Bought a Full Pallet Load at Tractor Supply and They Charged Me for The Pallet

[NativeSon]

Have you ever bought a pallet load of anything and they would not let you have the pallet it was stacked on? I got the Tractor Supply Company 10% off coupon in the mail. Went to my local store in Athens to buy a pallet load of shavings (normally a 5% discount), 12 4'X6' 3/4" stall mats and Strongid 2X wormer. They were out of mats so the cashier called the Canton store and they had plenty of stall mats so I drove 25 miles to the Canton store. After paying $750 I went out to get things loaded on the trailer. The lot guys came out with a forklift and brought out the shavings. They stand about 10' tall and are at the max lift for my FEL so I always have them split it and put 20 of the 45 bags on a second pallet and wrap it with shrink wrap. The Athens store has done this for the last 5 years.

The Canton store not only did not want to let me have a second pallet but told me they had to unload all the bags on my trailer as I could not have the pallet the shavings came on. The mats were also on a pallet but I could not have it either. They wanted to stack everything on the trailer so would have to unload by hand. I explained that I unloaded with forks on the tractor. Still could not have the pallets as company policy changed this last year and they have to send the pallets back. I told them never mind I would get a refund and the head guy said I could buy the pallets for $8 each. We went back inside and I paid the $24 as I wanted the pallet under the mats. When I asked if I returned the pallets could I get a refund he stated they would not take them back.

I don't think I will be going back to the Canton store any time soon. Seems they don't understand the concept of a pallet load comes with the pallet or the concept of customer service. I will have the Athens store order what I need and wait for it.

Randy- With the Big Box stores the hardest item to find is "Customer service". It's a dying art.

Charlie

 

[paulharvey]

Couple years ago I bought ~30 bags of 80# quikcrete at Lowes for a project. I went ahead and go the whole rest of the pallet. I told them to just set the whole thing in truck bed. The guy on forklift told me it would be $5 for the pallet; I told him he could just stack all 30 bags in my bed then.... I ended up getting the pallet for free.

 

[dave1949]

Sounds like the truck delivering your stuff is a independent contractor, they get paid for deliverys not returns.

That's what is sounds like to me too. He was not going back to the store. Another thread talked about the big box stores using independents to deliver instead of their employees. Another opportunity to provide poor customer service.

It seems like the last thing anyone wants these days is an actual employee. It is what it is, but getting paid for deliveries, not returns, is putting the customer last.

 

[dmccarty]

The truck is under contract with Home Depot, painted Home Depot Corporate colors and logo...

It can only be used for Home Depot material...

The explanation I got was it was a paperwork nightmare tracking returns and getting the credits to the right person.

Reading all of the different comments it is apparent that how pallets are handled differs for some reason. I assume because of the store and/or region, company, individual, etc.

We bought quite a few pallets of edgers and retaining wall blocks. I want to say it was 5 pallets of blocks and 3 of edgers but this was a good eight years ago. I bought from a HD but the blocks and edgers were from a company in Charlotte, NC. A HD truck delivered the pallets but he came from the plant in Charlotte, not the store from which I bought the products. No mention was ever made of giving back the pallets or charging for them. Of course, the driver would have had to UNSTACK quite a few tons of material, by hand, to get to the pallets. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I have seen PU and trailer loads of pallets heading west. Always to the west. :confused3: Thankfully, while the PU and trailers are packed with pallets, the equipment does not look like it is about to fall to pieces. There are or used to be a pallet making company south of us and to the north. I have picked up quite a few pallets from contractors who were going to throw them in the trash. I have not heard of anyone locally paying for a pallet when buying material.

All of the pallets that brought material to the house construction have been used to keep firewood off the ground. Many of these pallets have rotted and one of my chores is to take them to the dump which is going to take a couple of trips. I bought some PT 2x4s to store the firewood near the house and he firewood in the woods is stack on Ceder poles. At some point, I think I will make proper cord wood stands out of PT material...

Later,
Dan

 

[94BULLITT]

I was at Lowes getting some concrete blocks. I usually throw a pallet on the truck when I get something like this cause it is easier to unload and I can move it where ever I need to with a tractor. I asked someone if they had a pallet. The guy said he could give me a light duty one or charge $10 for a heavy duty one. I thought most business were happy to give them away.

 

[Soundguy]

i think them days are gone.


you know what the sad deal is. I was at tsc getting some quickie square bales of hay for a neighbors horse, and tossed up under their hay storage trailer ( one of those rented semi trailers, up on blocks ). was a whole pile of palets thay had just chucked under there.. some broke.. some not. I aske dthe hay guy about them. he said they were scrap. i asked if he wanted to get rid of any of them. NOPE..

weird.

scrap.. but won't release.

something hinky going on there....

 

[jpm1]

It is very common to get charged a core charge on pallets. We pay a 75 dollar charge per siding pallet (4' x 12' ) from our supplier. When I deliver siding and the customer requests i leave the pallet, he is charged the "core" charge. When we pick it back up or they return it they get their deposit back. Its "Recycling" and eventually the pallets are returned and reused again. We ship a trailer load a week back to each of our siding suppliers . . .John

 

[jpm1]

It seems like the last thing anyone wants these days is an actual employee. It is what it is, but getting paid for deliveries, not returns, is putting the customer last.

dave, this seems to be the trend but . . .
I have been in the Building material delivery business for a lot of years now and speaking from this truckers point of view and my company, We "strive for customer satisfaction"I do deliveries, pickups, what ever it takes to keep our customers happy. Ive had customers flag me down for returns, and i do them cheerfully. Our company takes great pride in our customer service which is:
#1 accuracy of delivery,
#2 speed of delivery to job site
#3 customer satisfaction
Our business is very good because of this, while we watch other distributators and suppliers go out of business. . . .John