Home Depot Internet Store Fraud? ripoff Internet

Home Depot -- Fraud?

I bought a window a/c online from these people. I had trouble with it (it made a horrible racket and vibrated the whole house, practically). I talked with customer service and said I needed to return the item and wanted to try my luck with a different unit they had for sale on the website.

The trouble was it was on back order, and there was a 30-day limit on returns. The girl I talked to checked with her supervisor and got me a 90-day window for the return. So far so good. But you better plan to wait on hold for 45 minutes to an hour each time you talk to C/S. I am DEAD serious. They say they are working to correct the problem. (Who knows?)

I had to commit additional funds to purchase the new unit when it became available, then contact C/S again to arrange for a return of the old unit after the new unit shipped. I got the feeling the gal who took care of me would not have given me my return authorization number if I hadn't asked for it. She sounded like she was going to terminate the call without giving me my authorization.

Fortunately on a return the UPS driver gives you a ticket with the tracking number when she (or he) picks up the package and puts a label on it for you, so I was able to see when it was received by Home Depot and who had signed for it.

Now more waiting. A few days went by and there was no credit to my account so I called C/S again. Good thing I have a speaker phone, right? Otherwise I would have had gangrene in my ear by now. The gentleman was helpful. He did something that he said would force them at the warehouse to deal with this particular item post haste. Just don't look for anything to happen til early next week, he said. Ok, well it is the middle of "next week" and it finally showed up back on my account. So, you can get good service from these people if you try hard enough and wait your turn.

The "Fraud" remark above involves how they edited out the negatives from my product review, and in one case refused to publish it entirely. If fraud isn't the correct term, perhaps "crooked" is. Misleading business practices? You decide. I will publish the review of mine they published, then what I gave them in its entirety, and also the one they refused to print on their website. This is so you can take any product reviews customers write with lots of salt. Chances are they were heavily redacted to remove any serious negatives about product or service.


A Good Unit!, May 23, 2006
By Arthur from Wylie, Texas

"I got this as a replacement for a defective unit (5200 BTU; see review titled Dubious Purchase) and it is working nicely. It is quiet, for a window unit, and looks nice. It has one-degree accuracy settings. One small engineering point is that while it can operate in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, the engineers apparently didn't know that one degree C, isn't one real degree in F. but rather 1.8 degrees American. You forfeit some comfort if you display in Celsius.

Other than that, if this is in stock it will be a good buy. If it is on back order that may be another matter."



Here's what I really wrote in that second paragraph:

Other than that, if this is in stock it will be a good buy. If it is on back order that may be another matter. Just hope you never have to deal with customer service. A wait of 45 to 60 min. is normal. Emails take a week to get an answer. They promise they are trying to correct the matter. I hope that is true.


Here is the review they suppressed:

Dubious Purchase...

I bought this unit (or its equivalent) under the Maytag name. Home Depot has since pulled the unit and replaced it with this one. It's all the same company though, Fedders, Maytag, Airtemp. I thought I was being a smart and informed consumer by measuring the bedroom, selecting the size carefully so as to not overdo it, and go for the Energy-Star rating like a good little inhabitant of the planet.

Well, the unit made a horrible racket, and vibrated so much you could hear it two bedrooms away down the hall even with the doors closed. So I exchanged it for the Fedders model A6X06F2A (6000 btu). I didn't dare roll the dice on another one of these. I did a careful measurement of the room again. I had right at 144 sq. ft. -- the maximum for the 5200 btu unit is 150 sq. ft.

I reasoned that a little extra wouldn't hurt, and am I glad I did. The 800 btu difference in the next size up plus the lack of Energy Star rating meant only $8 per year in expected running cost. And let's face it. You only save real energy when the compressor isn't running. Err too much on the side of bigness, however, and you don't get enough dehumidification because the air doesn't move across the coils long enough to remove the moisture from the room.

Forget about the energy-saving feature being able to bring in cool outside air when possible, by the way. With units this size you forfeit your window when this is installed. There is no air exchanger. If you have only one window in the room as I do, you have no more contact with outside air. Period. Your window is sealed. You would have to go into a Fedders 8000 btu to have an air exchanger on it. But then, Home Depot doesn't even carry that model.

The Fedders unit I now have is soooo much quieter than the last one, though it can make weird noises once in a while when the compressor is running. Maybe it is the gas entering the coil that makes the noise. Like a low-frequency gurgling sound. But all in all, I'd say go for the greater cooling of the 6000 btu's and pass on the energy "saving."

Two fan speeds seem to be quite enough as well. A third speed is probably just Energy-Star window dressing.

Arthur
Wylie, Texas
U.S.A.

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