Home Depot /Kraftmaid Horror Story
I hope my experience can help someone. I ordered a Kraftmaid kitchen from Home Depot and boy do I rue the day. In every way, this has been a disaster. The kitchen was shipped in 10 separate shipments, in a totally unexplained process. Supposedly there would be 1 shipment from a shipping company, but cabinets…
I hope my experience can help someone. I ordered a Kraftmaid kitchen from Home Depot and boy do I rue the day. In every way, this has been a disaster. The kitchen was shipped in 10 separate shipments, in a totally unexplained process. Supposedly there would be 1 shipment from a shipping company, but cabinets were shipped once (41 boxes) and then in unauthorized, no-signature required “drive-by” deliveries by FEDEX over the course of a month — stuff left outside in rain, piled up with my garbage, stacked on my stoop, scattered around my front yard while I was at work- in Fort Greene Brooklyn!!. My contractor installed cabinets (boxes) which looked OK and then the doors came. Glazed mullion windows and molded doors which I fished out of the trash which came with dings, dents, glaze applied and shipped before dry, with stringing, globs, dents, bubbles, drips, dings. Drawers had hunks of wood missing, panel doors with molding had mitered joints — not a one cut with a perfect 45 degree angle, all gaping open. The molding had hairline splits. I received several doors with different colors than the one ordered. The design was a wonder to behold. The measurer had provided measurements of the walls and floors but not of the ceiling. Cabinets covered highhats and cabinet doors couldn’t open because of a soffit blocking the door. Enter into the mix, a Kafka-esque torture experience at the Hamilton Avenue Home Depot, which is a good test of how you might react if kidnapped and tortured by terrorists – “customer care” people at Home Depot and Kraftmaid, all of whom flatly refused to take back the kitchen because the boxes had been “installed”. I am in total Xena, Warrior princess mode and managed to eake a little money out of Home Depot with Kraftmaid offering to fix the problem — supposedly will be done 3 1/2 months after the first delivery received. It has been a nightmare – I am trying to decide if I want to go to court. Anyway, I hope my experience can help someone. Stay away from Home Depot! Stay away from Kraftmaid! The Housing Boom has been too good to them!
We are going on our fourth year with Kraftmaid cabinets installed. I guess we were lucky when we ordered from Home Depot, Marysville, Wa. Our kitchen saleperson was actually a kitchen cabinet maker/installer in his previous years. He was very informative and did a great job helping us through the selection process. The shipment arrived all at once and although there were a few issues with door front flaws (very minor) and one door in the wrong color, KM shipped us perfect replacements for them within 7 days to our door. I installed the cabinets myself and they went in great and the fit (thanks to Home depot’s careful measurements) was incredible. So, perhaps we were the lucky ones. I would probably buy KM again based on my experience, and through the same home depot. By the way, the same salesman still works there after 4 years.
For kicks
I worked for kraftmaid for 3 years. 1.5 years in customer service, another 1.5 years in quality and a couple months in management.
Just some error correction from many of the above comments
UPS does not require signature confirmation. I now run a graphics and sign production company and they often leave boxes in my workshop when I am not even here.
Lowes typically has better trained designers than Home Depot, but local shops are usually far better as they usually have vested interest in your home. Lowes and Home Depot reps are often hired with minimal experience and training no matter what brand and they work off commission. Kraftmaid cannot control this.
The mullion glass door thing is true. There is a totally different process for prepping and shipping these doors and they always ship separate as they glass/mullions is far more often shattered when shipped with the regular boxes.
Shipping to Brooklynne is a huge problem for many companies as many shipping companies sub their shipments out to other companies when approaching the NY area. There are NY delivery driver and there is the rest of the country. Kraftmaid does not own or run their shipping, it is run by cardinal logistics. Even then when I worked in customer service I dealt with about a dozen shipping companies every week. So one company would complete a shipment in Arizona, another in NY. Different companies, different drivers with different attitides, all outside of Kraftmaid’s control and you can only push so far with business contracts
And Kraftmaid does not have a factory in Florida…..3 in NE Ohio that function as 1 whole and 1 in Salt Lake City
I purchased Kraftmaid cabinets through Home Depot, both for my kitchen and for a bathroom. All were great.
However, we are in Florida, and I think Kraftmaid has a factory here. The cabinets arrived in a factory truck, all packed nicely in cardboard boxes. The delivery men open and look at all the cabinets before they left.
I suggest that anyone ordering from HD find out how and who will ship the cabinets. Make sure they will all be shipped at one time.
Also, be aware that there are many upgrades to Kraftmaid cabinets that are well worth the small up-charge to add.
For example, if you pay a little more, you can get better hinges, plywood (instead of particle board) sides and bottoms, self-closing drawers, and wood veneer exposed sides (instead of vinyl fake wood).
Finally, the HD installation is not a good deal. They have private installers that have to pay back a fee to HD to get their installation business. It is better to find your own installer based on reputation and word-of-mouth.
You probably should find your installer before you buy the cabinets from HD, because the installer can tell you what to do to make sure that the cabinets are delivered as promised.
A little bit of research, understanding, and thinking, goes a lot farther than an after-the-fact, whining rant.
Thanks for the post. I just wish I found it sooner. I have my own horror story with Home Depot Cabinets.
http://homedepotcabinets.blogspot.com
What are your complaints about KraftMaid .. would you care to elaborate?
Ough yes and Hamilton Home depot is horrible.
Lowes practically across the street is so much nicer. The kitchen rep I dealt with is extremely nice and helpful.
I’ll admit I didn’t bother to read all of the responses in this thread, only because I have just one thing to say about Kraftmaid (ie KRAPMADE). Unless you are looking to flush $20,000 plus down the toilet, DO NOT BUY KRAFTMAID CABINETS!!!!
I just hope this post will save someone else from the pain I have had to endure.
Thanks for the warning! I almost ordered Kraftmaid through Home Depot… I already had been experiencing headaches from their not so brilliant “kitchen designers” but I figured it was a good a price… I want to flip and sell in a few months, but I didn’t want to torture a future buyer with particle board. I figured Kraftmaid was a happy medium between the top of the line and bottom of the barrel. Plus I had already paid $100 for measurements. I read on some boards about how great Lowe’s was, so I thought I’d take a quick look before placing an order. Boy, am I sure glad I did! The customer service was the best! Even though Home Depot had a 10% off special going on, it seems fishy because my quote from Lowe’s was less – even though it was full price. (I think Home Depot just marked up 10% before the “sale”). Lowe’s even credited my order $100 since I would have to pay $75 for their installers to measure themselves. In the end, they were just so glad to take a customer away from Home Depot, I actually felt like I was getting extra attention. Actually, I think I was just so used to the crummy ill-treatment of Home Depot that when Lowe’s actually gave good customer service, I was in shock. I couldn’t say enough good things about my experience with Lowe’s. If you are thinking about getting kitchen cabinets, save yourself a big headache and just go to Lowe’s. Thanks again for this forum -it’s ben very enlightening.
the lady with the cabinet
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