I must be a total airhead, I have no idea why you call it Despot. Kind of curious, cause we call it De Pot and my hubby calls Lowe's, Blowe's-- Just curious :)

Your window situation is ridiculous. I hope you are following it up with management. How can someone tell you they will be here tonight, you schedule around it, and when they are M.I.A.- just tell you no big deal, they weren't expected until next week anyways? I wonder how these fools keep their jobs.

According to the dictionary a despot is a tyrant or oppressor. I'm at HD's mercy because the windows were custom sizes and they have both my windows and money. One thing I didn't mention is that Tim told me this morning that the shipment was received at one of their warehouses a few hours south of here but no one knows what happened to them. How could they lose an 8 foot wide window?

It's amazing what can be lost. My DH ordered a door once and had it go missing. Doors are huge, how could you not find it? BTW, we call it Home Debit :-)

When we remodeled our bathroom, we ordered tile and a listello from a different manufacturer. We wrote everything up and signed it; the listello was to be ordered immediately due to a 3 week lead time. We noticed we were getting a bit of a rush at the end, because a $20K customer was behind us. Our order was just about $400 bucks.

When the GC went in to get the field tile, the salesperson told him it was 10 weeks for field tile, and told him the listello "must be" incorrect and refused to put it on the order. The GC told me she was very rude to him. I called her to discuss it with her, and she said she ordered everything. She insisted we had ordered discontinued tile, and that we should go with another type or wait 10 weeks.

I checked online, and the warehouse had tons of the field tile. I got the manager on the phone. She got the field tile for us, and then had the listello sent overnight from the manufacturer at the store's expense. The evil tile sales despot no longer works there ;-)

I hope you get your window soon! Have your coffee good and early, and get after Tim. He should not ahve promised what he could not deliver, and if he did it in good faith he should at least explain that and then go out and find your window.

Love hearing all the colloquial names for HD- think the Home Debit may just become my new favorite!

OK- you said you wanted to hear scheduling snafus. Your windows are a day late? How about 4 and a 1/2 MONTHS late? We ordered our windows May 14/07 - I am not kidding you when I say that the last one was just installed on Saturday- That's November 3!!! Our original deadline for the kitchen reno was mid-July cuz we were expecting lots of summer visitors. WEll- the first set phoned from the road, and asked is the reno done? This was the last week of July- and I was ROFL!!! We had plywood sheathing and 2 X 4's for walls and no ceiling- plastic vapor barrier for windows which we had been expecting since the end of June- AND we had the HOTTEST summer on record- let me tell you how hot a summer is, when you have no insulation in your walls and ceiling is open to the attic!

Am I in a huge hurry to pay off the rest of my window bill- I don't think so. She sent me an invoice via email- and thanked me for my patience-Huh? and no mention of a discount or anything for the hassle we went through with partial shipments, defective parts, and mixed up orders- the Master Bedroom window that was finally installed Saturday was the third one they had sent!

I am now hoping to be in the kitchen before the kids come home for Christmas- I just booked my son's flight for Dec 15- let's pray that we'll be having dinner that night in the upstairs kitchen! (Thankfully, we have a complete kitchen in the basement- I'm getting pretty good at running up and down stairs!)

Sometimes I think everybody who has dealt with Home Despot has a horror story. My friend's kitchen was started in June and finished in November. Many, many "detours" along the way. I ordered a new back door from them and their installers cracked all of the 12X12 ceramic floor tiles along the bottom edge of the door and then tried to cover it up with some junky piece of what I believe was window trim. Fortunately, I hadn't charged the door, but paid a deposit, balance due upon completion. I called the store and told them what happened. Got the runaround for months. Of course, I didn't pay the balance. Finally got a phone call from the district manager wanting to know why I hadn't paid my bill. Told him. Boy, did his tone change. Got my tiles replaced pronto. Just the other night the news here did an investigative report on Home Depot installer problems. Lotsa horror stories. Their advice - call the district manager.

I'm sorry for your miseries but I do appreciate the company. My GC warned me not to buy there as he's had too many problems but the two windows cost $600 less than a local place so I figured, "what could go wrong" and placed the order.

DH and I paid Tim a visit this morning. It turns out that the purchase order number from HD is not the same as was shipped from the manufacturer. Everything else matches (size, construction, etc.) but this seems to be why the factory swears they were shipped last week but HD can't physically locate them in their regional warehouse. A warm body is looking for them as I type. Wish us luck!

Emmie9999, you're scaring me. I've also ordered 3 doors that are scheduled to arrive next week. Want to place bets?

Raehelen and hoyasncats, your stories are so much worse than mine I actually feel better. It helps to keep things in perspective by thinking of how much worse it could be. Thanks!

Similar situation here ! Had ordered a set of doors - special order - that were supposed to be in end of last month. When I go to inquire they say one more month. All the other work on the kitchen will be done today. I guess I have to shell out a few hundred more to have them come back to install it when the door comes in !
No more HD !!!!

We almost ordered from Lowes but after we had two installers measure and we couldn't figure out if they measured for our house, we gave up and measured ourselves and splurged for Marvins. They had 12 different sizes for our windows when it turned out all were the same size except one, which was just wider... could you imagine if we ordered them, or better yet paid these guys to install (we did DIY).

For HD - we ordered molding - they did the same thing to us and I had to go three times for pick up - the third time they had it and it was the wrong color - Kraftmaid made a mistake - ok, no big deal, send it back and reorder it (we didn't need it now) - they had a huge war with me over if the color was right but I knew my kitchen and I keep a small piece of extra molding and my granite in my car so I showed it to them and they reordered it - the second set came in wrong too - I forget why and it took a third time to get it right. Uggg...

For big box stores - if you can walk in and buy, great, otherwise special order through a lumber store or speciality store.

I too love the name Home Debit. I'll have to use that one on my husband tomorrow and see if he notices.

Maybe I'm unusual, but I have NO horror stories for HD that have to do with their special order desk or system, really. We ordered our cabinets from them, they all came in on time and exactly as ordered. We ordered floor tile - all correct, on time and as ordered.

Where we've had our beefs with HD: I will never buy carpeting through them - too complicated. We sat with a carpeting person for 2 hours and wasted time. Our GC had already told us exactly how much carpet we needed but that salesperson would NOT take the GC's word for it.

I will never use a contractor "recommended" by HD. Every time we get a quote, it's ridiculous, or the contractor doesn't show up in the first place, or they tell us something is "code" that we already know is NOT. While we will buy things at HD, we will have someone ELSE install them.

I hope they find your windows, and SOON.

DonnaR/CA

We call them Homeless Depot

Ever wonder why there are no complimentary nicknames for HD? Hmmmm

FWIW, I ordered my andersen 400s from a top-o-the-line local window company.

The last of them were supposed to come in today.

10 months after they were ordered.

Yep: 10 months. They are non-opening quarter rounds for 6 inch walls, otherwise, nothing fancy-- no grills or anything like that.

So you can get mega-hosed, even using the 'good' guys, it isn't just HD and Lowes.

I special ordered a window from Menard's(May nerds in hubby talk!). The window came in, contractors were scheduled, window was unpacked, I got ready to stain it and it was the wrong size. I thought I was in trouble because it talks about accepting receipt of special order items being final. Thankfully the store reordered the correct size but it pushed the remodel back a few weeks. It meant that the back of my house would be torn open on one of those January days when the temp was 0 with who knows what for the wind chill. The contractors joking left for lunch with visqueen over the back of my kitchen and said "see you in a few weeks". Ha ha. It was definitely worth all the headaches in the end.

DH name for Lowes--Lowesy(lousies)

I refer to them as Home Cheapo. Their instock merchandise is nothing better than builder quality. Anything special order you can find cheaper and receive it faster else where. So here is my story. I needed a simple storm door. I selected an Anderson instock door to be installed by Home Cheapo. I thought this would be faster and easier than going to a specialty shop. Stupid me. Someone came to measure. A week later another person came to check if the door frame also needed to be replaced. Everything was fine. I started this project at the end of September. I wasn't in a rush so I didn't follow up. At the end of October I palced a call to find out what was going on. Apparently they were waiting for a wind chain that I didn't order but they managaed to charge me for, to be back in stock. I wasn't upset about purchasing the wind chain because I planned on buying a new one anyway. I was upset because I couldn't understand how a giant hardware store could be out of such a simple thing for weeks. I told them to set up the install and I will purchase the wind chain from Ace Hardware. The GC who installed it had to come back twice over the next 3 months to adjust it. He told me that the frame should have also been replaced. I told him that maybe if he screwed the door into the frame and not the siding it would hold. So much for quick and easy. Their slogan should be changed to,"You SHOULD do it. Maybe we can help".

"You SHOULD do it. Maybe we can help"

LOL, that describes HD and Lowes perfectly!

Hallelujah, my windows are here! As an extra bonus, 2 of the 3 doors also arrived but the salesman called and told me that he had only let my GC pick up one because he, and I quote, "got confused". So now I'm off to the store to get it myself.

After this experience I'll follow the advice to only buy off the shelf. It was a lesson learned.

Just to clarify, my windows were not ordered through the Home Debit (gotta love that name!). I also ordered top of the line through a local company (but the windows were made across the country in Ontario).

I actually have very few horror stories from HD. We have bought tons of stuff there- in Canada HD has a daily online auction and a Hammer Drop item (don't know if that's the case in the US too)and some really great deals are available.

But I think you have to do research, and know your prices, our custom made Craftsman style garage door (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE) was several hundred dollars cheaper by going through a Door Place. The guy at HD said that's where they get their doors, so there was no way he could match their prices!

cspinto- glad your windows have arrived. I'm looking forward to my first winter without single pane glass!

cspinto, I'm so glad you got your windows, and at least part of your doors!

My DH is cracking up that I have given everyone a new name...he thought EVERYONE called it Home Debit!

He also clarified the door story I thought it was lost because it didn't show up for so long, but it was because he rejected it. (it was for the basement bulkhead, I didn't pay much attention as long as the kittens didn't escape.)

He ordered a plain slab door, custom size. It came in damaged. he refused delivery, they reordered it. The next one came, and it was also damaged. He went to pick it up, and showed them in the store it was damaged. (Less than the first one, but still dinged up.)

They told him "Well, sir, you have to understand, these are shipped without packing of any kind, they are going to be damaged." After arguing about that point for a few minutes, he told them he didn't want it, and they got nervous about another return. So, he asked them "What will you give me to take it?" They gave him a 30% door and he came home with a dented door.