A member of my family made a purchase of a small portable heater at Lowe's Home Improvement. She paid with a personal check. The heater did not work and she went to return it 5 days later. The check had not cleared yet, so she was given a merchandise credit card. She used the card to purchase a new heater.
Seventeen days later, after the check used to make the original purchase had cleared, she had to return the 2nd heater as well, because it did not work well with the older wiring in her house. It kept tripping the circuit breaker because the circuit can only handle 1200 watts and the heater was a 1500 watt heater. Even though the check used on the original purchase had now most definitely cleared, the clerks at the store and the store manager refused to give her anything but ANOTHER merchandise credit card back. She had no use for such a card now. She can't purchase another heater, because all they had were 1500 watt models. She did not need to or want to buy anything else at Lowe's. The heater was returned in perfect working condition, the check had cleared, so there was no reason NOT to give her cash back.
This policy is totally wrong. I can understand giving her the merchandise credit card the first time, when the check had not cleared yet. But 17 days later, there was no excuse for it. They said because the 2nd heater was purchased with a merchandise credit card, they could not give her anything but another merchandise credit card back.
In other words, no matter what she does now, Lowe's gets her money. If she doesn't use the card, they have the money. If she ever does use it, which is highly unlikely, they will still get the money. This is money she will never be able to use for anything else but Lowe's purchases. Effectively, Lowe's is holding her money hostage and forcing her to use it there whether she wants to or not.
The heater is returned, the check is cleared, the money rightfully belongs to her. But instead it is staying in Lowe's pocket no matter what she does with it. This is the 3rd time in the past 6 months that my family has had problems with our local Lowe's and it's three strikes and you're out. We will take our business elsewhere from now on and I advise everyone else to do so as well. If you choose to continue using Lowe's, NEVER pay by check if you think you might need to return an item. Once you pay Lowe's by check, the money is theirs forever.
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