I know that I normally rave about IKEA and never mention any other vendors but the fact is that we are using several vendors for this project. Unfortunately, not all the experiences have been good ones.
We ordered our countertops from Home Depot several weeks ago. We went in, picked out what we wanted {click}, and placed our order. Greg is an architect and deals with this sort of thing all the time. We were prepared. We had drawings with accurate measurements. We were specific about what we needed. We liked the woman who took our order. All was good.
And, they called and said it would be a week longer than expected. No worries, we thought, that’s fine.
And, it was.
And, then they called and said our countertops were in. So, we drove to get them. We walked in and saw them at the customer service desk and Greg said, “Oh no. That can’t be our countertops.” But it was and they were totally wrong.
We ordered them without the integrated backsplash. The reasons why we did not want a backsplash are legion and, really, unimportant to this story. It took a lot of doing to get someone to come down from Kitchens to talk to Greg about the countertop problem. He seemed knowledgeable. He knew right away what was wrong and assured us it would get fixed.
And, several days later, someone called us to say could we come in and pick up our countertops. We were suspicious at that point. Greg called and sure enough . . . it was still the same old wrong countertops still sitting at Customer Service. He talked to someone who assured us that it would be taken care of. This time.
But we heard nothing.
Greg called them Monday and asked what was up. It took awhile but he finally spoke to someone who knew what was up. He’d take care of it and call us back. But, nothing. So, Tuesday night, we went down there again. Greg spoke with someone at Customer Service who gave him the name he needed to ask for — someone who would be at the store first thing in the morning.
Greg called him first thing and got bad news. They can’t get the countertops we want for 6 – 8 weeks. The company used the last piece screwing up our order. Wilsonart has told them they can’t get more for 6 weeks. And, so we are screwed. We had to drive down to Home Depot again to pick out new laminate for the countertops.
Let me just say that we live in the coastal mountains. Every trip to Home Depot involves getting the kids loaded up in the car with all their DSes and other essential goodies, driving 40 minutes each way, getting dinner out because we have to go in the evening. It’s a major deal to “pop in to the store to pick another laminate choice.”
I worked all day, then went to a late afternoon seminar, and then, finally, met my family at Home Depot where we picked out some options, and then had to wait and wait and wait to talk to someone for a few minutes before he had to have us wait again because he had an appointment. Greg finally took the kids back to the car and made a business call he’d had scheduled and I spoke to the Kitchen guy. Oh, did I mention the migraine I woke up with that morning. Sigh.
I as really nice to the Kitchen Guy. He was not the one that Greg had spoken to but we both had to be there to pick out the colors so it was the only option for us time-wise. We were supposed to leave a set of samples with our choices for the other Kitchen Guy so that he could follow up with the laminate makers and hopefully get us our counters in a timely manner. The new Kitchen Guy keeps trying to re-write the order. I finally used my “reasonable” teacher voice and said that we just wanted to leave the samples. He was okay with that.
Greg called this morning and we are getting our first choice in the laminate. Here’s the thing . . . they are saying it will take 3 weeks. All this waiting, all this screw up on their end and they can’t even rush the order.
And, then the capper, the thing that ticks me off royally is this. We ordered Terra Roca (4837-38). When I was waiting for Greg and the kids and picking out samples, I noticed that there were two Terra Rocas on the display (4837-38 and 4837-52). So, I grabbed both and showed them to Greg. We couldn’t remember which one we’d ordered — the difference in those last numbers indicates the finish used on the countertop. But, we figured if they could do the other finish that would work for us.
And, guess what? They could do that. When Greg called this morning, the guy told him it was no problem using the same color with the different finish. So, here’s what makes me so incredibly angry with Home Depot and the crew at the Santa Cruz store: why was I the one who noticed that option? Why didn’t the Kitchen Guy (either one of them) know enough about their product line to see that option and offer it to us?
I am so frustrated with Home Depot at this point. We have used them for YEARS. Our last home remodel couldn’t have been done without Home Depot. We are truly devoted customers and this just stinks. They keep telling us that they are sorry. Well, sorry doesn’t give me countertops, dudes. It just doesn’t. Sigh.
So, how surprised will I be when the countertops are not in in 3 weeks and when they come in 4 weeks, will they be right or wrong? We’ll be more than a month without a functional kitchen at that point. ARGH!
mother. wife. friend. teacher. writer. reader. photographer. birder. quilter. blogger.
Liza Lee Miller 