I have been a loyal Home Depot customer for many years, and still am, but lately I seem have been getting more misses on my interactions with them.
I bought into the Ryobi 18v One+ tool line over 15 years ago, and for a homeuser/DIYer, they have been great tools. I have never had a single Ryobi tool fail me before the warranty period expired. I have worn out a few Ryobi tools, but only years after the warranty period was up. So, great for Home Depot and the Ryobi tools. Unfortunately, it seems all the great Ryobi tool sales are now few and far between. Anybody know if this is just a result of the whole COVID situation, or is this going to be the norm from now on?
Recently, I got a new Home Depot consumer credit card (you are allowed 3 HD cards). Anyway, it's been nothing but a problem. I was supposed to get $25.00 off my first purchase with the billing, but that did not happen. So I called the credit card company and they told me that nobody had entered the $25.00 credit, but that they would now and I should see the credit in 2-3 billing cycles.
I attempted to link my new HD credit card to my years long HD account, where you can manage all your cards and set up autopayments, etc... For some reason(s), my new card cannot be linked to my existing account. I have spent about 2 hours, online, on the phone, and in the store trying to get this situation corrected, but still the problem remains.
The Home Depot online chat used to be (a few years ago) very helpful. It's not anymore. I spent 30 minutes on line trying to get somewhere on my new credit card situation but that was a total waste of time.
Even something as simple as trying to make a change in my telephone number turned out to be a Herculean task. I recently canceled our landline telephone and now just have a new cell phone. I tried to update my new phone number, but the autobot for HD insisted on sending me a verification text for the change - to my now canceled landline that could not receive texts - and when that could not happen, everything just errored out. Who wrote that program to call/text your old telephone number to verify that you have a new telephone number?
I know I'm old, but I do miss the days when you could call customer service and someone there was trained well enough to assist you. I have come to hate lots of these idiot autobots that just err out when something does not fit their programming.
Anyways, I'm going to leave on some positive notes for HD. I went into town today and talked to one of our local customer reps, a nice lady who has been there for years. She was there when I put in the initial order for my tools on the new credit card and was aware that I was concerned about the whole $25.00 credit not being honored. I specifically mentioned that to her when I picked up the order in the store. So, today, about a month later, my $25.00 credit had never been entered into the system, my new credit card cannot be linked to my existing account, etc... I asked her to relay my concerns to her management so maybe someone, somewhere, will attempt to improve our customer experience. She said she would, and for today, she told me that she would give me a $25.00 credit on any purchase.
I found a $120.00 microwave oven on clearance for $71.00 and when I checked out with her, she said she would knock off the $25.00 credit I was due and an additional $5.00 for, just because. So I left Home Depot with a new $120.00 microwave oven paying only $41.00. What's not to like about that?
BTW, BYC forums sometimes has ads for Home Depot. Those sales might not be available in your local store. However, I printed the BYC page with the ad and brought it to the store, and they honored the online ad, which saved me about $20 on the item I bought. That was nice.
Just rambling tonight. Would love to hear anybody else's HD experience and if you have noticed a change good/bad in their service.
I bought into the Ryobi 18v One+ tool line over 15 years ago, and for a homeuser/DIYer, they have been great tools. I have never had a single Ryobi tool fail me before the warranty period expired. I have worn out a few Ryobi tools, but only years after the warranty period was up. So, great for Home Depot and the Ryobi tools. Unfortunately, it seems all the great Ryobi tool sales are now few and far between. Anybody know if this is just a result of the whole COVID situation, or is this going to be the norm from now on?
Recently, I got a new Home Depot consumer credit card (you are allowed 3 HD cards). Anyway, it's been nothing but a problem. I was supposed to get $25.00 off my first purchase with the billing, but that did not happen. So I called the credit card company and they told me that nobody had entered the $25.00 credit, but that they would now and I should see the credit in 2-3 billing cycles.
I attempted to link my new HD credit card to my years long HD account, where you can manage all your cards and set up autopayments, etc... For some reason(s), my new card cannot be linked to my existing account. I have spent about 2 hours, online, on the phone, and in the store trying to get this situation corrected, but still the problem remains.
The Home Depot online chat used to be (a few years ago) very helpful. It's not anymore. I spent 30 minutes on line trying to get somewhere on my new credit card situation but that was a total waste of time.
Even something as simple as trying to make a change in my telephone number turned out to be a Herculean task. I recently canceled our landline telephone and now just have a new cell phone. I tried to update my new phone number, but the autobot for HD insisted on sending me a verification text for the change - to my now canceled landline that could not receive texts - and when that could not happen, everything just errored out. Who wrote that program to call/text your old telephone number to verify that you have a new telephone number?
I know I'm old, but I do miss the days when you could call customer service and someone there was trained well enough to assist you. I have come to hate lots of these idiot autobots that just err out when something does not fit their programming.Anyways, I'm going to leave on some positive notes for HD. I went into town today and talked to one of our local customer reps, a nice lady who has been there for years. She was there when I put in the initial order for my tools on the new credit card and was aware that I was concerned about the whole $25.00 credit not being honored. I specifically mentioned that to her when I picked up the order in the store. So, today, about a month later, my $25.00 credit had never been entered into the system, my new credit card cannot be linked to my existing account, etc... I asked her to relay my concerns to her management so maybe someone, somewhere, will attempt to improve our customer experience. She said she would, and for today, she told me that she would give me a $25.00 credit on any purchase.
I found a $120.00 microwave oven on clearance for $71.00 and when I checked out with her, she said she would knock off the $25.00 credit I was due and an additional $5.00 for, just because. So I left Home Depot with a new $120.00 microwave oven paying only $41.00. What's not to like about that?
BTW, BYC forums sometimes has ads for Home Depot. Those sales might not be available in your local store. However, I printed the BYC page with the ad and brought it to the store, and they honored the online ad, which saved me about $20 on the item I bought. That was nice.
Just rambling tonight. Would love to hear anybody else's HD experience and if you have noticed a change good/bad in their service.
Yeah, I got my new HD credit card to save $25.00 promo on a purchase. Eventually, I got the $25.00, but I have already put in about 2 hours of time trying to get this new card linked into my HD account. So was my 2 hours of time worth the $25.00? Not if I was working on the clock for someone else.
