Hello all,
I had some small items left over from various things I've done around the house recently and decided to gather them up to take back to Home Depot. These items were purchased at various times over the past couple weeks and I of course misplaced my receipts. Meaning they got washed, tossed, used for scratch paper.. you know how it goes. I didn't think anything of it, as it's never been an issue- take things back, get a store credit, buy more crap I probably don't need.
They rang me out, ran my ID and the return was declined. I was shocked- I do return a lot to HD, but most of the time it's with a receipt- things like, do I need #6x3/4" screws or #8x3/4"? Buy both, return the wrong size next time I go to HD. I return without a receipt every 3 or 4 months I would say, at most. I called the return verification company and they told me I didn't have any bad marks or excessive returns, Home Depot themselves have tightened up returns without a receipt and if I have a problem with that, I need to contact HD in writing and wait 4-6 weeks for a response. No, says I, that just won't do.
I go back in to the returns desk and ask for a number for corporate. The checker goes and confers with someone in the customer service pen and comes back, asks me to step to the side and wait for a store manager. She comes up and I tell her the story I was just told. She says that's nonsense, it has to be me making too many returns and asks for the return denial receipt. I give it to her and wait as she calls the number herself in front of me. They tell her the exact same thing. Incredulous, she tries to tell me it's my return record. I ask her if they said that to her, ir if they said it was a HD corporate change. Reluctantly, she backpedals and says they told her it was corporate, but anyway, she would do an override and accept the return- this time. I thanked her and waited for her to get it done. To occupy my time, I looked up the number and called corporate customer service on my cell while I waited.
By now, the manager was still having some type of issue with the return, so she disappeared and another woman, who I assume may have been a district manager who happened to be at the store, comes to carry on where the other manager left off. I finally get through to CS on the phone, who tells me that yes, they have recently made changes to their returns policy through the verification system. I thank him for the information and go back to the new woman helping me, who has now run the return 3 times with no luck. She says "we'll have to go above manager" and digs into her ID pocket to get out another folded up piece of paper with other higher up pass codes. She gets the return done, give me my store credit and I tell her what corporate just told me. She's noticeably perturbed, apologizes and tells me nothing at all has come down the pipeline to them in the stores on this change. We discuss how this is going to mean managers getting to deal with ticked off customers a lot more now, and I go on my way.
So, in short, Home Depot has unofficially changed their return policy for items paid with a gift card or store credit, as well as any cash based purchases without a receipt. The CS rep from corporate explained to me that gift cards, store credit and cash are all processed the same, and not recorded for tracking in the system- there's no way to look up purchases with any of those payment methods. So basically, now HD will only easily accept returns without receipt on purchases they can search for in the system, made with credit, debit or check payments.
I tell ya, that was the hardest fought $30 worth of gang boxes, conduit terminations and sundry items I've ever returned. It was all small stuff- the most expensive item was a $8 quick release 1/4" quarter turn plastic valve I ended up not needing when installing a water filter system.
-Michael
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Originally Posted by eugene thomas
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