We had our kitchen measured for cabinets in mid-May, and finalized our order from the plans supplied by Deanna Falls. We were told the delivery time for the initial cabinets was 5 weeks (which would have been end of June). A few weeks later I am told by the company that the manufacturer is behind on orders, and it will be an additional 6-8 weeks. In mid-August, having expected to hear at least an update, I tried to contact Deanna by both e-mail and phone and get no responses. Eventually, after waiting a few weeks or so, I drove up to the business to find out what is going on and am told that Deanna had retired.
The cabinets finally arrived after Labor Day and were installed by our contractor. Luther then came to my house to measure for the island cabinets, which were then ordered. When those cabinets arrived, the style and type was completely different from what was on the design plans, being doored cupboards, rather than drawers, and an ogeed face design that did not match the style of the Craftsman fronted cabinets already installed. In the ensuing weeks while we are patiently waiting for corrected cabinets, I made several calls to Luther Fall's office and reached his assistant who promised me he would call me back promptly. It was often a week before I would get a call back, if at all, and often I had to visit him in person to get an answer (such as: Where are the drawer pulls? A: "we didn't order them. Feel free to go buy them elsewhere", or Q; Can I order one more thing -a set of shelves?" A: Can't you just build them from scraps?").
Anyway, yesterday, Nov 17, the delivery men from Luther Falls drop off 3 more boxes and we open them while the truck is still here to find that only one of the 3 units is correct and the other two are incorrect, having 3 drawers instead of the two deep drawers on the original design. The delivery guys call Luther and are told by him that I had to "take 'em or leave 'em", So I call the business and the assistant tells me he's not there to take my call. I explain the situation to her, and soon I hear Luther yelling in the background that "the customer had changed her mind TWICE now, so tell her she'll have to take me to court if she wants different cabinets". Then he finally gets on the phone and proceeds to yell at me, refusing to back down and still insisting that I'd have to take him to court. I send the delivery guys away, apologizing to them for having to wait and hear a heated argument. Their answer is "We work there. It's like that every day."
After I have a chance to call my spouse with the bad news that we need an attorney, I pull the original designs up on my computer, having saved the e-mail from back in May, and send it to Luther. I get an e-mail back saying that they will order the corrected cabinets. The errors were because they had lost their copies of the design. No apology, however. Just a couple of gift cards for a restaurant I can't eat at (for dietary issues).
So this additional 6 weeks of waiting, and the loss of my respect, could have been saved by them simply admitting the loss of the design.
With luck we might have had a completed kitchen by the New Year.... BUT, when the third set of island cabinets finally arrived, they were broken in several places - two of the drawer supports were broken off in one cabinet, plus it had a huge crack on the face. Of the other cabinet to flank the range, the face was separated from the body of the cabinet on one side. I chose at that time to repair those issues rather than wait yet another 3 weeks. Additionally, they delivered a 4x8 sheet of 3/4 inch finished-on-one-side plywood, which I was told was "for the cabinet you wanted to build" along with a $550 bill for same, despite my never having ordered such an item.... (I paid for it anyway, not wanting more drama, despite the outrageous pricetag)
So, when time finally came to have the island countertop installed, we set a date, and his response was that I had to have a cashier's check for the balance due. I asked for a simple itemization of all of the costs to date, and he adamantly refused to provide one, even tho' the amount of granite actually installed was less than that of the original estimate. According to him, there was no adjustment due and I had made it all up. I was a bad customer who had "changed her mind frequently and caused them to make extra trips to the house". When I did get at least a bill for the total job, I noticed that the backsplash tiles that he had quoted me a $10 a square foot price on for 30 Sq ft., was now being billed at $580. The answer that I got to this error was that "we will not ever come to your house again", and he decided he would keep the countertop that was already cut, crediting me with the remainder of the bill "against the credit you invented", a credit that according to Dee Falls we had coming, but according to him "I fired that person" (his mother...) thereby implying that her word was not valid anymore. read more