My observations and opinions in this post are based on my own experiences. Other forum members may disagree.
1. The employee of any retail store who states that "It is up to the customers to make certain that they inspect what they are buying" is clearly out of touch with reality, is demonstrating a clear sign of his/her own ignorance, and has just confirmed for me that this employee needs to seek employment elsewhere. He or she is not stating store and corporate policy. This situation should be brought to the attention of the store manager.
2. Among other rules, the Uniform Commercial Code sets forth the requirements for sales, including the "Implied Warranties of Merchantability" and "Fitness for A Specific Purpose". "Implied" means that it does not have to be in writing or otherwise stated by the seller. Retailers are governed by these rules and requirements.
3. All of my experiences in the past ten years have caused me to conclude that HD does hire young, inexperienced people who often do not have the knowledge to be on the sales floor. If I need assistance, they probably would not stop to assist me if I were on the floor having convulsions. Lowe's is the polar opposite. They have many "grey hairs" there like me who are vigilant in looking for perplexed customers and almost always stop what they are doing to assist a customer.
4. The Customer Service desks are staffed by employees who do not have the expertise to determine if a product or part has been used or is defective (and should be returned to the distributor) or if it is ready to be returned to stock. This is especially true if it is in the original box and the customer falsely states that it was never used or key parts/components have been removed by the customer. The product return lines can sometimes be long and the Customer Service return desk person is under pressure to complete each return transaction ASAP.
5. As stated by chief38 and Fishinfool, all customers bear the responsibility for situations in which they have removed components or for fraudulently returning an item that is not defective while stating that "It does not work". This includes items that they damaged themselves by failing to follow the steps in the owner's manual.
6. I worked for Dell Incorporated from 1995-2005. The "old timers" told us of many situations when customers bought our products from a retailer, intentionally removed all of the internal components (mother board, RAM, HDD, video cards, etc.) and then retuned the "shell" (chassis) to the retailer stating that "It does not work" and received a full refund.
