At Home Kitchens, LLC Mike Rogers Lied numerous times, over 2 months late, poor workmanship, substituted inferior/cheap material (committed fraud) Windsor, Connecticut

 NOTE: Please READ:  

“This Complaint is Not about

AT HOME KITCHENS 

” There are 2 totally different and separate companies called At Home Kitchens, the one in this report is in Connecticut, and has no affiliation with At Home Kitchens in NJ. Both companies just so happen to have the same name. At Home Kitchens in NJ has a great reputation and is not the Company with the complaint in this report;  

 We hope the creators of this report Webb site clear this up since At Home Kitchen of NJ  may be losing potential customers. beliving this report is about the same company, we are not!

Mike Rogers simply does not know when to stop making knowingly false statements.  The plain, indisputable, fully documented facts are that we contracted for solid maple cabinets.  The frames were supposed to be plywood, and, as clearly specified in the contract, everything else was supposed to be solid maple.  Somewhere along the line, Mike Rogers unilaterally, surreptitiously,  without our knowledge or consent, substituted inferior, cheaper materials for every aspect of the job, obviously for the purpose of maximizing his profit. 

The only reason we caught Mike is because he confessed that he did not have the money to finish the job.  He had ordered the drawers and doors from a 3rd party supplier, and couldnt pay for them.  To get the job done, we agreed to pay his supplier directly instead of giving AHK any more $.  During installation we noted many dents in the face frame.  Maple is known for its hardness which is why we ordered it and if were maple,  it shouldnt be so easily dented.  We questioned our contractor about it who is also a carpenter & familiar with different types of woods.   He was able to find an unfinished side near the stove and he said the grain pattern looked like poplar, which we later found on AHKs own paperwork that was left at the house. 

That caused us to question the doors & drawers that were ordered.  When we studied the copy of the order that we were given after paying for the cabinets, we noticed words like Aspen, Miscellaneous Hardwood, and MDF, no mention of maple anywhere. We contacted the 3rd party supplier directly, who then (because we had paid them for the materials directly, they spoke to us) confirmed that what was supposed to have been solid maple was, in fact, partly aspen (a soft pine), partly  miscellaneous hardwood (various scrapwoods that even they cannot identify) and, mostly, MDF.  This is all documented in their order spec sheet, reflecting the order entered by Mike Rogers of At Home Kitchens.

We had never before heard of MDF.  It stands for Medium Density Fiberboard, a type of particle board.  It is made of sawdust and glue.  Hardly solid maple.  It is cheap, and cannot be repaired or refinished.  It is what all of the cabinet door panels and drawer fronts in our kitchen are made of.  When we first confronted Mike with this he swore up and down that it was solid maple.  When confronted with the evidence he tried to say that the only thing that wasnt maple were the boxes.  Then he tried having his suppliers salesperson call us to tell us why MDF is better in N.E. than maple.  If this was the case, he should have suggested using MDF before we placed our order, no MDF was ever mentioned and if it was, we would have never agreed to it.

The list of lies from Mike Rogers at At Home Kitchen goes on and on.  The one thing that Mike Rogers said that is true is that he did finally finish the job, on November 1.  But he thoroughly defrauded us on the materials.  It is also true that the kitchen looks nice, from a distance and on first glance.  Upon close review, however, there are many workmanship issues as noted previously, and the inferior materials, which are inordinately subject to wear, tear and moisture damage and cannot be repaired or refinished, will force us to replace the whole job in the near term. We have to be extremely careful not to hit our face frames when removing bowls, dishes or pots or they will dent.  We also cant drip any water on our cabinets without fear that the MDF will start falling apart. 

If, as he claims, this were simply a matter of timing, our differences would have been resolved long ago.  This is a matter of classic consumer fraud; AHK contracted to provide us with a custom, solid maple kitchen, and what they installed was, for the most part, sawdust and glue.  There is no solid maple at all, which Mike Rogers begrudgingly acknowledged when confronted with the order spec sheet from the 3rd party supplier.  That he at least impliedly denies now (two months after admitting his bait and switch) defrauding us on the materials, is astonishing, especially since it is fully documented.  Mike Rogers is, simply, a liar. The only purpose of this post is to warn other consumers so they dont have the same terrible experience with Mike Rogers at At Home Kitchens that we did.  AHK quality, materials & service were definitely NOT worth the wait or the money that we paid and stress that we endured.

I am the owner of the company, and this is my rebuttal.



The one thing that is true in this complaint is the timeframe.   I made the mistake of booking more work than we could handle and did a poor job getting the schedule back on track.   This job started late and took way too long to complete.



However, the job is done.  We have pictures to prove the job was done and looks beautiful.  



If the accusations made by this customer about materials and fraud were true, we would be out of business.   Sadly, they are not.   They are an attempt to "rub our nose in it," as the customer threatened she would do because she was extremely upset about the timeframe and refused to pay the final balance.



The fact is they are not true.



The customer was intimately involved in the procurment of the materials to the point of being in direct contact with vendors.   They waited a long time for this kitchen and wanted it a very specific way and to a very specific look.  All materials provided and used were of the highest quality and done consultativley with the customer involved in the process.  



I honestly don't understand why people are allowed to slander openly this way with no "burden of proof" required.   We are an employer of five families.   We are a good sized business and by no means claim to be perfect.  We make mistakes, but we always finish and always give our best effort.  I am surprised by the vindictive nature of this particular customer.



M. Rogers