Military Families Beware...Installation Nightmare, Unacceptable Customer Service...
***this is a review of Home Depot as a business and their customer service and their resolutions department. This review is not reflective of any experience I had with the physical store or employees at the store.
I have learned this the hard (and costly) way. Never, ever again will I pay for (or allow) for Home Depot to arrange major appliance installation in my home. Doing so (1) nearly started a serious electrical fire in my home, (2) compromised any/all faith I have that Home Depot as an esteemed business, and (3) is costing me an estimated $320 to repair a 6-month-old major appliance due to negligence and improper installation. Installation that I paid for and was backed by Home Depot.
Here's a timeline of what happened:
- November 2020: purchased a Samsung washer and electric dryer from Home Depot
- December 2020: had the appliances delivered to and installed in my home. All seemed fine, the appliances worked smoothly and there were no issues...
- June 2021: The military is relocating my family so we had Samsung come out to properly disconnect the appliances from our home
- Later that month: went to reinstall the appliances. my new home has a 4-prong outlet whereas my previous home had a 3-prong outlet for the electric dryer. "No big deal," I thought. So I went to the store and purchased a new power cord system. I remove the back panel of the dryer and begin to remove the screws of the terminal block. One of the screws was sheared off so I was unable to remove it. Annoying. I then had two choices. Either I could order an outlet adapter or splice the wires and re-wire things myself. I opted for the first choice. Even though I was confident in my ability to do the re-wiring, I figured if anything went wrong then I'd screw myself out of the warranty. I made the smart/responsible choice, so I thought.
The outlet adapter shows up two days later. Thank God that I plugged the original power cord into the adapter before plugging the adapter cord into the wall. If not, that spark may have also caused a serious electrical fire in my new home.
One week goes by as I wait for Samsung to send someone out to assess the issue. The tech looks and tells me this is an installation fault. He hands me the full report and tells me to call Home Depot with the findings. What this really meant is that a negligent installation team had damaged my $700 dryer on day one. The same day that my brand-new appliance was delivered to my home, it was also damaged beyond repair by the installer. He had basically jerry-rigged it to work in my previous home but once those wires were disconnected it would no longer work. According to the Samsung technician, the installer cracked the terminal block, stripped one of the connecting screws, and sheared the ground screw. That's why it arced when I tried using the adapter.
Anyways, right after the Samsung technician left I called Home Depot. It took about 15-20 minutes of going through menu options before I could even be put on hold for a real person to talk to. The Home Depot representative decided to transfer me to Samsung, even though I had explained it was already deemed an installation error by Samsung. The bouncing back and forth began. Samsung transfers me back to Home Depot, Home Depot transfers me back to Samsung. Each time I have no choice but to start over from the beginning and explain the situation over and over again. I believe I spoke to a total of 7 different people over the course of a 3-hour continuous phone call.
After 3 hours, customer service transfers me to the Resolutions Department. Then I am told that since it has been more than 30 days since delivery and since I have moved, they are not responsible for any of the damage costs. I was/am irate to say the very least.
This was the absolute worst experience I have ever had with a "reputable" business. I am writing this review to caution anyone, especially Active Duty Servicemembers, their families, and any other people that have to move frequently. I know how it works: Home Depot contracts a big transportation and logistics company (e.g. J.B. Hunt) who then sub-contracts to a smaller transportation company to actually execute the install and delivery. These employees are not always knowledgeable about using an electric drill without destroying simple screws. Businesses have to cut costs somewhere. Sure, I get it. But if I buy a major appliance from Home Depot and they arrange for "professional" installation, then who is responsible when it goes wrong? Surely, it should not be the paying customer. read more