First of all, I will start by stating that what I am about to do is certainly not classy, necessary, and may not even be appropriate. However, it will be therapeutic to myself and might possibly be of some benefit to someone else who may be deciding to use these companies for their home improvement needs. So, with that said....here it goes.

What Happened to Customer Service?

In this time in which we live we are very fortunate to be provided with a wide variety of different businesses to choose from when starting a home improvement project.  Everything from national chain companies to mom and pop type stores. Often times the consumer falls for the advertising "deals" such as "0% down" or "24 months free financing" to "half off-this weekend only" in the end to only choose the chain company over the mom and pop type stores to save a buck or get a deal.

 When deciding to make some improvements to our kitchen and laundry room we chose to spend our money and give our services to Home Depot (yes, I said it...I debated about whether or not to "out" them publicly or not but there it is...I said, it!) to have our kitchen and laundry room floor refinished.

After taking time and giving thoughtful consideration to which type (laminate, ceramic, wood) and what style floor we wanted we made our decision. At this point in the process, we were excited and thrilled to have a visual image of what our new laundry room and kitchen may soon look like. This part of the process was actually quite enjoyable and fun. (Sidenote: this took place in Sept 2014) We placed the order for our chosen product.

The next step was to have someone come out to measure our rooms- also a painless process. Next comes the process of getting something scheduled for our dream floor to be laid. This was by far the most frustrating part of the remodeling process! You call Home Depot to schedule an installation date only to have them call their contracted company, Superior to get a date from them. After getting a date scheduled it is usually at least two weeks out before they are able to come for the install. Two weeks...not a bad deal right? That's what I thought too. That's completely acceptable...so up until this point... not a whole lot  of grief or trouble had been had.

The situation was we had finished the laundry room and was ready for them to lay the flooring in that room but we had not yet completed the remodeling (stripping wood work) in the kitchen and was not yet ready for them to lay that flooring in there. We requested that they lay the floor in the room that was complete and then come back a month or so later to lay the floor in the kitchen. Well, this was just unheard of to them....they wavered back and forth and couldn't decide if this was something that could be done or not. Home Depot told us that "yes, it could most certainly be done" but their contracting flooring company and said, "no, that they could not separate the order." For a few weeks we were left in limbo until they could figure out if this in fact could be done or not. What? Seriously, what's the big deal? We paid for this flooring and we should decide when we want it laid! Within reason of course! It's not as though we said we wanted one room laid now and the next one laid a year from now. We asked for a few more weeks to allow us enough time to strip the woodwork and redo that work before the new floor got laid.

Eventually, we were told that they would be able to separate the installations of the two floors. We received an install date and two weeks later, Superior sent a worker out to lay the laminate flooring in the laundry room. This went down without a hitch.  It looked amazing and although it was a difficult and long process to get it laid we were happy with the results. This only increased our excitement for the kitchen floor. So,  while he was here he mentioned that he would be the same worker that would be out when we had the kitchen floor installed. He suggested that he check the kitchen to make sure it's level (stated that if it wasn't it would be a wasted trip out and it would prolong the process) - so he got down on his knees with his leveling tool and checked the room for any possible problems that may pose a roadblock at the next installation. He said that it looked good and we should be ready to roll when we go to lay the kitchen floor.

The day after the laundry floor was laid, we decided to call them to tell them that we wanted to get a date set for the second installation knowing that it would be at  least  two weeks before they'd be able to come out. I busted my butt to get all the woodwork stripped and the wallpaper removed in less than two weeks. I was successful and got it all completed in time...only for them to come out the day the kitchen floor was to be installed to tell us that our kitchen floor was NOT level. How could this be? (Side note: this was a different worker- we were expecting the same) The worker who checked only weeks ago had checked and had told us it was level. So......the floor is not level therefore the laminate cannot be laid until it is level. The dude then proceeds to make a huge circle on our then current flooring with a sharpie....in the place that wasn't level. He then tells Jason that he had to go buy a leveling product at Home Depot and told him how  to pour it? What? Are you serious? We are paying you to install our floor! We are paying for you to do this. We were told by your people it was level now we are being told by your people it's not level and now we are being told to go buy a product and pour it on the floor to get it level before the next installation date is rescheduled! After Jason spoke with Home Depot about this we were then told that, "no, you don't have to buy anything or do it we will do it for you but we will have to call Superior to get another installation date reschueded for the leveling." So two weeks later, they come back out to level the floor. This happened...the leveling product was poured and on the floor....they then packed up and said they'd be back the next day because it takes 24 hours for the leveling to set. They came back out the next day to lay the floor. Jason got super pumped and excited...I however, being the pessimistic person I can be, said, "I'll get excited when I actually see a new kitchen floor."

They got to work, cutting trim and planning it all out...they had 7 or 8 of our pieces laid and then called me into the room to tell me that "we have a problem" he had me look at the tiles he laid and showed me how none of the grout lines were matching up. He insisted that they were all supposed to line up -ours were off by a half inch in places. He said, "I could continue to lay this flooring but this isn't right and it's not supposed to look like this." Of course we told him to stop and pulled the plug on the whole operation. He said, "I have never seen this happen before but I opened up several boxes of your product and they are all like that...you must have bought a defective product." So once again, they pack up their equipment and leave.

We speak with Home Depot who has to speak with Superior about what happened. We called Home Depot to get something reordered and rescheduled. They reorder the product  (we had issues with this too-not returning calls and not following through with promises to let us know where we were in the process of the reorder) and once the new product came in they called Superior and were given another installation date. We had asked to be bumped to the top of the list because of our troubles...this apparently just COULD NOT HAPPEN...so we were not expedited and had to wait the two weeks for the floor to get laid...in the meantime I got look at a hideous kitchen floor (grey leveling in the center of the room surrounded by a black sharpie drawn circle) where my new floor was supposed to be. 

So the date comes April 16 (mind you we started this process with home depot in 2014). So, Home Depot sends Superior out once again to tackle this job. They spent two hours out in my driveway laying out pieces to this interlocking laminate flooring...they were desperately trying to figure out the pattern and how it should be laid. They called me out to the DRIVEWAY for me to see nearly all of my kitchen floor laid in front of me in the drive! They had taken a sharpie to each piece and numbered them so they'd know how they needed to lay them in the kitchen. They finally got to laying this puzzle in the room they were supposed to be laying it in only for them to call me in to say once again "we have a problem."  They told me that the grout lines weren't matching up again, not all pieces were flush and if they continued to lay it that we would eventually see those un-flush raised up pieces pop up over time. He said, "I don't want to lay it for you to have a problem with it in a month or year or two." I could not believe what I was hearing. Was I the only person into he world who ordered this specific style flooring? I knew the answer to that question...NO! Because I saw pictures of beautifully laid Terracotta laminate on line.

 I called Jason, I prayed for my sanity (seriously, I prayed and had others pray for me-no joke) and that I would not become a raving lunatic. I was so incredibly frustrated I seriously wanted to come unleashed. And anyone who knows me well...knows when Dana comes unleashed it is not pleasant thing. I called Jason, he came home from work to deal with it.

In the mean time one of the workers decided to call Armstrong (the actual company who makes the flooring product) only to find out the grout lines are NOT supposed to line up. There is no rhyme or reason to a pattern-you just lay the floor! What? All of this nonsense could have been prevented with one  simple phone call? Rescheduling would not have been necessary as it would have gotten laid the first time around if they would have taken the time to make a phone call! Are you kidding me?

So the floor gets laid (they were short a transition piece so they will be back in a few weeks to lay that)...it's beautiful...I am happy.

Happy for 6 days and 12 hours until I see a "spot "on the floor that I thought just needed spot cleaned...only to find a small (very small-nearly unnoticeable) start of a crack in our not even a week old floor! Ugh.

Now, I know why people blow a gasket..I know why people go into department stores raving and screaming and demanding a manager. Unfortunately, I can relate to those psychos right now.

With all of this negativity overload, I will say that RP Lumber is who we decided to buy our pantry cabinets from...they have been prompt, polite, cooperative, and overly accommodating! I give them a full 5 star rating and will most certainly be returning there for any future home improvement needs.

Buchheit, not so much..I am putting them in the same category as Home Depot (not quite as bad) we bought our laundry room cabinets from them...we waited nearly six weeks and no cabinets only to be told that they called and found out that they weren't even in production yet! They weren't even made yet! We were told at the time of order that is typically two weeks but to expect four because it was a sale and there were more orders being placed. If we hadn't called to inquire about the status I wonder if our cabinets would still not be in production! Jason would call to inquire, leave a message only to not receive a call back!

It's simple people....keep your customer happy. Call them to tell them where they are in the process, give updates, apologize for inconvenience and delays. It's really that simple. If they would have just kept us posted, stayed in touch with us, and returned our phone calls I would have given them at least 3 star rating (3 because of our cabinets came but came with some nicks and scratches) but now they get a 2 and half at the most from me.

After reading my review and my experience with Home Depot you will understand why I would give them a 1 star rating. And that's being generous. I don't know what will happen with the "crack" in the new floor...and I don't know how this saga will end but I pray it ends peacefully.

To end this little rant...I want you to know that I know that if this is the least of our problems we are surely blessed. I have kept it in prospective- I know my rant sounds petty and not deserving of a tangent like this. We are very blessed with health and happiness and this life God has given us is truly a blessed one. In the grand scheme of life this truly doesn't amount to anything.