This is a ver batim copy of a letter I sent to the CEO of The Home Depot, Frank Blake. It pretty much speaks for itself.
Frank Blake
CEO, Home Depot
2455 Paces Ferry Road Southeast
Atlanta, GA 30339
May 12, 2010
Dear Mr. Blake,
I am writing this letter to inform you that effective immediately, you have lost a customer for life. The reason for my decision to never again do any shopping of any kind with your company is simple: you told me you didn’t want or need my business, so I’m giving you what you want.
A week ago I received a letter from your company informing me that a “routine” credit check had been conducted on my credit account with your company, and that I had been found to be a “substantial risk” and my account was therefore closed. The decision, the letter said, had been based on information received from one of the three credit reporting agencies, and because of that information the decision had been made to close my account without warning.
Sounds like I was in to your company for a ton of money, doesn’t it? And that the payments were way overdue, huh? One would think so, judging by the tone and the language of the letter. So just how long overdue was my payment, you ask?
It wasn’t. Not by so much as an hour. And that’s because the balance on my account at the time it was closed was ZERO.
That’s right – ZERO. I owed Home Depot nothing. Not a dime, not a cent. NOTHING.
So you don’t want my business? Okay, fine by me. I know of a company that does, one that I have an account with and that will be more than happy to have me shop in their stores. You’ve heard of them – they’re called LOWE’S.
So the next time I need fertilizer for my yard, I’m going to Lowe’s. And the next time I need some new flowers to spruce up my yard, I’m going to Lowe’s. And the next time I decide to repaint the entire inside of my house, all 2,200 square feet of it, I’m going to Lowe’s.
If you want to know why Lowe’s has been steadily chipping away at the market share and taking more and more of it away from Home Depot over the past few years, this should give you a clue. Your company treats its customers like dirt, like they’re unimportant and mean nothing to the company, so no wonder you’re losing your place in the market.
And you have no one to blame but yourself.
A very disgruntled former customer,
Raymond Craig
IHC
4 comments:
Ray,You are not alone.Home Depot thinks that if you can pay in full every month that you don't need CC from them. They would rather have the customers that can't pay in full at the end of the month so they can get more money from you. Or maybe they are thinking of getting a loan from Nobama after they run off all the good paying customers.LOL
All I know is they've lost my business forever, as well as that of my father and every other friend and family member that I know. I used to shop at Home Depot all the time before I started working at Lowe's, and even then every now and then I'd go there for something that Lowe's didn't have.
But no more. I'll cut my arm off before I'll go into a Home Depot again!
The credit business is one strange bird. I have gotten so far away from individual accounts because of experiences akin to yours that I wonder why I ever applied for an account in the past with any of them. And the interest they charge is outrageous anyway. I carried a little white Sears card in my wallet for nearly 40 years, used it regularly, and always paid the ful amount when the bill came. Then Sears decided to let Citibank be the agency to handle their credit so they issued new cards from that bank. Well, I already have a card from Citi with a very low APR. I went into SEars and got the customary speil about using their card, so I asked what the rate was. It ws something like prime plus 18%.My card from the same bank is less than 9%. So I asked them if I couldn't, as a hitorically long term and very good customer negotiate a bettter rate. You know the anser. I borrowed a pair of scissors from the lady and chopped their card into micropieces right there in the store, and that was the end of my relationship with that company.
As one who used to work for Sears, I can tell you that the WORST thing they ever did - before they "merged" with Kmart, that is - was when they turned their credit card business over to Citibank. The average - AVERAGE - interest rate on the card is now 23%, one of the highest in the industry!
Which is why I don't have an account with them anymore!
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