Should I worry? Contractor took cabinet $, has gone dark on us.
Lisa G.
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
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Lisa G.
4 years agoLisa G.
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoRelated Discussions
Contractor FINALLY gone but I have to finish job
Comments (2)OMG Shannon, my heart goes out to you! Why are so many contractors like this?!? We put off having our kitchen renovated for YEARS because we'd heard so many stories like yours. The custom cabinet maker for our original cabs (16 years ago) was like yours. What a nightmare! What makes me mad is that people give these guys good recommendations when they ~ obviously ~ are crummy at doing a good job. Why?!? Thank heavens there are some good contractors out there, The one we eventually got to redo our kitchen last year was excellent: on time, on budget, always showed up when he/they said they would, honest, reasonably priced and did wonderful, quality work. I feel so badly that you had to put up with this guy during the holidays, too. I hope you and your DH can finish up and enjoy your beautiful home . . . finally! And I hope that you DON'T give this guy a good recommendation! Lynn...See MoreI've gone over to ''The Dark Side''!
Comments (26)Thank you all for your well wishes! It feels great to have the support. I'm in the middle of some "interesting times" here at the store, and I'm afraid that my presence hasn't been 100% greeted with open arms from some of the existing personnel who perhaps wanted to rest on their laurels. But, I think I've been a bit of a galvanizing force to help energize more customer service awareness from everyone. June is traditionally a "down" month, with spring projects over and everyone waiting until late summer to begin the projects that will end before the holidays, but our business here has been steady. I WILL take credit for that. :) I'm not even able to fully manipulate the antediluvian computer system yet, but I'm just 5K away from being the top salesperson for the store in my first month here. And all it took was actually talking to the people who came into the department and helping them with their project. That's all it ever takes. Oh, and one of my first projects was for a customer here on vacation who was "just shopping" to buy back at home. Well, cabinets can be delivered anywhere in the country for the same delivery fee, so by the time I talked to her about how the layout could work, she actually didn't mind that I was 1000 miles away from the delivery area. :) All it took was her signing off on the measurements that she provided and a contractor on site to do the install. And the best thing of all is that I can go home at night and not have to take the worry of when so and so is going to come through with her payment in time for my car payment and if another so and so is going to reject the 4th paint sample that I've suggested, etc. I can (mostly) leave all of that behind. :)...See MoreUPDATE - Contractor Issues, otherwise known as The Patch Is Gone!
Comments (33)kaismom, I almost don't want to answer that question because I feel like we sound like such idiots, but I will. First of all, I am a little shy. We were new to the area and I saw his van working on a neighbors house. All the homes in our neighborhood are down sweeping driveways. I plucked up the courage to go down one when we bought the house and knock on the door to ask about the house and neighborhood, but failed to do it on this occassion. I figured if they were working on a million dollar home they must be decent. I googled and found no negative reviews... in fact no reviews at all. Of course his next customers won't find any reviews either. I checked his license and insurance, but failed to realize just how easy it is in PA to get the license. Basically I could get one tomorrow if I wanted to. Then once we hired him our mistakes continued. I KNEW that he hadn't vented the hood, but whenever I asked about it I was brushed off and told it would happen later. I KNEW that was wrong, but I didn't want to be an ahole and question every single thing he did (I had kicked up a fuss about greenboard in the shower). I did ask many times, but I should have stopped him and made him do it the right way. Of course I tried to do that with various other things with no success at all, so I would have got nowhere, but I should have tried harder. Also one thing I have learned, is that anyone who repeatedly says "I'm a good guy" generally isn't. Genuinely good guys don't need to go on and on about it. Next GC who tells me to trust them because they're a 'good guy' I'm running in the opposite direction as fast as I can! Also never believe someone who repeatedly tells you that all his other clients let him A: use their credit cards for materials, B: make all the design decisions and C: never question any of the process. So yeah, we're trusting idiots. The end. : (...See MoreShould I request our contractor fix a wall end that isn't plumb?
Comments (36)@ptreckel If a customer of mine hand-palmed me and talked to me like a child I would have a very difficult time making any concessions for them. Tactics like this are not productive and have no place on a jobsite. Some builders & contractors are guilty of these tactics as well. Expectations can be conveyed without drama or disrespect. Firm does not need to be disrespectful. - Glad your builder didn't put up a fuss. It will be a pain for him to fix, so good he is willing. - I'm curious if you did your cabinet design before or after the framing of the wall? Occurred to me that the original design may not have had the deeper tall cabinet. I agree with others that you would not have noticed the issue had the cabinet been installed at 24" deep. 28" was likely done to match the depth of the refrigerator surround? Not that it's important now that the builder has agreed to fix, but if he thought the cabinet was going to be 24" deep, it would explain why the wall was built 28". If he built it 32" and you only had 24" deep then the question would have ben asked: "Why did you build it so deep?" Again, I'm just curious what the sequence of these decisions was. - As a lesson to others, this is precisely the type of problem that builders run into all the time. Many architects and designers don't do kitchen cabinet layouts, so a seemingly minor detail like this can be a problem at final stage if the cabinets are not designed before framing begins. As mentioned countless times on this forum, getting as many details as possible worked out before you build is so important! - Best of luck...See MoreLisa G.
4 years agoLisa G.
4 years agoLisa G.
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