DS has a checking account with one of the largest banks in the country. He got a debit card and checks. He NEVER writes checks, always uses debit card. So when he went to college he left check book at home. He lives in one of the four states in the country that does not have this bank. None of the banks in that state are in our state. So, he would send me his paychecks from his job on campus (paid monthly) to deposit in his account back home. Then the last time I went to do this the bank told me I need his account number?! Fortunately my husband had it for some reason. Then, DS was paying his tuition for the first time directly from his account and realized he could not do it by debit card, (Too big of amount, he can only use the debit for $400/day. I had to overnight his check book. This cost me $17.00. I collected payment for a school fundraiser for dd. One of the checks bounced. I was charged $15 and had to cover the check amount. If I wanted my money I had to go after the check bouncer(who just happens to be related to dh.) I couldn't do it. Didn't have the guts, and didn't want to embarass them. They are always living on the edge, mainly because they do stupid things, but still, couldn't do it. They had to know it bounced. It had to come back insufficient funds. Now I know why some small businesses won't accept checks. I had already paid for another student's share because dd told me her single parent had just lost job. Very expensive fundraiser for us.

Yes, these were men who made the decision to do pot luck. and likely the one woman on the board who always buys something to take to a pot luck because she doesn't cook....at all! Last night another woman asked me why they didn't want us to cook....I told her that XXX just didn't want to....she said "you know I really don't think he's very smart"...LOL! The only ones for whom pot luck will be cheaper is those with 2 or 3 kids. So the way this will go is....people will bring a dish when they come to church. Church is at 10:30 but Sunday School is at 9:30 and we have 2 very active adult Sunday School classes and choir practise early. So the kitchen help (not me!!!!) will strive to keep hot dishes hot and cold ones cold for 2 1/2 to 3 hours and then put it all out on the table at noon.....which means there won't be much that I will want to risk eating but rolls and jello salad....because I know if that has been kept cold, because it won't be melted!! I exaggerate a little, but the will be several versions of corn pudding, which I won't eat when I don't know how it's been stored, greenbean casserole...yuk!...several chicken, canned soup and noodles things....which I won't eat unless I know it didn't sit out too long. But I can always eat pie! Unless it's a custard pie....and cake!!...Oh and cookies! So I won't go hungry!

Blue Store employee here, so I do know what's expected from a KD there---or Cabinet Specialists as they term the position. They don't use the term designer, because they don't expect actual true design responsibilities from the employee. They just never tell their customers that. Unfortunately, Lowes employs many kitchen Customer Service Associates who are not designers at all, and are not there to do any type of design work at all, but that may not be clear to a consumer. They're there to dust, and to escort people around the showroom, and make appointments for the KD's etc. They aren't supposed to create quotes or do designs, but some do. When they quit paying commissions to the KD's, Lowes lost most of the experienced KD's, and had to replace them with poorly trained transfers from other departments. The person you talk to today may have been in paint two weeks ago, and then watched a bunch of computer videos to get transferred to kitchens. You don't get a lot of competence for $12 an hour and no incentive to work harder or better. So, even if you do get a "Cabinet Specialist", they may not have the knowledge to do the job they're supposed to do. It's just too complicated a job to think that a few weeks of computer training will be sufficient. But they insist on doing it that way anyway. If I hadn't already had a background, there's no way that I could do the job based on the training that they offer. And, at least Lowes offers the computer training. According to a local source, HD is getting out of the kitchen design business in store all together in the next year. Within the next few months, you wouldn't have had anyone to talk to at all about your project had you gone into Orange instead of Blue. We give "free estimates" for counters, but those estimates are based on the customer's measurements that they bring in, which aren't usually accurate at all. We have few solid surface counters on display, because it's so out of fashion, but we do display a set on backsplash and a coved backsplash. I do personally discuss the costs of the coved backsplash when we're having a general show and tell, but at $40 a foot, I can't tell you the last time someone actually wanted that. Nor can I even tell you the last time someone even asked about it before I showed it to them. It's been literally years. We might do a solid surface top about once a month, and it's never for someone looking for a budget top. Budget people do a cheap granite. We don't even do a set on backsplash for 95% of the counters we sell of whatever kind, even laminate. It's flat deck everything with people doing tile backsplashes. An estimate is required before a template can happen. A template isn't free of charge. The templater's time has to be paid for. It requires a deposit, which either a set measuring fee in some markets, or, in most markets, the entire counter amount paid for up front based on the customer's probably not so accurate measurements. (Which is why no one does a final contract on an estimate.) After the template, when the real measurements are ascertained, and all costs for all of the options being chosen are known, that's when the final costs are determined. That is explained to every customer, at least by me. If you back out of the sale after the template, you are refunded all but the template fee. That's in the small print. And that's why I say you owe the fee. As far as the miscommunication goes, even with an experienced KD, that sometimes happens when a customer has assumptions that they aren't fully sharing or explaining because they are assuming that something is one way or standard when it's not. It's up to the Specialist to ask enough questions to be able to educate the consumer and correct those assumptions. However, had you asked me about a "seamless counter" I wouldn't have assumed you were talking about the backsplash at all. Just the butt seams or corner seams in the counter. The big takeaway though from any interaction would be that the process should have been explained to you enough to know that your total wasn't final until after the template. And this is one of the reasons that I always over estimate a counter. People don't mind getting a bit of refund, but they hate coming up with more money for the job.

Sorry to hear about your hassle, Anne. Usually a 4 lb. box of clementines is $3. - 5.00 around here, but one grocery had them at $1.99 a couple of weeks ago ... ... and a number of boxes were partly opened, or opened, and a few had hardly any clementines left in them, after being raided! Some peoples' kids! I bought more than usual, sold some to neighbour, landlord, etc. ... at price I'd paid. But was satisfied with the number of clementines that each of the boxes had contained in the first place. ole joyful