The Home Depot — Attraction in Washington

I had an extremely frustrating and needlessly drawn-out customer service experience at this Home Depot, especially with the tool rental department and its manager, Toni. I rented a gas pressure washer that began smoking heavily and shut down on its own within minutes. I stopped using it immediately and returned it the next day. When I explained the issue, Toni acknowledged the failure but refused a refund. She said I should have contacted the store immediately when the issue occurred. The problem was that by the time I got home and set up the equipment, the rental department had already closed. When I explained this, she said I should have called first thing the next morning, even though I had to go into work early and wasn’t available to call until lunch. I called in the early afternoon, the first chance I had. Toni dismissed this call as too late, and her justification for denying the refund kept shifting. None of her expectations had been communicated to me beforehand. She was inflexible and dismissive throughout. It felt like I was being scammed out of my money for a tool I could not use.

Toni offered only a partial refund, covering about four hours of the 24-hour rental. According to her, I would get back only one sixth of the cost. This was unacceptable, as I was never able to use the tool. Home Depot failed to provide the service I paid for, and I was entitled to a full refund. Toni did not budge. She asked if I had purchased Equipment Protection. I did not believe I had, because the rental clerk the day prior had never informed me about the protection option and simply added it to the rental total without my knowledge. Toni insisted that staff are required to offer it when issuing the contract. Regardless, I was never informed, and the documents I signed did not make it clear I had purchased it. Toni said I was now in “extra trouble” for not having this coverage, and would be responsible for the costs of repairing the defective equipment. After threatening these additional charges, she then claimed she would waive the damage fees as a courtesy. But when I reviewed the receipt, I saw: No discount had been given. The “refund” was just the return of my security deposit. I had purchased Equipment Protection after all. Toni likely realized this but chose not to mention it, possibly to make it seem like she was doing me a favor.

The next day, I filed a BBB complaint and disputed the charge through American Express. Only then did I receive a call from a corporate rep, who asked if I would accept store credit. I declined, explaining I no longer planned to shop at Home Depot. She said she would escalate the issue to the store.

Later, I got a call from Kevin, another manager at this location. He said the rental contract had been closed and that the store could only offer an in-store credit. I explained again that an in-store credit, especially one that required an in-person visit and could not be used online, was not acceptable. Despite agreeing the equipment was defective and unusable, Kevin still refused to offer anything else.

After continued pressure and over a week of follow-up, Kevin finally agreed to issue me a refund by check. Had I not paid with a credit card that allowed me to dispute the charge, I highly doubt I would have gotten my money back. Even now, despite being told on June 12 that the check had been processed and would arrive in 14 days, it has been over six weeks and I still have not received it. I have not heard anything more from the store or corporate. At this point, I do not believe the check is coming. This feels like a fitting conclusion to a long, frustrating experience in which Home Depot did everything it could to avoid issuing a refund for unusable equipment.

This was one of the most exhausting customer service experiences I have ever had. If you rent from this location and something goes wrong, do not expect fairness or accountability. You will have to fight tooth and nail just to be treated with...

The customer service is awful - absolutely awful. It takes a really long time to try to get through to the millwork department -I've been on the phone for around 10 or more minutes, only to have someone hang up on me - this happened around 3 times over the course of several days. So I went to the store this weekend - hoping to place the order for 3 doors - (I was told that none of the specialists in the millwork department were working and that they don't work weekends - how is the customer supposed to know this?) so a specialist had to be pulled in from another department -he said another department had to be asked a question about the design of one set of doors and millwork would get back to me today. It still has not happened - no one from millwork even called me today - so I called trying to get through to millwork and was on the phone for over 15 minutes -I could not get through as I was kept waiting - so I called to make a complaint and waited over 5 minutes before the phone hung up. This whole process is delaying the order being placed. There does not appear to be accountability - and one of the managers seemed to have an attitude when I tried to complain about the service on Sunday. Something is really, really wrong with the store in terms of the process and the larger company in terms of being able to register a complaint and hold the store accountable. Later on in the day yesterday, I received an order from Millwork and it was wrong in a significant way - it had the doors, that I told the specialist on Sunday that I specifically did not want. I tried to call millwork again and I could not get through, I could only get through to its answering machine. When I called to complain - the people were unhelpful -one Home Depot agent promising to transfer me to a live person transferred me to the Indiana Store, instead of the DC Store, where person told me that their specialists do work on the weekends.

Update 5/21 - Can you believe that Home Depot several weeks ago called and said that they could not hold the doors at their store anymore and would need to deliver them where they would be installed -I gave the employee a date when the doors could be delivered - and she said that she would need to confirm and would get back with us as to whether the doors could be delivered. She never got back to us - and the doors were delivered unexpectedly and just sat outside of the house - where anyone could steal them or damage them. I've called several times to Home Depot to inquire about this and see if the doors could be taken back and stored until installation. I've spoken to several managers who claimed that they would look into it- at least one admitted that the delivery was improper - as the installers were not even informed that the doors had been delivered. Yet the manager has not even gotten back to me with a final resolution and the doors are still sitting outside of the house unsecured where anyone can damage them or steal them. The store proposed to either take the doors back and get some new ones - they were going to check into whether this could be done, or if their staff could come out to the location where they were delivered outside, and examine them to see if they are scratched or damaged. I wonder if any of the doors have moisture/water damage or mildew because the doors were placed outside - there have been several rains and some humid days - these doors were delivered over a week ago and still no resolution from Home Depot and sometimes, there are long wait times to speak...

It's OK. I want to give this place a five star because it's my local store, but I cannot. Whenever I go there for lumber they rarely have assorted lengths of hardwood and what they have do is so long that none of it is straight or flat. So it's 4 bucks a foot for crooked wood. My wife, unbeknownst to me, went there to get some wood for a display case she wanted me to make. They gave her slats that were twisted, cupped, and bowed. Adding insult to injury, only 4 of the ten were the same length. They do have a lot of clear wood there though. Unfortunately, they don't know how to price things. Their stuff costs more than listed on the internet and in other stores. It's mispriced. There is a chance that they just cut some length off to give to another customer and put back out of spec wood back. Either ways it's a rip-off. Lumber is not the only thing that is misoriced in this store. Routinely, I go to pay and things are more than where they're placed. Well why give them three stars? They have a good selection. The employees know where most common things are. The wood is generally where you'd expect. You don't have to go chasing through half the store to find something that should be beside an almost identical item. No hastle returns, reasonable customer service. Last complaint is that some things that seem normal.on their website are not actually in the store like the DeWalt 4 pack of trigger clamps or the Diablo 2-pack of 60t screws. They are good about honoring the price of the saw blades, but they will darn sure "fill" your two pack online order with one instead of two saw blades. They'll also adjust to the proper prices within reason, but it would be easier if they priced things accordingly and filled your order the way they should have. If you look out for yourself, you'll be fine, but really you shouldn't have to. Oh, also if you get wood cut here and you have your own saw make sure you give an inch on either side. There is no way they've sharpened that blade. That wood they picked and cut for my wife was chewed up...