What you didn’t know was that Lowe’s is just a middleman. You’re paying them to take your order, and they sub it out to some contractor. You’d have saved money shopping the little contractors. Same with Sears and Home depot. They don’t employ installers etc, they sub the work to those trades, and you pay them to do that.
One would think that Lowes is responsible for what their sub contractors do.
I would also think that they would be able to better manage a sub contractor than I would.
That’s why people waste money hiring Lowe’s when any small flooring dealer would handle the entire thing and worry about their reputation if anything went wrong.
That is the mistake that I made and I was wrong. They really should just close down their flooring department nationwide and just replace it with a pamphlet listing local companies that actually do that type of work.
Well, they’re not going to do that. Besides, they’re not going to give up millions of dollars for subbing out work when 90% of the jobs probably go off without a hitch, a few have problems and a small handful go totally off the rails.
Yes, it’s true, a lot of people may not know that some actual Lowes employees aren’t going to show up at your house to do the work you contracted them to do and that you may be able to save some money by finding someone to do it on your own, but with that, a lot of people don’t care. Think about how many people have issues with flooring/roofing/decking companies and never get anywhere with them and would rather just go through Lowes so when there’s a problem they can call Lowes and Lowes can make it right (in general).
Yes, it would appear that something went wrong here, it’s hard to say what or where, but suggesting that a multibillion dollar company should close down an entire section of their business because your order got messed up is ludicrous. But you’ve stated right from the get go you plan to be vengeful so thinking rationally may not be your strong suit when it comes to Lowes.
No, rational thought is not my strong suit at the moment but you have to work with what you have. I freely admitted that I want all their stores closed and all their employees fired but that is a bit of a reach. I will settle for just 10 or 20 people fired, some compensation and actually having the work done like they agreed to. I have spent days working on this problem already and I don’t enjoy being lied to repeatedly even by Lowes corporate headquarters. They know they don’t have a leg to stand on but they still won’t do the work that was agreed to and already paid for.
However, situations like this are where you can turn an abomination into a game. I have nothing to lose and they can’t win so I will just keep hurting them in various ways until they do the right thing. It may take a week or 2 years but I don’t care at this point.
What happens when the ‘game’ turns into them countersuing you for the product you’ve had at your house, refusing to let them install it, lawyer fees and whatever else they can think of and it comes to an oddly affordable amount of ‘return the product, we’ll refund you’re money and you write us a check for $3000 for the the time you’ve wasted on our side’.
You have to keep in mind that the harder you push this the more likely you are to get a shitty job done. If you’re lucky, and hopefully it works out for you, they really do make it right. They realize that they messed up the estimate, they pony up the difference and the job gets done properly by a good installer. But it could go the other way and they might just get the lowest bidder that will do the job and who knows how it’ll turn out.
I know you’re pissed about how this started, but you could have made it all go away marching back into Lowes and telling them that they either get this installed or pick it up. If they refused, dispute the charge (in fact, you may want to go ahead with that anyway. Possibly with the AG’s blessing if you’re in contact with them).
I’ve had shitty work done in my house by independent contractors and now I have to live w/ it. It’s 1000X worse than sending your first plate back at a restaurant to be fixed and getting even worse food that’s been fucked w/, b/c you have to look at it and live w/ it until someone else fixes it - plus the installers that get pissed off now know where you live (maybe not a big deal to you as a guy but as a woman living alone it’s a worry for me).
This is why many people find security in paying all that extra money to have Lowe’s do it for them. There’s a belief that a bigger store got bigger by being better. I fell for that with Sears home improvement once. I thpought Sears would be my champion in the matter only to find out that all the numbers they left for me were tied directly to answering machines instead of people (the first sign this wouldn’t go well).
There is another answer. Never pay in full until the job is done to your satisfaction. Withhold 10% until the job is done, the work site cleaned and everything works as advertised. Probably won’t work with Lowe’s though.
Sorry, I like Lowe’s, they’ve always been good to me, even with little things. One bad experience doesn’t ruin a place.
If you do win a suit, Lowes will likely then go after the contractor for the money, assuming this qualifies as a contractor/sub relationship. We (my employer) ended up putting a good subcontractor out of business when we sued a window supplier for deliberately providing about a million dollars worth of windows that weren’t to spec. Since we refused to pay the contractor, he was unable to pay his sub for the work. Unintended consequence, and I felt very badly for the guy. Luckily, he was philosophic about it as part of the hazards of the construction business.
I should be so lucky. They can all endure ten biblical plagues for all I care. I just want want them to do what they agreed to. They made it very clear when I was signing the contract that it was binding and I couldn’t back out after 3 days. That goes both ways. I am going to see what the Attorney General’s office has to say about contacting the Boston area CBS affiliate. They broadcast consumer protection stories as well. I could use a little more TV exposure but I am flexible. Whatever it takes to hurt Lowes and get the work done is what I will do.
Without seeing the actual contract language, it sure sounds like they are in breach. Is there any language in there about dispute settlement? Hopefully nothing about arbitration as a means of resolution.
I have worked at Lowes and Home Depot. I was an install manager at HD and ran the plumbing dept at Lowes so I know a bit about the installs.
Go straight to the store manager. Seriously, go in person and let him know you need satisfaction or you’ll have to go to the district level. They are heavily penalized for letting stuff go above store level.
Yep, this is the absolute first thing that i would check in the modern age.
Binding arbitration has become almost standard for many corporations these days, and it almost always works to the benefit of the company at the expense of the customer. Some companies, in their contracts, reserve the right not only to demand arbitration, but to choose the arbitrator. It creates a very uneven playing field.
I think that the current trend of requiring arbitration is something that lawmakers should be restricting or regulating, but in most states they haven’t shown much interest in getting involved, and there’s no way that Congress, at least in its current iteration, is going to do anything to curb the power of corporations.
The saga continues but the Massachusetts Attorney Generals Office has been very responsive. They call me at least every other day and contacted the Chief Operating Officer of Lowes about my very justified complaint. His assistant calls me daily including tonight. She gave me a formal apology and promises that they will fix the situation. We will see because I still don’t have my floors installed but at least some progress has been made.
Thanks to the Dopers that helped me go over my contracts. I used some of the logic and rhetoric suggested when they were trying to talk their way out of things. Lowes realized instantly that they didn’t have a leg to stand on.
I finally settled with Lowes. They sent the best installers they have from Connecticut for 4 days and I have to give them credit. They worked their ass off and the floors were installed perfectly and they look beautiful. I had no issue with the installers whatsoever but they are just subcontractors. The 5 month saga is finally over, Lowes claims they took it as a loss and the results are great.
However, do not ever order flooring from Lowes. It is a clusterfuck of nightmarish proportions. Their incompetence is so impressive that it is the 8th wonder of the world and Home Depot isn’t much better. The installers and lots of other people had similar stories as mine. I was just the one willing to go to the Attorney Generals Office about it and fight with them for 5 months before they caved. The good news is that I won in a way and the end result is excellent but nobody should have to go through that. I am going to miss the calls from the COO’s personal assistant a couple of times a week because I like her and I love to hear about “personnel adjustments” because they are greatly needed. I really hope they improve but I will never buy anything significant from them again.
Congratulations on the results and thank you for the saga / warning!
Um, I think I may have identified a little obstacle here.
FWIW, I have used Home Depot for flooring on two separate jobs - basement and kitchen - and have been A+ satisfied with every aspect of both jobs. I admit I may have just gotten lucky.
Anyway, I’m glad you finally got some satisfaction.
mmm