Home Depot

Here's a good one. Our salesman kept saying this was a $4 Billion a year company. Well, for $4 billion a year, you'd think they would take better care of their customers. My husband and I hired Home Depot to redo our bathtub (another long story) and decided to go with them because we got on the tail end of their no interest or payments for 12 months. Our salesman kept saying a $4 billion dollar a year company like Home Depot is going to be worth it. Ha! This was towards the end of July, 2005. He got us a credit card that night, and approved for the no interest or payments for 12 months.

Well I got my card in the mail, went online, and set everything up online - to receive statements, to get general emails, to register my card. My first statement I got through the mail in November. I made a $10.00 test payment to see how it would come through my account. Worked fine. Didn't notice the bottom of the statement, which had us on the 6 months, no payments or interest plan. Trouble begins.

Got a December statement, then a January statement. Didn't think about it, but I didn't get anymore statements. My husband and I talked last night about paying it off a month before it was due, and then seeing where we were financially. Well this morning, I got an email reminder that my statement is available online if I hadn't known that, and that I could view my balances, etc., at any time. I didn't think much of that because I had been dealing with the account online. But it reminded me what my husband and I talked about and I wanted to check online to see if it told me when the 12 months was up. I didn't remember, and the salesman said the no payments would start 30 days after the job was completed. Which wasn't July.

I looked online and saw my balance was over $5,000. It should have been $4,613. So I thought, I didn't purchase anything, does someone have access to my account?. I looked at the statement, due MAY 2, and we were charged $434.17 in finance charges and had a minimum payment due of $106.00! So immediately I called customer service, which is a frickin oxymoron in itself, and they said, we have you on 6 months no payments, no interest, didn't you read the bottom of your statement? Bitch.

Then I had to tell them that I had never received a statement. (I found the other ones later). They immediately blamed gmail, which, if anyone has gmail, you know that they don't let you delete mail, just archive it. Then she said the last statement went out on April 9. Which I didn't get. I even went back through my emails just to make sure. Of course, I keep getting their advertising emails, but no statements. So I had them take me off the online statements, and back to paper. But I'll have to watch and make sure I get a statement from now on.

So my wonderful husband, who knows I have a short fuse to begin with, took the information and started making calls this morning. A short time ago, I received a fax from someone he was dealing with, and right on the credit application is circled 12 months! So now I'm sure he's going to have to take this and fax it over to the credit department, who in turn wants the store to call them and clarify and won't take our word for it, and it's a nightmare. Why me?

You can hardly read this fax. But at least it says right on there, 12 months. That's visible. The Home Depot was our 3rd quote, and the highest of the 3. Not worth it, not for the hassle of the right hand not knowing what the left hand has done.

I hate salesman. At least the ones who sweet talk you to get a commission and then you never see them again.

And to top that all off, last night we noticed the kitchen sink leaking underneath.

Like I told my mom, when it rains, it fucking pours.