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Thread: Home Depot return policy change without notification

  1. #31
    I didn't know that I could get a receipt emailed to me when I made a purchase at HD. Thanks for the info. I went into my HD account and updated my info (wrong credit card in the account). Having receipts in electronic form will be terrific - never a lost receipt.

    On topic, HD, along with many other stores, has a problem with people stealing goods and then returning them for cash. Personally, I think they should require a receipt if you paid cash. If you paid with a credit card, they can check that you bought it if you give them the credit card number. Such a policy would help all of us because we all pay for the fraud - the cost has to be put into the pricing.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  2. #32
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    Perhaps it is because I live in the "genteel" south, but my experience with HD returns has been very positive (and quite frankly, I can take or leave their store and do most of my Big Box shopping at Lowes).

    But..i had a Ryobi router bit....several years old....says on the original package "guaranteed against materials and workmanship"....so when the bit snapped I took it down to my local HD. After several customer service people helping me, and the guy in the tool department matching the old bit to a new (spiral, I might add) model from another manufacturer (they no longer carry Ryobi in that store) I was back to customer service. Because they no longer carry Ryobi there was no way to "process" the return, so....well....."here"!

    I have no idea how they handled it internally, but clearly their focus was on making me happy, and figuring out how that "fit" with corporate policy was something they would do later on.

    I was impressed with the way the handled MY end of it......but when you think about repeating that a thousand times a week in every store...it will become costly, to say the least.

    Buy two; take the other back? Okay...once in a while...but all the time? That just sounds to me like poor planning, expensive use of time, and taking advantage of the goodwill of a company trying to "do the right thing".

  3. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Henderson View Post
    I didn't know that I could get a receipt emailed to me when I made a purchase at HD. Thanks for the info. I went into my HD account and updated my info (wrong credit card in the account). Having receipts in electronic form will be terrific - never a lost receipt.
    Mike, I'm not sure if you can sign up for email receipts on the web site. Looking through my account settings online, I don't see an option where I can opt in to emailed receipts. I had to sign up using the pin pad/card reader in the store.

    But maybe it's all linked so that if you have an email address associated with your credit card online, it will identify your email address at the register and give you the option. If so, that would be pretty slick.

    But you might need to do it next time you're in the store.

  4. #34
    If you return too many times without a receipt they flag you.
    Its a way to prevent fraud.

  5. #35
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
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    Tacoma, WA
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    Take stuff back? Good heavens, why?

    What are my favorite things is to go fix something in the house and find that I have the tools and the parts I need on hand. Of course this means a two-minute repair and no trip to the hardware store but it still feels good.
    I'm a Creeker, yes I m.
    I fries my bacon in a wooden pan.

  6. #36
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    Ewing, KY
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    Oi, Robert and other folks that are responding WITHOUT READING what I wrote, let alone what other people wrote. This has NOTHING to do with too many returns- Home Depot has covertly tightened their return policy such that they are moving to a model of not accepting ANY cash, gift card or store credit purchases WITHOUT a receipt. Let me reiterate one more time- that's FINE by me. I will take better care of my receipts, not a problem. The issue, and why I brought this to the attention of you all, is because HD has CHANGED their return policy WITHOUT telling anyone. SO, I'm just letting you all know so you don't do what I did, expect a simple return as it always has been, and stand there for an hour while the issue is sorted because even the store level employed haven't been notified of this change.

    The concept of easy returns is an advent of the big box stores; from what I understand (I'm only 30) before the big stores decided to start taking returns for any reason in the interest of customer satisfaction, returns were only for defective items. I still shop at stores that take this stance; it is what it is and I don't have problem with it. My issue is that HD has established a relationship with it's customer base on a pretense of easy, no hassle for any reason returns. They are now changing that dynamic without telling ANYONE. It was obviously coming, with the number of people misusing the policy and stealing things just to return them. A business model can absorb only so much fraud before good people have to be affected too. I understand this. I have no problem with this. I don't like it that this change has been made without telling anyone. Even worse, it's been instituted based on their return authorization aggregator, meaning that people like me, who return things without a receipt 3-4 times a year, are made out to be a crook in the eyes of the checker and anyone else in line behind me. It was embarrassing and inappropriate. Just tell people you're making the change!

    Thanks,
    Michael

  7. #37
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    Thanks for the heads up Michael,I will start managing my receipts better.When I buy from Home Depot.👍

  8. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim German View Post
    I wish HD/Lowes would be a bit more restrictive on their return policy. I'm tired of buying something only to find out that it was clearly a return and is broken or missing something important.
    Exactly. The only time I ever return anything is when it's broken, or, in one case, where I bought a bunch of things off the same peg and one of them was incorrectly placed and I got the wrong item and had to exchange it. I always have the receipt too, if I don't, it's my fault and I just keep the item. People need to take responsibility for themselves and stop pretending that it's HD or Lowe's responsibility to make them happy.

  9. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by John Donhowe View Post
    In that light, it seems the path HD has taken is preferable to alternatives, such as having to check bags when entering the store, or having all bags, pockets, and receipts checked when leaving the store. If you do like the privilege of buying extra items, just in case, then keeping the receipts, using a credit card, or having email receipts sent is a relatively small inconvenience.
    They can't legally do that, the courts have decided that time and time again. When you buy something, it is yours and the store loses the ability to look through your stuff, just as much as they can't try to search through your wallet. Your property is your property. The only exception are membership stores where you have given them the right, in writing, as a consequence of being a member. Even then, they can't force you, they can just rescind your membership if you refuse. But for stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, etc., they are treading on very shaky legal ground and you can safely ignore them and there isn't a damn thing they can do about it.

  10. #40
    Join Date
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    It is interesting to me when people make straw man arguments without considering the facts in a situation, especially when said arguments are meant to degrade others and place oneself higher.

    [QUOTE]People need to take responsibility for themselves and stop pretending that it's HD or Lowe's responsibility to make them happy.[/QUOTE]

    When has anyone in this discussion said anything to the contrary? I don't expect to take an item back to a store that demands receipts for returns and try to force them to accept the return. that's just asinine. The implication in the above statement is that I and others do just that. The issue you choose to overlook is that We are not looking to some other source to cover our mistakes- losing receipts- but rather an institution that has set a policy to uphold said policy. None of this would have come up if HD had made notification that they had tightened up their returns in a logical and equitable manner, either on the back of receipts or a note at registers, whatever.

    This is not an issue with them not accepting the returns, but rather an issue with them changing a widely known and held policy without telling anyone, even their own employees. change the policy to say "no returns on cash purchases without a receipt" instead of saying "Yes, we still accept all returns, subject to verification by our returns authorization system," then changing that system to make it kick back any cash returns. it's deceptive.

    The second they acknowledge the change and let everyone know, I will have no problem with it- it's a courtesy they extended a long time ago to accept these kinds of returns, and as with any business, it's their right to change the conditions of any policy they set. This is NOT A RANT against HD for making the change, it was just to let you all know the change was made, since HD has decided to slight their own customers and staff by not telling anyone.

    Please, everyone, read before you post and make cogent arguments based on what you read, don't read half of the first post and respond half cocked. It degrades the conversation and makes you look silly.

    Thanks,
    Michael

  11. #41
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
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    Michael,

    Your view is very clear to me (and I assume most everybody). Not unreasonable at all. I think some of the comments you're reading are not in direct response to your original post, but rather, just people going on tangents that are only sort of related to your post... i.e., like my posts about emailed receipts. I doubt the above quote was directed at you.

    Do not take offense, my friend!

  12. #42
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter Aeschliman View Post
    Mike, I'm not sure if you can sign up for email receipts on the web site. Looking through my account settings online, I don't see an option where I can opt in to emailed receipts. I had to sign up using the pin pad/card reader in the store.

    But maybe it's all linked so that if you have an email address associated with your credit card online, it will identify your email address at the register and give you the option. If so, that would be pretty slick.

    But you might need to do it next time you're in the store.
    I did a chat with the HD representative and she assured me that if I registered for the HD website (which I was already registered on) and if I put in the credit card I planned to use, they would tie the purchase to me through the credit card and email me a receipt.

    She also said that I could register multiple credit cards. I had an old credit card on the account - I hadn't checked the account in a long time. But we shall see the next time I buy something there.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  13. #43
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter Aeschliman View Post
    Tip: sign up to have your receipts emailed to you. I assume this is an option for everybody, but here in Seattle, you can do an email receipt.

    For credit card purchases, it remembers my email address and the prompter asks me if I want my receipt emailed to me. For cash purchases, I assume you have to re-type your email address each time, but if you're worried about the above scenario, this is the only way to go. Or just keep your receipt. Or just us a credit card (i personally go this route since I want the airline miles and I don't like to carry cash).

    Good to know though!
    I was going to say basically the same thing. I use my CC and opt for an email receipt every time at HD. If I pay cash and don't keep my receipt, I don't expect to be able to return it. And I dump my email receipts in an Outlook folder named Receipts. 42 so far in the last 18 months.
    NOW you tell me...

  14. #44

    Another possibility

    is the experience described above is an outlier. It it reasonable to believe with the tens of thousands of transactions processed each day the system might hiccup once in a while. I just spoke with someone fairly high up in the local store and they haven't experienced any problems. Further with all the Creekers apparently nobody else has experienced a similar situation. My guess is a system glitch and much ado about nothing.

  15. #45
    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Arruda View Post
    It is interesting to me when people make straw man arguments without considering the facts in a situation, especially when said arguments are meant to degrade others and place oneself higher.
    No, the whole point here isn't to insult you or anyone else, it's to make you realize what's really going on here. Most companies track returns with no receipts because a sizeable percentage of people who do that regularly are stealing from the company, either shoplifting or buying stolen merchandise online and then returning it to the store, either for a cash refund or a store credit. This is loss prevention for these companies and HD is hardly the only one that does it. I know that Target, for a long time, had a policy that you could only return so many things without a receipt per year, after which, they just wouldn't take any more back.

    I know that Lowes, if you use your Lowes credit card, can just look up your receipt online and there's no harm. I would assume that HD could do the same thing with their own credit cards. For other cards, obviously, they have no access to that information. Obviously, the best option is to just keep your receipts, have them e-mailed to you, take pictures of them, etc. You will have no problem getting a return if you do. Getting mad at HD because they have perfectly valid security concerns is more than a little silly.

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