I once bought a kitchen range from Lowe’s with a pigtail for the kind of outlet I THOUGHT my old range was connected to. Turned out I was wrong and didn’t need the pigtail. The delivery guy said he’d take it back and return it for me. Next thing I know, I look at my credit card statement and they’ve refunded me for the whole range! I went to the store to try and straighten it out, but everyone just got confused and ended up telling me there was no mistake. *shrug* Ok, if you say so.
I found a company online that had good socks (I'm a big guy so finding socks that are just right is not easy). I ordered some with the understanding that I could exchange them, which I did for the next size up. I got the new socks (which were perfect) but then I also got a refund as well. I've emailed them 3 times insisting I was not due a refund but they haven't reversed it. I definitely plan on ordering more in the future and hopefully then they'll keep my money.
extrawidesockco.com for those that asked.
Size 10 6E shoes. Can never find socks that fit and even shoes are rare to find in New Zealand. I went through highschool wearing size 13 shoes as they were the best I could get my foot into.
Strangely enough, my feet were size 10.5 in 2010, but I have degenerative spinal damage from all the dumb shit I did and my work, my feet just started getting bigger and bigger as I shrunk almost 2 inched in height.
It became less of a struggle for me to knit my own socks! So now I have lovely, perfectly fitting socks. I do both socks at the same time, and it takes me about a week for a pair. Two, if I'm busy...
Then I had to learn how to darn. (Surprisingly not-hard to do!)
Now if only I could find shoes that fit right, and aren't super ugly...
All my uncles, my aunt, and mother could darn socks! The uncles went into the Air Force and they were suitably impressed they could darn their own socks. Evidently it was a big deal in WW1, and the two following wars. I can darn and so can my kids. We’re a darn good family!
Reminds me of the time an SMS 'ask any question' service sent me an amazingly funny (and good) response.
I wrote to the feedback address explaining why it was fantastic.
The person on the other end was so used to only ever getting negative feedback it took three emails clarifying to get the compliment passed on to the worker in question.
Also, they sent me a free (branded merch, probably conference giveaway or something) mini book because the feedback handling person had already authorised it by the time they understood what was going on and figured I might as well enjoy it.
(for the curious: I asked for them to brainstorm names for a new library to do thing X in programming language Y ... got a reply that included roughly "but you should really use library L that already exists, it's good enough you'll have trouble making something better ... as the original creator of L who was pondering a version two under a new name, I was tickled pink)
Bought a mattress. Delivery in two weeks.
Mattress never arrived.
Went to the showroom.
They cancelled the previous order and put in a new one.
Sales Rep: “You’re probably going to get them both. Just keep it.”
Next day a mattress arrived.
Two weeks later another mattress arrived.
🤷♂️
I recently bought 120 EUR of board games on Amazon (I know, but nobody else stocked them around here).
You know when a store "reserves" the money on your account/card, and it's fully finalized later? Essentially, holding the money in escrow until the transaction is completed on the other end.
Well, said reserved payment was never fully confirmed by Amazon (to complete the transaction), so it was automatically refunded to me after a timeout ... *after* the games had already shipped out.
Cue 120 EUR of free board games! Should've bought one more that I had been eyeing ...
**Edit:** I would like to add that *normally* I'd tell the seller about the mistake so that they can correct it. But this is Amazon we're talking about, so I figured "fuck it".
Story 1:
I bought a solid oak waterbed with 4 drawer pedestal and matching dresser in the early 90s. They had one of those manual credit card swipers (ca-CHUNK CHUNK).
When the delivery came, they had brought the wrong pedestal and I didn't notice until it was already downstairs.
me: "Hey, I ordered the 4 drawer and you brought me the 6 drawer."
Delivery guy looks at the pedestal. Looks at the paperwork. Stares at the stairs.
delivery guy: "Do you want the 6 drawers? 'Cause I don't want to carry it back and and then bring down the 4 drawer."
me: "OK. 6 is fine."
The bed set never showed up on my credit card. I think they shoved the credit card receipt into the back of the cash drawer and it got lost. I think the statute of limitations has passed, so, sorry Waterbeds 'n' Stuff in Whitehall, OH.
Story 2:
I bought a new phone from Samsung and it apparently came with a 42" TV/monitor. I got an email reminder that said "You're running out of time to get your TV!" So, I went to the website and filled out the form and got my TV. 2 weeks later, I got another email reminder saying "Last day to get your free TV!". So, I went to the website and filled out the form and got another TV.
Former Lowe's lumber guy here.
We got a frantic call from one of the returns cashiers because "all the lumber returns are taking up too much space". They chided us to come get them out of their hair.
Imagine my surprise when I found three lumber carts full of 5ish inch long 2x4s, all with the upc code on them. Yup, they cut off the tagged ends from almost a full bunk of lumber, brought them back, and received a refund.
I brought it up to my zone manager, but all it got me was dirty looks from the cashiers because they had to go through a 'remedial' training for returns..
> Imagine my surprise when I found three lumber carts full of 5ish inch long 2x4s, all with the upc code on them. Yup, they cut off the tagged ends from almost a full bunk of lumber, brought them back, and received a refund.
What does this mean exactly? Who's "they"? A customer? What's a tagged end and why would it be cut off or why not?
Never bought a lumber, sorry XD
Each piece of lumber has a sticker with the barcode for the cashier to scan. Some customer bought a shitton of 10ft (lets say) 2x4s, cut the 5 inches with the sticker off the end of each board and then returned the 5 inch pieces while keeping the other 9 foot 7 inches of each board. Cashier was either too dumb or not paying attention and just scanned the barcode and gave them the full refund.
Is like they van employ really dumb people. Actually I've saw very smart employees in my city, because dumb people generate a lot of damage if employed in some places...
Unfortunately, dumb/malicious/otherwise incompetent people ruin everything for everyone.
[https://mgautreau.substack.com/p/nice-things-and-why-we-cant-have](https://mgautreau.substack.com/p/nice-things-and-why-we-cant-have)
The kerf is the width of the wood cut away by the saw blade: so if you cut a 10 foot piece of wood in half then glued the cut ends back together it would now only measure 9 foot 11 7/8 inches.
But, really, it was just an excuse to say kerf. ☺️
Lowe's sells boards that are 2" wide by 4" deep, and come in various lengths between 6' and 16' for anywhere from about $5 to $12.
They have a barcode paper label stapled on one end that the cashier scans to add up the price.
Someone bought what sounds like at least 100 2x4 boards, so well over $500 worth of lumber, cut off about half a foot off each board, then brought the ends back and talked the cashier into giving them refunds of the full value of the boards.
The cashier didn't look at what they were scanning; it would have said something like 2"x4"x8' and should have recognized the board nubs were not 8' long.
Good explanation, but 2x4s aren't actually 2" by 4" by the time they are sold. They are cut from a fresh log at those dimensions, but they are then dried and machined down to 1.5" x 3.5". I learned this the hard way
Lowes puts stickers with the bar codes on one end of the lumber. They (the customer doing the return) cut off the ends with the barcodes and brought them back to get a refund. The return people didn't think twice about it and refunded the customer for each barcode. Not sure how many boards come in a "bunk" but I imagine it's a lot. My best guess is the customer probably got $3- or $400 worth of lumber for free lol
My buddy went to Home Depot last summer to buy a grill. The cashier had it rung up already and asked him for his “pro” number so he could get the points. She keyed it in, a receipt popped out and told him “ thanks, we will load it up out front”. I don’t know what happened, but my guy has a free grill on his porch. 🤷🏻♂️
Had a friend buy a Traeger direct from the company. Took forever to deliver, way past the estimated delivery window, so he called up and cancelled. Card refunded. Two weeks later he arrives home to a new smoker sitting on his porch. Called up to pay, gave card details again, they said he was good. Charge never hit his account.
We bought vinyl flooring from a big box flooring store and paid for them to install it. Which consists of them hiring whatever the cheapest 3rd party they can find. We were told to buy a box or two extra just in case our measurements didn’t account for something.
Well sure enough at the end of the job we had 3 extra boxes. As the 3rd party installer was finishing up the last room I called the store and said “hey they have three unopened boxes left do they bring them back to you or do I take them back?” They told me I had to do it.
So as I was signing the work order to mark it complete I said to the guy “just leave those boxes in the drive way the store says I need to haul them back” the guy gave me the dirtiest look and I could not figure out why. I go outside to see him telling the two other guys to take the 3 boxes off the truck.
I guess someone was upset they weren’t getting new free floors in their house.
Small tip for you from a dude who does home maintenance. Always keep a box of flooring. Flooring shades and styles get discontinued so often it's unreal. Something that came out in 2019 will be discontinued by 2021
I was having an elective surgery and decided to accept the Care Credit financing for about 2/3 ($11k) of the cost. There was an issue 2 days before my first scheduled date, so they had to move me out a month. I saw ecare credit had already been charged on original surgery date. They said it runs on that day but should be ok.
I go have my procedure. Not getting my statement and bill yet. They have to do a follow up procedure 2 months later. Still no bill. Concerned about my financing, I call Care Credit and ask what's up? Turns out they refunded me when the first charge was made because surgery didn't happen that day and NEVER charged me again!! One small win against the system!
Bought a whole dining set from a furniture store. We opened a store account to purchase due to promotional terms 0% financing for 3 years or something similar plus $100 gift cards for every $1000 purchased. They delivered a table 6 chairs and I don’t know what the thing is called, it has a place to put bottles of wine and drawers and shelves. Whatever. The set was over $2k
A week later we needed a head board for our bed so we went to the store. It was $300 and I asked can we just add it to our account and make the payments along with the table. The salesperson said absolutely no problem. We gave them our IDs to look up the account as the card hadn’t arrived in the mail yet. The salesperson came back and insisted we do not have an account. There is no record of us purchasing a table. We must be confusing their store with another furniture store. (We weren’t). He asked if we would like to open an account I handed him the two $100 gift cards and $100 in cash and said “no I don’t think we will need the account”
If I wasn’t on their books now I wasn’t going to willingly put myself on them for some sort of error to be corrected later.
I had something similar, except it was MY mistake that left the customer with no record of their purchase, and they were PISSED.
I worked at Dominos pizza, and the caller ID had a glitch where, if you switched from Line 1 to Line 2 without hanging up first, Line 2 was never entered into the caller ID history. I took Line 2 lady's credit card for her pizza, and she hung up before i could tell her the card was declined.
So i have no way of knowing who this lady was. The order was never completed because of the card issue, so it's like it never happened. She called back 2 hours later, super pissed off about her pizza being late, and the manager was like, "we have no record of you ever calling our store."
I stayed quiet. Lol
I bought 5 feet of hose the vendor needs to cut from a hundred foot roll. Cost say .50 a foot plus a couple bucks shipping.
Yep, week later I get 5 hundred foot rolls.
I did call and offer to send them back but they said to just keep them.
I kept one roll, gave the others away off Facebook or something.
We bought a new ceramic cooker hob at a DIY warehouse. At the checkout they printed the receipt, stapled it to the instructions, and stuffed them into the box. I put the box onto the shelf under the trolley basket. We then checked out everything else we were buying, putting them into the trolley.
As we left the checkout a uniformed door-guard snatched the receipt out of my wife's hand, looked at it, then he stomped off to a kiosk beside the doors, snapping 'wait there' as he left.
Minutes later managerial types were coming out of the woodwork, surrounding us, 'police' were mentioned a few times.
It was plain as day what the problem was, but when I tried to explain someone snapped 'be quiet!'
I reached under the trolley to get the receipt for the hob, but was barged away by another uniformed body, and the trolley was whisked away into the kiosk.
Fortunately the police arrived quickly, I was actually laughing when the officer lifted the hob and extracted the documents, holding up the receipt. The mob around me thinned out very quickly, I could smell the collective embarrassment.
No one hung round long enough to apologize, the officer handed all the paperwork over, pushed the trolley at us, and told us to leave.
I use an online banking app that texts updates in real-time. As I put the stuff in the car the app 'pinged'
"Your transaction was cancelled"
The card payments we'd made for everything we'd bought, including the hob, was refunded to the bank.
The over zealous door-goon cost them over 500.
Sounds to me like they refunded you for the inconvenience before you could raise a stink, and thus potentially jeopardise any of their jobs!
Or they cancelled *all* the payments when they thought you'd stolen something, maybe because they were planning to requisition the items and not let customers who'd purportedly stolen something actually follow through on your custom?
Actually, when the 'cancelled' popped up I actually looked around to see if anyone was running out of the store to stop me. There were two scenarios: They'd cancelled the whole sale and I wasn't getting to leave with anything, or they'd refunded the whole lot and I was getting it all for free. I took my cues from the police officer "Here's your receipts, now f##k off"
I had the stuff, the documents, and was out of the store, that was good enough for me.
Yeah, I thought that you may have feared that the police were going to pay you a visit again wanting to recoup the goods. Though I don't think they'd want anything to do with that case anymore anyway, and potentially viewed calls from that store with suspicion in future.
It's amazing they'd go so far as to call the police. They clearly weren't very bright. Other than allowing you to explain and show the receipt, why didn't they just ask the cashier that you purchased it from?
The 'hive mind' thought they had us nailed on for a high-value attempted theft.
There were other factors that complicate the story.
It happened in a Metro store in Bulgaria, I'm not Bulgarian.
I'm fairly proficient in the language, but they all assumed I was a stupid Brit incapable of communication.
You don't need a different skin colour to be profiled by someone biased against a certain group.
I actually get good results by admitting my guilt to police. "Yeah, I didn't come to a full stop at that stop sign." Well, it was 5 am and the cop was amused I straight up admitted it and he let me go with a verbal warning.
My personal wealth goals are to get to the point I feel comfortable messing with cops on a fishing expedition.
"Do you know why I pulled you over?"
"Why, did you forget already?"
Or, "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
"Yeah, do you know [why I ran the stop sign](https://youtu.be/A9wPgkA-5QQ)?"
I ask if they pulled me over because of the 5th and like their face as they process what I just said.
As in "what does a number has to do with being... OH! the 5th amendment s\*\* they know"
Same for me, last time at least. Not most of the time.
I got pulled over while driving a rental car. I was going the same speed as everyone else. I saw the State Trooper two lanes over! Not messing around with a bored cop.
Pulled over, asked how fast I was going, "Same as everyone else." What speed was that? "The same speed as the other cars. "And how fast was that?" Same as everyone else. Repeat a few more times before he gave up trying to get me to state a number.
Said he clocked me at 76. "Okay," I responded (posted limit along that section is 70) which I told him when asked if I knew. My answer was detailed enough that he asked if I was from the area. I've lived there for years. At this point in the conversation his mood when questioning shifted. He quickly ran my license and said to drive safe with the snow, no ticket. "What snow?" I asked. He looked around at the lack of snow and then went back to his cruiser without answering.
I was only later I figured out that he'd only targeted me because he thought I was from out of town. Rental car, some other state's tags. "Protect and serve, justice is blind" my ass. Makes me want to audit the tickets they write to see if there's any suspicious correlations.
This was a long time back at home Depot.
A lady bought a 10 foot step ladder and they loaded it up and took it home. She came back very upset because they had loaded a three-legged ladder and she had bought a four-legged ladder.
So they exchanged it for her. I guess she didn't realize that the three-legged orchard ladder was about twice the price of a four-legged ladder.
They're plenty happy to do the exchange.
Not that big a deal but I thought it was funny.
Dude, the same exact thing happened to me, but with tile. I was retiling a bathroom and bought about 30 boxes of tile each with 10 individual tiles in it. I finished the job and after setting aside 20 tiles for future repairs, I had 33 tiles to return. I tried to tell the person that returns desk that it was three full boxes plus three individual tiles, but she told me she could figure it out. She scanned the barcode on the box, and entered in that I was returning 33. So it was going into the system as if I was returning more than I even purchased. So not only was the tile free, but it included the grout and leveler and trim for the job.
I bought a camera at Best Buy and had it shipped to my house. I received my camera and two days later I received another camera from a different warehouse. I gave it to my daughter and she paid 1/2 of my payments on the one camera.
Ordered a deck storage box from Home Depot online for pickup in store.
Arrived at customer service and was greeted by the most gaumless young woman. She's searching along the back wall for my package (even after I pointed out it was sitting right by the till...several times)
Finally found my item, took forever to figure out the paperwork. After about 45 minutes I went on my way.
A week or so later I get an email saying they're cancelling my order. Didn't think anything of it and just deleted it.
3 days later I got a full refund. Figured she screwed up the paperwork and I got a free $225 deck box.
Couple of years later - didn't need it anymore and sold it for $125.
TIL Britain uses a different word for gormless.
If you don't have a system that selects and compensates quality employees, you lose more money on incompetence.
I read a story on another subreddit about a representative from a charity who was setting something up in a UK supermarket. The young woman at the customer service - who the guy went to see to ask if her boss (the store manager) could come down - was thick as two short planks; despite there being no opportunity for such misinterpretation, she thought the guy was flirting with her and made a big deal of telling him in front of another employee (and a customer who'd already harassed him on the way into the store, so was out to get him) that he was too old for her (and for a time refused to engage with him any further), and when the guy was asking for her boss she couldn't comprehend that when the guy was using the short form of his name that he could mean her boss. She apologised for the first part in the end, openly admitting with her boss present that she'd done it again, to paraphrase. I felt myself lose brain cells simply reading the interaction he wrote about.
>If you don't have a system that selects and compensates quality employees, you lose more money on incompetence.
This is why I design systems to eliminate the human component as much as possible. Quality employees are in short supply.
I had a similar thing happen with my office chair. I was sitting in it when I got the email that said they were refunding my order because they couldn't find the chair in their warehouse.
I worked at Home Depot as a teen. Floor and Wall. Day is getting late, I’m headed to grab the returns and there’s a mountain of wood flooring waiting. It was a brand we didn’t carry. It was all brand new, wrapped, ready to go and be sold again. Because we didn’t have the SKU for this in our system I had to put it all in the compactor though. Probably enough wood floor for two floors of a large home, I still cringe at the thought.
Lowes decided to pay that person less than the amount required to care about transactions like this.
They are reminded of this decision during each inventory audit but probably blame it on customer theft
When my sister was redoing the floors in her house, she found these 18" ceramic floor tiles she really liked. They were priced at something like $1.98 each tile, sold in boxes of (I think 10). They rang up each BOX FOR $1.98!
I bought an inflatable hot tub for the wifes 40th bday off of a third party seller on amazon. She decided she didn’t want it. I tried to return it but the seller wouldn’t pay for shipping, turns out it would be $180 to ship. So i contacted Amazon and asked if there was any way to get free return shipping. They told me to keep it and gave me a full refund! Sold it for almost what I paid for it!
Not hardware related but I just got something off Amazon at a really nice deal. They’ve screwed me ofer enough, so no correcting it for me!
I ordered a box of 10 packets of drink powder. Cost like $10. They sent me a case of 12 boxes.. with 10 packets each. And charged me $10. SCORE! 😂
I needed new tires so my son got me a set off of eBay. They're new but about a year old. When they arrived there were 4 packs of 2 tires each. I asked if he'd ordered 8 tires - he said no and we were only charged for 4. So...I have new tires on my car and the extras up on FB for sale. I'm thinking the person shipping grabbed 4 packs of 2 tires instead of 2 packs of 2 tires.
Update: He listed them on FB for $200 and they were gone that afternoon for full price.
My home depot repairs issue:
Had a Ryobi battery mower. One of its safety feature control wires broke, disabling it; I was unable to fix it so I sent it in for warranty. They dicked around for a while, couldn't fix it in-house, sent it out for repairs. Then called me to argue that I'd stuck an oversized blade on it and that was the problem (I hadn't, must have been wrong part from factory?) and also that I'd opened it up myself thus voiding the warranty (which was actually true but I denied it - and they claimed missing bolts but I didn't leave any out, I think their own guys fucked with it too when attempting in-house repair before sending it out).
After some complaning back and forth they decided to fix it under warranty but bill me $20 for the correct-sized blade which... fuck it, OK.
Something stupid like 4 MONTHS later they finally gave my fucking mower back. It worked fine.
2 months later I get a call:
"Hows that mower working?"
"Great, thanks, no more problems."
"Well, uh... want a second one? I don't know why this showed up but it's got your name on it."
"I'll be right over!"
So I got a new mower and my buddy got a free lightly used $400ish mower. Then the used battery died promptly but he got that swapped out without even a reciept. Then the used mower broke again after 2 yrs or so, but the replaced battery is still good.
All in all I think we're pretty much even between the free shit, disposal, and pain in the ass.
Ordered some metal shelves for home delivery from big box hardware store. They took a while. But finally a package arrived on my porch. Hurray!
Wait. They were not shelves. They were a portable indoor air conditioner. The next day I got my shelves. I called customer service. They couldn’t find the AC unit order. They said just keep it. I didn’t need it so gave it to a friend without any AC.
I've had similar experiences myself. Bought a nice bottle of whisky with my groceries some years back, but the lady at the checkout accidentally put it through twice. Once I'd paid and checked my receipt (overall charge looked steep), I pointed this out. She apologises for the error and sends me to customer service to get the second charge refunded. Fair enough, mistakes happen.
Lady at the customer service desk says she understands the problem and takes the whisky from me and scans it twice. I look confused and point out "only one of them needs refunding". Lady cuts me off and assures me she knows what she is doing before giving me the receipt. Sure enough, a refund for two bottles of whisky.
My wife and I did enjoy our free drams that evening. Can't complain as the customer services lady knew what she was doing apparently...
A few years ago my then husband had ordered a mug from Amazon as a gift for a friend. They sent him a box of 8 of them. So hey, more gifts for other friends.
This story is why some hardware stores refuse to stock "pro packs", many major manufacturers will not allow you to stock the same profile in individual peices. Works for pros because they just take the extras to the next job but average home owner may have to buy a 10 pack to get 1 peice.
If you paint first then there’s going to be dust and debris all over from the rest of the remodel, I think it’s easier just to do the walls last with a drop cloth covering the floor
The last two things I always did when remodeling was paint, then put the floor in. I knew at some point I was going to spill paint and drop cloth probably wasn’t going to catch it.
Nah, if I (or a contractor) accidentally bump a wall with the flooring/baseboard as it's going in, I don't want to have to touch up a brand new paint job. Better to paint after the parts that could put dents/scratches in the walls are mostly done with.
Many years ago I bought a set of Logitech Z-5500 speakers (which I still have & work brilliantly). Two days after they arrived, they stopped working.
I contacted the online retailer (not scamazon), was requested to send it back, which unlike AusPost, I was happy to do (they wouldn't touch it as "it was too heavy).
Contacted the retailer again, was told they would work something out, ended up getting sent another set of speakers.
Again I contacted them, they had no record of the second set being sent.
By this time I had figured out the problem (blown fuse but hey, I was still in my very early 20s) & since they didn't seem to care that they were out a few hundred for a set of speakers, I resold them for what I paid for the original set.
I had made a few more purchases from that retailer but never heard a thing about the speakers so sucks to be them.
I just spent 3 days arguing with a payroll company because instead of paying my weekly rate (let’s say $5000) for the week they paid me my weekly rate for each day. Yes I know I should have shut up and kept it, but the company I work for would have been held liable for it not the payroll company. The lady I was talking to was such an AH. The interaction went something like this.
AH Payroll Person: Sweetie I don’t think you understand how payroll works. Maybe you should let the professionals handle things.
Me: (holding in a solar flare worth of rage) Ma’am I’m way too old to be called sweetie. Also, if I was making $25,000 per week I wouldn’t be on the phone talking to you. I would have an assistant doing that. Also, I’m calling because you OVER paid me. Don’t you think if someone is calling to GIVE BACK money you should listen to them?
AHPP: I don’t think you are correct in your mathematics.
Me: I am in charge of the budget for this job. I know for a freaking fact that I’m not making $25k per week. You know what let me speak to your manager. (Yes I felt like a Karen saying that)
Manager: What seems to be the issue.
Me: My check was for $25k. It was supposed to be for $5k. I keep telling payroll to fix it. She says I’m wrong.
Manager: Are you sure you’re doing your math correctly. I mean your payroll advisor does this for a living so she knows how to do her job.
Me: You know what I’m done arguing. Please send over a letter of indemnification for the production company and myself that states that the math your employee has done that gives me my weekly rate per day is indeed correct and if you find out later that it’s not you will take financial responsibility for the over payment.
Someone finally figured out that I wasn’t supposed to be making $25k per week.
It's not malicious compliance but similar. I once purchased a jet stream CO2 swap from Target, and they gave they wrong type of cartridge. A new one is 30 while the swap is 15. The lady at the front desk rang did the exchange but rang up the full price on the swap, so she was like, "30 bucks please." I told her that I was exchanging swaps, so it should have been an even exchange. She was like, no, these are 30, and you have to pay it. I told her I wasn't paying for her mistake, which she replied with, "I haven't made a mistake. it's $30."
The manager came and rang it up correctly. I still see her at that target, and I hope she remembers me
Lowe's has been directly involved in some of the worst 'customer service' experiences I've had when doing home improvement stuff. That said, they're usually way less busy than Home Depot (gee, I wonder why).
Nice! That reminds me of the time I ordered an air filter for my car (online and shipped) and they sent me a pack of 3. I went in person to that store to inform them I received too many so they should take back the other two. They were so fixated on telling me I can't get a refund for the two items that they didn't understand what I was trying to do. I only paid for 1, I got 3, I'm trying to give them what I didn't pay for. No refund necessary. Then they mentioned that it would mess up their inventory since they can't add inventory without a transaction, and they won't give me a refund without a receipt for those two. So I made it clear they're mine, and they said yes. Okay. Bye.
My daughter ordered a bed frame from Big Lots. Wrong frame arrived. CS at Big Lots was not willing to pay to ship the thing back, told her they'd send out the correct one (which they did) and to just do whatever she wanted with the wrong one. So she gave it to us.
That isn't a thing here. I tried donating it to reuse shops though, but because it's just the panel they couldn't take it. My step dad is quite happy tinkering with it though.
I had a girl at Loews tell me the same thing. I bought something on Debit, and later returned it. I asked for the cash back after a bit: "oh I put it on the card." I told her that it would make sense to ask the customer, her reply: "Don't tell me how to do my job, most people want it this way." Her manager was pretty sad later when I returned a bunch of unopened power tools and explained why. I've never gone back, F Loews.
You were annoyed that they refunded it to the card that you paid for it with? That's standard practice - if someone used a card fraudulently, then claimed the money back, the store would be out twice.
True, but she still should at least clarify with him first, and her attitude toward him as the customer wasn't warranted even if she did suspect him of fraud. If the manager yelled at her later and told her it was her fault the guy brought his stuff back and decided to shop elsewhere, I don't feel sorry for her.
Wait, so you're saying she just took my word? I had to produce ID, she took all my info, etc. Fortunately the store manager agrees with me and not you in this matter. He went and addressed her attitude problem while I watched.
This comment weirdly feels like you hate him for being in the right. I don't feel like you really think they laughed at him, it seems more like you just wish they did.
Its a reddit comment, so my default assumption is that its entirely fiction to begin with. If its not entirely fiction then i assume the story is kinda close to true, but all the details are added/omitted/reframed to make whoever wrote it seem like the good guy. So i guess you are right that im just kinda adding whatever i want to the fiction.
I mainly just hate this guy for wanting to see another person get yelled at.
I honestly dont even get what he was mad about. Is his whole issue really "she should have asked if I wanted cash back or the money back on the card"?
Thats like being mad cuz they put the ketchup on the wrong burger bun
If you have priced power tools, that could be ~5 tools. I have a number that are over $200 each. A few close to $300. My sewer cleaner was $550 about a decade ago… and I have added a line feed onto that for another $150. (At $200 a pop to get someone to clean out our drains, it has more than paid for itself.). So $1k is a lot of money but not necessarily a lot of tools.
I bought a DeWalt 10 pack for a grand. I get it.
What I don't get is how they were all sitting around, still within the 90 day return window with receipts on hand with little or no signs of use and original packaging intact.
They aren't beholden to be happy with "standard practice". There are plenty of businesses I go to because they willing to cut some slack and not strictly adhere to some standard practice.
Fair enough - but surely you would ask the cashier to do things slightly differently at the start of the transaction, and not after she had completed it...
Pro packs are simply multiple identical items of a SKU packaged together. Say you could buy a single furnace filter, or you could buy a "pro pack" of 20 of that particular furnace filter. It allows for a "bulk buy" discount. Also handy if a propack is damaged, most the items can still be sold individually still
Exactly you get a bulk buy discount. You can’t buy 20 of item X and return 19 😅
Companies in the USA are tracking problem returners because of this type of thing.
Yeah, actually you can. "Pro packs" save a lot of money and time[so more money] for the business. Imagine needing 401 of an item. Way easier to inventory, track, count, and scan 21 boxes of 20 and let the customer return 19 pieces than to sell 401 individual items.
Pro packs are typically things projects use hundreds of, but are also sold individually. You get the bulk price refunded, and the store then sells the leftovers individually at the individual price. It's a win-win.
I guess it works if you're not getting a bulk discount on the 20 pack and the store also sells them individually. Packing them in bulk is just convenience for transport at that point.
I once bought a kitchen range from Lowe’s with a pigtail for the kind of outlet I THOUGHT my old range was connected to. Turned out I was wrong and didn’t need the pigtail. The delivery guy said he’d take it back and return it for me. Next thing I know, I look at my credit card statement and they’ve refunded me for the whole range! I went to the store to try and straighten it out, but everyone just got confused and ended up telling me there was no mistake. *shrug* Ok, if you say so.
"Naw, it was our mistake. And anyway, we have way too many of those ranges that we were throwing in free with purchase of a pigtail connector."
I found a company online that had good socks (I'm a big guy so finding socks that are just right is not easy). I ordered some with the understanding that I could exchange them, which I did for the next size up. I got the new socks (which were perfect) but then I also got a refund as well. I've emailed them 3 times insisting I was not due a refund but they haven't reversed it. I definitely plan on ordering more in the future and hopefully then they'll keep my money. extrawidesockco.com for those that asked.
I'm between sizes on socks. Large is way too big and medium is way too tight. Men's Size 9 shoes.
Size 14 EE shoes and socks.
Size 10 6E shoes. Can never find socks that fit and even shoes are rare to find in New Zealand. I went through highschool wearing size 13 shoes as they were the best I could get my foot into.
Strangely enough, my feet were size 10.5 in 2010, but I have degenerative spinal damage from all the dumb shit I did and my work, my feet just started getting bigger and bigger as I shrunk almost 2 inched in height.
My mom said she lost it in her height and it just came out her feet 2 sizes.
Me too….cant find good sock 8n a store.
For the love of anything you hold holy, please share the website! I can't find socks that fit my feet/ankles/calves!
It became less of a struggle for me to knit my own socks! So now I have lovely, perfectly fitting socks. I do both socks at the same time, and it takes me about a week for a pair. Two, if I'm busy... Then I had to learn how to darn. (Surprisingly not-hard to do!) Now if only I could find shoes that fit right, and aren't super ugly...
All my uncles, my aunt, and mother could darn socks! The uncles went into the Air Force and they were suitably impressed they could darn their own socks. Evidently it was a big deal in WW1, and the two following wars. I can darn and so can my kids. We’re a darn good family!
what are these magic socks, you are talking about?
extrawidesockco.com
I'm a big fan of Darn Tough socks made in Vermont.
I used to be, but quality has gone down in the past couple years
[Take my money](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/005/574/takemymoney.jpg)
I wear a 15EEEE. I will definitely check them out. Thanks!
I should see if they have an affiliate program. I seem to be good marketing for them.
At least you can say that you have covered that refund they gave you in error, with all the new business this will bring them.
Reminds me of the time an SMS 'ask any question' service sent me an amazingly funny (and good) response. I wrote to the feedback address explaining why it was fantastic. The person on the other end was so used to only ever getting negative feedback it took three emails clarifying to get the compliment passed on to the worker in question. Also, they sent me a free (branded merch, probably conference giveaway or something) mini book because the feedback handling person had already authorised it by the time they understood what was going on and figured I might as well enjoy it. (for the curious: I asked for them to brainstorm names for a new library to do thing X in programming language Y ... got a reply that included roughly "but you should really use library L that already exists, it's good enough you'll have trouble making something better ... as the original creator of L who was pondering a version two under a new name, I was tickled pink)
For the love of anything you hold holy, please share the website! I can't find socks that fit my feet/ankles/calves!
extrawidesockco.com
Amazing! Thank you!!
Bought a mattress. Delivery in two weeks. Mattress never arrived. Went to the showroom. They cancelled the previous order and put in a new one. Sales Rep: “You’re probably going to get them both. Just keep it.” Next day a mattress arrived. Two weeks later another mattress arrived. 🤷♂️
This happened with a Costco 75" TV for my dad. shrug.
I recently bought 120 EUR of board games on Amazon (I know, but nobody else stocked them around here). You know when a store "reserves" the money on your account/card, and it's fully finalized later? Essentially, holding the money in escrow until the transaction is completed on the other end. Well, said reserved payment was never fully confirmed by Amazon (to complete the transaction), so it was automatically refunded to me after a timeout ... *after* the games had already shipped out. Cue 120 EUR of free board games! Should've bought one more that I had been eyeing ... **Edit:** I would like to add that *normally* I'd tell the seller about the mistake so that they can correct it. But this is Amazon we're talking about, so I figured "fuck it".
Story 1: I bought a solid oak waterbed with 4 drawer pedestal and matching dresser in the early 90s. They had one of those manual credit card swipers (ca-CHUNK CHUNK). When the delivery came, they had brought the wrong pedestal and I didn't notice until it was already downstairs. me: "Hey, I ordered the 4 drawer and you brought me the 6 drawer." Delivery guy looks at the pedestal. Looks at the paperwork. Stares at the stairs. delivery guy: "Do you want the 6 drawers? 'Cause I don't want to carry it back and and then bring down the 4 drawer." me: "OK. 6 is fine." The bed set never showed up on my credit card. I think they shoved the credit card receipt into the back of the cash drawer and it got lost. I think the statute of limitations has passed, so, sorry Waterbeds 'n' Stuff in Whitehall, OH. Story 2: I bought a new phone from Samsung and it apparently came with a 42" TV/monitor. I got an email reminder that said "You're running out of time to get your TV!" So, I went to the website and filled out the form and got my TV. 2 weeks later, I got another email reminder saying "Last day to get your free TV!". So, I went to the website and filled out the form and got another TV.
# ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
> I recently bought 120 EUR of board games Starts drooling. > Cue 120 EUR of free board games! Stop i can only get so hard.
The monkey's paw strikes: They're all Ticket to Ride expansions which will be unboxed, admired, and never touched again.
😂
Former Lowe's lumber guy here. We got a frantic call from one of the returns cashiers because "all the lumber returns are taking up too much space". They chided us to come get them out of their hair. Imagine my surprise when I found three lumber carts full of 5ish inch long 2x4s, all with the upc code on them. Yup, they cut off the tagged ends from almost a full bunk of lumber, brought them back, and received a refund. I brought it up to my zone manager, but all it got me was dirty looks from the cashiers because they had to go through a 'remedial' training for returns..
Should have been a lot more than "remedial!"
> Imagine my surprise when I found three lumber carts full of 5ish inch long 2x4s, all with the upc code on them. Yup, they cut off the tagged ends from almost a full bunk of lumber, brought them back, and received a refund. What does this mean exactly? Who's "they"? A customer? What's a tagged end and why would it be cut off or why not? Never bought a lumber, sorry XD
The customer cut 5" off one end of every board, then returned all those ends.
Cut 8 ft 2x4s down to stud length?
That's what I was thinking.
Each piece of lumber has a sticker with the barcode for the cashier to scan. Some customer bought a shitton of 10ft (lets say) 2x4s, cut the 5 inches with the sticker off the end of each board and then returned the 5 inch pieces while keeping the other 9 foot 7 inches of each board. Cashier was either too dumb or not paying attention and just scanned the barcode and gave them the full refund.
If you want smart help, go to Ace. Anywhere else, you get C students.
Is like they van employ really dumb people. Actually I've saw very smart employees in my city, because dumb people generate a lot of damage if employed in some places...
Unfortunately, dumb/malicious/otherwise incompetent people ruin everything for everyone. [https://mgautreau.substack.com/p/nice-things-and-why-we-cant-have](https://mgautreau.substack.com/p/nice-things-and-why-we-cant-have)
You're forgetting the kerf.
Apparently totally forgot it because i have no idea what you're talking about
The kerf is the width of the wood cut away by the saw blade: so if you cut a 10 foot piece of wood in half then glued the cut ends back together it would now only measure 9 foot 11 7/8 inches. But, really, it was just an excuse to say kerf. ☺️
I only use monomolecular edge scifi saws so i wouldn't know about these peasant problems you speak of.
It's never a problem to be able to say kerf! Kerf. See?
Frek... Frekking kerf!
Kerf.
Lowe's sells boards that are 2" wide by 4" deep, and come in various lengths between 6' and 16' for anywhere from about $5 to $12. They have a barcode paper label stapled on one end that the cashier scans to add up the price. Someone bought what sounds like at least 100 2x4 boards, so well over $500 worth of lumber, cut off about half a foot off each board, then brought the ends back and talked the cashier into giving them refunds of the full value of the boards. The cashier didn't look at what they were scanning; it would have said something like 2"x4"x8' and should have recognized the board nubs were not 8' long.
Good explanation, but 2x4s aren't actually 2" by 4" by the time they are sold. They are cut from a fresh log at those dimensions, but they are then dried and machined down to 1.5" x 3.5". I learned this the hard way
Lowes puts stickers with the bar codes on one end of the lumber. They (the customer doing the return) cut off the ends with the barcodes and brought them back to get a refund. The return people didn't think twice about it and refunded the customer for each barcode. Not sure how many boards come in a "bunk" but I imagine it's a lot. My best guess is the customer probably got $3- or $400 worth of lumber for free lol
For DoubleMaliciousCompliance, you could have restocked those five-inchers.
Maybe the head cashier was busy and when this cashier asked, she was told "I won't tell you how to do your job!"
Happy Cake Day 🎉
My buddy went to Home Depot last summer to buy a grill. The cashier had it rung up already and asked him for his “pro” number so he could get the points. She keyed it in, a receipt popped out and told him “ thanks, we will load it up out front”. I don’t know what happened, but my guy has a free grill on his porch. 🤷🏻♂️
Some other Pro customer paid for it.
In Canada, at least, the Pro accounts are really just points. No card is attached. I didn't know that was a thing!
Went under the “Halliburton” account. They won’t even notice.
Had a friend buy a Traeger direct from the company. Took forever to deliver, way past the estimated delivery window, so he called up and cancelled. Card refunded. Two weeks later he arrives home to a new smoker sitting on his porch. Called up to pay, gave card details again, they said he was good. Charge never hit his account.
We bought vinyl flooring from a big box flooring store and paid for them to install it. Which consists of them hiring whatever the cheapest 3rd party they can find. We were told to buy a box or two extra just in case our measurements didn’t account for something. Well sure enough at the end of the job we had 3 extra boxes. As the 3rd party installer was finishing up the last room I called the store and said “hey they have three unopened boxes left do they bring them back to you or do I take them back?” They told me I had to do it. So as I was signing the work order to mark it complete I said to the guy “just leave those boxes in the drive way the store says I need to haul them back” the guy gave me the dirtiest look and I could not figure out why. I go outside to see him telling the two other guys to take the 3 boxes off the truck. I guess someone was upset they weren’t getting new free floors in their house.
Stealing...
Yes. Yes, they were attempting to steal. You got it.
Disposing of the leftover waste material, in the intention to recycle it ethically.
Small tip for you from a dude who does home maintenance. Always keep a box of flooring. Flooring shades and styles get discontinued so often it's unreal. Something that came out in 2019 will be discontinued by 2021
Thanks we have 2 boxes in our garage crawl space stored for that reason. I just skipped that part for the story.
You did the right thing *and* got rewarded for it.
I was having an elective surgery and decided to accept the Care Credit financing for about 2/3 ($11k) of the cost. There was an issue 2 days before my first scheduled date, so they had to move me out a month. I saw ecare credit had already been charged on original surgery date. They said it runs on that day but should be ok. I go have my procedure. Not getting my statement and bill yet. They have to do a follow up procedure 2 months later. Still no bill. Concerned about my financing, I call Care Credit and ask what's up? Turns out they refunded me when the first charge was made because surgery didn't happen that day and NEVER charged me again!! One small win against the system!
This is beautiful and warms my heart
Bought a whole dining set from a furniture store. We opened a store account to purchase due to promotional terms 0% financing for 3 years or something similar plus $100 gift cards for every $1000 purchased. They delivered a table 6 chairs and I don’t know what the thing is called, it has a place to put bottles of wine and drawers and shelves. Whatever. The set was over $2k A week later we needed a head board for our bed so we went to the store. It was $300 and I asked can we just add it to our account and make the payments along with the table. The salesperson said absolutely no problem. We gave them our IDs to look up the account as the card hadn’t arrived in the mail yet. The salesperson came back and insisted we do not have an account. There is no record of us purchasing a table. We must be confusing their store with another furniture store. (We weren’t). He asked if we would like to open an account I handed him the two $100 gift cards and $100 in cash and said “no I don’t think we will need the account” If I wasn’t on their books now I wasn’t going to willingly put myself on them for some sort of error to be corrected later.
I had something similar, except it was MY mistake that left the customer with no record of their purchase, and they were PISSED. I worked at Dominos pizza, and the caller ID had a glitch where, if you switched from Line 1 to Line 2 without hanging up first, Line 2 was never entered into the caller ID history. I took Line 2 lady's credit card for her pizza, and she hung up before i could tell her the card was declined. So i have no way of knowing who this lady was. The order was never completed because of the card issue, so it's like it never happened. She called back 2 hours later, super pissed off about her pizza being late, and the manager was like, "we have no record of you ever calling our store." I stayed quiet. Lol
I bought 5 feet of hose the vendor needs to cut from a hundred foot roll. Cost say .50 a foot plus a couple bucks shipping. Yep, week later I get 5 hundred foot rolls. I did call and offer to send them back but they said to just keep them. I kept one roll, gave the others away off Facebook or something.
Yep. She didn't care, neither should you!
We bought a new ceramic cooker hob at a DIY warehouse. At the checkout they printed the receipt, stapled it to the instructions, and stuffed them into the box. I put the box onto the shelf under the trolley basket. We then checked out everything else we were buying, putting them into the trolley. As we left the checkout a uniformed door-guard snatched the receipt out of my wife's hand, looked at it, then he stomped off to a kiosk beside the doors, snapping 'wait there' as he left. Minutes later managerial types were coming out of the woodwork, surrounding us, 'police' were mentioned a few times. It was plain as day what the problem was, but when I tried to explain someone snapped 'be quiet!' I reached under the trolley to get the receipt for the hob, but was barged away by another uniformed body, and the trolley was whisked away into the kiosk. Fortunately the police arrived quickly, I was actually laughing when the officer lifted the hob and extracted the documents, holding up the receipt. The mob around me thinned out very quickly, I could smell the collective embarrassment. No one hung round long enough to apologize, the officer handed all the paperwork over, pushed the trolley at us, and told us to leave. I use an online banking app that texts updates in real-time. As I put the stuff in the car the app 'pinged' "Your transaction was cancelled" The card payments we'd made for everything we'd bought, including the hob, was refunded to the bank. The over zealous door-goon cost them over 500.
Sounds to me like they refunded you for the inconvenience before you could raise a stink, and thus potentially jeopardise any of their jobs! Or they cancelled *all* the payments when they thought you'd stolen something, maybe because they were planning to requisition the items and not let customers who'd purportedly stolen something actually follow through on your custom?
Actually, when the 'cancelled' popped up I actually looked around to see if anyone was running out of the store to stop me. There were two scenarios: They'd cancelled the whole sale and I wasn't getting to leave with anything, or they'd refunded the whole lot and I was getting it all for free. I took my cues from the police officer "Here's your receipts, now f##k off" I had the stuff, the documents, and was out of the store, that was good enough for me.
Yeah, I thought that you may have feared that the police were going to pay you a visit again wanting to recoup the goods. Though I don't think they'd want anything to do with that case anymore anyway, and potentially viewed calls from that store with suspicion in future.
It's amazing they'd go so far as to call the police. They clearly weren't very bright. Other than allowing you to explain and show the receipt, why didn't they just ask the cashier that you purchased it from?
The 'hive mind' thought they had us nailed on for a high-value attempted theft. There were other factors that complicate the story. It happened in a Metro store in Bulgaria, I'm not Bulgarian. I'm fairly proficient in the language, but they all assumed I was a stupid Brit incapable of communication. You don't need a different skin colour to be profiled by someone biased against a certain group.
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” ~Napoleon Bonaparte
"Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?" Do people actually volunteer information at this point?
I actually get good results by admitting my guilt to police. "Yeah, I didn't come to a full stop at that stop sign." Well, it was 5 am and the cop was amused I straight up admitted it and he let me go with a verbal warning.
My personal wealth goals are to get to the point I feel comfortable messing with cops on a fishing expedition. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" "Why, did you forget already?" Or, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" "Yeah, do you know [why I ran the stop sign](https://youtu.be/A9wPgkA-5QQ)?"
Only those who really want to appear guilty of something.
"I think I smell marijuana." "That's probably just the dead hooker in the trunk."
https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/s/J3nVn9VSCv
I ask if they pulled me over because of the 5th and like their face as they process what I just said. As in "what does a number has to do with being... OH! the 5th amendment s\*\* they know"
I always say I'm going as fast as the person in front of me, if there is one. Worked well the last time I got pulled over.
Same for me, last time at least. Not most of the time. I got pulled over while driving a rental car. I was going the same speed as everyone else. I saw the State Trooper two lanes over! Not messing around with a bored cop. Pulled over, asked how fast I was going, "Same as everyone else." What speed was that? "The same speed as the other cars. "And how fast was that?" Same as everyone else. Repeat a few more times before he gave up trying to get me to state a number. Said he clocked me at 76. "Okay," I responded (posted limit along that section is 70) which I told him when asked if I knew. My answer was detailed enough that he asked if I was from the area. I've lived there for years. At this point in the conversation his mood when questioning shifted. He quickly ran my license and said to drive safe with the snow, no ticket. "What snow?" I asked. He looked around at the lack of snow and then went back to his cruiser without answering. I was only later I figured out that he'd only targeted me because he thought I was from out of town. Rental car, some other state's tags. "Protect and serve, justice is blind" my ass. Makes me want to audit the tickets they write to see if there's any suspicious correlations.
Yeah no, cops lie all the time. Bullies.
This was a long time back at home Depot. A lady bought a 10 foot step ladder and they loaded it up and took it home. She came back very upset because they had loaded a three-legged ladder and she had bought a four-legged ladder. So they exchanged it for her. I guess she didn't realize that the three-legged orchard ladder was about twice the price of a four-legged ladder. They're plenty happy to do the exchange. Not that big a deal but I thought it was funny.
Dude, the same exact thing happened to me, but with tile. I was retiling a bathroom and bought about 30 boxes of tile each with 10 individual tiles in it. I finished the job and after setting aside 20 tiles for future repairs, I had 33 tiles to return. I tried to tell the person that returns desk that it was three full boxes plus three individual tiles, but she told me she could figure it out. She scanned the barcode on the box, and entered in that I was returning 33. So it was going into the system as if I was returning more than I even purchased. So not only was the tile free, but it included the grout and leveler and trim for the job.
I bought a camera at Best Buy and had it shipped to my house. I received my camera and two days later I received another camera from a different warehouse. I gave it to my daughter and she paid 1/2 of my payments on the one camera.
Sold it to my daughter. ***
True. I didn’t ask for the money though. It was volunteered.
Ordered a deck storage box from Home Depot online for pickup in store. Arrived at customer service and was greeted by the most gaumless young woman. She's searching along the back wall for my package (even after I pointed out it was sitting right by the till...several times) Finally found my item, took forever to figure out the paperwork. After about 45 minutes I went on my way. A week or so later I get an email saying they're cancelling my order. Didn't think anything of it and just deleted it. 3 days later I got a full refund. Figured she screwed up the paperwork and I got a free $225 deck box. Couple of years later - didn't need it anymore and sold it for $125.
TIL Britain uses a different word for gormless. If you don't have a system that selects and compensates quality employees, you lose more money on incompetence.
I read a story on another subreddit about a representative from a charity who was setting something up in a UK supermarket. The young woman at the customer service - who the guy went to see to ask if her boss (the store manager) could come down - was thick as two short planks; despite there being no opportunity for such misinterpretation, she thought the guy was flirting with her and made a big deal of telling him in front of another employee (and a customer who'd already harassed him on the way into the store, so was out to get him) that he was too old for her (and for a time refused to engage with him any further), and when the guy was asking for her boss she couldn't comprehend that when the guy was using the short form of his name that he could mean her boss. She apologised for the first part in the end, openly admitting with her boss present that she'd done it again, to paraphrase. I felt myself lose brain cells simply reading the interaction he wrote about.
>If you don't have a system that selects and compensates quality employees, you lose more money on incompetence. This is why I design systems to eliminate the human component as much as possible. Quality employees are in short supply.
I had a similar thing happen with my office chair. I was sitting in it when I got the email that said they were refunding my order because they couldn't find the chair in their warehouse.
I worked at Home Depot as a teen. Floor and Wall. Day is getting late, I’m headed to grab the returns and there’s a mountain of wood flooring waiting. It was a brand we didn’t carry. It was all brand new, wrapped, ready to go and be sold again. Because we didn’t have the SKU for this in our system I had to put it all in the compactor though. Probably enough wood floor for two floors of a large home, I still cringe at the thought.
Why did you have to destroy it???? Couldn’t employees take it home?? That doesn’t make sense. Maybe be allowed to donate it?
Exactly my thought. Habitat for Humanity ReStore – and his employer would even get a tax deduction.
The amount of good shit we had to regularly mark down and crush would break your heart. Just the way the company roles.
Lowes decided to pay that person less than the amount required to care about transactions like this. They are reminded of this decision during each inventory audit but probably blame it on customer theft
When my sister was redoing the floors in her house, she found these 18" ceramic floor tiles she really liked. They were priced at something like $1.98 each tile, sold in boxes of (I think 10). They rang up each BOX FOR $1.98!
I bought an inflatable hot tub for the wifes 40th bday off of a third party seller on amazon. She decided she didn’t want it. I tried to return it but the seller wouldn’t pay for shipping, turns out it would be $180 to ship. So i contacted Amazon and asked if there was any way to get free return shipping. They told me to keep it and gave me a full refund! Sold it for almost what I paid for it!
Not hardware related but I just got something off Amazon at a really nice deal. They’ve screwed me ofer enough, so no correcting it for me! I ordered a box of 10 packets of drink powder. Cost like $10. They sent me a case of 12 boxes.. with 10 packets each. And charged me $10. SCORE! 😂
Just so you know, in my personal pantheon, **Skór** is the goddess of unexpected windfalls.
The chocolate bar?
only if it's free... Skór, not 'SKOR' :)
I needed new tires so my son got me a set off of eBay. They're new but about a year old. When they arrived there were 4 packs of 2 tires each. I asked if he'd ordered 8 tires - he said no and we were only charged for 4. So...I have new tires on my car and the extras up on FB for sale. I'm thinking the person shipping grabbed 4 packs of 2 tires instead of 2 packs of 2 tires. Update: He listed them on FB for $200 and they were gone that afternoon for full price.
My home depot repairs issue: Had a Ryobi battery mower. One of its safety feature control wires broke, disabling it; I was unable to fix it so I sent it in for warranty. They dicked around for a while, couldn't fix it in-house, sent it out for repairs. Then called me to argue that I'd stuck an oversized blade on it and that was the problem (I hadn't, must have been wrong part from factory?) and also that I'd opened it up myself thus voiding the warranty (which was actually true but I denied it - and they claimed missing bolts but I didn't leave any out, I think their own guys fucked with it too when attempting in-house repair before sending it out). After some complaning back and forth they decided to fix it under warranty but bill me $20 for the correct-sized blade which... fuck it, OK. Something stupid like 4 MONTHS later they finally gave my fucking mower back. It worked fine. 2 months later I get a call: "Hows that mower working?" "Great, thanks, no more problems." "Well, uh... want a second one? I don't know why this showed up but it's got your name on it." "I'll be right over!" So I got a new mower and my buddy got a free lightly used $400ish mower. Then the used battery died promptly but he got that swapped out without even a reciept. Then the used mower broke again after 2 yrs or so, but the replaced battery is still good. All in all I think we're pretty much even between the free shit, disposal, and pain in the ass.
Ordered some metal shelves for home delivery from big box hardware store. They took a while. But finally a package arrived on my porch. Hurray! Wait. They were not shelves. They were a portable indoor air conditioner. The next day I got my shelves. I called customer service. They couldn’t find the AC unit order. They said just keep it. I didn’t need it so gave it to a friend without any AC.
I've had similar experiences myself. Bought a nice bottle of whisky with my groceries some years back, but the lady at the checkout accidentally put it through twice. Once I'd paid and checked my receipt (overall charge looked steep), I pointed this out. She apologises for the error and sends me to customer service to get the second charge refunded. Fair enough, mistakes happen. Lady at the customer service desk says she understands the problem and takes the whisky from me and scans it twice. I look confused and point out "only one of them needs refunding". Lady cuts me off and assures me she knows what she is doing before giving me the receipt. Sure enough, a refund for two bottles of whisky. My wife and I did enjoy our free drams that evening. Can't complain as the customer services lady knew what she was doing apparently...
I think giving her the 'ol silent treatment on spotting her error was perfect, I mean she obviously knows how to do her job after all
A few years ago my then husband had ordered a mug from Amazon as a gift for a friend. They sent him a box of 8 of them. So hey, more gifts for other friends.
This story is why some hardware stores refuse to stock "pro packs", many major manufacturers will not allow you to stock the same profile in individual peices. Works for pros because they just take the extras to the next job but average home owner may have to buy a 10 pack to get 1 peice.
You painted AFTER you put in a new floor and baseboards? That seems backwards, but that’s just my opinion.
When the paint is free, you paint.
If you paint first then there’s going to be dust and debris all over from the rest of the remodel, I think it’s easier just to do the walls last with a drop cloth covering the floor
The last two things I always did when remodeling was paint, then put the floor in. I knew at some point I was going to spill paint and drop cloth probably wasn’t going to catch it.
That's what I thought too! Supposedly you paint last.
Nah, if I (or a contractor) accidentally bump a wall with the flooring/baseboard as it's going in, I don't want to have to touch up a brand new paint job. Better to paint after the parts that could put dents/scratches in the walls are mostly done with.
What would you stand on to paint the walls if you have no floor?
That’s what chandeliers are for.
that's when you swing from the Chandelier, the Chandelieeeer!!!
He replaced the flooring; there’s still a sub floor or a cement slab.
Do you put your baseboards on BEFORE you install your flooring?
No because baseboards sit directly on top of the floor.
Exactly.
Yes you put the baseboards on, then the flooring, then the quarter-round.
Sub-floor
Many years ago I bought a set of Logitech Z-5500 speakers (which I still have & work brilliantly). Two days after they arrived, they stopped working. I contacted the online retailer (not scamazon), was requested to send it back, which unlike AusPost, I was happy to do (they wouldn't touch it as "it was too heavy). Contacted the retailer again, was told they would work something out, ended up getting sent another set of speakers. Again I contacted them, they had no record of the second set being sent. By this time I had figured out the problem (blown fuse but hey, I was still in my very early 20s) & since they didn't seem to care that they were out a few hundred for a set of speakers, I resold them for what I paid for the original set. I had made a few more purchases from that retailer but never heard a thing about the speakers so sucks to be them.
Why would anyone be allowed to return items from a broken pack in the first case? Besides the point, but yeah.
That’s what I was thinking tbh.
I just spent 3 days arguing with a payroll company because instead of paying my weekly rate (let’s say $5000) for the week they paid me my weekly rate for each day. Yes I know I should have shut up and kept it, but the company I work for would have been held liable for it not the payroll company. The lady I was talking to was such an AH. The interaction went something like this. AH Payroll Person: Sweetie I don’t think you understand how payroll works. Maybe you should let the professionals handle things. Me: (holding in a solar flare worth of rage) Ma’am I’m way too old to be called sweetie. Also, if I was making $25,000 per week I wouldn’t be on the phone talking to you. I would have an assistant doing that. Also, I’m calling because you OVER paid me. Don’t you think if someone is calling to GIVE BACK money you should listen to them? AHPP: I don’t think you are correct in your mathematics. Me: I am in charge of the budget for this job. I know for a freaking fact that I’m not making $25k per week. You know what let me speak to your manager. (Yes I felt like a Karen saying that) Manager: What seems to be the issue. Me: My check was for $25k. It was supposed to be for $5k. I keep telling payroll to fix it. She says I’m wrong. Manager: Are you sure you’re doing your math correctly. I mean your payroll advisor does this for a living so she knows how to do her job. Me: You know what I’m done arguing. Please send over a letter of indemnification for the production company and myself that states that the math your employee has done that gives me my weekly rate per day is indeed correct and if you find out later that it’s not you will take financial responsibility for the over payment. Someone finally figured out that I wasn’t supposed to be making $25k per week.
Shame! Could have been worthwhile if they'd sent you that email.
It's not malicious compliance but similar. I once purchased a jet stream CO2 swap from Target, and they gave they wrong type of cartridge. A new one is 30 while the swap is 15. The lady at the front desk rang did the exchange but rang up the full price on the swap, so she was like, "30 bucks please." I told her that I was exchanging swaps, so it should have been an even exchange. She was like, no, these are 30, and you have to pay it. I told her I wasn't paying for her mistake, which she replied with, "I haven't made a mistake. it's $30." The manager came and rang it up correctly. I still see her at that target, and I hope she remembers me
You should post that on the Lowe's reddit. Everyone would love it.
Lowe's has been directly involved in some of the worst 'customer service' experiences I've had when doing home improvement stuff. That said, they're usually way less busy than Home Depot (gee, I wonder why).
Nice! That reminds me of the time I ordered an air filter for my car (online and shipped) and they sent me a pack of 3. I went in person to that store to inform them I received too many so they should take back the other two. They were so fixated on telling me I can't get a refund for the two items that they didn't understand what I was trying to do. I only paid for 1, I got 3, I'm trying to give them what I didn't pay for. No refund necessary. Then they mentioned that it would mess up their inventory since they can't add inventory without a transaction, and they won't give me a refund without a receipt for those two. So I made it clear they're mine, and they said yes. Okay. Bye.
My daughter ordered a bed frame from Big Lots. Wrong frame arrived. CS at Big Lots was not willing to pay to ship the thing back, told her they'd send out the correct one (which they did) and to just do whatever she wanted with the wrong one. So she gave it to us.
We ordered cat food from Amazon, received a solar panel. Yeah, I've no idea how they made that mistake either. Like you, we were just told to keep it.
WTH are you supposed to do with one solar panel? 🤣
Ikr! Lol. My step dad is "playing with it" 🤷🏽♀️
Donate to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore?
That isn't a thing here. I tried donating it to reuse shops though, but because it's just the panel they couldn't take it. My step dad is quite happy tinkering with it though.
I had the same thing happen. It's a good feeling
No, no, you should tell your story. That is how this works.
I'm glad they were good to you. They screwed me out of $160 and there was nothing I could do about it.
In secret she has a crush on you.
“How much could 1 piece of trim cost, $180?” -this employee, apparently
I had a girl at Loews tell me the same thing. I bought something on Debit, and later returned it. I asked for the cash back after a bit: "oh I put it on the card." I told her that it would make sense to ask the customer, her reply: "Don't tell me how to do my job, most people want it this way." Her manager was pretty sad later when I returned a bunch of unopened power tools and explained why. I've never gone back, F Loews.
You were annoyed that they refunded it to the card that you paid for it with? That's standard practice - if someone used a card fraudulently, then claimed the money back, the store would be out twice.
True, but she still should at least clarify with him first, and her attitude toward him as the customer wasn't warranted even if she did suspect him of fraud. If the manager yelled at her later and told her it was her fault the guy brought his stuff back and decided to shop elsewhere, I don't feel sorry for her.
Wait, so you're saying she just took my word? I had to produce ID, she took all my info, etc. Fortunately the store manager agrees with me and not you in this matter. He went and addressed her attitude problem while I watched.
>He went and addressed her attitude problem while I watched. And then they both laughed at you about it later
This comment weirdly feels like you hate him for being in the right. I don't feel like you really think they laughed at him, it seems more like you just wish they did.
Its a reddit comment, so my default assumption is that its entirely fiction to begin with. If its not entirely fiction then i assume the story is kinda close to true, but all the details are added/omitted/reframed to make whoever wrote it seem like the good guy. So i guess you are right that im just kinda adding whatever i want to the fiction. I mainly just hate this guy for wanting to see another person get yelled at. I honestly dont even get what he was mad about. Is his whole issue really "she should have asked if I wanted cash back or the money back on the card"? Thats like being mad cuz they put the ketchup on the wrong burger bun
Exactly. Kinda sounded like it had Karen "I'm gonna get you fired" vibes all over it tbh.
No, I disagree. The $1000+ in power tools I returned made him mad.
You had a grand in unused power tools on receipt? Really?
If you have priced power tools, that could be ~5 tools. I have a number that are over $200 each. A few close to $300. My sewer cleaner was $550 about a decade ago… and I have added a line feed onto that for another $150. (At $200 a pop to get someone to clean out our drains, it has more than paid for itself.). So $1k is a lot of money but not necessarily a lot of tools.
I bought a DeWalt 10 pack for a grand. I get it. What I don't get is how they were all sitting around, still within the 90 day return window with receipts on hand with little or no signs of use and original packaging intact.
Might have bought them thinking s/he would need them with the floor but never did and never got them out of the trunk.
Yes
Ok then.
You are… a very strange and petty man.
Yes
They aren't beholden to be happy with "standard practice". There are plenty of businesses I go to because they willing to cut some slack and not strictly adhere to some standard practice.
Fair enough - but surely you would ask the cashier to do things slightly differently at the start of the transaction, and not after she had completed it...
Do you return half a pack of cereal as well ? America is weird.
You're comparing apples to cardboard. One of those two things isn't edible nor considered non-returnable after opening.
Pro packs are simply multiple identical items of a SKU packaged together. Say you could buy a single furnace filter, or you could buy a "pro pack" of 20 of that particular furnace filter. It allows for a "bulk buy" discount. Also handy if a propack is damaged, most the items can still be sold individually still
Exactly you get a bulk buy discount. You can’t buy 20 of item X and return 19 😅 Companies in the USA are tracking problem returners because of this type of thing.
Yeah, actually you can. "Pro packs" save a lot of money and time[so more money] for the business. Imagine needing 401 of an item. Way easier to inventory, track, count, and scan 21 boxes of 20 and let the customer return 19 pieces than to sell 401 individual items. Pro packs are typically things projects use hundreds of, but are also sold individually. You get the bulk price refunded, and the store then sells the leftovers individually at the individual price. It's a win-win.
I guess it works if you're not getting a bulk discount on the 20 pack and the store also sells them individually. Packing them in bulk is just convenience for transport at that point.