I would give ZERO stars if I could. We bought a 50gal Hybrid Water Heater at the start of February. We planned on contacting our plumber once the unit was delivered to our home. Turns out, Home Depot farms out their deliveries to a contract delivery service. The delivery came the day after the purchase, but what a disaster. We got no notification of any sort that the delivery was on the way, even though the salesman at Home Depot assured us we'd get a call half an hour before delivery. The truck came and they put the unit out in our driveway, and the box was missing the entire lid and interior cushioning. Nobody knocked on our door, or rang our doorbell. We discovered the delivery by chance, when we went out to collect our mail.
We opened our garage door and pushed the heater into the garage. We called the plumber to let him know the unit was delivered, and we made an appointment with him for the installation. When he came to our house a few days later, he opened the front of the box with cutters to remove the heater. He discovered that the entire top of the heater was badly bent, as if the unit had something really heavy land on it. The plumber refused to install it, because the damage was too close to the heating unit for him to think it wouldn't cause problems.
We went to Home Depot after the plumber packed up and left, and explained the problem to a sales clerk. That person took copious notes and then arranged for a swap-out of the damaged unit for another heater (same make/model), scheduled for today (2/13).
This morning (2/13), I walked out to my breezeway at 8:30 am, and discovered that the replacement unit had been delivered in our driveway, and AGAIN, nobody called to let us know it was coming, or even bothered to ring the doorbell to let us know it arrived. I called my 86-year-old husband to come outside, to help me (I am 71) push the heater box into our garage. Before we went back inside the house, we closed the garage door. I took the additional step of writing on a piece of white paper in black marker: "This is a NEW unit, delivered today (2/13). DO NOT TOUCH!!" and after taping it to the side of the box, went back inside.
An hour later, my husband called me out to the garage. Somebody, presumably the delivery service driver, had opened our garage, taken away the damaged unit (including the 3/4 of the box that remained intact), and left the rest of the mess from the unboxing scattered all over the garage floor. And once again, no notification of pending arrival, no knocking on doors, and no doorbell ringing. They just went into the garage on their own and removed the unit without a word to either of us.
I had a long conversation with an Assistant Manager at Home Depot immediately after this, and the manager apologized for the way the exchange was handled. The manager also said that they would contact the delivery service to find out why this had gone as bad as it did. The manager of the delivery company then called me, and said, "You don't have to worry about anything -- we took the old unit back to the store!" The Home Depot Assistant Manager called me back, and told me that the delivery company manager told her that when they came back for the damaged unit, "someone" had opened the garage for them and told them to take it.
I assured the Home Depot manager that the delivery manager was lying to them.
I told her she'd better get off the phone and pray to the heavens that when I open up the new box, that the unit inside it is perfect, or there really would be hell to pay.
This gyration of buying a water heater, arranging for energy saving rebates, getting delivery, getting a replacement and removal, has taken up the better part of three days. I honestly don't know what Home Depot thinks "customer service" is, but I know for a fact that what we experienced was nothing but shoddy service and intense aggravation. read more