Consumer complaint received 2017-09-15
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: AZ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
Purchase was made on XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX, rebates submitted immediately.
Contacted the store on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX are all the dates I contacted Home Depot that I can remember, I am sure there are more calls and chats that I forgot about. The have REFUSED to address this false advertising.
On XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX I bought a total of 5 buckets of paint, EACH bucket came with a promised {$40.00} rebate. 5 buckets X {$40.00} per bucket = {$200.00}. I submitted proper receipts and made proper claims in the advertised time frame for my 5 buckets of paint, I still have all the original submission numbers as well ( at home, not with me right now ). To date I have only received 2 cards, totaling {$80.00}. {$200.00} - {$80.00} = {$120.00} STILL legally owed to me. The advertised terms in store were 4-6 weeks to receive the full rebate. home Depot has already dragged this out beyond their in-store advertised time frame, so now they are guilty of false advertising, misrepresenting a contract and acting in bad faith with my money. My attorney told me I have ground to file a tort claim based on bad faith and false advertising, which would entitle me to legal compensation in addition to the initial amount + damages, time and expenses. 

I submitted all rebates properly. After several weeks, I received 1 card for {$40.00}. I immediately went online to the rebate contact center for problems with rebates and talk to a rep named XXXX and he told me there was a mistake on their end and he would get the remaining 4 cards out immediately. 

Several more weeks went by and I received 1 more card for {$40.00}, now totaling {$80.00} I have received and {$120.00} Home Depot still owe me. To date, I have not received anything more from Home Depot besides a huge headache. When I got the 2nd card, I immediately went back online and talked to XXXX again. He told me there was ANOTHER mistake on their end, but the remaining 3 cards would be out right away. He told me he also would escalate my case to the manager to make sure it goes right. 

Several more weeks go by and I get NOTHING. I go BACK online and talk to XXXX, again, for the 3rd time, and he tells me he does n't know what happened, there was another mistake and he would get them out right away and to expect them in 6-8 more weeks. I told him that was unacceptable as they have already gone past the advertised time frame and I still do n't have my cards. He then said he went and spoke to the manager he had previously escalated my case to and he PROMISED me the cards would be IN MY HAND in 7-10 days. I told him if they are IN MY HANDS in 10 days, I will be good and he assured me they would.
3 WEEKS go by and I get NOTHING. I go BACK online and I am told that XXXX lied to me, the 7-10 days was just to " escalate the case '' ( something he had claimed he already had done ) and it would be ANOTHER 6-8 weeks. At this point I told them that it was completely unacceptable and I need to have the cards expedited and I need a confirmed shipping/tracking number. They refused and told me it 'd be another 6-8 weeks and I could just deal with it. 

I submitted MANY emails, chatted with several people, called for at least 6 hours, over and over, talked to everyone I could and NO ONE cared or would help me. I was promised several calls back and NO ONE, not a single time, followed through in their promises. The last being a lady named XXXX at customer service. Go back and listen to the recorded call. It was Wednesday and she PROMISED several times to call me by the end of Thursday regardless what the answer was, to let me know what was going on. I specifically asked " XXXX, I have played this game too many times, what do I do when you do n't call me tomorrow? '' And she got very flustered and swore she would call me no matter what, multiple times she promised me a call back. 

Thursday comes and goes and she does n't call, just like I had predicted. Just to see what would happen, I wait until XXXX on Friday to call her back because she never called me. I end up having to call in 3 separate times that day before she finally called me back late Friday. At that point, she did n't remember any of the details, lied to me, did n't listen, did n't apologize, did n't acknowledge the multiple broken promises and just did n't care at all. She just repeated the same " 6-8 weeks '' as the previous people. I told her multiple times this was unacceptable and I would not stand for it and she hung up on me. 

At this point, Home Depot has committed false advertising and is acting in bad faith on a contract they agreed to when they advertised the rebate and I purchased my paint. The ONLY reason I bought it at Home Depot was because of this rebate anyways, which turned out to be a HUGE mistake. 

At this point, I have over 12 straight hours invested into this. Chatting online, emails, phone calls, being on hold, being lied to, being hung up on, being lied to again, being transferred to the wrong places, getting yelled at, and being forced to waste a HUGE amount of my time just to get what I was legally owed. 

I was forced to close my Home Depot card as I refuse to do business with a company that acts like this ( which negatively effected my credit ). It is despicable that such a large company would treat its customers like they treated me. It is UNACCEPTABLE to treat people like this and it will someday really come back and cost Home Depot.  People will only tolerate blatant abuse for so long before they have had enough. I will be sure to share my experience as far and wide ( with XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and any other social media spot I can find ) as I can and I promise you, I will never spend another cent in Home Depot for as long as I live. I will also encourage everyone I can to do the same and share with them the nightmare I have experienced when dealing with Home Depot. They do NOT care about the customer and they made that VERY clear to me in the handling of this case. 

I will also be filing a FTC complaint over this and their handling of it specifically mentioning Breach of Contract, False Advertising and Acting in bad faith. You violated several laws here when you acted in the way you did and I will not stand for it. 

I tried in honest, good faith to resolve this in a calm and timely manner and Home Depot has completely refused to work with me or help in any way. I offered to pay for the expedited shipping and they refused. I waiting calmly until several weeks AFTER the advertised time frame they agreed to when I purchased the paint from them, which is illegal. That is blatant false advertising and my attorney agree 's. 

The {$120.00} they legally stille owe me, which I still have yet to receive, is just the start of this, I have a lowered credit score, stress, anxiety, huge amounts of wasted time and attorney fee 's now because of their illegal handling of this. The {$120.00} they legally owe me does nothing to address all that, which a tort claim will. 

Home Depot is a XXXX corporation that just wants to take as much money from their customers as they can without giving them any support or following any laws they do n't want to follow. They abuse individuals because they are corporate bullies who feel they can do what they want and act above the law. It is time for a wake up call and my money is what I have that speaks the loudest. I just bought my first home, so I have about {$20000.00} to spend on home improvement which will now go to Home Depots biggest competitor. I am also going to plan demonstrations in front of Home Depot stores to make people aware of the abuse they are unknowingly subjecting themselves to. 

Here is the most concerning part of the whole experience : ***When I closed my account with Home Depot, I made a formal, recorded request for a proper itemized summery of debt from them ( as REQUIRED by the fair credit reporting act when formally requested ) and they have refused. The lady directly told me she would NOT send it to me and I have not received the requested proof and substantiation of debt. I have also sent a certified letter to Home Depot requesting the same thing and they have completely refused and ignored me. This is ALSO illegal and a blatant violation of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and it also makes any and all debts INVALID as they failed to follow federal law. ***

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation