Home Depot / KraftMaid
$15,000 Kitchen Remodel Took Almost Five Months, Damaged Cabinets

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 approximately 2 weeks. My wife and I interpreted that as 3 to 4 weeks, understanding that not everything goes as planned.

Incidentally, we specifically went to Home Depot because we did not want to get dragged along by a small contractor who 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 September, no problem.

On Dec. 12 the cabinets arrived, and we shuffled our dining room and living room around to accommodate them. No problem. The designer came over to verify the boxes. No problem. Incidentally, we had no problem with the KraftMaid company.

The holidays came and went, and apparently the subcontractor could not do the demo until January. On Jan. 6th the demo took place. It took 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 through 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 drunk a fifth of Jack Daniel's 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 (who was 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. This was not before the contractor forged my signature to receive payment from Home Depot.

So a new contractor 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 had not had any appliances, countertops, electricity or running water since Jan. 6th? My daughter thought you clean dishes in the bathtub.

My parents visited Valentine's week because we thought we would have a new kitchen. Instead, we had no kitchen and family in town... Problem. So morning, noon and night we were spending our money going out to eat, and had been since Jan. 6th. Then we found out that some of the cabinets were ordered wrong (design flaws) and that the cabinets already hung were a splintered disgrace, so a second order needed to take place.

Two and a half weeks later the reorder came in. I would like to take a moment to explain that our communication with Home Depot was civil and fairly consistent, given 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. There was 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 we would still be washing our dishes in the bathtub.

Finally, we got a temporary sink and temporary 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 (who said he was trying to help Home Depot and 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.

There were more design flaws and reorders, and waiting for the second contractor to "fit" us into HIS schedule. The job was finally 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 pictures 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 with Home Depot.

No one seemed to care (except Mike, our designer), and they became 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 and sweep it under the carpet ($4.99 installed, just call Home Depot Services). Now Home Depot is offering $2,500 toward the "inconvenience" (which did not cover our food bill or the install, if you could call it that). I do not think that quite covers it.

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.

Company: Home Depot / KraftMaid
Country: USA
State: Colorado
City: Denver
Phone: 3033203738

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