Someone wrote in today, complaining that they couldn’t get in on a tool deal at Home Depot.
Confusingly, they left the comment on a post for a tool deal that’s still widely available in stores and online with free shipping.
Here’s what they said:
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DO NOT buy Milwaukee tools from Home Depot. What Home Depot don’t tell you is when they have tools on sale and they run out of stock with sale still on they will not honor sale price when is becomes available, no rain checks. they do not advertise this.
There are no rainchecks for tool deals.
I think I read somewhere that some supermarkets still do rainchecks. But for tool deals, especially Black Friday deals and holiday promos, no, there are no rainchecks.
Let’s say your local supermarket was advertising bananas for 19 cents a pound, but they sold out of bananas. If you went to customer service and asked for a raincheck, they’d write out a slip that allowed you to get bananas at 19 cents a pound at a later time. Frankly, I don’t know if they’ll still do that.
If you go to Home Depot and ask for a raincheck on a tool deal that they sold out of, you’re not going to get one. The same is true at Lowe’s. Or at least I’ve never heard of anyone successfully asking for and getting a raincheck at either retailer.
Some retailers still kind of offer rainchecks, but not all the time. If you shop BestBuy’s holiday deals, you’ll specifically see that they say “no rainchecks.”
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Rainchecks are a relic from long-ago.
It’d be nice if you could get rainchecks on doorbuster deals and similar, but getting on any deals these days seem to be first-come, first-served.
Stores will usually go to lengths to ensure they have some products available for advertised sales, but legally they are not required to honor promotional prices for everyone that wants one.
When a deal sells out, you’re out of luck. Leaving comments across the internet in an attempt to cancel a brand or retailer isn’t going to change that.
Kyle
I purchased a monitor from Newegg on backorder for a Black Friday special price. I’ve been invoiced but not charged yet.
I’ve had a great falling out with Newegg which is entirely on them. They’re really just a zombie company shell of their former greatness, but they still ocassionally have great deals.
Needless to say I’m on the look out for any charging shenanigans from them for this particular purchase.
Jim Felt
Newegg still exists? That’s a blast from the last century.
Kyle
Yeah. They’re in a pretty pathetic state. They went public which I think drove the worst decision they made; marketplace sellers. The only reason I even entertain buying anything from them anymore is because they have a big obvious filter button that makes all the marketplace garbage disappear. The site would be completely unusable otherwise.
Prkl8r
Had to reply, I still think they are the gold standard of product filters. Best Buys at atrocious and Amazon mighty as well not have them other than the prime setting. Don’t understand why companies can’t figure out how to do better filtering. Maybe instead of trying to replace workers, use AI to make your website not such.
Kyle
You’re right actually, they do have pretty good filters, probably by virtue of “specializing” in the products they sell, not too different from McMasterCarr, Digikey or Mouser.
I’m just very down on them because I have a Microcenter less than 50 miles away, a privilege I realize that not everyone can enjoy.
Scottaroo
A little off topic but I just missed a tool deal so this reminded me of this question. I broke my Ryobi drill by hilarious user error. I am going to buy the new HP Compact series drill. I can’t decide between the hammer version and regular. I have only needed the hammer portion once in the last few years. Any thoughts on the two? I am fully in the Ryobi line so I will stick with that brand even though some other brands are super nice.
Mateo
Generally speaking the hammer drill is just a little longer than the regular drill. Sometimes the hammer drills are a bit more expensive ($20 for the dewalt xr compacts as example). If they’re the same price I see no reason not to get the hammer drill just in case.
Stuart
I tend to prefer non-hammer drills for compact models. For higher powered drills, hammer-capable models seem to be the de facto standard, such as with 20V Max XR 3-speed and M18 Fuel.
You could always get rotary-only masonry drill bits in a pinch. For bigger projects, you can get a corded hammer drill, a rotary hammer, borrow, etc.
I’d say shop according to price. If the hammer model isn’t any larger and within a $10 difference, that’d likely steer my decision too.
Scottaroo
Thanks all! I’ll go for the regular compact drill and hope to find a deal. I saw the drill and recip saw combo deal. Maybe I’ll get that and sell my older recip.
Jerry
Check the chuck. Sometimes the hammer version of the drill has a better chuck which makes the extra $$ worth it for that alone. The tradeoff is that they are usually just a little bigger, and usually just a little heavier.
Tim+E.
DirectToolsOutlet has one of their multitude of sales going, 40%, and it looks like some of the one+ HP drills are included, but not necessarily the compact one. Just factor in shipping and still compare against some of the holiday deals since DTO isn’t always the best prices, even with a “sale”.
Branden
I gotta ask since you brought it up. What was the hilarious user error? We all have them so no judgements.
Jody
Harbor freight does/did them this spring with deal days, they are the only place i am aware of (ever) doing such.
Dave (not here)
Semi-related – the one Black Friday doorbuster I was really interested in this year was the Milwaukee top-off power supply with a 3a battery for $99 (the regular bare tool price). I wasn’t so excited that I was going to drag my butt to the store, but I was surprised to see the deal available online and promptly placed an order.
Overnight, Home Depot canceled and refunded the order due to lack of stock. Odd, since it was in stock the next day and so I bought it again. Few hours later, another canceled order, out of stock. Nope, site says it’s still available for in-person pickup. Bought a third time, canceled and refunded a third time, then it actually showed out of stock online for a few days until popping back up at $199 (not a bargain at all).
It’s a little frustrating that they repeatedly sold me an item and then canceled the order, but ultimately it’s my fault – if I’d wanted it that badly I could’ve gone shopping in person on Friday morning.
Stuart
Cancellations like that can happen when store workers cannot find the item, or maybe couldn’t arrange for local delivery.
I still see it for $99 online, for in-stock pickup or free delivery.
Dave (not here)
Maybe it’s a regional thing – when I click your link my pro app launches and it’s priced $199…
Stuart
Could be – maybe it’s OOS in your zip? What happens if you use the website and not the app?
Dave (not here)
Had to get to my desktop to try it without being auto-redirected to the app. Still $199 and out of stock, trying a handful of different ZIPs – I’m in a major California metro and there are probably 20 Home Depots within an hour’s drive, no stock at any.
Not a big deal, again my fault for snoozing and losing, but thanks for the help trying to make it work!
brossa
I went to buy a ladder the other day, and grumbled about the price to the manager.
“$150 for a ladder? Home Depot has it for $120!”
“Well,” he said, “why didn’t you buy it from them?”
“They didn’t have any in stock” I replied.
“Well, when we don’t have any, we only charge $110.”
Geoff R
That is hysterical. I love that the manager has a sense of humor.
Marc
😂
Robert
Maybe it’s semantics about rainchecks between brick & mortar stores and on line, but some on line stores honor “rainchecks.”
For example, KCtool often has tools on sale but showing “out of stock.”
If you order, they ship when it comes back into stock and at the sale price.
Stuart
That’s called a backorder. You could technically consider it a preorder.
You still have to place the purchase right then and there. If it’s out of stock and unavailable for purchase, you will NOT be given the opportunity to come back at a later time to purchase it when it’s restocked.
Kilroy
I completely understand no rainchecks on tool deals.
What frustrates me a little is the price adjustment policies when your original item is still within the return window. I understand that many retailers don’t want to make it too easy to get price adjustments. If a retailer has the item in stock at a lower price (and, for online retailers, if it offers free S&H and free returns), however, I wish I didn’t have to do a return + repurchase in order to get the lower price for some retailers.
I had to do that for a disc grinder and a belt sander at Amazon recently (if there’s a way to get a price adjustment through Amazon when an item’s price falls, I couldn’t find it). Huge waste to have the same items shipped to me that I was returning, but it was worth a mile detour to Kohl’s and 10 minutes of my time to drop off the “return” and save $15 or $20.
Stuart
There was one time when a Lowe’s associate wouldn’t do the adjustment. They encouraged me to rebuy the items at a lower price.
So I rebought everything, walked to my car, and then came back in and returned everything on the earlier receipt.
I’ve since learned my lesson, and I don’t buy from Lowe’s in November if I can help it.
Amazon and others have new policies seemingly to discourage returns and things like price adjustment requests.
Maybe it costs more for them to tie a customer service agent up for a few minutes to process an adjustment than to ship a new product out and process the incoming return.
I have noticed that items over a certain value now have extended processing times where they’ll hold onto your refund for up to 30 days. I see that as an attempt to further discourage returns. If it takes customers 20+ minutes to make a return, and they have to wait 30 days for their money, maybe they’ll just keep the item.
I think there are lots of things to get upset over, but the ability to get a raincheck seems like an outdated expectation.
Rick
“if there’s a way to get a price adjustment through Amazon when an item’s price falls, I couldn’t find it”.
There is no way. Amazon has a firm policy of never giving price adjustments. At least I was told that when I requested one. One of the reasons available for selection when making a return is “Better price available”, so it’s baked into the system.
“Huge waste to have the same items shipped to me that I was returning”
It’s an inconvenience to the customer, and it costs Amazon to process the return, so yes, it is wasteful. But the upside for Amazon is that they earn a (mostly) solid reputation for accepting returns which is very important for an online retailer with no bricks and mortar outlets.
And consider the alternative of giving price adjustments from Amazon’s perspective: there would be apps out there constantly monitoring Amazon’s pricing that could constantly text customers about adjustments on their purchases from Amazon. Given the number of products Amazon sell, and the frequency of price adjustments, that would surely happen millions of times a day, and the resulting price adjustment requests would cost Amazon a lot of money.
Accepting customer returns always costs the vendor money, but Amazon’s policies of accepting returns but not offering price adjustments is the least bad approach (i.e. most profitable) for them.
Kilroy
Absolutely agree on all your points, and I’m not sure that there is a better way, certainly not one that I can think of.
It just seems intuitively wasteful (in terms of fuel/CO2 and warehouse labor to check the returns, even if overall much more cost efficient for Amazon) for Amazon to have to do two new shipments to when a customer wants a price adjustment.
I assume that (like many B&M retailers) Amazon limits returns for a very small fraction of customers who do too many returns relative to the customers’ true spend or who abuse Amazon’s policies.x
CoBlue
Amazon used to to price adjustments within the return window, but not anymore. The only price adjustment you’ll ever manage to get out of them is discounts on damaged items, but even that is a bit erratic. It’s easier on used items. I’ve had quite a few particularly bulky used items written off entirely, but not always.
Adam
Blaine’s Farm & Fleet offers rainchecks, however they really are calling what they offer by the wrong name. If they are sold out of a promo, they will sell it to you then, and then you pickup when they come in, but they call in a raincheck.
I call that ordering and picking up, as they have my money. A raincheck involves no money exchanging hands on all other instances I’ve encountered.
MattT
It’s called a backorder.
ElectroAtletico
Talk to the store manager. It is within their purview to approve such issues. If they don’t then so be it (look for another store to shop at).
Both my local Home Depot & Lowe’s have amazing managers and have always given me a rain check, if the sale is still in progress ,or a display item is still on the shelf with the sale sticker in place
(CAVEAT: the store DOES NOT have to honor printed ads – state law).
BTW, I have to acknowledge the Rockville, MD, Grangier – very accommodating staff when the item is not on stock but the sale is in progress..
Unfortunately the Harbor Freight closest to me (Gaithersburg, MD) is either hot/cold. Depends on the mood of the manager that day. On occasions he has given me “rain checks” and others he has denied them. When the latter occurs, I always write, for what its worth. a letter to the HF HQ in Calabasas, CA.
John Fleisher
Grocery stores still do rain checks, at least Kroger does. My wife had the manage write her one a few weeks ago for some ice cream product on sale. I got elected to return to the store to redeem the rain check.
Bill C
Rainchecks on sales? Next you’ll want Toys R Us to honor a sale price at Kay Bee Toys.
Another Bob
Who else misses Jeffrey, the giraffe?
JR Ramos
I think this is driven by the monumental changes in supplier/distributor relationships and the exceptional influence manufacturers have over their product sales no. MAP pricing took MSRP to the next level and it hurts everyone. As many are aware, MAP just barely skirts legality in regard to anti-trust and price fixing laws, but as it stands it is currently ok and both retailers and customers take it on the chin.
That aside, although more common today, it was never uncommon for special pricing deals to be offered to retailers. If the retailer didn’t jump on it, they couldn’t get it later (either time limited or quantity limited by the supplier). If a retailer bought in big, they could get the sales (or increase profits…either way). If they bought in small and ran out of product, then they generally wouldn’t offer a rain check because their next round of purchasing would have standard/higher pricing and they’d soll the product at or below cost. Some would still do that as a way of keeping customers happy and loyal, but that seems to be pretty rare these days.
Those purchasing decisions are made months in advance, usually. Also made worse by outsourcing so much manufacturing and often being subject to batch production (maybe less so with the major tool companies’ factories but it’s still a thing). We see this in an awful lot of industries/product categories these days. There’s no way I would ever expect a rain check to be offered but it’s nice if a retailer does that.
So the “sale” these days isn’t like it used to be. Probably most customers don’t understand that back end business part of how the goods get to the shelves for them to buy, so they think of sale pricing as something the retailer can do at any time for any amount (which they could, theoretically, if they were willing to do more work and take a little more risk to the GP margins). Rain checks were a mostly necessary casualty of a changing business and manufacturing model.
Frank D
I have not seen or heard about a rain check for anything in what … two decades now?
Certainly not with big box stores. If they have it, you can buy it. If they don’t have it, you either order online or are out of luck.
SteveP
Consumer protection laws are stronger elsewhere (Canada and UK for starters) and HD does operate in Canada, so it might still be a thing there
The laws are actually quite fair, and are there to prohibit stores from advertising low-prices and then “bait & switch” buyers to something else. I think the wording is something like “reasonable supply for predicted demand” – so having one in stock is not going to cut it. Sometimes stock doesn’t arrive or demand is much greater, so rainchecks are a way of avoiding prosecution
I worked retail in a Woolco (remember them?) store in Canada, and the art dept accidentally illustrated a camera (remember them?) on sale with the optional motor drive attached, with no disclaimer. The manager advised that if a customer really wanted one, we would have to sell it at that price, but that I was to call him so he could talk to the customer himself
As it turned out, one of my good (repeat) customers did notice and dropped by to see if it was really available. I explained it was a mistake and he kidded a bit about the legal position, but in a good-natured way, so I did not have to call The Boss
SteveP
Connecticut law
“Sec. 42-215. Sale at discount to include raincheck. Exemptions. Notice. Comparable merchandise. (a) No person, firm, corporation, partnership or association shall sell, offer for sale or advertise items of merchandise for sale at a discount from the normal retail price without offering a written voucher, commonly referred to as a “rain check”, for sale items which become out of stock during an advertised sale period unless: (1) Such items are motor vehicles; (2) such items are clothing or footwear, which are seasonal in nature and the stock of which cannot be replenished or which are sized to fit; (3) such discount is applicable throughout a store or throughout any department in a store; (4) all advertisements for sale clearly indicate the quantity of items available at the sale price and clearly state that no rain checks are offered; (5) such items are alcoholic beverages; (6) such items are offered for sale as part of a clearance, permanent markdown or closeout sale; or (7) a customer accepts a comparable discount on a comparable item.
(b) The holder of a rain check shall be notified by the issuer when the sale item is in stock and shall have at least ten days after notification to purchase the item at the sale price, except that a retail food store shall not be required to notify such holder when the sale item is in stock. No person shall be entitled to receive a greater number of rain checks per item than is allowed under the retailer’s advertised limit. If a rain check is not redeemed by the retailer within sixty days after its issuance, the retailer shall offer the holder of a rain check similar or comparable merchandise at or below the advertised sale price of the merchandise which was the subject of the sale. If the holder of a rain check wishes to purchase such similar or comparable merchandise, he shall do so within ten days of the retailer’s offer to substitute comparable merchandise.”