AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!! Our nightmare is described here. We placed a nearly $4,000 order with Cabinets To Go on 6/13/12. The standardized Cabinets To Go receipt and paperwork we received stated that we should expect 1-2 weeks for shipping. Carrie, the representative in the Raleigh, NC office that we worked with and ordered from, told us we should expect 10 days for shipping. The 1-2 week timeframe on the CTG correspondence would have placed our delivery somewhere between 6/20/12 and 6/27/12, and the 10-day estimate from Carrie would place our delivery date on 6/22/12. However, we have received no cabinets by 6/29/12. As soon as CTG received our payment (which was made in-full and immediately upon ordering on 6/13/12), all communication with us stopped. We were extremely satisfied with CTG's customer care during the designing and ordering process, and Carrie exchanged 35 emails and 5 phone calls with me over the 5 days that we spent considering our options and making our decisions. However, as soon as CTG got our money, customer care went out the window. On 6/29/12 we were still waiting for delivery of our nearly $4,000 order, which was paid for in-full and upfront. Furthermore, we received no communication from CTG in regard to tracking our $4,000 shipment, updates on delivery, or even scheduling a delivery until I started asking questions on 6/21/12 about where our cabinets were. We understand that CTG may not be able to pinpoint an exact delivery date immediately upon ordering. However, we never even got the opportunity to request an estimated delivery date during any conversation with CTG, because these delivery estimates were bestowed upon us and this topic of conversation was completely initiated by CTG! If you are going to give an estimate, it needs to be an accurate estimate. If something goes wrong during the processing and shipping of an order, the customer needs to be told, so as to adjust their expectation for delivery. We were never told that the delivery estimates provided by CTG needed to be adjusted due to processing or shipping problems, so we expected the estimates to hold true. When we had received no cabinets by 6/21/12, I contacted Carrie in Raleigh to inquire about the status of our order because we had not received any correspondence from CTG during the 8 days that had passed since paying for our cabinets. Carrie responded via email on 6/22/12 and told us the cabinets were in transit, but one item was on backorder. So, our cabinets been shipped and no one had told us, and part of our shipment was on backorder but we were not informed about this. So we waited for 5 more days, but when we still had received no cabinets on 6/27/12, I began calling and emailing the CTG headquarters and their customer care representatives. At this point, it was 9 days after our items had shipped and 14 days after we had ordered, and we still had no cabinets. Chris, the corporate customer care representative I spoke with, informed me he was very concerned about the lack of customer care we were receiving and would forward my concerns on to the Raleigh office, something I had already done on my own. Later that same day (6/27/12) Carrie forwarded me an email that she had received on 6/18/12 containing details about tracking our order. (It took 9 days to get our shipping information forwarded to us from CTG, and we had to request this information from them!) We were directed to contact CGL (the carrier that CTG uses for delivery) directly about our order. CGL must have been informed that I was on a mission to track down the cabinets, because a few minutes after I got the email from Carrie, Katarina from CGL called and left a voicemail requesting that I contact her to schedule delivery of our cabinets. I called, but was told the scheduling team would not be back until 9:00am the next morning. So I called them back at 9:00 on 6/28/12 and asked to schedule our delivery. Katarina told me she could not yet schedule delivery, as our cabinets had not reached the distribution terminal yet and she could not tell me what day we could expect to get our cabinets. I called CGL three more times over the course of 6/28/12 and spoke to three different CGL representatives, all of whom gave me different answers about when we could expect delivery and whether or not they could even schedule delivery yet. My fourth call to CGL on 6/28/12 ended with the representative telling me that the cabinets would arrive in the distribution terminal in Fayetteville, NC during the night on 6/28/12, and she said she thought we could get delivery on 6/29/12. Exasperated by the back-and-forth of the last two days, I emailed the CTG headquarters a second time and updated them on the mess that we were dealing with. I also called the number Chris had left for me and left a voicemail for him with the same update. I called CGL at 9:00am on 6/29/12 to check on the arrival of our cabinets at the distribution terminal in Fayetteville, NC. However, I was told that someone at CGL had made an error since my last phone conversation with them the evening before, that our cabinets were put on the wrong truck, and they were currently at the distribution terminal in Atlanta, GA. I insisted that we get our cabinets before the weekend, but CGL said they had no trucks available to bring us our cabinets. I requested that CGL rent a U-haul and drive our cabinets to us, since this was their error and we were way past the delivery timeframes indicated by CTG. They indicated they would not consider this option. I immediately called the Raleigh CTG office and asked someone there to deal with CGL. I was told by the man that I spoke with (Bob) that he would look into it, but I never got a call back. I called him again later that morning, and he said he had no information for me. I asked him to keep me informed, but I never got another call from anyone in the Raleigh CTG store. I called the CTG corporate offices again and spoke with Chris. He indicated that he was sorry for the inconvenience, but offered nothing in terms of restitution for the incredible hassle that our order had become, and did not even offer to contact CGL on my behalf. Katarina at CGL called me several times over the course of the day on 6/29/12 and appeared very apologetic and concerned that the delivery of our cabinets had spiraled into a big mess. She indicated that she had called another shipping company in Charlotte, NC and that they could deliver our cabinets between the hours of 1pm and 3pm on 7/2/12. I indicated that this delivery time was not preferable, as we wanted our cabinets before then, but that it could work if need be. The director/manager at the Boston CGL location was also on the line and asked me to call CGL's contact in Charlotte, NC to confirm this delivery, and then call CGL back to let them know what was said. I did as he requested, but this could have been handled by someone at CGL rather than by me, their customer. We were then looking at a delivery time of 19 days at the very very best, but IF AND ONLY IF our cabinets actually got delivered on 7/2/12. As you can imagine, we were extremely displeased with the absolute mess that our order turned into. As CTG's customer, I shouldn't have even been expected to deal with their distributor, CGL. I am the customer, I just paid them $4,000, yet they put the burden of tracking down my cabinets on me. I am appalled that the Raleigh CTG office washed their hands of this mess, since they are the originators of the order and the people who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that we continue to get quality service DURING OUR ENTIRE Cabinets To Go experience. I am appalled that CTG headquarters has offered nothing in terms of compensation for time lost or for hassle, and am even more appalled that Chris said, "I'm not sure how we can compensate you for this," during my phone conversation with him on 6/29/12. I can think of several ways: 1.) Paying for and arranging for special delivery of our cabinets so we get them on 6/30/12. The drive from Atlanta, GA to Wilmington, NC is only 7 hours long. 2.) Offering our money back for what we paid in shipping and delivery costs. 3.) Offering a discounted price on our order, since we have been waiting for $4,000 worth of cabinets that have yet to show up. This order and shipment of cabinets was only half of what we had designed for us by Carrie and only half of what we planned to buy from CTG in Raleigh. We told Carrie up-front that we would have to split our purchase in two to make it fit our budget, and she indicated she would save her designs for us when we were ready to order the remaining cabinets. We had planned to order the other half of our kitchen cabinets from CTG around mid-July (more than $3,000 in additional cabinets on top of the $4,000 we just spent), but at this point, you can safely assume we will NOT be ordering from CTG ever again. While CTG offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee policy on all purchases, they in no way guarantee their service OR the customer's experience. On June 30, 2012 Mark McIntire from the Cabinets To Go corporate headquarters called me (someone had forwarded him one of my emails - I'm not even sure what his position is in the company) and asked me why I was "causing such a debacle." I told him we were frustrated with the poor communication between all parties involved in our order and just wanted some acknowledgement that things had gone wrong. We wanted an apology for being left in the dark, and wanted an answer about when we would get our cabinets. He said that I was "being ridiculous" and that he didn't "want to deal with this" so he cancelled my entire order. Then he hung up on me. And that was the end of that!

If you have a lot of time to spend waiting, then I would recommend TheRTAStore. I will preface this with the fact that I bought cabinets already built, not the ones you need to assemble. The Bad: The receiving process is ridiculous and very time consuming. You MUST take pictures of the shipment as it comes off of the truck and and throughout all stages go the receiving. DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING ON THE INVOICE OTHER THAN YOUR SIGNATURE. I wrote on the invoice and was told that it couldn't be used to bill the shipping company for the damage and therefore there were costs associated with replacing a cabinet that arrived damaged. It was clear that it was the way RTA packaged it was the reason for the damage but if they cannot bill the transport company, you will pay, not RTA. The replacement cabinet came broken and after that, they are sending parts of the cabinet for me to piecemeal together. It has been over a week since I sent them the documentation and pictures for the second batch of damages and they have yet to send the replacement parts, so the granite measuring and install of appliances has been put on hold yet again for one cabinet. Total time from receiving the first set of cabinets...5 weeks. No sympathy from them. The Good: The cabinets are beautiful!!! They are definitely on par in the quality department too!!! The cabinet installer even commented that they are nicer and better built than the cabinets that come from Home Depot. You will need to do some touch ups, on areas where it rubbed during shipping, so plan on that. They are a great price, not only for what you get, but for what you would expect from anywhere else. For example, these came with plywood construction. Home Depot charges you more for plywood construction and it costs you 1/3 more than here. The online design team is absolutely the most helpful and professional staff I worked with. They were creative in problem solving and offering suggestions that I had not thought of and they remembered all of the little things that I would have either forgotten or not though of. The design they presented was an amazing use of space and such a transformation from what I had before.

Highly recommend Rick at Cabinet Authority. Patient and professional and stands behind any mistakes and issues (not many). Conestoga is top quality and our kitchen (95%) complete is looking great due to the conestoga cabinet quality. Would have done just a few things differently but actually surprised how good it turned out. Would I do it again? Uhhh no..it was a lot of work and detail but then again I did everything from the demo, to the cabinet assembly, installation, plumbing, electrical, venting, lighting, gas line, etc. Was much more work and time than expected. Lots of measuring, removing, measuring again, lots of hand tweaking to get right and level in the install. Everything has to go in a particular order. Just note, if you are having an installer put in cabinets correctly and you have a lot of panels, special configs that you want just right, you will need to find a patient installer who has a great attention to detail. Having an installer say they will come in and "knock it out in 1 day" is asking for trouble and a bad job. There is no way to install, shim, scribe, level, tweak, install, attach doors, tweak hinges, attach dishwasher, etc ,etc, etc, in a day or two unless you have a super simple setup and 10 installers at once (then you are asking for a hack job). Can be done but know what you are getting into. Takes many special tools and patience to measure and double check everything as you go. Assembly was fairly easy although you have to know a couple tips to save frustration (i.e. - install inset hinges before assembling cabs). Installation was much more work to get everything level and exact (frames tight and perfect). I had a pretty complicated island that I designed with many panels that had to go together just right. Also, had to design and fabricate a range hood because we didn't like the stock ones. While I highly recommend Conestoga for their quality and price, it is a lot of work if you are doing it yourself. Recommend an installer and subs for plumbing, electrical, etc. Our kitchen looks really good and we saved a TON of money. There is no way to get a kitchen of this quality for this price so while we have high end semi custom cabinets now - it took a lot of sweat to get them - not sure if the tradeoff is worth it but we had a fixed budget and wanted quality.

Quick update. The painters are finishing up today. The electricians, plumber and carpenter all showed up as promised. The carpenter installed a routed board that goes over the sink to create a soffit that contains two lights. He had delayed because he wanted to make sure the electricians could access the wiring. He also helped the electricians install our 12 year old Thermador double wall oven. Man than thing is heavy. It's a double convection oven with a small microwave. I'll keep it as long as it keeps on working. It's dirty because I don't run the self-clean cycle. The outside is stainless and in good shape. Every year that I don't have to replace it is a victory. The electricians wired up the Vent-A-Hood. I confess there was a moment of female superiority with this installation. They were complaining about the small amount of wire that was protruding from the hood. I realized they had no idea how to install it. So, I handed them our socket tool, told them to take off the black motor and wire it from that side. Nice guys, but a little red in the face for a minute or two. Chalk one up for the little lady. They also finished wiring all of the outlets and switches. We have to wait to the painters to finish the ceiling before we can install the ceiling lights. The LED can lights were considered a fixture. That meant I needed to go get them. Home Depot had what I needed. The LED under cabinet lighting was delayed, also. We had another miscommunication. I thought the electricians were providing all of the necessary equipment for installation. We had a discussion three months ago. Who can remember three months ago? None of us. They thought I was providing it. Therefore, no supplies or equipment was available. I got on the horn to InspiredLED (Thank you GW) and Garrett hooked me up with everything we need. The components should arrive Friday. The plumber did his magic. He installed our old Bosch dishwasher. It's over 10 years old and was the top of the line in it's day. It still works beautifully. It will work even better now that it is properly installed. He installed all of the faucets. Unfortunately, the Hansgrohe pull-down faucet at the main sink has a leak in the sprayer unit. One call to Hangrohe and a replacement hose is on the way. He hooked up our new Insinkerator garbage disposals. We hooked up the Forever_MT soap dispensers. (Thanks GW, again.) We had to call back the back splash installers. Two of the boxes for light switches and outlets were too small. We couldn't get the covers on them. Even thought we could have done it ourselves, we didn't want to damage the tile. Their boss insisted on sending them out to make the fix. We started moving back into the kitchen. I've started cleaning house. We washed and cleaned off the back porch where everyone worked and all the supplies were stored. I can cook in the kitchen. We are still camping out in the temporary area waiting for the painters to finish. The painters started working on the final touches yesterday and will be finished today. It looks great. We will need to let things dry for a few days. Now, we find ourselves with a small to do list. It never ends. We need to install the under cabinet lights and ceiling can lights. We have the replacement hose for the Hansgrohe faucet. I've looked at it and I'm going to get the plumber back out to install it. I'm sure it's a simple fix, but it's not obvious to me. We also need to fasten the HVAC vents to the cabinet toe kicks. I think that's about it. Pictures next. I'll do the big reveal at the end of the week. Thanks for all the encouragement.