Well, the Home Depot coupons that I bought on eBay last week just arrived a few days back. As it turns out, I’m a dolt…
I didn’t read the listing as carefully as I should have, and the coupons turned out to be good for 10% off your total purchase when you use your Home Depot credit card. Doh! I don’t have a Home Depot credit card.
The other thing that I noticed as soon as I opened the envelope was that the coupons were fake… They had obviously produced by a color printer or copier. So now I at least have an out — I’ve contacted the seller and he agreed to refund my money as soon as I send the coupons back. To be honest, I halfway expected this, but I only risked about eight bucks, and now my curiosity has been satisfied.
There’s still one thing that I don’t get though… If you were going to forge Home Depot coupons, why would you choose to copy a crappy coupon that’s only good for purchases with the store credit card when you could’ve made copies of the far more useful 10% coupons that don’t restrict the mode of payment?
The coupons weren’t fake. You can register for them online sometimes. What he did was just use 100s of fake names and addresses. The coupons can then be printed out online and used once. It is completely illegal for two reasons – the fake information provided and two, the coupons are nontransferrable – meaning that you’re not even supposed to give it away if it’s your coupon. Store’s put that on there only to have legal recourse against people like the seller, but don’t really care if you give your friend your own coupons.
If you are moving, you can get a 10% off Home Depot coupon. I’ve moved several times already 🙂
Just sign up at
https://www.homedepotmoving.com/
Yeah, honestly it seems rather silly to have duplicated that particular coupon. Hmmm…Glad he’s being cooperative with you though. Good luck with that mess.
CW: Yep, forgot to mention that. The same day that the fake coupons arrived, I was in Home Depot and got my hands on one of their ‘Customer Appreciation’ coupons. I have to go back between July 27-30 to use it, but it’s definitely worth it on a big purchase.
mbh: He had high(ish) feedback — something like 100 with over 99% positive, no recent negatives, no mention of fake coupons.
denon: Excellent point.
The answer to your question is simple:
If he has a somewhat obscure but frauduland coupon, that looks appealing on ebay, but probably wont be used, his chances of getting caught are much lower. Buyers like you will take one look at it, then go back to the auction and see the fine print, “Oh, rats – only for use with the HD card. Oh well, only cost me a buck or two”. They won’t pursue him, and HD won’t pursue him either, since they’ll never even see the coupon. However, if it’s a coupon that all the buyers attempt to use, HD will have some incentive to put the smack down.
What was the guy’s feedback rating?
you’ve probably already seen this, and the thread claims many locations are out of these, but you might have some luck just stopping by your local store and snooping/asking around a bit:
http://www.fatwallet.com/t/18/633370
I suppose you could even call before you went to confirm that the store has some coupons on hand. Happy hunting. ^_^
No kidding! Why not copy the “$25 free cash” coupon/rebate card? Maybe because HD would come after him then?