I recently ordered some Pergo flooring from the Santee, CA Home Depot (Nov 30). They were offering a special deal on installation of special order flooring, so I had them come out to measure the area and give me a quote. First off, the $397 installation deal seems great until they start nickel-and-diming you to death with all the little add-ons. Delivery of the product to the house is extra, removal of the old flooring is extra, moving the furniture is extra, and so on. So I decided to do all the prep work myself to save the money.
I was initially told the product would be ready on Dec 14th, so I started ripping out the old carpet and vinyl flooring to get the house ready. Then I got a call telling me the product would not be ready until Dec 21st. With the 72-hour acclimation period for the flooring, this put me right at Christmas Eve, which obviously was not going to happen. Then I got a third phone call telling me the flooring was on further backorder and would not be ready to ship until Jan 6. With delivery to the store and the 72-hour acclimation period, my floors will not be installed until mid-January at the earliest.
I went to the store and spoke with a manager who, while understanding of my frustration, was powerless to do much of anything about it. He did offer to let me pick out some comparable in-stock flooring to have installed at the installers' earliest possible availability. However, they did not have enough "in stock" between two different stores to fill the order, and now, with Christmas week coming up, it is doubtful they can get an installer to put it in anyway. So now I get to spend a month in my house with no flooring of any kind on the slab, all because Home Depot sold me a product they did not have or could not get to me in a timely fashion.
I understand the concept of special orders, 7-10 days, sometimes 2 weeks. I started my end of the job based on the initial date of Dec 14th, only to be told it was further delayed. This is now going to turn into over 45 days (so far), and it is becoming pretty aggravating. I got my first bill for the flooring already, and I will be making my first payment on a floor that I have not even seen yet.
There is not much I can do about it now. Home Depot has my money and has me over a barrel, and all they can say is they are sorry. Once this deal is done, it is very doubtful that I will ever step foot into another Home Depot. There is a Lowe's right around the corner. I should have just hired a local contractor and put the money in his pocket instead of another "big-box store." Never again!
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