It’s almost Halloween, which means everyone you know is probably posting adorable photos from the pumpkin patch. But folks looking for pumpkins to carve before the trick-or-treaters arrive may not be able to find the orange gourds at Home Depot locations in hurricane-ravaged Texas and Florida this season, as the retailer says it’s cutting back on pumpkin sales to let some stores focus on storm recovery. [More]
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Home Depot Replaces Family’s Stolen Halloween Decorations
By 10.18.17
For the past several weeks, families across the country have been decorating their homes in preparation for the upcoming Halloween holiday. One New Mexico family found all that hard work destroyed recently when ne’er-do-wells stole their trimmings. But to their surprise an unlikely hero emerged to save the day… er, holiday. [More]
Home Depot Worker Says He Was Fired For Trying To Stop Possible Kidnapping
By 7.6.17
An Oregon Home Depot employee says he was fired after he attempted to intervene in what he was told was a kidnapping attempt in the store’s parking lot. [More]
Home Depot, Menards Customers Cry False Advertising When They Learn “4x4s” Aren’t Actually 4×4
By 6.22.17
Talk to any contractor or carpenter — or most people who are reasonably familiar with home construction and repair — and they’ll tell you that a “4×4” piece of lumber is not actually four inches by four inches, and that it hasn’t been that way in any of our lifetimes. Yet some Home Depot and Menards customers are — literally — making a federal case out of this discrepancy, accusing the retailers of false advertising. [More]
Home Depot Helping To Speed Up Sears’ Death Spiral
By 5.18.17 — Updated: 5.19.17
Sears has been closing stores and selling off real estate to stave off its oft-predicted demise, but these closures and other financial decisions may also be hastening Sears’ end by turning annoyed shoppers into Home Depot customers. [More]
Man Behind $1.1M Home Depot Receipt Scam Gets Two-Year Prison Sentence
By 5.16.17
A Texas man who used Home Depot’s program for tax-exempt business purchases to scam more than $1.1 million from the retailer has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to repay all his ill-gotten gains. [More]
Homeowners Nationwide Complain About Home Depot’s Lazy Lead Paint Removal
By 5.1.17
The Home Depot’s lead paint removal business is currently the subject of a federal criminal investigation, with homeowners around the country complaining that high-priced contractors hired through the retailer used unsafe practices that endangered lives. [More]
New Home Depot Data Leak Exposes Gap In Consumer Privacy Protection
By 4.27.17 — Updated: 4.28.17
Recently, Consumerist received an anonymous tip pointing to an internet address that hosted digital images of bathtubs, garage doors, kitchen countertops, contractors at work on various projects, and customers picking out and paying for products in a home-center store. The site also hosted 13 Excel spreadsheets of customer records, including the full names, phone numbers, mailing addresses and email addresses of approximately 8,000 people, as well as other information chronicling the apparent installation complaints of each customer. [More]
Man Stole $11,000 In Stuff From Home Depot, Then Returned It All For Refunds
By 4.18.17
Most practitioners of the “hot exchange” — the retail grift where a fraudster steals an item then “returns” it to the store for a refund — are happy to chisel away a criminal living, earning $50 here, $100 there. But one Texas man was thinking big when he stole — and then returned — more than $11,000 from Home Depot stores. [More]
Demise Of hhgregg Means You’ll Buy Your Next Fridge From Best Buy
By 4.11.17
The bankruptcy and liquidation of hhgregg is terrible for the retailer’s employees and retail landlords, but someone may benefit from the retailer’s downfall. Best Buy has a national presence and a large overlap with what hhgregg sells, and is in a position to pick up some of the retailer’s former customers the next time that they need a fridge or a computer. [More]
Home Depot Will Pay $25 Million To Banks, Credit Unions Over 2014 Data Breach
By 3.9.17
Home Depot’s legal battles over the massive 2014 data breach that saw millions of customers’ card accounts compromised may finally be nearing an end, with news that the home repair retailer has reached a deal that will pay $25 million to banks and credit unions who had to help mop up Home Depot’s mess. [More]
Patio Chairs Sold At Home Depot Recalled Because Porch Life Shouldn’t Be Dangerous
By 2.1.17
You know what’s nice? Sitting on your patio, porch, or deck in a nice, comfortable chair. Heck, if it allows you to swivel so you can turn to face whoever is talking to you, that’s nice too. But being unceremoniously dumped on the ground by your furniture is far from relaxing, which is why patio furniture sold only at Home Depot has been recalled. [More]
Home Depot Pulling Super Creepy Peeping Tom Halloween Decoration
By 9.28.16
There is a profound difference between spooky-scary and scary-scary, a lesson that Home Depot is currently learning the hard way after offering a Peeping Tom Halloween decoration that hits way too close to home for some. [More]
This Home Depot Has A Strangely Beautiful “Nightmare Before Christmas”
By 10.18.13
Reader Brendan was visiting his local Home Depot when he saw something strange and beautiful outside. There was an ominously-lit display of pumpkins and other fall cheer, and then a beautifully lit selection of Christmas trees behind it. Is the store trying to celebrate multiple holidays at once, or is this more of a Nightmare Before Christmas holiday mashup? [More]
Home Depot Denies Rumor Of PlayStation 4 Kiosks
By 10.16.13
Considering that gaming consoles do a lot more than just let you play games and that bricks and mortar retailers are increasingly looking to rent out floorspace to cut costs and maybe improve foot traffic, it doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility that Sony would be setting up PlayStation 4 demo kiosks in Home Depot. But it just isn’t so, says the home improvement chain. [More]
Nothing Says Internet Like A Choreographed Dance/Marriage Proposal At Home Depot
By 9.13.13
These days if you want to get engaged and have the burning desire to share your special moment with millions of people on the Internet, you’ve got to pull out all the stops. There must be a choregoraphed dance routine, if not a choreographed singing and dance routine. And it needs to be in a public place where such things don’t usually go down. Like say… Home Depot? Home Depot works. [More]
Lawsuit Claims Home Depot Is Shaking Down Accused Shoplifters
By 9.11.13
A new lawsuit aimed at Home Depot claims the company engaged in shakedown tactics to pressure and intimidate thousands of customers, accused of shoplifting, into paying millions of dollars to have those accusations dropped. The class-action suit says Home Depot would threaten customers with a lawsuit if they didn’t pay up, even when they had no intention of actually suing anyone. [More]
Man Drops $900 In Home Depot Parking Lot, Actually Gets It Back
By 8.9.13
Too often we hear about unlucky souls who accidentally drop large amounts of cash, only to have it snatched up by some heartless goon who believes “finders keepers” is the law of the land. So on this lovely Friday afternoon, we bring you a story with a much happier ending. [More]
