In recent months, the southwestern United States has been ravaged by a series of hurricanes. Two of those hurricanes arrived in rapid succession, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, and in the aftermath, experts are claiming that each of those hurricanes cost tens of billions of dollars in damages and potential lost revenue for the affected states.
Thankfully, the latter hurricane, Hurricane Milton, was not as devastating as initially thought. While the hurricane reached a Category 5 over the Gulf of Mexico, the storm subsided to a Category 4 by the time it made landfall.
While still devastating, this meant that many who had readied themselves for the absolute worst were now left with preparations that they no longer needed—and so, they began to return them.
Numerous internet users have documented the experience of either returning purchased items themselves or seeing items being returned en masse. For example, one user filmed herself returning food, water, and batteries after the storm; another chided those who brought their hurricane preparations back to Home Depot.
While some of these attempts have been successful, others, as recently noted by TIkTok user Crystal McBride (@philly.crystal) in a video with over 14,000 views, have faced difficulties.
Why couldn’t this shopper return her items to Lowe’s?
In her video, McBride shows a sign noting Lowe’s 48-hour return policy. The sign is obscured by text added by McBride, which reads, “[Expletive] Lowe’s & every other greedy corporation who price gouges us AND under pays its employees.”
“There was somebody else there trying to return a generator, and there was somebody else there trying to return the same exact chainsaw that I had,” she says as the video progresses. “But Lowe’s has just decided that, ‘No, we’re not going to take anything back. We don’t care if you have a receipt. We don’t care if it’s brand new in box. We don’t care that we just changed, just now, changed our return policy.’”
According to McBride, the Lowe’s location at which she tried to make the return said that such returns were impossible due to both their computer systems and directions from corporate.
“I would not have bought a $200 item thinking that I couldn’t return it if I didn’t use it,” she says. “I actually thought that since I was buying it from a non-traumatized, from [a] hurricanes part of the country, and bringing it to a traumatized part of the country, that that would be a favor.”
Is this a new Lowe’s return policy?
McBride makes several incorrect statements in her video.
First, while there were reports of price gouging in the days leading up to the hurricanes, claims that Lowe’s as a chain was specifically price gouging appear to be without evidence. In most cases, claims about price gouging were made against those selling groceries and gasoline or those provided housing or shelter.
Second, whether Lowe’s underpays its employees is a matter of opinion. ZipRecruiter notes that average wages at the store are around $18 an hour; however, a plurality of the reported salaries are around $12 an hour. While this is in line with with other home improvement stores—for example, Home Depot also averages around $18 an hour, per ZipRecruiter—this is still under MIT’s estimate of a living wage in the state of Florida, which is $22.43 an hour for single adults with no children.
However, McBride does point out something curious about Lowe’s return policy. In short, she’s correct that the store appears to have changed its policy during this year’s hurricane season.
Lowe’s new return window
Currently, Lowe’s website states that certain items, such as generators and chainsaws, only have a return window of 48 hours.
However, it appears that this policy is new. As recently as Oct. 2, per the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, Lowe’s listed that items like chainsaws and generators had a return window of 30 days.
It is unclear whether those who made purchases before this policy was in place are supposed to be grandfathered into the old system, or whether the new return policy is meant to apply to purchases made before the policy was in place.
@philly.crystal #fucklowes #fuckgreedycorporations #itstimeforachange #enoughisenough #hurricanehelene #hurricanemilton #pricegouging? #cantheyreallydothat ♬ original sound – Philly Crystal
Commenters share their thoughts
In the comments section, users largely sided with Lowe’s policy against accepting returns of this nature.
“Totally agree with lowes, I tried to buy a generator & they were all sold out,” said a user. “Glad yall got stuck with it bc I bet yall were so happy taking the last one on the shelf.”
“It’s business. When you panic and nothing happen, then that’s your problem, not the businesses. You should only buy things you know you’ll use, not things you think you’ll use or need,” added another.
“Blame the consumer. They use to have a great policy. Then people exploit it,” stated a third. “I don’t like to side with corpo but horrible customers need to learn to take responsibility.”
That said, some were on the side of consumers like McBride.
“Lowe’s is scum for not allowing the return. They should be ashamed of themselves,” wrote a commenter.
“These companies know their day is coming. trying squeeze every last cent out of it. The entire US economy is unsustainable now,” offered a second.
The Daily Dot reached out to Lowe’s via email and McBride via email and Instagram DM.
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