Update- Sorry for the lack of recent updates I have just wanted to forget about Sears for a while. I also posted this on the Kitchens Forum here at GW and received a response from Dianne from Sears cares but did not see it until now so I did not contact her about my Sears experience. So not sure what could of be done differently. Thank you Dianne for your response. Well Sears did come out and pickup the appliances the next day about 10:30, so that went well. The manager at the store said they would be stored in their local warehouse in our city so they would not be sent back to the main warehouse in other city and have to be re-ordered again. We set up a date for them to be re-deliverered on March 29th to our home. I was happy with this agreement and though all was fine. The important part was that they would be here in the local warehouse and not be backordered........ On Friday I picked-up my mail and to my surprise was a check from Sears refunding our money!?!? What ?!?! Last I heard they would be delivered on the 29th. So I decided to stop in a Sears store closer than the original Sears store and ask what happened. They looked up our file and said that the last information in the system was our appliances were dropped off. It showed nothing about them being picked back up or the new delivery information. Nothing. If I decided to re-ordered them the earliest we would get them would be March 31st. They said to call the manager I dealt with at the other store, so I did. He then told me the local warehouse could not and did not store our appliances as agreed and they were shipped back to other city. He would get my salesman to redo our order and call me back right away within 30 mins (still have not received a call 2 days later). So then the local Sears store said they wanted to have my business, maybe my experience with them might be better, and unfortunately not many stores here sell the brand we wanted. All was well until I asked if they would take a check as the other Sears store did, they said no checks. I then offered to get a bank draft for them, once again they said no. They would accept only major credit cards or a Sears card. I said I do not want a Sears card and do not have a credit card I could put over $10,000 on. He said it was because of the possibility of check not clearing before we received the appliances....... me and the other salespeople explained the appliances would be delivered weeks after the check already cleared, he said no. I told him the other store took my check and he went on and on about how the other store does not follow policy all the time and how tired he is of it.......... I said it was quite obvious Sears did not want my money, one of the salesladies said yeah we're definitely not making this easy on you, and I walked out. So I went to another compeditors store and was able due to a new promotion save $1500 off my order compared Sears so I'm pretty excited!!! Plus the wall canopy vent fan we originally ordered was now discontinued and we are getting the fancier newer model cheaper, yay!!! Hopefully we will have a better experience this time, fingers are crossed, lol. Thanks for listening again. :)

First time back on line in a long while. Finally bought a new computer (Sony Vaio) Hopefully I didn't miss too much! I don't particularly pay too much attention to CR, although sometimes I find myself browsing through their magazines while shopping around at the store just out of curiosity. Their good and bad bets are pretty much the same as they were in previous years. I find Carsurvey.com and Epinions.com to be more valuable. I have a 1996 Honda Accord with the 4-cylinder, 223,000 miles and just keeps on trucking. I've had to service it as I would with any other car, but it's never given me any unexpected problems on the road or failed to start one morning. The engine still retains most of it's original major components (such as the alternator, AC compressor, starter, PS pump, master cylinder, etc.) which is truly amazing in my opinion. I am a strong believer in preventive maintenance and upkeep, and I'm sure that has had something to do with my car's reliability... but I've definitely only had to do the very basics to keep it so. Also have a 2001 Pontiac Trans Am, which CR listed as unreliable. Currently have 56,000 miles and haven't done squat to it except change the oil/filters, brakes, tires and light bulbs. Absolutely nothing else. Had a pretty good experience with a 97 Mercury Cougar also(V8 model) The transmission and intake manifold were the only weak links in this otherwise solid car...but my transmission and manifold had already been replaced before I bought the car used with 90,000 miles. Sold it with a little over 150,000 miles.

All the problems mentioned above with Armstrong Grand Illusions, I just went through. I had the roasted grain color. It squeaked, popped, and even chipped from such bad popping. When I say chipped, I mean after 3 days there were chips on corners and edges everywhere. I hadn't even moved into the house yet. This was not caused by the installers because I inspected it after it was done. Called the retailer and Armstrong. Armstrong blamed installation and so retialer (whom did not do the isntall) inspected the work and said it was a great job, I had a level subfloor (new home), dry crawl space and they took the issue up with Armstrong. Additionally, the owner of this retailer told me that he has had a lot of complaints with Armstrong and that his solution was to glue all the butt ends together (partial solution). However, after my claim, he has pulled all Armstrong from his stores and took it upon himself to replace all of my flooring with another company. On another note, while my brother was shopping for laminate at Home Depot, the flooring sales person there also said that they have a lot of product complaints with Armstrong/Bruce and that she recommended Pergo. In any case, I chose to go with Lex Flooring's Cottage line. Anyone familiar with them? The retailer told me they have had zero customer complaints with Lex and after looking at it they have the same handscraped planks as Armstrong does but with ana ctualy locking system that works.

Hi there, My friend used Kitchen Source, rt 109 Farmingdale, Contact is Charley, and her kitchen is lovely, price was fair (as fair as you can get in the very expensive NY markek). I am using a small cabinet maker in Ronkonkoma and my perfectionist carpenter is installing. we haven't got the specific info yet, so when I do I will pass it on. We also have an oldish house -- 1938. Consumers was not that great price-wise but good to start to give you an idea about price. However, their design stays with them unless you order the cabinets. For a nominal fee, Homedepot will give you the plan of how many cabinets you need (I think it is $40 or so) which is fair if you are using their services. These plans are helpful if you end up going with a small cabinet shop. I also hear good things about Bruce Cabinetry in northport. We got our countertop at Cancos. Expensive. We ordered our walnut top from The hardwood lumber company. Love the two toned idea. Good luck to you. Here is a link that might be useful: Wood Island top