We ordered brand new Schuler kitchen cabinets from Lowe's on January 31 on 6 months same as cash using the Lowe's credit card (through Synchrony Bank.) Final order went in on February 24th right after they measured. Delivery was supposed to happen in late March or no later than April 8th. Well, Covid hit and of course cabinets were delayed. We certainly understood and were not upset about it since it was beyond everyone's control.

The cabinets finally arrived on May 22nd and installer was here on May 26th. We had a wall cabinet totally missing, two cabinets that we didn't order, and three that came in the wrong size, plus the fridge panel were wrong size. Missing cabinet was a Schuler error because it was on the order.
The wrong size ones and the wrong size fridge panel were Lowe's designer error. Lowe's re-ordered and somehow it took them NINE days to get that order in to Schuler---then it was wrong and I caught the errors directly with Schuler and got them corrected before it went into production thank goodness!

Waited on this order and the corrected cabinets came in on June 22nd and installer was here on the 24th and the countertop templaters were coming the 26th. This time everything came in correct except the refrigerator panels which somehow were off-color and didn't match the rest of the cabinets. We had to stop everything again and re-order those plus a filler panel that had just been discovered was missing. The KD was almost belligerent by this time and tried everything to NOT place this order t(he said he couldn't order without the install mgrs approval since it comes out of his budget and he was off for a few days, to telling me that Schuler was closed at 3:15 p.m Central time on a Friday, etc. which they were not! ) I finally told him that this order was going to get in TODAY. I was not waiting 9 days again. I'd played that game and at this point until I can have templating done so I can get my countertops, I have no running water in my kitchen and we have been living like this for way too long.

I got the store manager to come into that department and he had to stand there for an hour while the KD played this game. Finally got the order placed but of course, it's all done on the design software which only the KD knows how to use. The store manager rung it thru the Lowe's register and gave me that receipt. I proceeded to the car and called Schuler to verify and THE ORDER WAS WRONG. At this point I felt certain this is intentional by the KD to delay my project as it had been MORE than crystal clear what we needed to order. I went right back into the store and talked to the store manager who apologized. Said it would be corrected. Schuler Customer Service said they'd touch base with me Monday morning to be sure. By Monday morning, they had recieved nothing from Lowe's then they received it wrong again THREE TIMES and then finally at 1:30 p.m. on TUESDAY the order went in correctly---after having been supposedly placed on Friday! Still waiting to see if this causes another one week delay in the order arriving.

It has become apparent that their KD and the install manager are not only in no rush to do anything but because I now have to follow everything up, they are now digging in their heels and purposely dragging their feet or "oops!" ordering things wrong, not returning calls, etc. It has become worse than a contentious relationship.

I am now dealing with a Sales Manager at Lowe's and the Store Manager. All of the cabinets are here. We are just waiting on the fridge panels and then we also paid for two decorative panels for one side of the fridge that the Schuler rep said we should not order until after the countertops are in so we can have an exact measure since these sit on top of the countertops and run up to the top of the fridge panel. She said we should wait and have an exact measure.

My installer (through Lowe's) is great and the Schuler cabinets (about half are installed) are great, however, due to all these hold ups, now my final payment is due to Lowe's of $19,000 on August 1st. My six months same as cash is up already! I do not want to make this payment until the kitchen is done. I have been making the minimum $200 payments per month and have the money to pay it off, but don't feel like I should considering my kitchen is not done and the Kitchen Designer and Install Manager have zero knowledge of customer service. I have yet to even here an "I'm sorry!" from either of them. The store manager has asked me to work through him and the Sales Manager who is new in his job, but bottom line, the KD has to do all the ordering since neither the two managers or the install manager (actually no one else in the store) knows how to use the design software and he has already held these orders up twice (with no consequences I might add). So anything that we do now I am having to follow up with Schuler myself and their Customer Service has been awesome.

The absolute EARLIEST that I will be done with the Lowe's part of the kitchen is September 15th and that's if we have no more errors. I know that if I don't pay the full balance by August 1st, they charge interest at a horrendous rate back to day 1 on about $22,000. Not doing that. I have emailed the Store Manager on Friday asking if I can be allowed to continue to make the monthly payments and pay it off at the completion of the project. I did not hear back from him on Friday, so I'll assume he was off for the holiday. I called Lowe's credit card (Synchrony) and of course they said not their problem, deal with the store.

Has anyone had this happen? Our contract says we cannot go to court (which I don't want to do) but have to do everything through arbitration but I don't want to do that either. I just want the manager to get this fixed so I can pay at completion of the project. I have been offered no concessions whatsoever. I have scheduled and rescheduled other contractors, plumbing, countertops, hardwood floors. We are spending money eating out, bottled water (without our reverse osmosis) etc. How should this be resolved? Thanks for any help or anyone's experience who has been through this!