Home Depot Direct Order Trouble

To whom it concerns:

I have ordered 9 ceiling fans from Home Depot Direct online on July 30, 2006 and my credit card was charged in the amount of $1434.87 a few days later. The HD shipping company (called Estes) lost track of the shipment and I probably had 15 attempts to schedule a subsequent delivery with this company spending a total of appr. 2 hours on the phone with this company during the month of August. I also notified HD Direct of those difficulties. Eventually this shipping firm (Estes) informed me that they lost the order and I should call HD for a refund or re-order. I have first tried to re-order, but HD Direct told me that they no longer carry this item and that I should go to a physical store and buy it there. So I did but I learned to my disappointment that the store price was now $450 higher for the complete order of 9 fans and I spend 2 hours at the store including the HD Direct hotline to get my original price honored. Unfortunately, I ended up paying $90 more for the fans in the store after having already paid for it online 2 months earlier. That was my first disappointment with Home Depot. However, the biggest issue is the fact that I have been trying since September to get my money back from their online division (they required me to pay again when I picked up the fans at a higher price in the store) and I am still fighting this issue with their arrogant and unresponsive customer service. The last communication was with their supervisor named Elier who promised to call me back but never did. Even after I will get my initial payment back from Home Depot Direct, my extra cost due to Home Depot's fault will amount to the following: I have already paid over $80 in credit card interest, ended up paying an additional $90 for the fans at the store, paid $58 for the transportation to my home, 20 long calls to HD Direct and 15 calls with the Shipping Firm, not even accounting for the cost of the many hours of my time and aggravation spent on this case.

I just wanted to make everyone aware of the hopeless customer service at Home Depot Direct and recommend to think twice before committing to an order from this company.