Lowes Home Improvement rip off

it is your job to contact the customer within 48hrs upon being notified. it's in your contract with lowes if your not calling the customer in that time you are in breech of contract. i am an isc i've had my share of installers like you, do you have any idea the b.s. we have to put up with. i don't have time to track your lazy butt down to find out why just because you couldn't find time to make a 2 min phone call. thats why people come to lowes because of installers that dont call them back, dont show up, change the install date over and over and over. the longer you take to complete the process (details) the less chance we have of selling the job. i'll make sure lowes done in ohio knows what your doing mr.porter by the way it's 20% not 35% and if we dont make any money why would we do it and if the door installers weren't trying to get rich off one job things would be easy

Mr. Porter, I'm somewhat puzzled by your post. Prior to my retirement I operated two service related businesses somewhat similar to yours. Each one was absolutely swamped with business after being in existence for about 18 months, at which time all advertising was stopped. I dropped one to focus on the other and it ran me ragged for 18 years. I enjoyed having access two to three times more business than I could handle.

My experience is not unique. In the area in which I was active (N.IN-S.MI) I knew of many service businesses of ALL nature which also no longer advertised and had more than they could handle. I also saw scores of businesses come and go, many 'franchised'(which I wasn't).

The main reason I chose a service oriented business was the fact I had determined (by research and sometimes trying to hire someone) that a service (as opposed to sales) oriented businesses: [1]Required very little start-up capital(if you avoid the 'franchisers')[2]Were always 'booked up' IF they were developing a good base of satisfied customers [3]Due to the fact all work was scheduled (as opposed to a 9-5 job or a retail store) vacations and time off could be scheduled at will.

If you've depended on Lowes to provide all or most of your jobs, you certainly weren't pursuing the most profitable means of conducting business. If you're truly skilled at what you do (I'm assuming decks, remodeling, siding, etc.)you should endeavor to present a professional appearance, advertise if necessary, and cut out 'the middle man'(Lowes). Sears several times, approached me to be one of their "Sears Approved" service entities. What a joke! I would've surrendered initial contact (and dialogue) with the customer, and they would simply raise the price of services (I didn't 'discount' for anyone), and hold me hostage to any Sears Card chargebacks.

Holy cow! I didn't intend to ramble on like this. Back to my initial statement of being puzzled by your complaint; focus on being something beyond a SUBcontractor. If you're as good as you say you are quit screwing with and blaming Lowes and go after the work as an individual.(John Porter, owner of "Porter's Construction and Installation Service". Go for the whole pie instead of just a piece.

I remember having to deal with contractors before Lowes came into the picture years ago. These people would forget to call you back, take their time, do sloppy work, overcharge, blame other people for their problems, come to the job site high on drugs or alcohol, etc.

Ever since Lowes came into the market and has clamped down on incompetent contractors, things have changed dramatically. These contractors are held to a higher degree of conduct and as such perform far better than when they ran chaotic businesses. I would never hire a contractor that either wasn't connected through Lowes or came highly recommended by someone I knew very well. Contractors know there's a new sheriff in town and they can either take care of business or get out of town (McDonald's is hiring).

Thank you, Lowes.

Just because a contractor is connected to Lowes don't mean jack squat, Lowes hires sub contractors they are NOT employees, some of these so called contractors don't have the knowledge to build a shit house let alone run a full scale business, then you talk about being overcharged, its not unrealistic for a good contractor to charge $35.00 to $45.00 an hour, there are such things as expences, materials, payroll, taxes, comp, vehicle maint. fuel, depending on where you live you may have to have a building permit and inspections done by your town, village or city code enforcement officers, in some cases the contractor has to be licensed to install certain products, and again depending on where you live if the lowes installers don't obtain the permits needed, or have the necessary inspections done, the shit don't come down on the installer or Lowes, the fines are the responsibility of the homeowner, and it don't stop with just a fine the homeowner may have to have the work tore out and done all over again

To start with Mr. Porter. Speaking nasty about a large company is not a very smart move. Next Lowes installation services help our customers. All contractors Must have a good reference, Steep insurance and be able to pass a drug test before even looked at. Lowe's does not hire sub standard people. Next you may be a independent contractor but when doing work for Lowe's you are a Lowe's contractor. This means Lowe's is the boss. Lowe's is responsible when you screw up. If a contractor screws up to much we have no choice but to let them go. I don't understand how you have the gumption to speak the way you have. Lowe's has put food on my table and a roof over my head for a long time.

Little slugs like you can say all you want to about lowe's. We will still be the nations number one home improvement store long after
your worthless business crumbles. Lowe's is made of team players and you are not one of them.

Customer service is Our number ONE Goal at Lowe's and always shall be.

Thank you Lowe's for my wonderful job!!!

To Jack in California and Cliff in Iowa, glad that Jack had a wonderful experience with Lowes. Cliff you seem like you work at a good Lowes. However, bottom line, look at all the complaints against Lowes including mine. This does not speak well for Lowes and you are in the minority. Nine months and I am still waiting for windows and doors to be completed; I believe that is unreasonable and bad business and at our Lowes, no one seems to listen. For the first time, this past Friday, May 1, the manager of our local Lowes came to our house to look at the mess. Of course, this was after I had sent the CEO of the company in NC two letters. Sorry, Lowes is still on my list of companies to avoid in the future.

I am really sorry to hear the complaints aired on this site. Lowes is a very good company that has high standards regarding the hiring of contractors. What we all need to realize is that we are all human and we all make mistakes.

Nothing in life is perfect and never will be. Yes, we should expect the contractor to do his best work and if they can't meet the expectations of the company then their contract should be terminated.

If a customer is not happy Lowes goes out of their way to make sure the problem is fixed. I realize that it may take a while, especially if the item is a speical order, but the customer must take some responsiblity in this as well. They should try and understand that when they are entering into a home improvement project that things could go wrong and should not be surprised if it does. They should not expect the contractor to possess the characteristics of God, PERFECTION!

Personally, I love my customers and wish them the very best in their shopping experience. They do put food on my table, pay my mortage, car payment etc....I don't want to do anything that will make them walk away forever. We need them and hopefully if we treat them right they will need us as well. I hope that one bad experience doesn't make a person miserable for the rest of their life. Stressing over a botched project is a waste of energy especially when Lowes stands behind their installers and prommises to FIX it.

I posted a complaint against Lowe's several months ago about the ordeal that we were going through on getting replacement windows. After 16 months this job was finally completed and we signed off on the job. No, we were not completely satisfied with everything, however, the major problems were finally taken care of only because we kept writing the CEO and calling our local store.

To Leslie of Louisville, I must say we were promised that things would be done to our complete satisfaction by the salesman at Lowe's when we bought the windows; if you can't deliver, don't make the promise and complete satisfaction for us meant near perfection and we sure did not get that. We just wanted what we had paid for in a timely manner done the right way.

Our ordeal with Lowe's is over; we were given some compensation, however, no amount could make up for what we went through. We will not be using Lowe's for future home improvements.

As was Mr. Porter I also am an installer for Lowe's and feel for him. The installation services vary greatly from store to store and change with the management, which is often. We work out of 7 different stores in Ohio some of which are very well run and some of which are pathetic. I've seen many people treated like it sounds Mr Porter was treated and in some cases it's just not right. This Lowe's employee Mike from Iowa who responded above to me typifies the worst kind of Lowes employee, the way he immediately attacked and berated the guy with little evidence or knowledge of the man's affairs with this particular store is just plain uncalled for.

Lowe's management is very clicky there is little chance if you have an issue with a poor performer on their management team that anything will be done about it. You get folks who come into the installed sales offices who are incredibly incompetent and make mistakes and then try to lay it off on the installer because they are afraid to look like what they are, incompetent. You get sales associates in the departments who do the same.

Lowe's does little or nothing to train these people and yet they are going to make judgments on whether or not a job you did was done per spec when they have no understanding of the specs themselves or they sell jobs half a**ed and try to lay it off on the installers. What's worse is it's the customers who suffer and are inconvenienced with this kind of game playing BS and are left disappointed through either being misled at the point of sale as to what to expect or because they get caught up in the snare of little people trying to cover their butts.

Some of these Lowes employees are more interested in brownie points and in some cases climbing the corporate ladder than they are in what's right, wrong, fair or truly good for the customer. We, and I include the other installation companies as well because I speak with them all, are always having to defend ourselves and ward off chargeback's for frivolous issues so we have to waste a lot of time covering our backs by documenting everything.

Many Lowe's managers answers to customer complaints is to throw money at them to shut them up because they live on fear of people calling the 800 number and customers complaining to the corporate office. And as to the quality of the installers, my company has been paid a lot of money over the course of years to go out and fix jobs done by some of their other installers. As long as you can provide a few references, something any one who has been in the business for more than a week can come up with, and insurance you can install for them. We installers are rated on our customer survey scores and a couple of weeks ago one of the other installers got a 20 on a scale of 0 – 100 and they still install for Lowes. How do you get a 20? Walk up to the door and kick the customer, hang his door upside down and then kick him again? And still work for Lowe's? And this particular installer consistently scores in the 50's to 70's which is pathetic yet he's still working. Most of the rest of us are in the mid to high 90's with the exception of a few. So please, don't tell me how Lowe's only hires the best. And Mike, find a different line of work, from your post with it's attacking, belittling attitude working with people is not your forte. Unless of course you are on management track with Lowe's.