February 26, 2007 10:57 AM

Broken: (Updated, not AS broken): Home Depot receipt and "customer agreement"

This is the receipt I got from the Home Depot on 23rd Street in Manhattan this past weekend. (I've blacked out my order number. )

Note two bizarre parts of the receipt:

1. "RATE US ONLINE 10-GOOD & 1-BAD SEE BELOW"

See what below? Rate you online where? Maybe this is a way to avoid "1" ratings: just don't make the survey accessible.

2. "CUSTOMER HAS HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO READ AND ACCEPTS THE TERMS OF THE ABOVE CUSTOMER AGREEMENT"

Here I see that I'm agreeing to "customer agreement #156326." But I don't know what that agreement says, or how to get it, and the cashier on this busy checkout line wasn't about to go print one out for me.

So - I can't rate them poorly on the agreement they won't show me, because they won't tell me where the survey is. Great.

I sure hope the agreement doesn't say something nasty, because I signed the receipt.

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Update: It turns out the customer agreement was inside a separate document stapled to a transaction receipt unattached to the first. While the receipt I had to sign was confusing, to be fair, the agreement and survey it referenced were available somewhere in what I was handed. This isn't as broken as I thought, and I apologize for the confusion. -mh

This is an excerpt of the agreement, which doesn't start until after the first page of the stapled packet.

This is an excerpt of the second receipt stapled to the packet. This is what they meant by "seeing below" for the survey.

Finally, thanks to TIB reader Brian for clarifying:

That number corresponds to a special order customer agreement paper that you must have purchased. It is a bigger piece of paper with a bar code on the bottom that designates that you did a Will-Call or Special Order. It is the government of each state that requires this EULA on the Customer Agreement, NOT Home Depot. It doesn't say much except to protect Home Depot from customers who try to jilt HD in certain installation situations. Just letting you know, you have a paper somewhere for S/O or Will call that has that number at the top and that is the "agreement".

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See also:

• Home Depot's CEO leaves with $210 million exit package (Jan. 4, 2007)

• Consumerist: Home Depot being investigated (Nov. 29, 2006)

• Charlie Todd's prank in Home Depot (Aug. 24, 2006)

• Talking frogs review Home Depot's website (March 23, 2006)

• ReasonableAgreement.org (thanks, Cory)