Getting past Home Depot's return gatekeeping

Small operator here, but probably have spent $5K at my local Home Depot this year so far.

Yesterday, had some no-receipt plumbing parts that a guy of mine bought and lost the receipt for (yeah, he doesn't work for me anymore :). Return was rejected by HD's "third party" gatekeeper, named TheRetailEquation (TRE). The return associate was REALLY nice, but she couldn't help, and the store manager she called said no override was possible. I wanna note:

1. I was only wanting store credit to shop the same day, no cash return. Still rejected.

2. TRE's report on me (their "RAR") that "explains" my rejection shows only that I returned $62.23 worth of stuff in August 2024 - so 11 months ago. No other returns except this one yesterday that was rejected.

Has anyone else found a workaround for HD's short-sighted return gatekeeping?