Tax Refund Problem on June 23, 2008

Receipt # 00019-71548 & #00012-99270

On the morning of June 23, 2008 I entered the Home Depot store in Kenner, LA and went directly to the Customer Service desk to inquire about tax refund on items that would be exported to Honduras by Dip Shipping, also in Kenner, LA. I explained to the clerk that we had been dealing with the Lowes store in Tampa, FL for items exported to Honduras and wanted to find a store closer to our home in Texas. I also explained that since the delivery (by Lowes) was to an export shipper and addressed to Honduras, we were not charged tax at the time of the sale. In addition, I explained that on the few times that we picked up items ourselves and took them to Jackson Shipping, we were not charged sales tax due to our established business on file and that we had out of state identification.

The clerk was unsure as what to do and after talking to a couple employees saw someone walking by and inquired about how to handle tax on export items. This employee, I believe was a supervisor of another department, informed us that all we had to do was bring the Bill of Lading from the shipper showing that the items were being exported out of the country and the original sales receipt back to the Customer Service desk and the tax would be refunded. Since this person answered our question with out hesitation and seemed to be knowledgeable we decided to start doing business at this Home Depot for our Honduras needs.

On the morning of June 24 we returned to the Service Desk with the required documents (I have a scanned copy) and was told that the sales tax could not be refunded. After talking to a few employees, I asked to speak to a manager. Sherrie Grillot was called to the Service Desk and I explained to her what had happened up to this point. I told her that I did not catch the supervisor�s name that gave me the tax refund information but he appeared to be very confident in the policy. Sherrie tried to contact the person that she thought may have helped me but found out he was off. I also told her that I felt it was poor customer service to say one thing before a purchase and something else after the purchase.