Riding the 42 to work last week, I was surprised to see a poster advertising a remittance service offered by Home Depot; familiar orange and white logo, copy half written in English, half in Spanish.
A multi-national retailer testing the remittances waters? A lure to bring in new customers? Is the model in-store credit only? Or what about a discount if used in-store? Would it make sense for other MNCs with locations both in the U.S. and the developing world; Wal-Mart? IKEA? McDonald’s?
Certainly makes you think.
A search of homedepot.com yielded no information, and even Goggle left me with no more than the memory of the poster.
A call to Home Depot customer service, a transfer to Home Depot Internet Customer Care, a transfer to the Credit – Early Fraud Warning – Department, and still nothing.
A call back to Customer Service, a referral to the local D.C. store on Rhode Island Ave, a call to the Corporate Office Media Relations with a request for more information (and a promise that they’d get back to me) but still, as of this moment, nothing.
So does Home Depot offer a remittances service?
Is it so new that almost no one in the organization knows about it? Or was it just a Monday morning mirage and a sign that I need to stop skipping breakfast?
If anyone in the NextBillion community has any information, we’d love to hear.
’Til then, stay tuned.
