Employees' confusion with appliance rebates & financing

Posted Mon April 28, 2008 12:00 pm, by David S. written to Home Depot, Inc.

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This all took place at Store in Anytown, USA.

On April 19, 2008 my wife and I went to the above Home Depot to purchase a new range and dishwasher for our first home, on which we had just closed. It took a bit of convincing to persuade my wife to make this purchase at Home Depot because we had a previous problem with our Home Depot credit card where a 0% financing offer on a gas grill was not honored. The friendliness of the employees was enough to assuage my wife's fears of again shopping at HD and we received a rather large credit limit which we were pretty eager to utilize at HD to make our new house a "home."

We became a little wary again when it came up that there were rebates offered on the GE appliances ($100 off the purchase of 2 GE appliances $299 and up) that we purchased but we explained our past HD experience to the sales associate and she assured us that everything would work out fine with our rebates and 0% financing on the appliances. We were satisfied with her insistence that things would be okay and we agreed to purchase the range and dish washer and received our rebate forms with the appliances.

When we approached the checkout counter with our purchase order for the appliances we were told that the 0% financing offer we were promised was no longer available (flashbacks to the gas grill incident with HD) but a few calls were made and we were given the 0% financing on the appliances (that, however, remains to be seen when the first credit statement arrives.)

We paid for both appliances to be delivered and and for the dishwasher to be installed. The rebate form from GE required the serial numbers from the delivered appliances so we waited for delivery to fill out those forms. Last night when we began to fill out the forms we discovered that the model numbers for BOTH appliances we purchased, despite what we were told by the associate, were NOT on the rebate sheet and therefor NOT eligible for the rebate from GE.

This morning I called the HD where we made the purchase and their advice (manager) was to repackage the appliances and bring them back and exchange them for models that are listed on the expired rebate sheet, and they would try to convince GE to honor the expired rebate. In other words, "Uninstall the appliances you paid to have installed, rent a truck, and redeliver the appliances you paid to have delivered. Purchase a more expensive model range and dish washer and hope that GE will honor an expired rebate." His other idea was an offer to contact GE and ask THEM to honor the rebate, and I think you can guess what GE's response was when I called him back and asked him how the call to GE went.

This is unacceptable and I am so disappointed that HD has had us over the barrel TWICE with similar issues (three times if you count this latest incident as TWO Home Depot indiscretions, namely the financing AND the rebate).

The fact of the matter is, as far as big-ticket purchases are concerned, Home Depot is batting 0 for 2 with my family. That is not good at all, and I do not think I want to play those odds any more. My excitement over being a new home-owner has been tainted a bit by this.

Our Home Depot account number is XXXX, take a look at that and you will see our purchase.

It really is a shame, because all of my smaller purchases at Home Depot are so pleasant. The staff is always very knowledgeable when it comes to tools, materials, appliances, etc. Basically everything besides the financial aspect of things. I'm not going to say this will keep me out of Home Depot forever, but my major appliance needs will most likely be handled elsewhere from now on.

I don't need Home Depot to do anything to try to fix this situation. I am fed up. The fact that this could not have been rectified at the store level is just asinine. I cannot believe I have to resort to writing a letter to the corporate office.

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UPDATE: Employees' confusion with appliance rebates & financing by amish1979 Posted Wed April 30, 2008 @ 1:05 PM First, for anyone contemplating contacting Home Depot through Planetfeedback, they no longer receive messages from PFB. After I sent them my complaint I got a canned response that said this is no longer a valid way of contacting them and would I please contact them via their website. Luckily I was able to just copy and paste what I posted here. This morning I received a response from a customer care representative named Nitya: ______________________________________________ Dear Mr. XXXX, Thank you for contacting The Home Depot Customer Care. We appreciate you taking the time to forward your concerns about the East Vancouver Home Depot store. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. We strive to hire, train and retain knowledgeable associates who will exceed our customers' expectations and we obviously missed the mark with you. We are committed to continual process improvements based on the input of our customers. Please know that the feedback you have provided is taken seriously and will be used in the overall evaluation of the services we provide to our customers. We would like to offer you a $100 Home Depot gift card in the hope that your next shopping experience will be a more pleasurable one. In addition, it is our way to 'thank you' for taking the time to provide us with this feedback. Please confirm the physical address where you would like us to deliver the gift card. John Doe 1234 NE Main St Anytown, USA 12345 Again, please accept our apologies for the circumstances you encountered while shopping in our store. We look forward to your continued patronage and assisting you with all of your home improvement needs. Sincerely, Nitya Customer Care ___________________________________________________ Maybe they'll take this seriously. Reply Re: Employees' confusion with appliance rebates & financing by RedheadwGlasses Posted Mon April 28, 2008 @ 7:10 PM Excellent letter. And I don't see how you could have worked any harder to make sure everything would work out the way you had planned and the way HD employees said it would. And I don't believe those employees lied to you. I think they believed they were telling you the right thing. It's obvious that some serious training overhaul needs to take place at this location. Again, excellent letter. I have no words of wisdom for you, only hope that HD reaches out to you in some way and gives you another chance. I'll have a beer while we wait to see how THAT turns out. Reply