I have one of those big DIY warehouse 5 minutes from me and its handy to pick small and last minute things up instead of running all the way to an electrical supply house.
The problem thou this warehouse along with many other places use a repackaging service.
When an item has been opened by the consumer and then brought back and can not be immediately restocked.
So at end of a week or month depending on the amount of returns , the re-packer comes by and collects all the items takes them to there plant where items are then checked out and repackaged to be sold as new.
One of these large re-packing services is located in Blawknox Pa. in the old Paper Craft Complex.
They inspect the product make sure everything is in the package and then repack it and seal it. to be sold as new. This is where I have a big problem no the product is not new it has been repacked and should be marked as such .
The reason how many times I have walked into Home Depot in Wilkins Twp. Pa. and ended up returning a light fixture which was a repack and was missing parts. I do not know who Home Depot uses or if its there own people doing it , but who ever it is they do a poor job repacking so I no longer stop and buy any light fixtures from there or any home depot any more. I have never had this problem with Lowes.
I also no longer buy plastic jars of wire-nuts at Home Depot either I often find the inner seals missing which means there's no 100 or what ever amount your buying there's less.
I have contacted Home Depot Corporate about this and told them about having there vendor put an outside seal on the containers so you can see they have been opened and also about the poor repack jobs.
They told me they are looking into it and let manager know any time I catch problems so they can make sure consumers get what they are buying. They are trying but as big as the chain is it is very hard to keep shrinkage from happening. Some times its outright theft some times its employee's helping out a shopper taking something out so they have a full package and then not making sure its been fixed.
End result you need to checkout items make sure there properly sealed from factory and not been tampered with. Even at the electrical supply houses I have hit out right fraud problems as well with bad or shorted products but not as often as at the Big box places.
One particular Lighting supply I use to buy from on Northern Light on Pittsburgh's North Side now closed was famous for showing one item and selling you something else. One of my high end customers saw this beautiful Italian glass wall sconce fixture hanging on the display $185.00 each ordered 2 and I picked them up for her , when we got them to here house and opened them up they where no longer glass but plastic which they brought out from the back. They where also famous for charging $40.00 for a roll of electrical tape or bag of zip ties on your invoice if you where not careful as well. Wonder why he had to go out of business.
Electra lighting in Monroeville which recently went bankrupt and is gone has been sued by Pa. Attorney Generals Office for not fulfilling orders and shorting people etc as well.
Unfortunately there are plenty of scum business people out there and we have way too many of them in Pittsburgh Pa.
So how do you tell It might be a repackaged item.
look at all the others if your package has clear tape on it and others have staples only holding it closed suspect a repack inspect it carefully before you buy it.
I just went thru this with a big box pharmacy when my mom bought a heating pad and it was missing an inner cover I had to drive out and exchange it.
Bottom line check the picture on the item makes sure its all there and check to see if the package has been opened. If it has clear tape over it suspect a repack.
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