When buying stuff at Lowe's for a project (first time) I read their return policy on the back of a receipt and found it very interesting and maybe a bit odd.
The interesting parts are in bold and the interesting parts of the interesting parts are underlined.
So according to their return policy, if you are not completely satisfied, you must(?) return the item and they will repair, replace, or refund if you have valid receipt.
That's quite a loose policy... does that mean that you can return ANYTHING, as long as you are not completely satisfied? If you bought some copper plumbing fittings, and then your project goes horribly wrong, can you return those ruined copper fittings??
You would think they would say that they have the right to limit or refuse returns... and they do! But wait... notice how they say "without valid receipts" at the end. So that means that they can limit or refuse returns if you don't have a valid receipt. But if you do have a valid receipt, then they cannot limit or refuse returns, right??
After seeing this I wanted to compare the policy to Home Depot's return policy.
Home Depot doesn't show their policy on the back of their receipts, they only show a basic idea of the policy on the front and tell you to see the policy sign in stores for more details.
What's not mentioned here is something they mention on the receipts: "THE HOME DEPOT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO LIMIT / DENY RETURNS. [...]"
So according to Home Depot's return policy, returns (within 90 days and with valid receipt) will be exchanged, refunded, credited to account, etc. But you may only return most new, unopened items. And they can limit or deny returns as they wish.
So to compare Lowe's vs Home Depot:
Lowe's will take any returned items within 90 days (or 30 for other stuff), and they cannot refuse returns if you have a valid receipt.
Home Depot says you may only return most new, unopened items within 90 days (or 30 or 365), though I find this untrue. So Home Depot may take most items but they can limit or deny any returns if they want.
This looks like a good reason to go to Lowe's instead of Home Depot. When I shopped at Lowe's for the first time (which was recently; before we rarely went and when we did it usually was to look for an item HD didn't have) I wasn't really impressed with Lowe's, or at least that specific store. They had a rather poor selection, a kind-of messy layout; also their website is not as good as HD's; going back to HD I found that HD was better in almost every way and I couldn't find any reason to shop at Lowe's (other than being a tiny bit closer and more direct to that house); but after reading the return policies I have found that Lowe's has a big advantage over Home Depot because you can return anything (I think? That is to be discussed). So if you want to buy stuff for a project and think you might screw up and need to return stuff, maybe you should shop at Lowe's.
Also another thing; notice how both policies say that they will exchange, refund, etc, a return. But then they say that there are some exceptions, etc. :-/ Weird policies…
If you push the issue they will usually take anything in return but they may not want to refund. I know several people who bought nail guns to do one job then returned them saying that they didn’t work well enough. You may just get store credit for that kind of problem but if you shop there enough that should be OK.
One store I occasionally shop at made it a point to tell me they would not refund water meter wrenches for any reason because so many people buy them to turn water off in an emergency then call a plumber to do the fix thinking they will never need the tool again. I told them this sounded like a good policy to me and I bought the tool.
I have never had a problem with either store. Paying by credit card enables them to look up the receipt on their computer.
At Home Depot I once returned and item after more than 90 days and I did not get refunded the sales tax.
And that made sense, as there is no way for them to recover the sales tax paid to the State after that period.
BTW, it may be interesting or surprising to some, but once a sale has been made whether for goods or services, the business is liable for that sales tax whether they actually get paid or not.
Having been in business for more than 35 years all I can say is business is WAY harder than most people not in business think.
One accountant told me that people end up where they belong naturally. Those employed by others dream of being self-employed and vice-versa but when they try that it never works out so they go back to what woks for them. And yes, being in business for yourself is fraught with problems but if you like the work you stay with it.
One of the nice things about being self-employed is that I get deductions for tools so do have a pretty extensive collection of gadgets.
After 35 years that’s how I got into the habit of buying massive quantities of stuff. If I came across a mega deal I would load up and pass out cool stuff I got cheap to employees.
Unfortunately sometimes, old habits die hard.
Having worked at the customer service desk at two Home Depots, I can say that your experience will largely depend on the rule of the managers. Usually though, if it’s a small item and there’s anything wrong with it, you’ll get a refund with a receipt or store credit at least. For larger items a manager is called in to make a decision and usually you get your refund too. Every return without a receipt logs the returners drivers license number and saves it, if you make too many no-receipt-returns in a 90 period the system will deny the return and a manager will basically never override it.
I have worked returns at a couple other large stores, and overall Home Depot is the most lenient. I have seen returns given many times when they definitely shouldn’t have, but management just wanted to make the customer happy.