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!
About FEDEX deliveries, there are actually two ways that they can send — they can send signature required, which is more expensive and more safe obviously. You can either sign for it when you receive it, have someone else sign for you, or sign their little paper that they stick on your door telling them what to do with it when you are not there, i.e. give it to a neighbor.
Or someone could send you something the cheapy way — no signature required. This is the drive by delivery – they fling it out the truck, hoping to hit some soft dirt and get it close to your door. Actually, in the midst of one of my fits of apoplexy, a kind Fedex person explained the procedure. When a sender sends no signature required, FEDEX rings doorbells and makes an effort to give directly to receiver and if they are unable to, they then leave it outside.
The problem here was Kraftmaid. It is irresponsible to send packages this way in New York City. And it was not in compliance with the Home Depot contract, which requires permission from the receiver to get a delivery in such a way. This is permission I did not give them. After each mysterious delivery I made complaining phone calls to everyone, in escalating intensity. It was the nice lady from Toronto, who explained the policy. So there it is, for whatever its worth.
UPS requires signatures for all their deliveries (had a lengthy discussion about this with my UPS guy)
But FEDEX is signature optional(FEDEX had dumped several boxes of flat pack furniture in back of the house. Luckily it was a sunny day and no one stole the boxes).
I had no clue that FEDEX would leave such large/valuable packages out in the open. So now I make sure that the order is logged as signature required, and then have to arrange to be there for the delivery.
Original poster here…. I guess the reason I ordered from a Hardware Store (in answer to one poster’s comments) was that I had a good experience buying a lower end Kraftmaid product from Lowes. No problems. It was a Thermofoil white shaker type kitchen — very small — for a rental and it was very easy. Originally, I was just going to go to Home Depot for a design but liked the designer there. In retrospect, I should have checked custom places (which I have done subsequently). I found that I could find much better designers, better quality, better selection and BETTER PRICES at local custom shops. Well you live and learn.
The supposed reason for all the different shipments was because the mullion glass cabinet doors were for some reason handled differently within the company. It was a serious problem that they sent the stuff no signature required. Kraftmaid is a Ohio company which seems to think that they would just leave it on a doorstep behind a white picket fence. But beyond that, you have to sign a release on your contract to allow for no=signature required deliveries, where there is real risk of theft and damage. I never did that.
Also, another difficulty was the fact that I bought a “glazed” kitchen, Bisque. I really wanted white, but Lowes and HOme Depot do not sell white cabinetry other than Thermofoil in all the lines and I let myself be sold a glazed product. This is a tricky process and if not done with care and shipped when completely dry, you can have a real mess. Also the doors that I chose were a “new” style to them and they had obvious manufacturing problems.
I will be getting rid of this kitchen, which I loathe and will be starting over. I arm twisted Home Depot into a pretty sizable refund and am still struggling to get them to refund everything and take it back.
If that doesn’t happen, I found a great organization which I will donate it to.
Anyway, brownstoner friends, caveat emptor! Thanks for your comments.
Sorry about your experience. I recently purchased Thomasville cabinets from Home Depot and it could not have been a better experience. I really didn’t deal with Home Depot except to place the order. About a week after placing my order with Home Depot, Thomasville reps called me and went over my order with me and give me a tracking number to check on my order through their website. Two weeks later they called to set up a delivery date and all my cabinets were received in excellent condition.
I once tried to get a quote from them, after paying $100 for them to measure my kitchen. I called everyday for a month, 2-3x a day. They would sometimes pick up the phone, sometimes not. Transfer you to kitchen and then, literally, no one once picked up the phone.
I had to physically go to the Hamilton Ave store for answers. Clearly I didn’t use them. So sorry for your experience.
If you didn’t sign for the packages, are you sure that you received them?
I just got a shipment of 31 boxes from a home improvement company and every one had to be signed for….
The Hamilton Avenue Home Depot is the worst run store I have ever experienced in my life. I feel for you.
Never mind! I see that it’s the one on Hamilton Avenue.
What a miserable tale! But I thank you so much for sharing it. In doing so, your unfortunate experience becomes a real education and warning to the rest of us who may been toying with idea of ordering Kraftmaid kitchen cabinets from Home Depot.
Do you mind telling us which Home Depot store was the villain?