Back in June 2016, Home Depot stopped allowing merchandise credits to be used online. Beginning April 10th, in-store use of merchandise credits will be limited to the one who received it. You’ll have to supply photo ID to prove yourself.
The change does not affect Home Depot gift cards which can continue to be used in-store or online, even by someone else. Merchandise credits are what you get when returning an item at Home Depot. Maybe there are other ways to get them too.
I had actually thought that this new rule was already in effect because Raise sent out an email to their sellers to let them know about this last month:
According to a Home Depot employee the rule only goes into effect everywhere on April 10th. The employee adds that corporate is working on finding a solution for business owners who share store credit with their employees.
Well I would just like to throw this out there, if they make a special exception for the business owners to be able to share store credit with employees, I would love to file a lawsuit for discrimination. As a matter of fact maybe a class action suit for everybody who was not a business owner, who had store credits at Home Depot and were not allowed to share them, as the business owner clientele would be. If they make the special exception it would have to be across the board or it would definitely be discrimination/ favoritism. if they are owners they shouldn’t have need for store credits to begin with because they all have record of their purchases, therefore their credits should be back to their business cards, as opposed to an actual store credit. And trust me there are plenty of the business owners who purchase the store credits from the people that obtain them fraudulently. So those business customers are a big part of the fraud that they’re trying to stop
Why I just like to throw it out there that if they make a special exception for the business owners to be able to share it with their employees I would love to file a lawsuit for discrimination. As a matter of fact maybe a class action suit for everybody it was not a business owner but has store credits at Home Depot and are not allowed to share them as the business owner customers would be. If they make the special exception it would definitely be discrimination/favortism, because if their business owners they shouldn’t have store credits to begin with because they all have record of their purchases therefore there credits should be back to their business cards as opposed to an actual store credit
THIS ARTICLE IS INCORRECT AS OF 11/25/2017
I just contacted Home Depot Customer Service because the local Home Depot attempted to ID my housemate when he borrowed a Store Credit card from me. They initally stated that it wa s fine for him to use my card. I then told them about this article. They said they would double-check and, a few minutes later, this is what they said I corrected the grammer):
“If it is a Store Credit issued on an actual card it can be used by anyone.
If it is on a slip of paper, such as a Rain Check, then it can only be used by the person
that it was issued to..” – Irene at Home Depot Customer Service
Perhaps they have changed policy since the alleged new policy change of April 10th 2017
and have not been good about informing the local stores.
Additionally, I live in Mesa, AZ where there is a lot of scamming and a high crime rate, so
perhaps they air on the side of precaution at my location.
Let us know if you actually go in-store and it works for someone else to use.
I have never had to present ID for Store Credit in NY State
Home Depot locations and actually used the card my housemate
borrowed at the same Mesa location yesterday without being
asked for ID. My housemate is a local contractor who uses
Home Depot Store Credit cards fairly frequently in the Mesa area and
he said it is the first time he has ever been asked for ID. My housemate thought the cashier might be a “newbie”, which could possibly explain the situation. I think it is more likely that “Corporate” informed the local store Managers of the April 10th policy change and then, for some unknown reason, did not implement the change and did not inform the local Managers of the backpedal.I will be going there tomorrow to speak to a Manager about it. I will post what I find out here.
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Can anyone comment on if they are enforcing it or not right now?
Yes, they are enforcing it I’ve tried twice through self-checkout and they’ve asked me both times. I wasn’t able to purchase it because it was under my husband’s name.
I’ve already been caught up at our local Home Depot in the husband/wife issue. So now if I’m in the middle of a job I can’t send her on a Home Depot run with a card issued to me. Frustrating.
I get that there are people walking out the back and front doors of the store without paying, then returning the merchandise, but every retailer has that problem. Is punishing customers the best solution they can come up with?
It’s a good thing for them that Home Depot and Lowes are pretty much the only show in town. If there was any serious competition in home improvement this scheme would never fly.
Also wondering how this will work with their self-checkout system.
I imagine it will require a cashier to log in, verify the ID matches, and then approve or decline the processing of payment.
The person taking care of the self-checkout lines will check your ID
So, if my wife tries to use one of mine she won’t be able to. That’s just great. Guess Lowe’s is my new go to for now.
Definitely annoying, and makes me think twice about even purchasing gift cards (say, through a supermarket where the cash back on a credit card is higher), because if you return anything (and, with home improvement stuff, it’s inevitable), you get store credit.
But it would be linked to your name, so what’s the problem?
Pain to have to show ID every time, plus the info is stored in a system that has already been vulnerable to hacking.
Also, makes it hard to have a spouse or other relative return something for you while they’re out.
Try buying a $200 tool with gift cards and returning it. You get $200 in store credit that can only be used at the store, so no portal discounts. And you’re stuck with $200 that might take awhile to use depending on your volume of HD purchases.
I get why they have to do what they are doing, but that doesn’t mean I like it any better.
Shady people were stealing merch from jobsites, returning it and selling the credit. It happened to my parents 🙁
Good or bad. For somebody like me whose HD store credit balance got stolen, this is definitely a good move. Of course, for gift card traders, this is no good.
On the contrary, this has been a great move for GC sellers. Ever since HD SC was taken off the market, the average selling price of HD GC has risen, which generally means higher margins. It even dragged Lowe’s GC prices higher too as a result of the demand shift (for high-discount home improvement GC/SC).
I can only see this being bad for return fraudsters, as well as loyal but budget-conscious B&M HD shoppers who have now lost the option of a consistent ~10% discount for using SC. There is now barely any discount to be had on the HD GC market (Ink 5x easily beats any of the secondary GC market options if you really wanted to use GC).
+1