I have been a loyal customer of Lowe's for several years. In the past I have been very satisfied with Lowe's. In fact, two weeks ago I opened up a Lowe's credit card to make a big ticket item purchase that I was very satisfied with.

On Saturday, December 10, I drove 25 minutes to my nearest Lowe's to buy a tool chest as a Christmas present for my husband. It was advertised in your flier and above the picture of the tool chest was the following:

"Purchase any Kobalt storage chest or cabinet up to $400 and receive a $50 gift card or purchase any Kobalt storage chest or cabinet over $400 and receive a $100 gift card, via mail-in rebate. Valid 11/14-12/24/05. See store for details."

The advertisement clearly showed the tool chest I wanted "4-Drawer Mechanic's Chest #220780 $99". This led me to believe that it qualified for the $50 rebate since it fell into the category of "any Kobalt tool chest up to $400".

I got on line and asked the cashier if I had to purchase a gift card and then get a rebate for it, or if I would just get one in the mail. She said a form would print out and then I would get the gift card in the mail. After I made the purchase we waited for the form to print. Nothing. She asked to see the flier and after reading it she agreed that I should've gotten a rebate form so she called over a department manager. The manager also looked at the flier and concluded that I should get a rebate form. He decided to talk to someone in "tool world" to see if there was some sort of tear off that I needed to activate the rebate during the sale. I told him that there were no details anywhere near the tool boxes and it was very hard to find someone to even put the item into my cart for me.

He returned 10 minutes later (I was now holding up a pregnant cashier from taking her lunch break). He had a paper that described the rebate in more detail. I'm not sure where he got this paper from, but it said that the purchase had to be between "$200-$398" to get the $50 rebate. He said that because the flier said "see store for details" we had to go by the paperwork he'd found. I pointed out the flier again and he agreed that it was misleading. He left to talk to a manager and came back and said there was nothing they could do.

At this point, I had already paid for the purchase. The cashier explained that I could wait on the customer service line and return it if I didn't want it, but at this point I just wanted to go home.

I'd like Lowe's to honor the misleading advertisement in their flier and send me the $50 gift card that I thought I would get by making this purchase. Had I known I would not be receiving the gift card with this purchase, I may have purchased a better tool chest at a competitor for the same price. Or, I may have put off the purchase of a tool chest I'd made for my father at a competitor just two weeks before so that I could reach the $200 needed for this particular rebate at Lowe's.