Home Depot selling white fir instead of advertised and ordered douglas fir

10/10/23 UPDATE:   The chargeback resulted in a voicemail from the Kingman store, requesting a callback.  As I have no time to waste on calls and I can’t take the stress of being lied to, I responded with another email to Mike at the store and to numerous Home Depot executives.

They emailed and wanted me to CALL, commented here and wanted me to CALL (see below).  Slow learners.

After more emails and blaming their fraud on Covid (you have to see it to believe it), they asked whether I got a refund yet and if not, offered to send me a check for the amount of lumber purchased.  These people are so incredibly STUPID — they contacted me in response to my chargeback!  Well, maybe not stupid, but didn’t want to take the time to actually READ my emails or this post.  Make me work, waste my time.  Adding insult to injury.

And they wanted me to sign a release and settlement agreement to get that refund.  Hell NO!

So I’m waiting to see what happens with the dispute.   Am too busy to post our many communications right now — got to get the roof on the shed and do as much cob work as possible before winter.   Last year it froze about this time.

I have serious issues with the Home Depot’s CONTINUED mislabeling of lumber on the web and in the store.  Not to mention their SYSTEMIC lumber fraud, selling white fir as douglas fir since the pandemic due to supply issues, as per their emails.

Finally checked, and they DO have douglas fir in the store, labeled as “STD/BTR Prime Fir”, and the white fir is labeled as “Prime KD Whitewood”.

The Home Depot needs to specify what they are actually selling!

Either our “regulators” investigate or a class action should be filed.

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9/8/23 UPDATE:   After 1.5 hours on the phone, I finally got the two Home Depot lumber purchases disputed and my credit card shows a “temporary” $448.03 credit.  If the Home Depot objects, I’ll sue and it’ll be for a lot more than a few hundred dollars.   Wasted the entire week on taking out their twisted crap and replacing it with the True Value “douglas” fir.

My ignored emails,  Facebook messages and my 2 comments at CEO Decker’s posts on LinkedIn are posted in the comments.

As of today, the Home Depot website still FALSELY advertises “douglas” fir.

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I’m certainly no lumber expert, but I thought it was odd that the 2″ x 6″ x 10′ “douglas” fir from the Kingman Home Depot was so light.  When I got more lumber from Lowe’s in Bullhead we noticed how heavy it was and it was clearly different lumber, actual “douglas” fir.

Researching online, I found that I really want DOUGLAS FIR to frame the shed:

https://www.thewoodworkplace.com/douglas-fir-vs-whitewood/

Is Whitewood (Tulipwood) Durable Enough For Framing?

No, not at all. It is not stable, meaning that changes in humidity — or a light sprinkling of rain – can cause it to shift. And that is a big problem for framing, because shifting will throw off the dimensions and measurements of the entire structure.

…

What About Douglas Fir? Is It A Durable Wood?

Douglas Fir is one of the most stable woods you can hope to use. After it’s been seasoned, (which takes 6-12 months after it’s been logged), it barely shifts around ever again.

And the reason for this is pretty simple. It doesn’t absorb water and moisture anywhere near as readily as most other types of wood. As a result, it doesn’t shrink and contract when that moisture dries out.

…

In addition to this, Douglas Fir has a very high strength-to-weight ratio for a softwood. And that’s why Douglas Fir is ideal for framing, outdoor construction, and other types of exterior building work.

Our shed is not conventional construction, but hybrid stick in 1-foot exterior cob walls.   We frame with lumber to attach the interior shelving and pegboards and of course for doors and 90″ tall windows.  The 2″ x 6″ lumber will stick out of the interior walls about 3/4″ to accommodate pegs.

In 2007 I framed with douglas fir in adobe brick walls and I never had an issue with warping lumber causing cracks.

Last Friday I contacted the Home Depot via chat on its website.

1.  We got white fir instead of the douglas fir I ordered and paid for.
2. The super expensive shims “[m]ade of kiln fried spruce for lasting use” were NOT spruce, but exactly the same wood as the cheap white shims I also ordered.  If I hadn’t ordered multiple types of shims I would not have noticed that I got scammed.

The chat person promised they’d contact the store for a manager to assist and Mike promptly called me.

Mike offered a refund for the shims they do NOT carry at all (website error), advertised as “spruce” on the web and “cedar” in the receipt:

)

I had to order 5 (five!) packs because that was the minimum order.

Friday afternoon I received an email refunding $0.06 — 6 cents:

Or is it a charge?  I checked my credit card and my HD card, but found NOTHING.

Update 10/10/23:  I found a credit issued to my credit card, but I never received any notice of the refund.  HOURS wasted just on that.

We really do NOT need lumber twisting and warping and cracking the cob walls.

Mike didn’t seem to understand the difference between white fir and douglas fir and seemed to say that they don’t carry douglas fir.

Alternating between white and douglas fir could look very nice in other applications, but we definitely need douglas fir for this job.

Of course, we already had used most of the white fir boards when we got the actual douglas fir from Lowe’s and realized that we were scammed.

The Home Depot receipts:

7/18/23 Home Depot Douglas Fir order

8/11/23 Home Deport Douglas Fir order

Notably, the Home Depot website claims that I picked up a week before I ordered.

8/13/23: Lowe’s website shows NO order last week.

Note:

Your online order history can’t be used as a receipt for returns.

Why is Lowe’s online order info NOT usable as a receipt for returns?

The EMAILED Lowe’s receipt:

Ordered online and picked up the same day, on 8/7/23, but NOT listed in my Lowe’s account online.

Unfortunately, the Home Depot doesn’t seem to have a price match guarantee since Lowe’s was over 10% less and Kingman doesn’t have a Lowe’s store.   We picked up a neighbor’s order at Lowe’s in Bullhead and that’s why I ordered more douglas fir to be picked up in Bullhead.

I used to get 10% off with Lowe’s coupons at the Home Depot in Kingman.  

The last time I tried a few years ago, I was told by a manager that they only accept Lowe’s coupons in cities with Lowe’s stores.

Sometimes I pick up orders at Lowe’s in Henderson or Las Vegas since there’s absolutely NOTHING worth buying in Bullhead City with the ghetto-style Smith’s grocery store (as of 2022) and at least we can get organics from Costco, TJ’s and Sprouts while in Vegas.

Amazon.  Am not exactly a Bezos fan, but at least the Amazon website works, my orders are online, I can use the online order info for returns, it’s super easy and free to return most items, and I get $$$ credits when they do screw up.  Some sellers misrepresent their products and Amazon does not terminate their accounts, but they do refund.  One time it took me months to realize that the “organic” sheets were mostly plastic, but at least they refunded. I often compare Home Depot and Amazon pricing and save a lot on Amazon.

I like True Value in Kingman.  Great prices for bulk drywall and deck screws and they actually have knowledgeable employees ready to assist — every time!  And you don’t pay sales tax at the service desk when you pay cash.  They’ll try to match HD prices.  There’s little info online and it’s a much smaller store, but their yard is huge.

I will update here with the Home Depot response.

Needless to say, I’ve wasted countless hours on this fraud.  I have to waste my precious time that I should use to generate income because I can’t live on $289 social security.

I can only work so many hours before my brain is fried, my blood pressure is 190 / 135, and it’s a miracle I haven’t suffered a stroke or heart attack from the constant stress.

Most people just let it go — IF they even notice the FRAUD.

As I did when I got Covid checks and then an inheritance.  I just let it go when Lowe’s charged me for an order that was supposed to be shipped, but after HOURS on the phone and on their website, they outright refused to ship or cancel the order to be picked up in “Tucson” when I called because it wasn’t possible to change to shipping on their website.

Why are both Lowe’s and Home Depot incapable of saving my local store as default in my account?

Why is it impossible to change from pickup to shipping and to easily switch stores?

Lately, I read a lot about ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Technology has completely failed us.  Most corporate websites are broken.  Contact forms don’t work, search doesn’t work, the product info is incorrect, orders are missing, functionality is lacking, etc.

What is the solution?

Replace everybody who works on websites and in stores with robots?

The Home Depot automated call system HUNG UP on me when I responded to who I wanted to be transferred to with “Mike, manager”.

Why is everything such a GIANT SHITSHOW?

So that executives like Home Depot CEO Ted Decker can get rich on MY back?

https://corporate.homedepot.com/bio/ted-decker-chair-president-chief-executive-officer

The wealthy have no incentive at all to conduct business fairly and ethically.

The very worst outcome for them is that they have to refund, but they don’t pay for the many hours it takes to document the fraud?  They don’t want to pay for our damages!

The many serious issues described in this post cannot possibly be coincidences, my bad luck.

Most customers never notice that they are being defrauded.