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Most of us can relate to feeling ripped off by a “Big Box Company” and that there are no options but to take it. It’s unfortunate but true. I mean what else are you going to do? It’s sad when these companies could have solved a simple problem to make the customer happy, but in the end didn’t take the high road and instead treated you like you didn’t matter.

My husband, Michael, and I, would like to share our Home Depot story, so people do not go through the same thing and maybe at the end of all of this Home Depot will learn to treat their customers better. Our experience begins with the Home Depot store located at 5730 South Transit Road in Lockport, N.Y.

Michael and I have lived in our home for four years. Since that time, I have complained about the berber carpets in the living room and downstairs bedroom. I just didn’t like them. I wanted a change. It was late November, when Michael came home and said he just came from Home Depot and he was willingly to get a Home Depot project loan and purchase new carpets. Well, as you can imagine I was super excited.

We decided that the living room, downstairs bedroom, and master bedroom carpets would be replaced. After talking to a Home Depot representative we ended up purchasing Home Depot Life Proof Carpets. The total cost was more than $6,000.

The week of Dec. 13 two gentlemen installers came to our house to install the carpets, however, a problem with the carpet, brought up by the two installers, lead us to this fight with Home Depot.

The seams of the carpet in the living room and master bedroom would not match up. The installers tried 3 times to match the seams, but the end result was that the carpet was defective. A word used by installers and it was also at this time that one of the installers said, “I’ve been an installer for 14 years and I’ve only seen this happen twice.”

The installers sent photos to their supervisors who at the end of the day saw the “defect,” and since my family was coming in from out of town for Christmas, there was no choice but to have the carpets installed for the time being. We were told this matter would be addressed and that Home Deport would take care of it.

That evening, our dog began salivating profusely followed by head tremors and vomiting the following day, this continued over the next few days at an alarming rate and the symptoms lessened over the next few weeks. Now we can’t be 100 percent sure it was because of the chemicals in the carpet, but it was kind of a coincidence that it began the evening the carpets were installed. For three days, we had to leave our windows open in our house, even at night when temperatures were in the 30’s. We had to take her to the vet two times because we didn’t know what to do. Blood work and x-rays came back normal, which lead us to further believe it was the carpets.

So, in addition following up with the Home Depot about the seams and roll reversal, they were made aware about the incident with our dog and they sent out a carpet cleaner company to clean the carpet. In addition to helping remove the smell we were told steam cleaning the carpets may help improve the appearance of the seams and roll reversal, and it did help with the roll reversal but did nothing for the seams.

The seams are clearly visible and the seam in the living room can be seen 20 feet away while standing on the stairwell. How is that right? I should also mention we were told when we purchased the carpet that the seams would not be seen, but then again we were told a lot of things and everything has come back to *** us in the butt when it comes to Home Depot.

Our next conversation with the Customer Order Specialist at the Lockport Home Depot ended in that there was nothing they could do until they consulted with the carpet manufacturer and that the claim representative that was assigned to the case was on vacation till Monday. Monday rolled around and nothing so I went back to the home depot and was told that the representative from the carpet manufacturer extended her vacation another week. Hmm, sounds fishy to me.

We did gave Home Depot three solutions to this problem:

Take the carpets and padding out and refund our money. (However, this would leave us with no carpets because our old ones were disposed of, and we would have required some type of additional compensation should they have choose to go this route)

Put new carpets in with a list of stipulations. (Obviously, we didn’t want our dog to get sick again, so we asked to be put up in the hotel while the house was aired out. It would be up to them to move the furniture and remove the carpets this time.)

Refund us the money for the carpet and we will paid for the padding. (This obviously would require us to live with it, and while it’s disappointing that a visible seam would be in my living room and bedroom. At this point in time with the dog being sick and going through this whole ordeal it’s a way to end this once and for all and for us to walk away not feeling like we have been screwed.)

We were then contacted by a Home Depot employee who told us an expert carpet inspector would be contacting us to come to our house to look at the carpets. While he was here he saw the seams, pointed out additional dark areas (he actually asked if there were multiple seams, confused as to why these color variations existed), and took pictures, but yet his report was a totally different story. In his report, he said in his report “The seam in the living room is very well made, and is almost undetectable, it is as invisible as any carpet seam can be expected to be”. Considering I had two professional installers at my house telling me and showing me the defect in the carpet, it just didn’t make sense. Not too mention it is easily visible in the picture above.

This carpet inspector is hired by Home Depot and/or the carpet manufacturer and while he maybe an independent contractor, he is still being paid by one of them. So, now we have a carpet inspector who’s completely shady, but that’s a whole other topic.

This lead my husband and I to once again go to the Lockport Home Depot and talk to an employee. We gave her a picture of the carpet seam in the living room that was taken from about 20 feet from the seam. She sat there saying how important it was for her to make us happy. Well, it was just one more lie to us. Honestly, what does she really care? It’s not her house. It’s not her money.

So finally on Jan. 13, a representative of Home Deport Customer Care called us with a resolution. They decided to refund us the money for the carpet. We were happy. A sense of relief came over us and while we would have to live with the defective carpet, our dog would be safe and although we weren’t totally happy, we didn’t feel victimized. Well, you would think the story would be over, and on a somewhat acceptable note, but it doesn’t.

The next day the same representative of Home Depot Customer Care called my husband to clarify that Home Depot would be removing the carpet and that we would be paying for the padding and installation of that padding. What? No, we did not agree to that. That was never said in the first phone call. So, you take out the carpets and now I just having padding in my house. Are you kidding me? What is the point of that? That is not acceptable. After all this going back and forth and dissatisfaction they managed to come up with a resolution that benefits Home Depot.

Thank you again Home Depot for making us feel even more victimized by you. So obviously we told the representative no and asked why are they doing this to us? The representative said she would get back to us that day. We called again that day, we called again the next day, and nothing! Still no answers, no one has called us, and it’s like this has just been swept under the carpet!

This has now become a fight and it’s one we don’t intend on losing. This isn’t right. It isn’t fair.

It is now going on more than a month and the Lockport Home Depot Store and the corporate Home Depot Customer Care are still jerking us around. Getting a hold of someone and getting answers just doesn’t seem like it is ever going to happen. Please be aware when buying from them. You don’t want to be in our shoes.

Reason of review: Damaged or defective.

Location: Niagara Falls, New York

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Guest

I hope you got this problem, straightened out, with Homedepot.I believe, that you're dog ,probably did get sick, from insecticide, or other chemicals, in carpet. I hope, he or she, is okay, now.

Also, good for you, to stick up, for yourself.

[ Homedepot, You should be ashamed of yourself, maybe, you have to learn, the hard way.

Guest

English. It's poor!

Detracts from the argument. Proof read next time.

Guest

If the carpet is as bad as you say, you would want to replace it. They are offering to take it away and give you your money back.

You will need the pad under whatever carpet you decide you want. I just don't see why they should give you your money back and let you keep they carpet you think is so bad. Keep in mind, they didn't make the carpet.

The mill has determined it is bad and allowing Home Depot to accept the return of the defective carpet. Home Depot needs the carpet back to get credit from the mill to fund your refund.

Guest

I could spend an afternoon refuting the appalling number of inaccuracies in your "review" (and of course I'll expect some sort of compensation for this...)

1. If your dog was in fact poisoned by a chemical treatment, the blood tests wouldn't have "come back as normal".

2.

Apparently you didn't read the terms of the sale before you agreed to them, and instead seem to think you're entitled to "whatever" makes you happy.

3. Likewise with the return and refund agreement. The one you should have got in writing prior to arranging the return.

Notice a pattern here? Yes, you need to pay attention to these things!

4. Smart consumers know who and how to approach a business to address a problem. You failed miserably just waltzing into a retail store shoving photos at the first employee you see, whining and demanding "compensation".

You need to speak with someone who's actually authorized to do this. Not a random clerk or stocker, not even a manager. No one at the retail location can do this, so stop harassing them!

5.

It's our determination this entire purchase was an impulse buy, after years of your husband enduring your whining and complaining about carpets. Obviously you were never able to afford it, and THIS is how you think you'll get out of it; by creating an epic campaign of whining all over the internet, hoping they'll give you FREE carpet, free installation, and of course whatever "compensation" you feel your imaginary tragedies deserve. Unfortunately for you, they've already caught onto this, and have decided they aren't losing any more money on you. And they're not alone...

Many big retailers are finally ignoring and even banning customers like this. Amazon just started permanently banning users who show a pattern of excessive returns.

These "customers" drive costs up for real customers. I guess next time stick to what you can afford and you won't encounter so many "problems".

Guest

was the carpet cut by Home Depot or the original installers? Because the main thing I see is the "nap" of the carpet is not going the same direction.

This is a quite common problem when carpet is measured and cut by someone that doesn't have a clue what they are doing.

The reason it has never been brought up could be because either Home Depot cut it wrong and doesn't want to admit it or the installers did it wrong and don't want to pay to replace it. The carpet inspector is just covering everyones' a55, just like HD pays him to do.

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