Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Atlanta, Georgia
United States

This month I went online to pay my Home Depot credit card bill. My modem had crashed on May 1st and they didn't get me a new out until May 6, 2009. Therefore I was late paying my bill.

When I went online to view my current bill, I noticed that there was a late fee of $39.00. The bill was due on May 31, 2009 and was late as of May 05, 2009. I thought this was a bit steep for a late charge.

Then I happened to notice that the interest rate had risen 12%. I had not received any notice of the rate increase. So I called customer service for Home Depot listed on the website.

I spoke to a young female and asked her to explain the steep late fee. She stated that since the account was past due by 2 days the late fee was assessed. I then asked her to check and see if the interest rate increase was correct. She stated that it was. I asked her why the rate increase and she stated "Because you were late on your payment".

I asked to speak to her supervisor. After about 5 minutes a male supervisor came to the phone and I explained the situation to him. I told him that I did not get a paper bill anymore and paid my bill online and because of the modem failure I could not get on the Internet to pay my bill.

The supervisor said "Well you were late in your payment and it is written in the credit card contract that they can go up on the interest rate if you are late". I asked him to look on my account and to see how many times I have been late with my payment. He stated, rather sheepishly, "I can only look back 12 months and you have not been late before. I can't see any further back". I told him I had had the card for 2 years and had never been late before and I could not believe they would increase the interest rate that much and charge a $40.00 late fee. He essentially said that that was the way the contract was written and if I had a problem with it to call another service number tomorrow. He was also somewhat sarcastic.

The moral to this story is that this is just another corporation that has mishandled their business, are now in financial trouble and are now punishing their customers by nickel and dimeing them to death just to keep up the bottom line. Forget the customers and customer service.

The employees they hire will run from you when you try to ask them a question. They don't know anything about the products they sell and don't want to try to be of any help. There is a Lowe's 3 blocks from this Home Depot. This appears to be a systemic problem within the whole Home Depot Corporation. No wonder they are in trouble.

I am going to cut up my Home Depot credit card. I will not spend any more of my money at Home Depot and would urge anyone else to no longer do any business with this failing company.