OK, home depot employee in California (and everyone else) who seems to think that customers expect too much, riddle me this.
Let me tell you a little story about a $15,000 kitchen remodel that the home depot designer guaranteed us would take approx 2 weeks. My wife and I interpreted that as 3-4 weeks, understanding that not everything goes as planned.
Incidentally, we specifically went to home depot b/c we did not want get dragged along by a small contractor that could not handle the job. At the time our daughter was 21 months and our son was 9 months (just walking and crawling) Design took about a month starting in Sept., no problem.
Dec. 12 the cabinets arrived and we shuffled our dining room and living room around to accomodate them. No problem. The designer came over to verify the boxes. No problem.incidentally, we had no problem with the KraftMaid company.
Holidays came and went, apparrently the sub-contractor could not do the demo until jan. So, Jan 6th the demo takes place. 2.5 hours. (Our kitchen is 10x13).
The install began a week later. The cabinets (1/3 were installed the first 2 days) were installed by the equivalent of a drunk, far sighted monkey. He busted half of the cabinets with his screwdriver attached to a drill (yes a drill), pummeling the screws thru everything in his way. Not to mention that a "level" was obviously not in his toolbox. If I wanted to hack these beautiful cabinets I would have drank a fifth of jack daniels and smashed railroad ties with a sledge myself, a slight embellishment, but I think everyone gets the idea.
Upon notifying Home depot, they said that once the job had come to fruition I would be happy. It got to the point where I told home depot that we did not want this contractor (whom is reviewed, approved and hired by home depot) to complete the job. This prompted a home depot employee (the designer) to inspect the work and he immediately agreed and relieved the contractor of his duties. Not before the contractor forged my signature to receive payment from home depot.
So, a new contrator came in and began working on the job... in February! Apparently home depot could not schedule any contractor for problem jobs. Did I mention that we did not have any appliances or counter tops or electricity or running water since jan 6th? My daughter thought you clean dishes in the bath tub.
My parents visited valentines week b/c we thought we would have a new kitchen.instead, no kitchen and family in town... Problem. So, morning, noon and night we were spending our money going out to eat, since jan 6th. Come to find out some of the cabinets were ordered wrong (design flaws) and the cabinets already hung were a splintered disgrace so a second order needed to take place.
2 1/2 weeks later the reorder came in. I would like to take a moment and explain that our communication w / home depot was civil and fairly consistent based on the continuing problems. Home depot's communication on the other hand was pathetic. I was trying to think of another word but "pathetic" just seems to fit. No response, "we will call you right back" was the answer frequently, but the phone rarely rang. If we never called home depot back I am confident that we would still be washing our dishes in the bath tub.
Finally, temp sink and temp counters the 2nd week of March after my wife called, in between tears, every day for a week (how rude of her!). So after 10 weeks of having to eat out (read as $) we could wash our hands and place items on plywood... And we were happy!
After a confrontation with the second contractor (stating he was trying to help home depot and he did not need this job, he actually gave me an ultimatum) we both calmed down and he told me I should contact my lawyer regarding the handling of this project.
More design flaws and reorders and waiting for the 2nd contractor to "fit" us into HIS schedule, the job finally was finished almost 5 MONTHS LATER! I kid you not. Several Home Depot employees including corporate in Atlanta, told us our remodel was one of the worst they had ever heard of. I have plenty of pix and a gash on my baby son's head to prove it.
We went to home depot specifically because we had toddlers running around our house and did not want the project dragged out and this point was addressed to home depot.
No one seemed to care (except Mike, our designer) and they become very angry when we went to corporate with our complaints. It was like they did not want the higher-ups to find out about the problem. They wanted to keep it at the store level, sweep it under the carpet ($4.99 installed, just call home depot services) Now, Home depot is offering $2,500 towards the "inconvenience" (that did not cover our food bill or the instal, if you could call it that). I do not think that quite covers it.
Please, please, everyone, give us your feedback and let me know if we should accept this offer or go directly to the gentleman who "Built From Scratch" Home Depot and ask their opinion. I could go on for hours based on our documented nightmare but I think everyone gets the picture. Thanks.
Andrew
Denver, Colorado
U.S.A.
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