Fair warning: Long rant!
In August 2007 I ordered Kraftmaid cabinets through BuyCabinets.com. Now, over five months later, they finally picked up all the cabinets and put an end to this nightmare!
Like nearly everyone else on this forum, I found BuyCabinets to be the cheapest for Kraftmaid cabinets. I suppose there was a good reason for those prices -- they provide absolutely no customer service. My first warning should have been when the sales rep, Trevor (possibly the owner too?), tried to charge me an extra 3% for using a credit card. I knew that was against the terms of service BuyCabinets had to agree to when they set up their merchant account to accept cards, so I sent him a link from Visa that showed he wasn't allowed to do that. After showing him the link, he was very quick to waive that 3% fee. (If any of you have paid that fee, and you have a quote from BuyCabinets without the fee, contact your card company and you can get that 3% back!)
Six weeks later, I received the cabinets. Such pretty cabinets -- solid cherry with a sunset finish -- and all sorts of scratches, runs, rub marks, and debris stuck in the finish! You could even see where they scratched it at the factory, then ran a brown marker over the scratch. This wasn't a small little corner either -- it was right across the face of several doors!
I got an email the next day from Douglas, my "Customer Service Representative," to check on the cabinets. I told him about the problems, so he asked for me to take some pictures of the defects. Pictures, pictures, and more pictures. I got so tired of taking pictures over the weeks -- I felt like I was quality control for Kraftmaid. I asked if they would send out a rep to look at all the cabinets, but it turns out I'm "too far away to send a rep." WHAT?! They will ship cabinets from Ohio to California by train, then California to Utah by semi truck, but then I am too far away to send a rep? Their solution: send more pictures! So, they put in a replacement order for several of the cabinets and doors. I waited another six weeks, and they were just as junky as the originals. Oh, and here's the most entertaining "solutions" to the poor quality:
1. The drawer guides were popping out of the back because they were only held by one small screw, even though there were places for two screws. Their solution? They sent me a big bag of screws and said my cabinet installer can put the other ones in. Of course the holes they skipped were the hard-to-reach ones, so he had to take out the guide, add the extra screw, then replace the guide.
2. Several doors, drawer fronts, and face frames were never sanded (so much for 220 grit sandpaper like Kraftmaid claimed). Their solution? My cabinet installer can sand the problem areas, and they sent out two spray cans for me -- one with the stain color and the other with the gloss overcoat. So, I got to pay BuyCabinets for finished cabinets, and then I get to pay my cabinet installer to refinish the cabinets. For some reason I wasn't jumping at that offer...
So, around and around in circles we went. I finally gave up on Douglas. He was absolutely useless. He was basically a broken record -- "Kraftmaid won't allow..." and "Kraftmaid's policy is...". BuyCabinets wanted absolutely nothing to do with the problems, even though they were the ones to sell the cabinets. Basically they are just there as the "middleman" waiting for their handout. Douglas gave me the contact information to Kevin, a Kraftmaid rep in CA, so then I got to deal with him. After figuring out that Kevin was as helpful as Douglas, I told them to forget the whole deal and pick up the cabinets. He refused. I told him again to send out a rep. He refused. According to BuyCabinets and Kraftmaid, I needed to keep requesting new cabinets, doors, and drawers until I was happy. Also, it was my responsibility to keep paying my cabinet installer out of my own pocket to keep fixing the problems.
Luckily, as I mentioned before, I put the order on my credit card. For Internet purchases or any "sight-unseen" purchases in general, it is SO important to use a credit card! So, after a call to my card company in December, and a 60-something page fax with all the emails between me, Douglas, and Kevin, I got my money back on my card within two weeks of the dispute.
Finally, last Tuesday (Jan 29) I got a call from a Kraftmaid driver to schedule a pick-up. He came Thursday morning, loaded all the cabinets, and hauled them away. Here's the funny part. I got a voicemail from Kevin on Friday saying he has the cabinets back in California now. He wanted to know if I would re-purchase the cabinets at a "substantial discount." Is he kidding?! It took FIVE MONTHS to get rid of these idiots at BuyCabinets and Kraftmaid. Why in the world would I ever get involved with them again? So, I sent an email this morning to Kevin, part of which reads:
"I have no interest in re-purchasing the cabinets at a "substantial discount" like you offered. This was never about the cost of the cabinets. This was about getting a good quality product like KraftMaid describes on its website and brochures. Whether they are expensive junky cabinets or cheap junky cabinets, they are still junky cabinets. Plus, after seeing the way they were loaded into the delivery truck Thursday morning, I can imagine the shape they are in after traveling back to California."
Anyway, I just thought I would share my experience with BuyCabinets.com and Kraftmaid and warn people if they use BuyCabinets, that there will be NO service provided when something goes wrong. So always, always use your credit card for these types of purchases! It's much easier to contact your credit card company to reverse the charge than it is to sue BuyCabinets if you let them deduct money directly from your checking account like they try to force you to do.
sorriso
knaakOriginal Author
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