January 23, 2012

Home Depot sells junk to their customers!

I remodeled my kitchen and two bathrooms a year an half ago. I bought new cabinets, replaced toilets, installed marble counter tops, a new stove and fridge, new molding and paint. We spent thousands of dollars on the project. We also replaced our backyard fence. Our house sits on ¼ acre so you can image the cost of the lumber. We were loyal customers to Home Depot.

Three weeks ago my husband noticed that one of our cabinets was coming off of the wall. I placed a call to Andrea at the San Bernardino Home Depot on Hospitality lane as she was the person that helped us with everything. She called the installer and had him come out to remount the cabinet. Upon inspection the contractors stated that it wasn’t a faulty install but rather the cabinets themselves were falling apart. He took pictures and reported back to Andrea. The cabinets we replaced had been in the house for over 40 years and were still in one piece when they were taken off of the wall. Isn't that the life span for cabinets? I have never heard of them falling apart or coming off the wall and after only a year and a half? Anyway, Andrea called RSI (the manufacturers of the cabinets), and explained the problem. RSI said they would send someone out to inspect our cabinets. In the meantime, everything from those cabinets was sitting on our counter tops. I was afraid the whole thing would fall so I emptied them and we put a temporary mount ( a cutting board) to hold the cabinets up. We waited four days with no response from RSI. My husband told me that Andrea called wanting to know the status of our cabinets. I called her immediately because as far as I was concerned, this was Home Depot’s responsibility to follow up and I was waiting to hear back from her as to what the next step would be. We wrote the checks to Home Depot, that’s who should be responsible. She told me that they were just the “middle men” and that it was my responsibility to follow up and make sure someone came out to check on our cabinets. Needless to say, I was furious. I placed a call to the corporate office along with a letter to the store manager. Nearly three weeks go by, in this time frame two people had already determined that we purchased faulty cabinets. I received a call back from Annie at Home Depot at the end of the third week who stated they were trying to work out a deal with RSI to split the cost. She asked if I could give her until Monday at 10am and she would have an answer for me. Monday at 10am came and went with no word from Annie so I placed another call to Home Depot. I was told she was off for the day. Why would she give me a day and time when she would call if she knew she wasn’t going to be working? I asked to speak with another manager. After speaking with a few people and explaining myself I was told someone would call me back and they did. I was told that Home Depot would take care of my cabinets and RSI would put $100 towards the reinstall.

When the contractor came out to replace the cabinets he made a comment that there had been other issues with the same cabinets we bought. My thoughts were, if Home Depot knew this product was crap, why are they continuing to sell it? The contractor left the faulty cabinets for us to dispose of. Really?? My husband put them in the garage until we figured out what to do with them. My cabinets were replaced so I wasn’t going to stress anymore about it.

On Friday we received a letter from RSI, actually it was a waiver. It stated that since they applied $100 dollars towards the reinstall of the cabinets, they shouldn’t be held responsible if anything else happens to the rest of the products we bought from RSI thru Home Depot. What??? You’ve got to be joking was my first thought. I put the letter aside and enjoyed my weekend.

Today I received a call from Lisa Bazon from Home Depot. She told me that I needed to bring the faulty cabinets into their stores so they can be reimbursed. Wait, if they needed the faulty cabinets why didn’t the installer take them with him? According to Lisa, that wasn’t his responsibility but rather it was mine. I told her if she wanted to get her cabinets they were in my garage. They could send a person anytime. She then asked if I had received the paperwork from RSI. I told her what I received was a waiver and that I wasn’t signing it. She told me that if I didn’t sign it that I was responsible for the $100 dollars RSI had applied towards the cabinet reinstall. Hold everything!!! Home Depot sold me crap cabinets that they had other complaints about. Home depot also made me go three weeks before there was resolution over $100 dollars reimbursement and now they want me to not only deliver them the old cabinets but pay them $100 dollars?? You must be joking!! After all of the money we spent with Home Depot, this is how they treat their customers? Shame on them and RSI for taking advantage of the consumer that works so hard for their money.

If you want quality products I suggest you shop elsewhere. I will never spend another dollar at Home Depot. If you cant back your products, you shouldn’t be selling them!