Complaint Review: Home Depot - Atlanta Georgia

This letter will detail what I can best describe as a scam. I say this only after what I experienced and then further learned through perusing the internet only to find similar instances related by many, many people. One web site in particular was Consumer Affairs.

In Sept. of 2010 I purchased a water heater from the Statesville Home Depot store, which was also installed by them. I paid for a lifetime warranty ($99.53) which includes parts and labor.                      

  At the time of purchase and in the store itself, a manager named Dwayne took the time to register my purchase using the store’s computer. He assured me that I would never have to worry about retaining and showing a receipt, since the registration was permanently archived. I was never provided with any kind of document showing terms of warranty. At the time, I was told it was not necessary and I did not question it further. If I ever needed service all I would ever need to do would be to call the number which he gave me.  I watched while he did so and have no doubt that he did so. Well, in the very recent past I had service issues with other appliances unrelated to this issue and so I thought it would be wise to stop in the store and ask for some kind of official document. For the record, I do not have any service problem with the heater. All I wanted was an official document just in case something arises in the future. My expectation was that this would take a matter of minutes and I would be on my way. This is the beginning of the problem.

On Monday August 12^th 2013 I stopped into the Home Depot store in Statesville, N.C. to ask for some kind of print out that would show the terms of the warranty. I gave store personnel all of the personal information they asked for. After a protracted computer search which was undertaken by several store personnel, I was told that there is no record to show that I ever purchased a water heater and therefore there was no purchase of an extended warranty. Furthermore, they claimed that Home Depot could not have installed it since there is no record of that either. They informed me that there was nothing that they could do unless I could produce a receipt. I left the store to return home to search for the original sales receipt. I located the receipt and returned to the store within 1 hour. Upon showing the receipt to store personnel they agreed that it irrefutably showed that I did indeed buy the water heater with a lifetime warranty and also that they had installed it. They could not offer any plausible explanation as to why they had no record of same.

They proceeded to try to figure out who was responsible for the warranty coverage and made some phone calls while I looked on. They then located someone at the warranty provider who asked them to photo copy and fax over the documents that I provided. It was agreed to give them a day to sort through this and that I would return to the store the next day which I did.

On Tuesday August 13^th I returned to the store and met with Shane who elected to take care of me from the outset. He called the provider while I was there and put me on the phone with them. Inexplicably, the girl on the phone asked me to tell her what store I had purchased the water heater from and which store register was used. I say inexplicable because this information was already made available to them on the faxed over documents which they had received previously. Nonetheless, I read the information back to her. That person told Home Depot that they would have the necessary computer work and documentation internally authorized by them and completed by Wednesday August 14^th.

I went back to the store on Wednesday fully confident that all would be fine. I was wrong. On this day, Shane of Home Depot called the provider again, in front of me, and they told him that they needed one more day to do what was necessary. OK, I said I would return on Thursday.

I returned to the store on Thursday, and Home Depot again called the provider and they said to expect the warranty documents to be completed on Friday.

I returned to the store on Friday, not having a whole lot of confidence and Shane of Home Depot called the provider yet again. Their response to him was “We don’t know what is going on” which they shared with me.  

I returned to the store again on Tuesday August 20^th for the last time. I met with Trudy who is the Home Depot store manager as well as DJ and Shane. They admitted that there was little they could do about the issue, but that they would continue to investigate.

I have concluded that both Home Depot and the service provider failed to provide me with what I asked for and paid for simply because they don’t want to and there is no resolve on anyone’s part to do so.

It is now Wednesday August 28^th and nothing has changed. At first I had hoped that what had happened could be explained as something which had just fallen through the cracks, the result of human error. I have since researched the internet to find similar instances of complaints by so many people regarding Home Depot and extended warranties. It is now clear that these goings on are deliberate and by design as a means to generate huge cash flow while at the same time attempting to evade in part or in whole any financial liability. My contention is that Home Depot is participating in a scam. The only question that I have is whether they are wittingly or unwittingly doing so. I tried to communicate with an executive at Home Depot Corporation but was barred from doing so by a low level employee named Patricia Oalden. I hope you have better luck. The Home Depot buying public needs your help.

Update Sept 4 - I was notified that a new registration number has been issued. They still have not provided any certification of the terms of the warranty, which is what I asked for. This is now going on for almost 1 month.