Limit on Home Depot military discount

[GON]

I spoke with a Home Depot cashier with 20 years' time in service at Home Depot.

She stated something I wasn't tracking. Home Depot's revised military discount (10 percent) is limited to $4,000 in purchases per year ($400 maximum savings). That was the reason the Home Depot military discount program required registration. Home Depot is tracking the money one is spending.

I asked the Home Depot cashier why the "cap" of $4,000. She said the discount was being abused. The intent was for veterans to use the discount for individual use. She said Home Depot discovered excessive abuse by contractors using the military discount purchases that were not for personal use.

The above has not been verified, validated, or accredited. Just something I was told by a Home Depot cashier working at the same Home Dept for 20 years. And in Illinois, most Home Depots' still give the military discount just for asking and showing proof of being a veteran. I only found this in Illinois. In Utah, South Carolina, Washington State- the military discount at Home Depot was only applied if one had formally registered for the discount on-line.

 

[blupupher]

There may be some state laws that allow/prevent making you register for the discount.
Or maybe it is more prevalent in some states than others.

And this is why we can't have nice things, a company does a good thing to thank our veterans, then some decide to abuse it, ruining it for everyone else.

So this discount is 10% off up to $4,000 purchased (so $400 saved a year) or is it 10% off up to $40,000 purchased (so saving $4,000)?
If the $40,000 limit, fine, but if it is a $4,000 limit, that seems a bit low, if you are doing something like a bathroom renovation, you are well above $4,000.
But something is better than nothing.

 

[PimTac]

I got that same impression too. The idea was being abused. I don’t have a military ID card so I showed them a copy of my DD214. Since then they have changed to this new system. I don’t even bother anymore.

 

[Astro14]

Both Lowes and Home Depot have required registration for their 10% military discount and imposed limitations on the program. They stopped doing the “ID at the register” a couple of years ago (to my wife’s consternation, since she is retired military and hasn’t registered for the program).

Sales items are excluded, as is lumber, and I’ve read, but not experienced, that appliances are now excluded.

In my area, half the people in the store are veterans, so I would suspect that a very large volume of sales locally was discounted, enough to affect margins.

If one contractor buying enough lumber to do a construction, or renovation, was a veteran, getting a discount, it would give him a competitive edge over another, who did not get the discount.

To be fair, the discount was intended for personal use, not to enable you to run your business at a discount compared with your peers.

 

[GON]

There may be some state laws that allow/prevent making you register for the discount.
Or maybe it is more prevalent in some states than others.

And this is why we can't have nice things, a company does a good thing to thank our veterans, then some decide to abuse it, ruining it for everyone else.

So this discount is 10% off up to $4,000 purchased (so $400 saved a year) or is it 10% off up to $40,000 purchased (so saving $4,000)?
If the $40,000 limit, fine, but if it is a $4,000 limit, that seems a bit low, if you are doing something like a bathroom renovation, you are well above $4,000.
But something is better than nothing.

$400 savings on $4,000 in purchases is the cap (how it was explained to me). $40,000 in purchased will only yield a $400 savings.

 

[Capt W]

Correct on the Illinois observation...at least in the St. Louis area. Since HD doesn't provide a scannable card like Lowe's, I just show my ID at the register and have never had a problem in my six years here.

What I've noticed is those impromptu ID checks at checkout don't show as purchases on the HD site, while all Lowe's purchases (online or in-store) are recorded. So perhaps the ID-at-register purchases aren't tracked? The local clerks barely look at my ID before applying the 10% off...

 

[Capt W]

...and FWIW I'm not terribly bothered by the bag limit. They don't have to do anything (like Menard's).

 

[GON]

Correct on the Illinois observation...at least in the St. Louis area. Since HD doesn't provide a scannable card like Lowe's, I just show my ID at the register and have never had a problem in my six years here.

What I've noticed is those impromptu ID checks at checkout don't show as purchases on the HD site, while all Lowe's purchases (online or in-store) are recorded. So perhaps the ID-at-register purchases aren't tracked? The local clerks barely look at my ID before applying the 10% off...

When you register for the HD military discount, you are tracked electronically if you want to use the discount.

How this works, when checking out at HD, you have to use your smartphone to go to Home Depot dot com, log in, and the site generates a bar code, the code is scanned at the checkout register. This bar code is dynamic, it changes every time one visits a HD, and expires after pulling it.

 

[GON]

...and FWIW I'm not terribly bothered by the bag limit. They don't have to do anything (like Menard's).

I think it is worth having knowledge of if one is making a major purchase, like whole house flooring, that the discount has a limit.

It is very generous of Home Dept to provide the discount, and they have for many years. Home Depot and Lowes use to only offer the discount on Memorial Day weekend. I would wait for that weekend to make large purchases like Trex decking. Only in the past decade or so did Home Depot expand the military discount to year-round availability.

 

[Capt W]

I've never owned a smartphone - and never will. When I buy items online, they are of course logged. When I pop into the store and show an ID (my retired ID...not a smartphone app), those purchases do not show up on my profile.

 

[I<3oil]

I think it is worth having knowledge of if one is making a major purchase, like whole house flooring, that the discount has a limit.

It is very generous of Home Dept to provide the discount, and they have for many years. Home Depot and Lowes use to only offer the discount on Memorial Day weekend. I would wait for that weekend to make large purchases like Trex decking. Only in the past decade or so did Home Depot expand the military discount to year-round availability.

Home Depot literally just expanded theirs to year-round in January. https://www.militarytimes.com/pay-b...home-depots-new-military-discount-year-round/

Lowes has been year-round for years now.

 

[GON]

[QUOTE="I Home Depot literally just expanded theirs to year-round in January. https://www.militarytimes.com/pay-b...home-depots-new-military-discount-year-round/

Lowes has been year-round for years now.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for posting the article, it has some very relevant information to the Home Depot military discount program.

Of note, I like many others have been using the military discount year round at Home Depot for likely the past decade. Here is a clarification cut and pasted from the article you linked:

• The military discount program is now open year-round to all veterans with other-than-dishonorable discharges. Previously, only currently serving members, retirees, service-connected disabled veterans and their dependents with ID cards could use it year-round. Other veterans could only use it around certain holidays.

 

[JustinH]

I knew a guy who would combine coupons with other discounts to get Lowes Gift Cards.

He would resell them for a profit, at a certain point he was getting gift cards for 22 percent off.

This was probably ten years ago.

 

[Hall]

How much does the average consumer spend yearly at Lowes (+ Home Depot + Menards + wherever) ? $4000 seems like a pretty reasonable number that's in turned "capped" for the 10% discount.

 

[I<3oil]

Thanks for posting the article, it has some very relevant information to the Home Depot military discount program.

Of note, I like many others have been using the military discount year round at Home Depot for likely the past decade. Here is a clarification cut and pasted from the article you linked:

• The military discount program is now open year-round to all veterans with other-than-dishonorable discharges. Previously, only currently serving members, retirees, service-connected disabled veterans and their dependents with ID cards could use it year-round. Other veterans could only use it around certain holidays.

Interesting. Must be a store by store policy then because the ones around where I live only had the major holidays or weekends of holidays as military discount whereas Lowes has been year-round.

 

[Urshurak776]

Yeah, I heard there was a limit. Never had a problem getting military discount anytime of year at either Lowes or HD. I don't buy all that much though.

 

[hrv]

Lowes has changed there military discount at the beginning of the year...No more discount on major appl and other big ticket items...

 

[CKN]

That's plenty of a discount amount for most people. Let's face it, whatever discount one gets, which includes military, Senior, whatever, the rest who don't quality for any discounts pay for it.

And I state this qualifying for one of the above mentioned discounts.

I don't have an issue with the limits.

 

[bluesubie]

It is so much work registering for all of the different military discounts (Gov-X, ID me, etc.). It was easier to get into the military. I did register for the Lowes discount, but didn't go with the HD one since they use a different company. And I don't have a Veteran's ID card, but thankfully NJ now offers the option on drivers licenses so I'll eventually get that.

For the Lowe's discount, I just enter my phone number at the self check out to access my military discount, and they come check my ID (regular license).

 

[2005jettatdi]

I got signed up about two months ago. It does not apply to appliances, lumber, wire or sale items. However, it did apply to the hybrid water heater I bought last month.

I wonder about the way Home Depot views contractor abuse. When I remodeled my office 11 years ago, the lady at the help desk registered me as a "Pro." So, whenever I use my discount or a credit card they recognize, they always ask what job the purchase is for. All of my purchases are personal.