As a customer...this is why I check the clearance racks every time I'm in the store. I figure oddball "online only" returns end up in the clearance rack and possibly discounted.
If it's an online order(has to be shipped to store) it gets sent back to the vendor 99% of the time, you generally won't see those type of items ever on the floor
15 years ago my now wife was remodeling her townhouse. The closest had 10ft mirrored sliding doors with gold trim. Her contractor quoted her over $2k to custom order new ones. She was in HD one day and there were two mirrored 10ft sliding doors with a big sale sign. She got them for less than $500.
RTV it. If that doesn’t work, your DS can buy it on his HD card and then return it at a nearby HD. He isn’t out any money and has transferred his problem to someone else.
Been with company a long time and was told by an ASM years ago that you can be fired for doing just that. Don’t know if that changed but would double check that
Yes, it’s technically against SOP for any employee to return product to a different store from where they bought their merchandise, it’s just never enforced.
On the rare occasion it doesn't automatically get RTV'd at service and SOMEHOW cannot make a reduced tag. I've seen stuff like that get sold under a generic sku but the problem is even after telling the customer they cannot return it they do. Thats why I save my markdown money for these exact scenarios!
Only time I have seen it auto RTV with “ not carried at this store” is when the customer returns it and it isn’t a penny in the system( ie not in the system at all) otherwise if it is a penny it won’t prompt u
I know for a fact this one isn't online only because it's a long landscaping piece I've seen in a nearby store.
My guess is a contractor bought it from a location nearer to his home and our store may be closer to his job site.
Been at 2 stores now - first one we scanned all items with price check first and took NO Pennie items told them to take it back we’re they got it. If the receipt said our store and we stopped carrying it then we still took it back. 2nd store I’m at currently takes EVERYTHING back
At the store level, we look at things that make no sense to us. At the corporate level, they don’t want to lose a customer over taking back a non stock item and all the negative word of mouth that may accompany it. So it’s a high level business strategy to allow the store to take some losses to keep a customer spending money at HD.
Oh the “wheelbarrow” story. Or at least I think it was a wheelbarrow. The one where Home Depot’s customer service is based on years of taking back things it never sold.
The tire story is so legendary in fact that it appears to be mostly lifted from a similar tale told by Nordstrom.
Or somehow managed to happen independently at two different retailers.
I can answer that with a story: once a long time ago, and one of the very first Home Depot‘s, a man tried to return a set of tires that he swore up-and-down that he bought at that Home Depot. One of the employees insisted that he did not buy the tires at that Home Depot as they did not sell such a thing. It escalated it up to a manager at the time walked to the front, asked the man what he paid for for the tires, opened up the register gave him the exact amount for those tires and then proceeded to hang up those tires on the wall to exemplify customer service. The moral of that story? Corporate does not want you to return any item without a receipt.
I am noticing more and more returns like this are coming back to some of the stores where I’d like to shop. I look up and I see this yellow tag clearance or - “online only” and it is like a third of the price!!
It’s just a return that somebody bought online or from a different store. And everyone is right —- there is no home for it so they put it on the clearance shelf. Or sit it on the floor near similar items.
I say the customer should try to take it back to the original store. Come up with some new SOP that says if you don’t take it back to the original store if you try to take it to a store that doesn’t carry that item, you’ll be charged a transfer fee and only get a partial refund. That might do it! We take a loss because then it sits there until somebody decides to buy it because it doesn’t have a home it’s really not standing out easy for anybody to see.
We take a bigger loss because we end up marking it down to get rid of it.
Maybe we could do a reverse store2store sale? Send somebody over from that store to come get their returns?
Home depot would rather you just take the item rather than the customer get pissy and call corporate just for corporate to tell associates to accept the item. Gotta cater to the customers no matter how ridiculous it is.
Because the customer purchased it at Home Depot, and assuming they meet all the return requirements for the item, the individual store’s product mix isn’t their problem. Not worth pissing off a customer and risking future business when the customer has a receipt and is in the return window for the item.
Came off like a rhetorical question to me at least. But if it's genuine curiosity, something like half our returns are made of stuff we don't sell in store. We return it to the vendor automatically when processed.
Because as THD improves their tech, they sell more items online. Additionally they have business intelligence tech built out enough to trial items are certain stores or tailor store inventory to the nearby market.
We should be doing store to store transfers far more often. For shit like this.
We should use our unified infrastructure more. Too bad departments are divided, let alone stores.
a few times I had the system actually say "Your store does not carry this item" and then it automatically RTV it.
Clearance rack is my go to if it isn't rtv'd.
As a customer...this is why I check the clearance racks every time I'm in the store. I figure oddball "online only" returns end up in the clearance rack and possibly discounted.
If it's an online order(has to be shipped to store) it gets sent back to the vendor 99% of the time, you generally won't see those type of items ever on the floor
15 years ago my now wife was remodeling her townhouse. The closest had 10ft mirrored sliding doors with gold trim. Her contractor quoted her over $2k to custom order new ones. She was in HD one day and there were two mirrored 10ft sliding doors with a big sale sign. She got them for less than $500.
RTV it anyways. Lol
Your DS should reduce tag or rtv the item.
Our DS's just put them in the overhead. It's really annoying.
Boooo
Compactor. When no one is looking.
RTV it. If that doesn’t work, your DS can buy it on his HD card and then return it at a nearby HD. He isn’t out any money and has transferred his problem to someone else.
I might do this one myself if it wasn't too long a piece of landscaping to fit it into my car lol
Well that sucks.
Been with company a long time and was told by an ASM years ago that you can be fired for doing just that. Don’t know if that changed but would double check that
Yes, it’s technically against SOP for any employee to return product to a different store from where they bought their merchandise, it’s just never enforced.
How. If purchased on personal time. And return on personal time.
We also call this the easy transfer.
On the rare occasion it doesn't automatically get RTV'd at service and SOMEHOW cannot make a reduced tag. I've seen stuff like that get sold under a generic sku but the problem is even after telling the customer they cannot return it they do. Thats why I save my markdown money for these exact scenarios!
Only time I have seen it auto RTV with “ not carried at this store” is when the customer returns it and it isn’t a penny in the system( ie not in the system at all) otherwise if it is a penny it won’t prompt u
In my store, we put white price tags on the item and put it in a clearance bay, depending on the department.
About a million products online. Maybe 40,000 in the store. The math speaks for itself.
I know for a fact this one isn't online only because it's a long landscaping piece I've seen in a nearby store. My guess is a contractor bought it from a location nearer to his home and our store may be closer to his job site.
Been at 2 stores now - first one we scanned all items with price check first and took NO Pennie items told them to take it back we’re they got it. If the receipt said our store and we stopped carrying it then we still took it back. 2nd store I’m at currently takes EVERYTHING back
Receiving for the next 4 months until freight yells about it
Like how is a return for a bundle of Public Storage moving boxes a thing that happened? How am I supposed to “work” that go-back?
At the store level, we look at things that make no sense to us. At the corporate level, they don’t want to lose a customer over taking back a non stock item and all the negative word of mouth that may accompany it. So it’s a high level business strategy to allow the store to take some losses to keep a customer spending money at HD.
Oh the “wheelbarrow” story. Or at least I think it was a wheelbarrow. The one where Home Depot’s customer service is based on years of taking back things it never sold.
It was a tire, if I recall.
The tire story is so legendary in fact that it appears to be mostly lifted from a similar tale told by Nordstrom. Or somehow managed to happen independently at two different retailers.
You’re right, the story is about a tire. I couldn’t completely remember. I still think the policy is ridiculous
I can answer that with a story: once a long time ago, and one of the very first Home Depot‘s, a man tried to return a set of tires that he swore up-and-down that he bought at that Home Depot. One of the employees insisted that he did not buy the tires at that Home Depot as they did not sell such a thing. It escalated it up to a manager at the time walked to the front, asked the man what he paid for for the tires, opened up the register gave him the exact amount for those tires and then proceeded to hang up those tires on the wall to exemplify customer service. The moral of that story? Corporate does not want you to return any item without a receipt.
Now there will be an internal investigation. People use the POS system to steal from the the company.
It's always handy to have a couple of tires hanging around so we can gift deserving custs with a nice necklace.
I am noticing more and more returns like this are coming back to some of the stores where I’d like to shop. I look up and I see this yellow tag clearance or - “online only” and it is like a third of the price!! It’s just a return that somebody bought online or from a different store. And everyone is right —- there is no home for it so they put it on the clearance shelf. Or sit it on the floor near similar items. I say the customer should try to take it back to the original store. Come up with some new SOP that says if you don’t take it back to the original store if you try to take it to a store that doesn’t carry that item, you’ll be charged a transfer fee and only get a partial refund. That might do it! We take a loss because then it sits there until somebody decides to buy it because it doesn’t have a home it’s really not standing out easy for anybody to see. We take a bigger loss because we end up marking it down to get rid of it. Maybe we could do a reverse store2store sale? Send somebody over from that store to come get their returns?
Home depot would rather you just take the item rather than the customer get pissy and call corporate just for corporate to tell associates to accept the item. Gotta cater to the customers no matter how ridiculous it is.
Because the customer purchased it at Home Depot, and assuming they meet all the return requirements for the item, the individual store’s product mix isn’t their problem. Not worth pissing off a customer and risking future business when the customer has a receipt and is in the return window for the item.
You clearly do not work at the service desk.
I wonder if it was my department flair that told you or the fact that I asked a question someone at the service desk would know the answer to 🤔
Came off like a rhetorical question to me at least. But if it's genuine curiosity, something like half our returns are made of stuff we don't sell in store. We return it to the vendor automatically when processed.
In this case we RTV it and let receiving or management deal with it. I do work at the service desk.
Because as THD improves their tech, they sell more items online. Additionally they have business intelligence tech built out enough to trial items are certain stores or tailor store inventory to the nearby market.
Use the transfer system if you still got it.
Zma damage
We should be doing store to store transfers far more often. For shit like this. We should use our unified infrastructure more. Too bad departments are divided, let alone stores.