The Home Depot — Local services in Burton

Tried to buy lumber today around 4:45. Failed.

I bought lumber a week ago but it turned out to be the wrong size. So, I brought it back to return it.

I mistakenly assumed that you could return lumber at the lumber desk on the north end of the store. I loaded everything onto a cart and rolled in the door, got a dirty look from a female employee who was standing near the counter. I said “I need to make a return”. She said “we don’t do returns here”. I said “oh, ok...” and she said “you have to go to customer service at the other end of the store”.

Fair enough, my mistake. I felt like she didn’t have to be so snarky about it, but alright, I’ll own this one.

Went to customer service and returned the wood. Customer service lady was super nice and took care of me quickly.

Went back to lumber in search of the right size boards. Couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I returned to the lumber counter and waited in line. Finally it was my turn and the same snarky woman from earlier was manning the register. She was turned away from me and asked if she could help me... so I said “I guess I don’t know how the process here works, but I need 10 2x10x10’s.”

She said “you just get a cart and go find it.”

I said “I’ve been all over and I don’t see that size on the shelves.” Surely Home Depot has 2x10x10, right?

She pointed to an older man who was assisting a customer and said “go ask him. I don’t usually work over here.”

I said ok and went over there and waited for him to get done helping the other customer.

Finally he was done and began to walk right past me. I got his attention and asked about the lumber I needed. He said “oh you’ll have to ask the lumber guy” (he was literally JUST assisting a customer with lumber... so... what?)

“Lumber guy” is walking past us in a hurry, so the older man asks him about the wood I need. Without breaking stride, “lumber guy” says “it should be on that wall”, points behind himself and keeps walking. You see, lumber guy had been assisting a very pretty lady the entire time I was wandering around looking for what I needed, and was not about to be interrupted on his mission, so he definitely didn’t have time to assist.

Older man takes me over to “that wall” and shows me 2x10x10 at $16 a piece. I tell him I’m just looking for cheapo construction timbers to build garden beds. He says he doesn’t know if they have anything else.

I say thanks and take my leave.

Off to Menards. Walk up to lumber counter. “I need 10 2x10x10’s”. He punches some stuff into the computer, prints out a purchase order, says “drive out back and hand this to the gate attendant”. I pay, then I drive out back. Gate attendant says “wood is over there, there’s someone in there who will help you.” I go “over there”, the someone helps me, and I’m on my way. Took maybe 10 minutes. I was at Home Depot for over 20 minutes and left empty handed.

I guess Menards gets my business...

Melissa in Appliances will not follow up on calls she promises to make. We then arrived at the store later that morning and she told us everything she and her home depot would NOT do before even looking at our account.

Brandy the manager, without even looking at your account or the date of purchase, will also inform you of everything they will NOT do first.

However, Customer Service Corperate Office already confirmed that due to the circumstances of our appliance purchase (home depot credit card purchase) and the time frame that our return/refund would be honored for the defective product. However the physical locations will NOT HONOR thier own policies even after corperate customer service had already confirmed. Even trying to make us go to a location out in auburn hills where the order origionated, but corperate customer service said we could go to any home depot location. Managment at Burton even attempted to say we had to use thier service center for repairs, like taking more money from us from a faulty/defective product made sense.

The appliance issue is classified as defective and under the return/refund policy. Confirmed by corperate customer service. This was our 7th physical trip to the store, the last 2 times no one was even working in appliance to help us and we waited for 20 minutes to be told this. Today they had us do the run around of different staff to actually talk to Melissa the manager in Applicances. I will NEVER shop here again. BEST BUY HONORS thier policies and actually has human being working that want to work with you. Dont shop Home Depot, even your home depot credit card purchases will not be honored. This experience was ridiculous and a joke. DO NOT GO HERE. Buy from BEST BUY and make sure you read over the return policies and save your receipts. Shoot even Menards offers personal protection plans to purchase and honors those too. Home Depot is NOT worth this hassle. Never again will we buy an appliance or any product...

I purchased over $5000 of Lifeproof flooring from the Burton MI store. Nearly four (4) full pallets. I purchased through the pro desk. Nick at the pro desk was fantastic getting the order put together and figuring out what I needed. Lifeproof products tells you to purchase 10% more than you need. I did. Upon returning the additional boxes, the Burton Asst. Manager Jeremy informed me that I would have to be charged a “restocking fee” of 15%! This included a box that was clearly damaged by a forklift! I pointed this out to the Asst. Manager to no avail. The product I purchased is sold in Home Depot stores. This is where my wife and I found the sample boards. The restocking fee came to $97.86. It’s not the amount of money I was charged that is the problem…it’s just incredibly poor customer service. The Home Depot is going to charge me an EXTRA FEE, for a product that is a stock item in their stores. I even asked for a STORE CREDIT for the entire return of $691.48, because I’m so confident of the amount of money I spend at Home Depot every year. Instead they refunded my credit card $593.62. As a customer I have other store choices, like LOWE’S and MENARDS. You’d think Home Depot wouldn’t squabble over $97.86, but apparently they are that petty.

Update

After explaining to the Area Manager, Don M., he agreed with me that it was petty to charge a restocking fee. Especially, considering that it is a stock item. He had me stop by later in the day to get a refund of $103 and change. So apparently the attempt to charge me the extra fee included sales tax, but I did leave a happy customer.

Thanks Don! Your customer service was...