KraftMaid Cabinetry KraftMaid kitchen ripoff Middlefield Ohio

I wish we had known about this website BEFORE we ordered our new kithen from Lowes, but we didn't. So we took our Kitchen Designer at her word about the quality of KraftMaid and ordered our new kitchen cabinets on February 29, 2008. Today, August 6, 2008, we are still waiting for the latest replacement doors to be checked and installed.

The first delivery of the cabinets was about four weeks after we ordered them, just like Lowes told us. When the installer came to check the order the first box we opened revealed a flawed cabinet. As he progressed with the inspection it wasn't until we opened the 19th box before we found a cabinet that was acceptable. When it was all said and done, he wanted to reorder all but two items. Three weeks later KraftMaid sent a representitive to our home to personally inspect the cabinets, this is when the real insult to this ordeal began.

The Kitchen designer brought the Krapmaid, uh, Kraftmaid Rep to our house and he immediately asked to see these "supposedly bad cabinets". After showing him the first three or four cabinets he stopped us and explained that these bad and misaligned joints and the poor finish was "just the way things are. They didn't have time to inspect every cabinet and door and to sand or fill the cracked joints or to check for complete coverage of the glaze finish". Being a woodworking hobbiest, I thought I knew the difference between quality and crap, but I was being made to feel ignorant of the ways of real world of cabinetry. We finally negotiated the replacement of seven items with the stipulation that once the cabinets were installed that ANY door or drawer we felt needed to be replaced would be done without delay. The Lowes installer was able to set the cabinets and cover the flaws in the cabinets, but needed to replace sixteen doors due to scratched faces or cracked joints.

A couple of weeks passed before we had a call from the Kraftmaid Rep. He had the head of Lowes' Installation Team on the line for a conference call to find out what was wrong now. He wanted to know what I was upset about since he had replaced the cabinets. I tried to explain the problems with the doors, but I received the standard line "that's just the way things are". I shouldn't expect perfection. I reminded him of our agreement of accepting the cabinets if he waould replace any doors we didn't like. His response was "Alright,but just don't expect me to keep replacing doors forever."

Four weeks passed and we had heard nothing from Lowes or Kraftmaid about the replacement doors. A call to Lowes then prompted a call from the KraftMaid Rep a week later. Once again he wanted to know what was wrong . As I started to explain about the reordered doors, he told me that he just couldn't replace them without first seeing them and would have to schedule an inspection trip. At this juncture, we had had enough of him and the delay. A call to the head of the Installation Team at our Lowes quickly resolved the delay and inspection ploy, but this Rep has tried to retaliate in other ways by intimidation of the installer and calls to our home after requesting contact only through Lowes. What a JERK!

Lowes has backed us all the way, and for that we are thankful. Although the problem isn't finished yet, we are hopeful that the end is near. Had we the opportunity to do this over, I think we would have spent the extra money and gone completely custom. It's just not worth the shoddy workmenship and the run-around that follows. After reading some of the horror stories here, our troubles don't seem so bad anymore. perhaps we were luckier than I thought, especially since Lowes keeps trying to make it right.

Ed
Shelbyville, Kentucky
U.S.A.