A lot depends on the store manager. I was lied to so many times regarding an appliance delivery that I cancelled the order. I was told I couldn't because it was 'special order'. It was just another lie. So I called corporate and explained what was happening. They told the same lie to the corporate lady. She was shocked because she could see it was an everyday warehouse item on her computer. It then took 10 more days for them to mail a check.

 

Several things. First of all, I've never been recommended to buy extra flooring. Thats just a matter of routine in construction. I've returned some extra boxes out of pallets with no issues whatsoever. You have to find the right person to talk to every time. Lowes doesn't compare to Home Depot IMO. Finally, Home Depot has saved me so much money using their 0% interest programs that it's not even funny. I've remodeled several places on their money. So, no complaints here but I had more than one at Lowes. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳

John Barth Jr.

 

If you cut twice and measure once or versa visa ,or visa versa ,get extra material .Also always get a Flooring Stretcher ,will help on EF UPS 😳👍🏻

 

I just went through purchasing several cases of lvp from them (enough for 4 apartments). They sold it in two ways, by the pallet and by the box. The pallet pricing was cheaper than the box. I purchased a pallet(s), then purchased by the box the extra that I needed to finish out the job(s). When things arrived, the pallet was a whole bunch of the boxes like you see on the store shelf, just stacked all up on a pallet. The individual boxes, which cost a little more due to no bulk discount, were also double boxed. The double boxing had the "store shelf" type of box and was then wrapped inside another larger plain brown shipping box for extra protection.

I'm not sure on how your stuff was delivered, but the pallet boxes would be difficult for them to take back as they are unprotected, and also cheaper than the by the individual box order type. I know what you are saying about how they recommend ordering extra as there is always waste pieces, but I also saw how stuff was shipped to me and understand why they wouldn't take back individual boxes out of a pallet.

 

The two pallets were just a bunch of individual boxes shrink-wrapped on a beat-up pallet. Here's the load I returned. I could see no difference between the cases, but I did expect to be refunded at the lower square-foot pallet price for the four. I'm probably "making a mountain out of a mole hill," but what an odd interchange with customer service. I wonder if it was an AI chatbot with no social skills.

 

Did you buy it on a credit card?

 

If so protest the charge

 

It sounds like part of your interaction was with a Bot.

This part is 100% AI:

"Bill,
You've not answered my question. You were refunded for 12 of 16 cases of flooring. Is that correct? Are you still in need of assistance? Please respond with an answer to the question we've asked. We look forward to your response. "

AI is still lacking in being able to respond to non-defined interaction. When you referred to being an old guy on SS it got confused because it couldn't identify any request or any data to process. You confused it with non-relevant information. The LLM they're using is not trained to discuss things like Social Security, being an Old Guy, etc... Your conversation got kicked out as the BOT could not continue to process your interaction with it and was then processed with human intervention and a real person refunded your money.

AI is getting better. There is CALM "Conversational AI Language Model" which is delivering much more interactive responses based on text prompts initiated by the user. These LLM's "Large Language Model" need to be trained properly in order to be able to respond with the user engaged in interaction. From what you have showed the process isn't perfect at this time but the interaction did end up with a real person looking at the issue and did in the end refund your money for the product you returned.

I'm not in any way saying you or Home Depot did anything wrong. I'm just pointing out how the technology involved with your interaction comes into play.

 

To hell with AI and that nonsense. I talk to someone face to face or not at all. Anytime I call about balances or due dates I always bypass the “automatic” system and get to a customer service rep. I know it’s coming more and more but I bypass it whenever possible. I won’t buy anything from a robot. Would you? 🇺🇸

 

Store employees need to clearly communicate store policies with regards to returns on special order items. Customers need to listen and ask questions.
problems always arise when there's no communication. And yes, this has happened to me in the past.

 

Store employees need to clearly communicate store policies with regards to returns on special order items. Customers need to listen and ask questions.
problems always arise when there's no communication. And yes, this has happened to me in the past.

Most store employees don't know the policies and those that do are often lacking in communication skills to be able to articulate those policies. These employees are working hard for little pay. They have no incentive to be proactive with providing the best customer experience. Some are stellar and go way beyond in providing assistance but the majority are people that could care less. They don't care about your refund, if what you purchased was the correct item, etc.. They show up, do the minimum, and go home. I don't blame them but it's not the way I've always done the job I've had. I believe in going the extra mile to satisfy the customer. But I'm just a small business and anything else drives clients away. Home Depot is so large and quite often the only supplier for a particular product or service that you have no choice but to do business with them. They can call the shots, dictate the terms, and use whatever methods they want for Customer Service.

 

Which is worse, an AI bot or a phone tree; 'Press 1 for yes'.

 

They have gotten tighter on returns w/o receipts. I had a bunch of unused fencing hardware from last summer but no receipt. They would only refund a certain %, even though it was purchased on the same card, and the refund was for in-store credit. I didn't complain because a year is a long time--I found a box of the stuff when cleaning out my shed. Since their records showed that I had returned things w/o a recept a year ago, a bunch of drip irrigation stuff, they warned me that this would be the last time. I'm not very good about saving receipts for oddball stuff and they never seemed to care in the past as long as it was being refunded to the same card. Oh well, buyers beware.

 

People walk out with stuff then take it to a different store for a refund. No receipt? No problem.

 

I bought a washer and dryer set from them and had bought multiple other appliances over the years. I’d call the washer and dryer purchase and delivery about a half a notch above fraud and that half a notch was because they refunded me a small fraction of what they cost me through their direct lies. I will never ever ever use their delivery service again.

Jerry Mott

 

Yes there delivery people I have seen are pretty Sketch but so is Costco's.

 

I had a stellar experience buying a hot water heater from Lowes. They delivered it in under 2 hours and hauled the old one away for free.