Kitchen Cabinets Saga
I have NEVER in my whole life been witness to such complete incompetence as I have in observing Home Depot's efforts in screwing up THE SAME kitchen cabinet order FIVE times. The objective was simple:
order wall cabinets, all finished inside, all door cut for glass made from the Eden style door w/ a chocolate cherry finish. All the cabinets were supposed to have frosted glass ordered w/ them. order base cabinets, all plywood construction, all w/ premium glides, from the Monroe style door some of which would be finished in natural cherry, others to be finished in chocolate cherry.
This order was finalized after ONLY 5 trips to the store to meet w/ whom I now know to be more of a contributor to the problem than a solver of the problem. The order was finally placed on Oct. 5, 2005 giving me a delivery date of Nov. 2. The following Sat. I logged on to the Thomasville web site only to find a number of things wrong w/ the order. Two of the wall cabinets that were supposed to have been finished inside, were not. One of them that was supposed to have been cut for glass, was not. A few were missing their glass. One of which that could not have glass attached to it, did and so the order was rejected by Thomasville. Thankfully so. B/c if it hadn't been rejected, there would have been little chance of me finding all the other errors. And so on. When I tried to get in touch w/ the store to correct the problem, I was told that the expeditor was gone for the day, that yes, indeed there was only one person who could help w/ getting this resolved and she wouldn't return until Monday, could I please call back then? Astounding.
Merav, the non astute kitchen designer, said she'd met w/ the Thomasville rep and corrected everything...she wouldn't hear there there were still issues and that her "corrections" were insufficient, and instead said there was nothing more she could do, so I countered w/could I please like to talk to the store manager. Enter John. Clueless idiot. After only 4 phone calls spanning 2 days when it was supposed to happen the same day, he called me back to say that yes, he'd be happy to put the c"orrections" in but that he couldn't garantee that there wouldn't be some error. "There are risks w/ me going ahead w/ this. " "Fine, what are the risks?"
"I don't know." Blown away by this response I said, "Well, if you don't know then I certainly don't know either and unknown is not better than a try so put the order through." "O.K." Duh.
On Mon. I check w/ Thomasville. Still issues. Turns out that now it's worse. In "putting the order through" they canceled out all the prior orders, effectively jeapordizing my original 11/02 delivery date. And the good parts of the order were now still connected w/ a the wall cabinet piece of the order that had new issues. And one of them, that an 18x36 did not have glass attached to it, was so obvious I thought I was going to keel over w/ frustration. So back to Home Depot. This time I talked to someone who talked a good spiel, Pete Moreno. I had hope renewed that this would get resolved. Until I got a message from clueless idiot George who turns out to be the manager of the dept. and verbatim he said, "I just took a look at your order and understand that there is a question about it. I am working on it." No articulation of what HIS understanding of "the question" is, no articulation of what he is doing to solve who knows what problem. Can you even believe it?
So then they repeat THE SAME mistakes. They still do not have glass attached to a cabinet AND they are still trying to order glass for a cabinet that cannot be made for glass. So the order, naturally, gets rejected a third time by Thomasville. Of course, I don't have the priveledge of verifying this round of screw ups until Thur. a WEEK later. I am so livid at this point that I get on the phone w/ Pete Moreno and tell him I am sending him a detailed FAX of instructions received directly from Thomasville and could he please deliver it to one of his staff AND supervise that it be followed EXACTLY. "Sure, no problem. Here's my fax number." Hope springs eternal.
Only to be squashed AGAIN. When I follow up w/ the store the next day, Merav knows nothing about a fax. She has never seen any fax of instruction. The order was canceled again, but she worked w/ the rep and together on Fri. the 14th they resubmitted the order and she's sure it is correct. And so I wait. And on Monday I follow up w/ Thomasville. I am FLOORED by what I find out. In the cancelling and submission of the "new" [read: hopefully corrected] order, they canceled out a portion of the order that SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN TOUCHED.
order wall cabinets, all finished inside, all door cut for glass made from the Eden style door w/ a chocolate cherry finish. All the cabinets were supposed to have frosted glass ordered w/ them. order base cabinets, all plywood construction, all w/ premium glides, from the Monroe style door some of which would be finished in natural cherry, others to be finished in chocolate cherry.
This order was finalized after ONLY 5 trips to the store to meet w/ whom I now know to be more of a contributor to the problem than a solver of the problem. The order was finally placed on Oct. 5, 2005 giving me a delivery date of Nov. 2. The following Sat. I logged on to the Thomasville web site only to find a number of things wrong w/ the order. Two of the wall cabinets that were supposed to have been finished inside, were not. One of them that was supposed to have been cut for glass, was not. A few were missing their glass. One of which that could not have glass attached to it, did and so the order was rejected by Thomasville. Thankfully so. B/c if it hadn't been rejected, there would have been little chance of me finding all the other errors. And so on. When I tried to get in touch w/ the store to correct the problem, I was told that the expeditor was gone for the day, that yes, indeed there was only one person who could help w/ getting this resolved and she wouldn't return until Monday, could I please call back then? Astounding.
Merav, the non astute kitchen designer, said she'd met w/ the Thomasville rep and corrected everything...she wouldn't hear there there were still issues and that her "corrections" were insufficient, and instead said there was nothing more she could do, so I countered w/could I please like to talk to the store manager. Enter John. Clueless idiot. After only 4 phone calls spanning 2 days when it was supposed to happen the same day, he called me back to say that yes, he'd be happy to put the c"orrections" in but that he couldn't garantee that there wouldn't be some error. "There are risks w/ me going ahead w/ this. " "Fine, what are the risks?"
"I don't know." Blown away by this response I said, "Well, if you don't know then I certainly don't know either and unknown is not better than a try so put the order through." "O.K." Duh.
On Mon. I check w/ Thomasville. Still issues. Turns out that now it's worse. In "putting the order through" they canceled out all the prior orders, effectively jeapordizing my original 11/02 delivery date. And the good parts of the order were now still connected w/ a the wall cabinet piece of the order that had new issues. And one of them, that an 18x36 did not have glass attached to it, was so obvious I thought I was going to keel over w/ frustration. So back to Home Depot. This time I talked to someone who talked a good spiel, Pete Moreno. I had hope renewed that this would get resolved. Until I got a message from clueless idiot George who turns out to be the manager of the dept. and verbatim he said, "I just took a look at your order and understand that there is a question about it. I am working on it." No articulation of what HIS understanding of "the question" is, no articulation of what he is doing to solve who knows what problem. Can you even believe it?
So then they repeat THE SAME mistakes. They still do not have glass attached to a cabinet AND they are still trying to order glass for a cabinet that cannot be made for glass. So the order, naturally, gets rejected a third time by Thomasville. Of course, I don't have the priveledge of verifying this round of screw ups until Thur. a WEEK later. I am so livid at this point that I get on the phone w/ Pete Moreno and tell him I am sending him a detailed FAX of instructions received directly from Thomasville and could he please deliver it to one of his staff AND supervise that it be followed EXACTLY. "Sure, no problem. Here's my fax number." Hope springs eternal.
Only to be squashed AGAIN. When I follow up w/ the store the next day, Merav knows nothing about a fax. She has never seen any fax of instruction. The order was canceled again, but she worked w/ the rep and together on Fri. the 14th they resubmitted the order and she's sure it is correct. And so I wait. And on Monday I follow up w/ Thomasville. I am FLOORED by what I find out. In the cancelling and submission of the "new" [read: hopefully corrected] order, they canceled out a portion of the order that SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN TOUCHED.
posted by ccb at 6:36 PM
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