Consumers kitchens and baths Consumers refuses to fix their own mistakes East Meadow New York

 I purchased new Starmark Kitchen Cabinets through Consumers Kitchens & Baths in 7/2014. I paid close to $13,000 for the cabinets. They were a bit pricey because I was having them finished with paint instead of stain. Consumers Kitchens & Baths had put together the layout plan given the measurements they came and took at my home. I simply had to choose the color, door style and general layout I was looking for. I had ordered white colored cabinets for the perimeter and an espresso color for the inside. When I received the door color from consumers I noticed the espresso color wasn’t as black as it was in the store. Realizing this I called my salesman that had helped me to try and change it to a straight black instead. I called and left messages for the salesman probably 4 or 5 times over the course of a week and a half. I even went to the store 2 times to see if I could catch him there. When I would go to the store they just said he wasn’t there and no one else could help me with my project but him. After about two weeks of chasing him around I finally get a response from someone and they tell me the salesman that was helping me was fired. I was very upset that I had spent the better part of two weeks trying to track down this person while also panicking that it was too late to change the color. I was also upset that no one else in the store could help me. I finally was able to change the color and the cabinets arrived about 8 weeks later. My contractor installed the cabinets exactly as shown on the floor plan and there was a problem. In the corner of the kitchen where cabinets from each side met there was no space to put both doors on. Forget being able to open both corner cabinet doors. We couldn’t even put the second door on because it would hit the other corner door. My contractor installed all of the crown molding up top and light rail molding at the bottom of the upper cabinets assuming the design they provided was going to work as planned. There were other issues as well with the skirt molding that was made too big and two decorative columns that were supposed to be identical but were painted differently. I called Consumers Kitchens & Baths and let them know about the issues I was having especially the corner cabinet door issue which was the most serious. They understood the problem and we came up with a solution to remove the upper cabinets and install a spacer that they would provide in that corner to allow both doors to operate as expected. They said they would not pay for the work my contractor would have to do to remove and reinstall the cabinets as well as the undermount lighting. They said they also would not pay for new crown molding or light rail molding that was going to get damaged when my contractor removed it to get the upper cabinets off. These moldings were glued to the cabinets so you wouldn’t see nail holes. There was no way to pry off the molding without damaging it. My contractor wanted $1800 to do the work and the pieces I needed were probably going to cost me another $700. Even though Consumers Kitchens & Baths admitted they were wrong they refused to pay. I asked if they had a service department that could fix the issues and they said they do not. I told them I was going to go to my credit card company and complain to them about what Consumers Kitchens & Baths was doing. They said go right ahead. They said they brought my issue to the board of directors for Consumers Kitchens & Baths and this was their decision. I tried calling the corporate office two times to speak with management and plead my case but my messages were never returned. I had no choice so I called American Express and they told me to submit all of my paperwork to them with a written explanation of what happened. AMEX put a stop to their payment and about 5 weeks later I received a phone call from Consumers Kitchens & Baths and they stated they would pay for everything that had to be fixed if I agreed to have AMEX release the payment. If it wasn’t for AMEX I would have had to pay an additional $2500 to fix a mistake caused by Consumers Kitchens & Baths. You would think Consumers Kitchens & Baths would do the right thing and fix their mistake when you’re spending over $13,000 with them but they didn’t and my belief is that their response, refusing to pay/fix the mistake, is par for the course with them. They have many locations throughout Long Island and I’m surprised a company as large as theirs wouldn’t do right by their customers and fix any mistakes that might arise. I wouldn’t advise anyone thinking about buying cabinets to ever use them. A new kitchen is a big purchase, one that you might only make once in your life. To trust that much money with such a poorly run company as Consumers Kitchens & Baths is something I will never do again should I ever purchase cabinets or countertops in the future. They had no remorse, understanding or compassion for me as a customer and made no apologies for their decision to stick me with the bill. John Bethpage, NY