Home Depot Inc - Norman

Some windows began to fail (losing argon gas) within 4-5 years, but we didn't turn those in for warranty service because at the time I didn't know that aspect of the windows was warrantied. Over the summer, two sets of large, mulled windows in the front of my house began to leak. I have been trying since August 26, 2014 to get Home Depot (and American Craftsman) to honor their "lifetime" warranty on windows that are only 11 years old by repairing or replacing these windows, but they have not. I have the make date, warranty number, and sales order number (they put this information on a sticker on every window they install). A Home Depot rep has visited my house and verified that these are, in fact, Home Depot windows. They've verified the store that sold them (S. Shields Home Depot in Oklahoma City). However, because they cannot produce the 2003 receipt (apparently everything was not electronically backed up), and because I can't produce the original receipt due to my husband's death and the ensuing changes and moves, they have said "there is nothing we can do." This is in spite of the fact that we all have the warranty number AND sales order number, AND date of manufacture. I'm now a widow and battling this on my own and still can't get these folks to help me after two months. I visit their store or call them for help every Monday. I've heard from others, including an insurance adjuster friend, that Home Depot is the absolute worst at honoring their so-called warranties. I will never use them again and would advise others to avoid major projects using Home Depot. Use Angie's List or FB and ask friends to recommend your major items. I regret that back in 2002 I thought "lifetime warranty" meant just that, and that Home Depot could be trusted because they are a large national chain. Boy, were we wrong.

I ordered and picked up my replacement windows in a timely fashion and was very pleased with service, price and product.

Home Depot Norman is a train wreck. I bought my kitchen cabinets and tiled half the square footage of my house with them. My problem is not with the subcontractors. For the most part (so far, anyway) they have done a pretty good job. There have been some minor issues, but nothing major. When you can get a HD employee to help you they usually have no idea what they are talking about. I went in to order tiles and the guy there had only worked there for 6 months, he was a lawyer working there one day a week for benefits, and could barely answer any of my questions. He would have to ask Anne, the customer order "specialist" (I use that term loosely). Every time I dealt with her was a lesson in patience. She's stuck in a tiny office up front, and is so overworked, incompetent or inefficient (or all three), that she could barely function. She would always tell me she'd "call me right back". That rarely happened. When they were having a major cabinet sale, their main employee in Kitchens was out on vacation. So, essentially, they lock you into the hassle of cabinet buying (sitting down and planning it, paying to have someone measure at your house) and then when you need to finalize the order, their employee is gone in the middle of the major sale! This place is so poorly managed it's scary. And yes, I have talked to the store manager about all of the issues. He said, I'll look into it and "I'll take care of you". Not sure what that means because nothing changed. They have major communication issues - the left hand has no idea what the right is doing. I got multiple calls from HD employees for different times I would be having things delivered, etc.. The information was different every time and always different from what the subcontractor would tell me when they called. Any time I went in to the store to speak with someone about my order, a 1 hour trip would turn into 2-2.5 hours nearly every time. I came in with all of my ducks in a row regarding my order, paperwork, questions I had. The train wreck occurred because HD employees were either covering someone else's dept. and so couldn't help me, were on vacation, or couldn't find a mgr to answer a question. I waited 20 min. for a mgr, that was in the store, to answer an employee's page to come sign a piece of paper. 20 minutes! I had to cancel meetings and rearrange my work day because of these people. I even started to schedule in extra time b/c I knew how they were going to be and they still managed to waste hours of my time. The final straw was when I was ordering tiles, I asked if I could get refunded for any extra supplies or labor that wasn't used/necessary. I was told it would be no problem getting a refund. So, I brought back the extra supplies - no problem there. But when I mentioned that the tilers did not need to skim coat, and that I needed to be refunded the ~$300 for that, I met with fierce resistance. Anne, the customer order "specialist" essentially just kept telling me that the office for the tile installation company was saying that the work was performed. This went on for over a week. One day when I told her I just called the actual installer in the morning and he said he'd call the office telling them the skim coating had not been done, I had to again call Anne later that day to check in to see if it was resolved. She just kept telling me the tile installer's office would be calling me. I asked why I needed to speak with them - they didn't do the skim coat and so there was no need to speak with them about it. That's when she suggested that they wanted to explain to me what skim coating was. I told her I knew what it was. She said, "They are saying they did it, and you are saying that they didn't do it". And then she'd leave it at that. She didn't say she'd talk to the installer herself or make any attempt to resolve anything other than just a he said/she said thing. Nice company service. That's when I mentioned the magic "F" word - that the tile company, and HD, were committing fraud. I told her if had to pull up one of those tiles to prove they didn't skim coat, HD would be out much more than just the cost of the skim coat. Who knows if that had anything to do with it, but miraculously, that afternoon my refund was taken care of. One person in the store, Martina in Kitchens, is a godsend. I was so frustrated one day with Anne that Martina walked with me up to Anne's office, expedited the process there, and then walked with me over to the service desk to make sure things there went smoothly. Unfortunately, Martina is part time - Saturday and Monday. She should be running the whole store.