On July 19 my husband and I purchased $190.26 worth of items at the Blairsville Home Depot. We also opened a Home Depot credit card that day and were given $30.00 off the purchase. Our purchase included 4 hanging flower baskets at $11.97 each (this item did not include a plant or flower, it is an empty basket). It was several weeks later that I used the baskets and found that one of them was damaged and it would not hold the weight of the plant and soil so I put that one aside and planed to return it during the coming week.
On August 19 I took the defective hanging basket back to HomeDepot. The store was practically empty and there were no other customers at the returns counter. As I approached the associate she looked at me and turned around to talk to another associate concerning her cash drawer. She stood with her back to me for several minutes before I said, �excuse me, may I ask a question.� She replied, �I�ll be with you in a minute.� I waited approximately 5 minutes before she asked me what I needed. I told her I purchased the basket and would like to exchange it for one that was not broken and that I had my receipt. She told me I could not exchange it, she would have to do a refund and I could purchase another one. I agreed and she processed my refund. On my way to the garden center I noticed my refund was for only $10.08 plus. 71 cents tax. I though maybe being the end of the season, the item had been reduced, but I found upon paying for the replacement that it was still $11.97 plus. 84 cents tax (total $12.81). I went back to returns and asked the same associate, � why did I pay $11.97 for this item but my refund was for
$ 10.08? � She pointed to the part of my receipt that states MUST RETURN ALL ITEMS FOR A FULL REFUND. I told her I had not asked for a refund; I asked to exchange a defective item for one exactly like it. She told me that she would have to get a manager to void out the return and do a new one if I wanted my dollar back. One of the managers came over and the two of them put their heads together with their backs to me and the manager turned around and said the reason I wasn�t given a full refund was because of the $30.00 customer satisfaction discount we received when we made the purchase. I told them I agreed and that I had forgotten the discount and said if I was told that originally I would have understood but I was told that I had to return all items to receive the full refund amount. The returns associate repeated again, �we don�t do exchanges only refunds.� I had spent approximately 30 minutes doing what should have taken 5 minutes and decided to leave the store without my full refund. When I arrived home I checked my receipts and found that the 30% discount had nothing to do with the amount of refund I was given, the receipt shows MAX REFUND VALUE $40.32/4, which is $10.08 each, exactly the amount I was refunded minus sales tax.
It is hard for me to believe that Home Depots return policy is that every item on a receipt must be returned to exchange a defective item! Are you trying to tell me that if we had purchased nails and lumber and used them to build a deck that the only way I could get a full refund for my hanging basket would be to take the deck apart and return ALL OF THE ITEMS?
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