American Woodmark, Home Depot appalling quality from the manufacturer extremely poor customer service from Home Depot Kingman, Atlanta, Altamonte Springs Florida

i am a contractor in n.y. for 30 years id custom kitchens and bathrooms , i started using American woodmark cabinets in 2004 , have installed about 10 of their kitchen cabinets , thier kitchens are easly 1/2 the price all the top cabinet makers and made just as well if not better plus they will replace the doors for free for the life of the cabinet ,just try doing that with any other cabinet maker !!! For example my friend wanted craftmade cabinets which where 22,000 dollars about 9,000 more than amerian woodmark anyway one of the doors was damaged in shipping i called company they told us they will send a rep. out in about 2 weeks to make sure thats what happened and if you will qualify for a new door . My friend was so upset over one door he finally got it after 2 months , being screwed like that is not an option when spending that type of money.Have had doors that didnt match i call American woodmark they go to your oder and replace the ship it to your house with-in a week they are great !!! i'm a contractor i dont need a hassel YOU CANT FIND A BETTER COMPANY !!! that guy was mad cause he kept coming late so they fired him , i dont blame them thats why he wrote bad things ,because its certainly not for the beautiful cabinets they produce !!!

If you buy cheap, builder grade cabinets, don't expect them to be as good as mid-priced semi-custom cabinets.  Builder grade cabinets are designed to last long enough to get a buyer through a walk-through inspection, and a quick one at that.

I'm a Bishop Cabinets dealer. I recently bid on a new construction kitchen for a lady who was also working with Home Depot.  The cost of her AWC cabinets installed, with tax, and freight was less than my dealer cost for just the cabinets I was quoting for her.  By the time I added in dealer mark up, installation, tax, and freight, I was $5000 more expensive ($12,000 versus $17,000).

In fairness, the installer usually has to tweak every door and drawer after the cabinets are installed because they shift around during the trip on the tractor trailer.  If the installer left the doors uneven like that, he is a dirtbag.

I work at an American Woodmark plant and even with the employee discount I would not spend money on the cabinets.  The finish work is horrible and the quality of the assembly is so poor it's a wonder the cabinets stay together long enough to be loaded onto a truck.  This is not surprising though with the poor way the plant employees are treated at the Indiana plant.   This plant is unable to keep managers and the salary turnover has to be the highest in the company.  This is one reason for the poor quality; the continous revolving door of leadership.  What managers that have been there longer than a few years are very weak, inconsistent and push for quantity over quality.  It's all about getting a certain number of cabinets out the door within a certain time.  I don't know what they're telling Alexis C. at customer service but it is not the current reality of an American Woodmark production facility.

I got my kitchen cabinets in home depot of san jose ca. the doors have some stains and I reported to home depot , We contacted american woodmark and they replaced my doors in 2 weeks they dont even asked me for the demages doors, exelent costumer service , I have problems with my cabinets for the poor assistance from the home depot desainer but dont have nothing to do with american woodmark I think is a very good company.

Thanks

I can say that Tim handled this all wrong. I have been installing American Woodmark cabinets for 20 years through Home Depot. Tim should have gone back to his designer with his issues. The designer would have gotten the Rep from American Woodmark to come to his home and inspect the cabinets. They would have replaced anything he wanted to replace. Out of square, doors misaligned!

Obviously Tim has no idea how cabinets are installed properly and how to adjust the doors after they are installed. I can understand his frustration but he needed to be better informed from the beginning. His designers job is to help him with this.. He did not purchase a top line cabinet. These cabinets are absolutely worth what he spent for them. As far as the damage in shipping. Again he needed to contact his designer and that would have been taken care of immediately. American Woodmark is truly concerned about all issues with their product line and go above and beyond with customer service. Tim seems to have had one bad thing lead to another, but truly handled this wrong from the start.

It honestly looks like your complaint should be with Home Depot- Not American wood mark.  I have, and still do, work with American Woodmark Cabinetry.  Besides having something damaged in shipping, or maybe one warped door, for every 10 kitchens ordered, I rarely have any issues.  I am a designer, I used to work for Home Depot, and there are many reasons why I left there.  It looks like the designer you worked with at Home Depot, was not very clear with you about the process.

Sometimes doors come warped, or split- this comes from delivery issues, or the expansion and contraction of wood-this is natural, this is wood.  I always tell ALL my customers to expect an issue- expect me to have to order maybe a door, or drawer front- this way, my customer is prepared.  And this even happens with my top of the line cabinetry.  (Your designer, should have ordered you replacement doors, drawer fronts, and you should have got these with-in one week-IF she/he ordered them right away)

Also, regarding the crooked doors and drawers- this is normal- with all the shipping that these cabinets go through- they will not be straight!!!  All the door hinges are adjustable, and should be adjusted after install-  (doors/hinges are removed before install anyway- so when they are put back on, they need to be adjusted.)  All drawers, after install, should be removed, and replaced into the cabinet.  The drawer front will be screwed into the drawer box, if you notice that the screw hole is much larger then the screw- there is a reason for this.  They do this so the drawer front has wiggle room- this is so you can adjust the drawer fronts.  In a few years, your drawer fronts, and doors WILL have to be adjusted.  i'm not sure why your designer did not explain all this to you, but alot of your issues could have been solved immediately.

and the news that you will not want to hear: this door style that you have is on the lower line of cabinets- not to say that you did not spent good money on these- but you get what you pay for- and these are NOT mid or top line cabinets.  These cabinets that you bought, I have on display in my show room- a great door style for the money- BUT these are NOT custom cabinets- they are nice for the money- that's it.  You will be re-ordering doors forever, if you think that you ordered custom cabinets. 

Next time you do a large project, go to a small company that will come out to your house and measure for you- and if you have an issue with a cabinet- your not trying to explain it over the phone, because the deisgner you worked with, is on their way to your house.  GOOD LUCK!

I remolded my kitchen in 1999 and ordered many cabinets thur home depot made by american woodmark,I have nothing but good things to say about my order back then---they have held up fine and are still fine no problems at all,just last week i ordered more in fact we expanded our kitchen and needed to match what we had I def.would recommed american woodmark cabinets..

just my experience and wanted other to hear and know I think this company does a wonderful job.

I had a somewhat similar experience when I remodeled my kitchen through Lowe's (but maybe it was Home Depot.... don't really remember!). The people in the store were awful - the order was messed up, the guy who measured the kitchen didn't know how to measure, it took many more weeks than they told me to receive the cabinets, and it was just painful all the way around. However, I also used AW cabinets and was quite pleased with the workmanship. Although it's been a few years since I lived in that house, I don't recall anything of the nature you describe. Your pictures, however, are worth a thousand words.

I have sold American Woodmark cabinets at Lowe's and The Home Depot. They are a company that bends over backwards for their customers. AS far as your doors are concerned, all you had to do is talk nicely to your designer at The Home Depot and they would have had American Woodmark ship replacement door with no questions asked. They don't even want the old doors back.

The expeditor that came out from The Home Depot did exactly what they are suppose to. As far as the company coming to pick up the cabinets that YOU decided you didn't want, they are drivers. Not loaders. Why would The Home Depot come out to re-pack the cabinets that you un-boxed and you want to return. That's your job. Since you were not willing to work with them and end up with a finished job.

It was probably in The Home Depot' best interest to let you return the cabinets anyway. You sound like a customer that would have been nothing but a pain and would of ending up costing them more money and time than you are worth.

Just my 2 cents.

I work in the customer service call center at American Woodmark and I have nothing bad to say about the company or our product. I understand the frustration of the customer and that is what customer service is for. To fix the problem. There is just this unreasonableness of the customer that goes along with that. If there's a problem we'll fix it, with product not money if you want money you'll have to go back through the store you purchased from but we can send you out product no problem but the customer has to realize that they are not going to receive those cabinets/doors/ect the very next day. These items need to be manufactured. Which takes a few days...we can't just pull these things out of thin air and hand deliver them to you.

Also, the comment was made that Home Depot set up delivery of the customers cabinetry. That is an untrue statement. American Woodmark contracts local delivery agencies to deliver our cabinets because we do not have our own trucks.

Put simply, if you would have contacted customer service we would have helped you. Personally, I do anything I can to make things better for the customer. I deal with Home Depot sales reps all day and the only thing that is on their mind is to call in the damages in, get them replaced as fast as possible and do you know why? To get the customer off their back so they can go on to sell their next kitchen. That is not the goal of customer service. We want to satisfy.

I would just like to say that the opinion of one person should not discourage anyone from purchasing American Woodmark cabinetry. The fact is compared to our competitors, we have the best product out there. We're even manufacturing 2-3 weeks faster than our competitors.

So let me just apologize for the fact that your cabinets were damaged in the first place, that is very upsetting and although you think that the problems and issues don't get addressed with the "higher ups" they definitely do, and please feel free to contact customer service with problems in the future. We're here to help.

Sincerely,
Alexis C.
Winchester, Virginia

An additional point which should be appended to the initial report - despite our complaints to American Woodmark, and despite the fact I created a web page elsewhere to warn other unsuspecting consumers about both companies, American Woodmark has never bothered to respond to us, not once, despite being sent numerous emails. Additional emails sent to Home Depot's main office to complain about their Altamonte Springs branch also went unanswered.