Home Depot Return Policy For Plants (Complete Guide To Know)

Do you know what Home Depot’s return policy for plants is? Well, you are at the perfect place to find the answer to such a question.

You’ve likely visited Home Depot for many of your home improvement needs. But, did you know that they also have a fairly expansive garden center? But, there are a few things you should understand about their return policy.

Home Depot does allow returns for many of their plants and actually offers a year guarantee on all perennials, shrubs, and trees. Plants purchased online that die within 3 days are also eligible for a full refund.

In this article, we will discuss Home Depot’s generic return policy and the special return policy they have in place for plants.

Table of Contents

What Is Home Depot’s General Return Policy?

Home Depot has a fairly generous return policy of 90 days for most new, opened products purchased from their store. The return must be accompanied with valid proof of purchase such as the original receipt, purchase confirmation email, or Home Depot credit card.

The item can either be exchanged, refunded for cash, credited to your bank account, or given as store credit. Any refunds made will be issued back to the original form of payment.

So, if you paid with a credit card it will be refunded to your credit card, if you paid with a gift card it will be refunded to the giftcard, and if you paid in cash it will be refunded in cash.

Your item for return must be brought in with all of the components it was purchased with in order to receive a refund. If parts of it are missing it will not be accepted by Home Depot.

Of course, there are various different exceptions to this policy.

Some items only qualify for a 30 day return policy, individuals using a Home Depot credit card qualify for a 365 day return period, and some items aren’t eligible for return at all.

Read also >> Home Depot Return Policy (Full Guide)

Home Depot Return Policy for Plants Without a Receipt

If you lost your receipt it may still be possible to find your return in the Home Depot system. If you used a credit card or debit card for your purchase it will remain in the system for 30 days after the purchase.

Therefore, all you would need to find the purchase would be the original form of payment that you used.

In addition, if you used your Home Depot Consumer Credit Card, Home Depot Commercial Revolving Charge, or Home Depot Commercial Account, then your purchase will stay in the system for 365 days after it was purchased.

If you purchased your item in cash and don’t have a receipt then you will likely be out of luck as these purchases are not kept in the system and it would be impossible to find the history of the transaction.

While you can always attempt to make a return for a purchase made in cash, it is up to the customer service associate at Home Depot to determine if they can work out the return with you.

Home Depot is also permitted to only offer a refund in store credit for items returned without a receipt. The refund only needs to be for the lowest advertised price.

The reason behind this is because it may be difficult to resell the item or verify how much it was purchased for.

Are My Shipping Charges Refunded For Online Orders?

If you receive a refund for your shipping charges or not will largely depend on the reason for your return.

If your return is made due to an error of Home Depot, such as the item was defective, damaged, or not the correct item, then they will generally fully refund your shipping charges.

However, if you are returning the item for a personal reason then you will likely only receive a refund for the cost of the item and not for the shipping charges.

How Does Home Depot’s Return Policy Apply To Plants?

One exception to the average Home Depot return policy is how it applies to plants purchased from the store. Home Depot has a pretty great garden center where you can get everything from house plants, garden starts, shrubs, trees, and flowers.

They have great prices and you can generally find pretty healthy plant life there.

However, it makes sense that they set certain exceptions to their return policy for living items sold from the store.

There are exceptions for:

Perennials, trees, and shrubs;
Online purchases of live goods; and
The Exclusive Grow a Garden Guarantee.

We will go over each of these exceptions separately.

How Does The Return Policy Apply To Perennials, Trees, and Shrubs Purchased At Home Depot?

Any perennials, trees, and shrubs purchased at Home Depot come with a one year, or 365 day guarantee.

This means if a shrub, tree, or perennial dies through no fault of your own before that one year period is over, Home Depot will exchange it or refund it for you.

This is a pretty generous policy considering a lot of things can go wrong in a year, which makes it an important one to remember.

If you happen to purchase something that dies it may be because of an issue it had before you got it, which Home Depot will happily cover.

This is just one way that Home Depot shows they care about their customers. Home Depot doesn’t want their customers to be stuck with a plant that has died due to no fault of the customer.

How Does The Return Policy Apply To Online Purchases Of Live Goods From Home Depot?

If you purchase live goods online from Home Depot there is a replacement policy in place in the event that they arrive damaged or dead.

Live goods include items such as:

Houseplants,
Perennials,
Trees,
Holiday trees,
Wreaths, and
Garlands.

However, it can include more than these items.

You must contact the Home Depot customer support line within three days of the delivery to report the damaged or dead plant in order to receive a free replacement.

This policy doesn’t apply to any cut flowers or floral arrangements purchased online from Home Depot.

What Is Home Depot’s Exclusive Grow A Garden Guarantee?

Home Depot has a guarantee in place that if you use their Bonnie plants and Miracle-Gro soil or plant food for the plants that you will get a harvest the first year.

In the event that your Bonnie plant(s) doesn’t produce anything within the first growing season, then you may qualify for a refund of the plant and Miracle-Gro.

The growing season would include March-October, which obviously is a much longer time period than the general return policy for Home Depot.

Most Bonnie plants are eligible for this special refund promise as long as they were purchased after January 1, 2018 when the guarantee began.

There are three simple steps to follow in order to claim your Bonnie Plant refund:

First, you need to bring your Bonnie plant that failed to perform and your original receipt(s) of purchase to Home depot.

Second, it is important that your receipt(s) must show a purchase for the Bonnie plant and/or Miracle-Grow soil/plant food made within three days of each other. This is important as it shows that your plant was planted into Miracle-Gro soil or was fertilized with the Miracle-Gro plant food.

And third, you must have made your purchase within the last 12 months. If the purchase was made more than 180 days ago you will only receive a store credit.

If you used your Home Depot Consumer Credit Card then you are eligible for the full refund in cash until the entire 365 day period ends.

How Do I Make My Home Depot Return?

Most of the time you would be returning a plant purchased from Home Depot back to the store in person, however in the event, you order a plant online and wish to return it online, this may be possible.

Although, we do recommend contacting customer service first as they may simply have you keep the damaged or dead plant and send you a replacement plant.

If you are returning an item back to Home Depot in person you must bring your receipt with you and the original form of payment.

If you don’t have your receipt, then you are required to have your valid driver’s license or another form of government-issued photo identification. You are also required to have photo identification if you are making a return for an item you purchased using Home Depot store credit.

All returns in stores are processed using a third-party refund verification system, it is up to this system to approve your return. If it isn’t accepted, then your return will not be accepted by Home Depot.

If you are going to make a return online you need to contact customer support and they can help you get your UPS return started.

Home Depot Return Policy On Plants Is Fairly Generous!

Many stores won’t offer any sort of return options for plants or other live goods purchased from their stores, which makes Home Depot’s policy stand out.

They guarantee the survival of perennials, shrubs, and trees for up to a year, will replace damaged/dead live goods that are shipped, and provide a guarantee on their Bonnie plants.

Now that you know how Home Depot’s policy works for plants you can run down to your nearest Home Depot today and start browning the garden center.

References

https://www.homedepot.com/c/Return_Policy

https://www.homedepot.com/order/view/tracking