Home Depot uses Bait & Switch tactics

Home Depot uses Bait & Switch tactics

November 28, 2005

RE: HOME DEPOT BAIT AND SWITCH MARKETING TACTICS

I have a complaint about the way The Home Depot lures customers in, for their "after Thanksgiving Sales," by advertising a product (in this case, a cordless drill) at a below-normal price, then revealing to customers that the advertised product is no longer available within an hour after opening, but that a much more expensive substitute product is available for $50.00 more.

I believe that Home Depot's goal, using this form of bait-and -switch marketing tactics is to convince buyers to purchase the more expensive substitute item since the customer is already there and would want to avoid the disappointment of spending their time and money trying to obtain the original item; Home Depot then hopes that most customers will just go ahead and purchase the more expensive item. Why else would they advertise the less expensive item and then only have a very small quantity available? They know what they are doing and they know it is wrong!

I was at Home Depot on Friday, Nov. 25th, 2005, looking to purchase a cordless drill they had on special, but found out that they were "sold out" within an hour after opening very early Friday morning. Later, when I arrived at the store on Port Ave. in Corpus Christi I found no drills that were on sale available so I asked for the store manager. The assistant store manger, a discourteous young lady, explained that they were unaware of any such tactics and was unwilling to make good on the price by issuing a "rain check" for that particular item. She made me feel like a second-class citizen just for having asked for the 'rain check' in the first place. There were other people there at that time that were also feeling the same way, (having had the 'bait and switch' tactic played on them), however they were purchasing other products which Home Depot had again conveniently "ran out of" very early in the morning.

This is not the first time this has happened to me, but I hope, with this letter of complaint, it will be the last time. I have been a good customer of Home Depot for a long time and I am ashamed at the way I and the other customers were treated. I believe that some "managers" at Home Depot should be made to take additional training in customer service on how to respond to such despicable marketing practices. You can check our credit card records; you will find that my disabled mother and I spend literally thousands of dollars every year at Home Depot and we should not be made to feel like second-class citizens. I hope others that had to endure such "bait and switch" tactics at Home Depot and other stores right after this recent Thanksgiving holiday will also register their legitimate complaints with your website.

I firmly believe that all such advertising of a sale item, while intending to stock only a limited amount of, and thereby selling out of the loss-leading item advertised, is illegal. In the past I have always known Home Depot to try and prevent discrimination and resolving such complaints internally so as to avoid costly litigation and damage to its reputation; and I hope that this problem can be resolved in the same fashion.

Sincerely,

Richard F.

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