Home Depot
's claim that returns with receipt are easy is bogus

I am a 15 year consistent and loyal Home Depot customer since my very 1st home purchase. I have recently purchased many items from Home Depot as I am in the midst of a home renovation project on our home that we are preparing to sell.in the process of returning 2 faucets that were the wrong size/shape for our 2 new sinks (also purchased from Home Depot), I was denied my return with receipt in hand.

I was provided a non-receipt printout with a phone number to call to a 3rd party company called The Retail Equation. The Retail Equation informed me that my return privledges at Home Depot have been suspended for 90 days, at which time Home Depot will reevaluate whether I will have that priveledge reinstated. What?! Neither The Retail Equation nor Home Depot Manager could answer my many questions as to why I could not return my product purchased only a few days prior, even though I had a receipt.

The Retail Equation sent me a "transaction report" that listed all my return transactions... There were 2... One with a receipt and one without for which a received a store credit. I was told that I should look at the report to see if it was accurate. It listed my 2 transactions but what was I looking for? Home Depot could not provide me with any criteria as to what type or quanity of transactions could have flagged me. Although the store manager did not know what the criteria was for me being "Flagged" in their system, she thought it might have to do with the store credit return. Are customers not allowed to return anything after a single return without receipt?

Funny thing, if that was the case, and I was told that, I probably would have looked a lot harder for the receipt. Apparently, there is no set criteria that the managers are provided with to communicate to customers when this happens. Beware, because, Home Depot does not tell you this when you make your returns until you are actually and possibly arbitrarily flagged and denied return capability. Coincidentally, after the manager told me that this never happens, the man behind me in line for his return was also, suprisingly to him, denied for the same reason. The Home Depot manager was very apologetic, as she was quite aware of my frequency of shopping at her store, but could do nothing to help me, nor could the Customer Service Home Depot 800# staff. Very frustrating experience.

90 days of no return capability, with no promise of that being returned to me, only means that Home Depot will lose out on my prime purchasing time. I will have to shop at who will take all my returns with my receipt (as most large reputable stores do) and allow me to finish my current renovation project and all my upcoming projects on my new home for which I close on Oct-15. Maybe will prove to appreciate their customers. Too bad for Home Depot that they have hired this 3rd party company to seemingly thwart fraud, but at the expense of good customers. Bad bad process and bad bad customer service. Sad to see them go this route.

Sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company. Plus, if you post a competitors name more than likely they will show up on search engines as a Rip-off! - - your comments on this policy are welcome.

Company: Home Depot
Country: USA
State: Colorado
City: Denver
Address: 860 S. Colorado Blvd., Glendale, CO
Site: homedepot.com

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