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Report: #284023

Complaint Review: Home Depot - Nationwide

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Seabrook New Hampshire
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • Home Depot USA Nationwide U.S.A.

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This report is opinion and my sole interpretation of events.

I refused to pay $4000. in fraudulent charges that Home Depot Credit Card Services billed me. The company never reported me as delinquent to the credit reporting agencies. In other words, they never touched my credit rating.

Home Depot was accused of "fraud" by the Connecticut Attorney General. Home Depot settled the case by agreeing to pay Connecticut $300,000. and refunding customers. Home Depot did not admit guilt. If you live in that state, you may get a refund if Home Depot, at this time, feels inclined to obey the law and honor an agreement. Call the Attorney General if you didn't get it.

If you live in Maine (207 626-8800) or New Hampshire (603 271-3658) call the attorney general in your state. They know about the Connecticut settlement. They will not do anything unless about 5-10 people call.

If you live in another state, get a copy from the Connecticut Attorney General's office (or from ME or NH) and give it to your Attorney General or elected official. Tell them they they may also be able to get a large settlement from Home Depot as well as help you get the money that you believe you are owed.

If you are wondering why you haven't heard about the fraud charges, call up your local newspaper and ask them how much it costs to take out a full page ad. Home Depot buys many full page ads. Newspapers are free to ignore news. Newspapers are not licensed. They are not required to report bad news about their corporate customers or 'bite the hand that feeds them".

If you are wondering why law enforcement officials have done nothing to protect you from fraud committed by big corporations, think about that bumper sticker that says "end corporate rule" and Ralph Nader's statement, "we are in the midst of a corporate crime wave".

Once again, all statements herein are opinion and my sole interpretation of events. Confirm any statements by independent means.

Allen
Seabrook, New Hampshire
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/09/2007 10:27 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/home-depot/nationwide/home-depot-credit-card-services-fraud-nationwide-284023. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#2 Consumer Comment

Still not surprising....

AUTHOR: Bart - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, November 10, 2007

that your alleged complaint and failure to state actual facts as it pertains to you have nothing to do with the statements you made about the court cases. And it really wasn't that hard to find. The court case you site also only covers the years 2000-2003. Last I looked, it's now 2007.

Attorney General, DCP, Sen. Duff Announce $672,000 Settlement With Home Depot, Bank For Credit Card Practices

April 27, 2006


Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) Commissioner Edwin R. Rodriguez and state Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk today announced that Home Depot and its banking partner have agreed to pay Connecticut and state consumers $672,000 for credit card payment practices that unfairly increased consumers' interest costs.

Connecticut is the first state to reach a settlement with Home Depot and GE Capital over the practice, which affected consumers nationwide.

Under the settlement, Home Depot and the new owner of Monogram Credit Card Bank of Georgia, GE Capital Corporation, agreed to pay the state $350,000 and at least 8,000 Connecticut consumers $322,000 in restitution.

Home Depot periodically offers customers "no interest/no payment" purchases on the store's credit card. Consumers are charged no interest on a specific purchase for a certain time period - typically a year to 18 months. The store failed from 2000 to 2003 to properly inform many consumers that most of their payments would automatically be allocated toward the interest-free purchase. As a result, many consumers who carried Home Depot credit card balances and took advantage of "no interest/no payments" promotions paid more interest than necessary. The chain also failed to fully disclose that consumers could change how their payment was allocated.

"What seemed like a great break became a big fake - after Home Depot hammered more than 8,000 Connecticut consumers with extra interest costs," Blumenthal said. "Home Depot unfairly reaped revenue from consumers who trusted the company's 'no interest' pitch, only to be charged interest. The company failed to tell consumers that they could pay down interest-incurring debt first, saving themselves significant costs. The message: consumers deserve full benefit of the deals they are promised."

"Consumers were shortchanged with this misleading 'no payment/no interest' plan. In reality, it ended up in many cases costing them more in the long run, with additional interest charged to their accounts," Rodriguez said. "Consumers should really pay attention to the terms and conditions of any credit offer, and always read the fine print before signing up. After the sale, it's equally important that buyers thoroughly review their monthly bills to make sure they are getting the full advantage of the promotion."

"I'm always pleased when I can be of service to my constituents from Norwalk and Darien," Sen. Duff said. "It's encouraging that stores which bully customers and use unethical sales tactics are brought to light. I appreciate Attorney General Blumenthal's work on this issue and look forward to working with him more in the future on matters such as this."

Consumers are receiving restitution ranging from pennies to $100, depending on the size of their balances and other factors.

The $350,000 payment to the state will go into the General Fund.

The settlement forbids the companies from advertising their credit programs as "no interest/no payment" in the future, unless those credit programs truly are "no interest" and "no payment."

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#1 Consumer Comment

Odd. Story is eeriely backward.

AUTHOR: Bart - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, November 10, 2007

Former IRS employee charged in Home Depot fraud

By Associated Press

BOSTON - Federal prosecutors say Robert Dooley had an unusual way of persuading Home Depot clerks that he could be trusted when returning stolen merchandise for store credit cards: he flashed his Internal Revenue Service identification badge.

Over the course of three years, Dooley allegedly stole more than $330,000 from the home improvement chain by returning stolen goods for the credit cards, then selling those cards at a discount, court documents said. He was charged Thursday with 12 counts of wire fraud in connection with the scam.

Dooley has been serving a state sentence in connection with the Home Depot thefts since October 2005.

In court documents, prosecutors allege that between May 2002 and October 2005, Dooley stole more than 300 items from Home Depot stores in nine states and returned them for store credit. Dooley, 47, formerly of Salem, worked as a clerk at the IRS service center in Andover from February 2001 to September 2002.

Typically, prosecutors said, Dooley would visit a store, put several items in a shopping cart and take them to the return desk. He would tell the clerk he wanted to return the items, but didn't have a sales receipt.

Although Home Depot allowed people to return items without receipts, clerks required customers to show photo identification when doing so. Prosecutors said Dooley would show his IRS badge as proof of his identity, and would sometimes tell the clerk that he was "trustworthy" because he worked for the IRS.

A spokesman for Atlanta-based Home Depot, Jerry Shields, had no immediate comment Thursday. Dooley's attorney, Oscar Cruz, also did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The wire fraud charges stem from the fact that each time Dooley returned an item he had not purchased, store credit information was transmitted by wire and stored electronically in a Home Depot computer server located outside Massachusetts.

Dooley is accused of stealing merchandise from Home Depot stores in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Rhode Island, Texas and Oklahoma. He was apprehended in October 2005 while attempting to return items he allegedly had stolen from a Home Depot store in Reading.

If convicted of the federal charges, Dooley faces up to 20 years in prison.

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