WARNING!! home depot shoppers

[gemini5362]

Ok here is my idea which is significantly different.

If Mr Jimi is married have his wife go down to home depot and find the manager, tell the manager what happened. Tell them how hard financially not getting the material will affect them. More than likely the manager will not only give her the material he will have two big strong men load them for her and he will apologize for the mixup.

My wife would do that in a heart beat and throw in an apology to the manager for having to deal with me over the whole situation.

 

[CurlyDave]

I am shocked that no one has pointed out that this is exactly the situation Small Claims Court was invented for.

Go down to the courthouse and they will help you with a booklet of rules & procedures.

If you need further help, PM me. I have been to Small Claims Court 4 times in my life and have won every time.

There have been several other times when a store manager would get the summons from the court and would decide to settle up rather than go through the time & expense of a trial.

Clearly you have been "lost in the cracks" in their system, and need to do something to get their attention. A process server showing up and giving the store manager a summons will get his attention. If your juristiction has a way for a Deputy to do this, that is even better. Worth every penny of the extra cost, and the loser pays that cost...

 

[LBrown59]

HMM comp says 5 and none, and now says 0 and there are 8.
He "overrode; whatever and I headed out with the doors. Only to be stopped, and asked for the receipt.
1*then they said that the price had increased $10 a door.
1*But these are your doors. They cannot increase the price on anything that don't belong to them.

It is not highly unlikely at all, and it happens often at large stores. I've gone to (unnamed) home improvement stores several times to purchase things. Large things like boards, sheet rock, plywood, large storage containers, motor oil, etc... They tell me they don't have them. I point to them on the shelf, way up high in forklift land.
2*They check the computers and it shows none in stock. There's a hundred of them right there!
2*Computers are more real than reality.

3* it would be nice if the Manager would just take his word but I am sure that could threaten his job if he is wrong.
3*But there is no excuse for not completely checking the customers claim out!

4*We all have a responsibility to do what we can to reduce the risk of fraud with those who we do business with now days, We should not expect trust to be a given in our dealings any longer. No more handshake deals
4*Donating a S1000 worth of plywood is going way above and beyond the call of duty don't you think? what ever happened to the expression the customer is always wrong or is it the customer is never right?

5*The Manager/Store is only dealing with the situation as they should and one would expect them to deal with it lacking any proof of the transaction.
5*If a receipt isn't proof of a transaction then what is?

6*I could no more fault HD in this than I could you if I showed up at your house and told you that someone that answered the door yesterday took my money for one of the 2 thousand or so identical widgets you have for sale and I am here to pick it up now. No, I have no proof I did not pick it up yesterday (as you know I should) but hay trust me its only a $1000 Bucks!
6*I can see your point here to a certain extent, but on the other hand a customer should not have to hire an armed guard to protect his property while he's gone especially from pilferage of it by the business he purchased it from.

7*Mr. Jimi shouldn't have to fight for his stuff, even if the paperwork is incorrect.
___ 7*If it's his it's his an the store has no business messing with it.




>>> >>>

 

[MikePA]

The random formatting and coloring you used in your post makes it unreadable and useless. Why do you do this?

 

[AndyM]

2*Computers are more real than reality.

Huh?

 

[gemini5362]

I am just guessing here since I am not really sure of the events just bits and pieces. I also have been to small claims court in my case 3 times. 1 loss 2 wins. The loss I was right but the judge made a bad decision but guess what his is the decision that counts. AS far as the situation for Mr. Jimi
if he signed for his stuff and then just could not hall it but did not have someone at the store mark how many he took. He might have a problem in small claims court. If the store has a receipt that he bought 36 pieces of plywood and he does not have anything showing he did not take that many I cannot see a judge awarding it to him.

If he could remember who he dealt with at the store and they remember him then that would help. If he has not angered management already then maybe a discussion that was more along the lines of this is what happened I have been doing buisness here for several years. If you would like to take the time to come out to my house and see the stuff I bought and make sure the other stuff is not there might do some good. I hate to say this but the bottom line is that without any kind of receipt he might be out of luck.

If he wants to do the sign thing I dont see that helping any but there is free speech in this country at least to a point. He needs to be careful what he puts on the sign If he puts the wrong thing on the sign and makes HD mad then that could get more expensive even. The bottom line is that he is probably going to be out the money. If anyone wants to start a fund to help him and just give him the money then email me and I will contribute. I hate to see someone lose that much money if it is going to severely impact their finances.

 

[CurlyDave]

if he signed for his stuff and then just could not hall it but did not have someone at the store mark how many he took. He might have a problem in small claims court. If the store has a receipt that he bought 36 pieces of plywood and he does not have anything showing he did not take that many I cannot see a judge awarding it to him.

We didn't get to that part yet, but proper prior preparation for Small Claims Court would be to take pictures of his truck, & document its carrying capacity. Then he weighs one piece of the plywood in question and demonstrates, through calculation, to the judge that it is just plain not possible for his truck to carry 36 pieces of the plywood, or that the load would not be safe to carry.

This plus his testamony is probably enough to establish that he did not take all of the wood at one time.

Then the problem of proving that he took a second load of wood falls back on Home Depot, and from what he says so far, they have no paperwork suggesting anything other than the departure of one load of plywood.

The other thing which can work in his favor is the discovery and subpoena process the court has. He needs to write down the name of everyone he has talked to at Home Depot (both locally and at the main office) and, if he fills out the correct paperwork, the court will issue subpoenas for all of them to appear for the trial.

In many instances this is sufficient to get the defendant to settle a case. He is on his own time, but Home Depot is going to have to pay all of these witnesses to appear. The total cost of this is probably higher than the cost of the load of plywood.

If a witness does not appear for the trial in resonse to a subpoena, he can get an arrest warrant issued. Now no one is going to go out and chase these people down if they don't show up, particularly if they are out of state, but if they ever get a traffic ticket in the state, they will spend the night in jail. This is serious food for thought.

When dealing with large companies, it is frequently advantageous to point out to the local manager that the cost to him of a trial will greatly exceed that of a fair settlement.

Any kind of signs on his truck anywhere near Home Depot will be frowned upon by the court. Try the legal remedy first, then the signs.

 

[gemini5362]

The last time I was in small claims court it was 40 dollars to if they sent it out by mail. it was 125.00 to have the police deliver it. That was over 20 years ago and in arkansas so I dont know how much it will cost him. I did however get to pick up the tab for process servers to serve subpoenas to teachers in my sons custody case for my grandaughter that was 50.00 per witness. Once again that is just the cost in my local. I would never intend for anyone to get the impression that I am in any way shape form or fashion an attorney so I would not try to say what I would say or do in court. I am however a trained advocate that apears in front of arbitrators where the stakes are pretty high. I am not aware of how thick the plywood is. If it is 1/2 inch then we are talking about an 18 inch thick stack ,if it is 3/4 inch thick then we are talking about 27 inch thick. On the size of it that is not that hard to imagine fitting in a pickup. His best bet would be a weight issue.
I dont know how much plywood weighs if it was 100 pounds and I dont think it weighs that much then you are talking 3600 pounds. If it is a 1/2 ton truck that might not be hard to convince someone that you could not haul it.
If they weigh 50 pounds then might be a bit harder to prove you do not overload your truck with 1800 pounds . however if you have a trailer then I think a really good case could be made that you could haul it pretty easily.

Getting witnesses are tough, I am sure that people that work for HD are not going to want to testify and all they have to say is that they were really busy and they just dont remember him. That would be very hard to prove that they were not telling the truth. I am usually a big fan of someone going to court and getting something settled. In this case I just dont see that he has that good a case going in unless there is more information that I dont have.

 

[CurlyDave]

Getting witnesses are tough, I am sure that people that work for HD are not going to want to testify and all they have to say is that they were really busy and they just dont remember him. That would be very hard to prove that they were not telling the truth.

Of course you are right on that, but my point is that HD will not want to pay the salaries of 5 or 6 witnesses for 3-4 hours of travel and court time.

Mr Jimi may be out $1000.

But I still think Small Claims Court is his best chance for recovery.

The moral of the story, to me, is never pay for an in-stock item until you are ready to actually pick it up.

 

[CDsdad]

The random formatting and coloring you used in your post makes it unreadable and useless. Why do you do this?

Double amen.