back its products.

Company: Home Depot
Country: USA
Site: homedepot.com

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