I purchased and paid for a complete set of Prestige kitchen cabinets at Lowe's Home Improvement in Oswego Illinois. After six weeks, the cabinets which were delivered, had numerous quality problems including broken hinges, chips, nicks, inconsistent finish, areas with no finish, and areas with hair (yes hair) in the finish. It was obvious that the order had been subject to absolutely NO quality control. I contacted my store.
After several days, a sales representative of Prestige cabinets came to my house and documented the issues. He apologized and reordered several of the cabinets and ALL of the door and drawer fronts. He estimated it would take two weeks for the items to arrive. After 6 weeks, (yes - six more weeks of not having a kitchen in my house) and many frustratingly unaswered calls to Lowe's, a pallet of replacement items was left in my driveway. After looking at the first three replacement doors, it was painfully obvious that the quality issues were just as bad or worse. Additionally, they had forgotten to drill the recesses for the hinges, making them impossible to reinstall. I made a trip to Lowes with several pieces in hand where the local sales guy says "gee - yeah, that's bad. I'll have Jim, the manager, call you." So as expected, Jim never calls. Five days later, I'm told by the sales guy to "bring in the pieces and we'll drill the holes for you". Great, so now I'm 7 weeks delayed in my project with no end in sight. I'm supposed to lug a pallet of crap in the trunk of my car down to the local Lowe's. The store manager obviously could care less and I've got no kitchen in my house. I've delayed all the final finishing of my kitchen until the cabinets can be installed and I'm looking at the need to rehire a carpenter to deinstall all of the old crappy pieces and reinstall the new replacement (hopefully not so crappy pieces) at my own cost (the Lowe's sales guy say "yes, you'll have to do that yourself"). Finally after another week goes by, Prestige Cabinet's sends a rep out to pick up the stuff. Two days later they call to tell me that they should have something back in "a couple of weeks". Lowe's only call is from the sales guy to let me know that the manager has been "busy dealing with some of his own home issues", like blinds that didn't fit his windows and bad carpeting or something like that. Like I give a shit.
Talk about frustration. I'd think Lowe's would be bending over about now to keep me from posting all over the web. What was that guy's name with the Lowe's sucks website? Harkleload or something like that? I'm thinking a joint venture might be in line...
This has been a nightmare and I certainly feel like I've gotten the brunt end of the FU treatment. If I were a Lowe's exec, I think I'd be considering a full replacement of the cabinets (maybe another brand that actually implements a quality control process) along with a full refund of the $9k that they banked way back in February when I had to pay for 100% of the cabinets up front. Anything to show me that they actually give a darn at this point would be considered a moral victory.
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