LOWE'S

After ten months, I'm pulling the plug on what should have been a two-day project. I'm honestly baffled about how things could have have gone this badly. I needed (and still need) my backyard deck replaced. It's really just a landing for my back steps. In October 2017, I met with someone from Lowe's, got an estimate, and ordered a slightly larger deck - with room for a chair. Composite material, nothing fancy. It was toward the end of the season, so Lowe's wasn't sure if they could fit me in before winter. After a month or so, they let me know they'd need to wait until spring. Fair enough. In March, Lowe's let me know that the final price would be 40% higher than the original estimate. Not great, but the price of materials changes. I placed the order and got charged for the job. At that point, Lowe's planned to do the installation mid-April. Mid-April passed, with no word from Lowe's. Toward the beginning of May I started calling the store, but the phone system was in the middle of a change and I couldn't reach the installation department. I set it down for a week and tried again. Once I finally reached someone, they told me to call the contractor, and gave me the name and number. After leaving multiple messages on the contractor's voicemail, I called Lowe's again and told them to reach the contractor. After a day or so, Lowe's called back to tell me the contractor would call me within a couple of days. I didn't hear from the contractor, nor did he return my calls. After a month or so, I went to the store to find no one in the installation department. I talked to a cashier, who was at least able to identify that I had been scheduled for mid-May - a month earlier. She gave me the business card of the exterior project manager, which she said I should have had (but didn't, at least for the current manager). As I picked up my phone to call the project manager and ask for a timeline or a refund, I saw I had a (work) voicemail from the new contractor. The original contractor had quit, and the new one was picking up those projects in between its existing work. The new contractor stopped by to retake measurements, and they seemed friendly and motivated. I'd need to wait, but at least things were moving. After a month or so, the new contractor called me to say they found a good time to squeeze me in. They got JULIE to come by and mark my yard. Then -- bad news. The contractor said they'd received incorrect information on the process to get a construction permit in Champaign. My deck would require three separate inspections by the city, and scheduling that meant they'd have to bump me. After another month or so, I got a voicemail from Lowe's explaining that they would be delayed in delivering the deck material. What? I called back, explained that I didn't have a good place to store the material, and to call the contractor to hand it over to them. The next day -- another voicemail from Lowe's explaining that they would be delayed in delivering the material to me. I called my installer, who had not been contacted by Lowe's. When they had called Lowe's previously, not all the deck materials were available to be delivered. OK. So I called Lowe's and asked them to reach out to the installer. Done. Not long after that, the contractor called to say they could squeeze me in at the end of the week. Great! Then a voicemail to say that the city inspection staff member was on vacation, so they'd have to put me off. In the meantime, JULIE had returned - but marked my neighbor's yard instead of mine. A week later, I took up my brother-in-law's offer to do the installation. I had Lowe's email me the deck plans, while my brother-in-law got a truck and went to pick up the deck material. He spent an hour at Lowe's, during which they determined that some of the parts were missing. At that point, I asked Lowe's for a refund so I could move on and get a deck project going. Tomorrow (five days later), I'll call them back to demand a refund timeline.

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I really like how the carpet looked afterwards. I was not as happy with the estimator who came. He showed up about half hour late. I asked them specifically not to send him back to do the actual work. He was sent back anyway, and I talked to Lowe's about it and they apologized. He used my bathroom without asking and it was so unprofessional. The work he did was okay. I sat and watched them the whole time, and I would recommend anybody using them to do that.

Furnished materials for my Contractor to install,

I have worked with several employees of the flooring department at Lowes. They all keep telling me that the installer will contact me, but it hasn't happened.

everything went very good from sale to installation

The actual process of getting the paperwork done in the flooring department at Lowe's is painfully slow based the two experiences we have with them. However, once that is done, we have been happy with the outcome. This time, we needed laminate to replace the carpet in a bedroom that we were converting into an office space. The installation went very quickly and the floor looked wonderful when it was completed. We had previously had laminate installed in our main living area by Lowe's and it looked nice too, but for some reason the office installation looks exceptionally spiffy. The installer (Steve, I think) was prompt, courteous, and did his work in a professional manner--I would ask for him again. Very pleased with their work, though I wish they could shorten up the time it takes to get the paperwork done!

We shopped for the doors and paid $35 extra to have a professional from Lowe's come and measure because we didn't want any mistakes and the doorways were historic. They came and measured and ordered the doors, which took a couple of weeks, and arrived after a phone call to us, and performed the work on a freezing cold day. There were 2 men and the doors fit beautifully and we no longer feel a draft in the hallway. We are very pleased.

We live in a really old house and needed storm doors. We were going to have it done 2 years ago, but didn't. We told them that we wanted to charge the whole thing on one card and didn't want to have a separate installer fee. They let us put the whole thing on our Lowe's card. It was expensive and we didn't want to spend the money, but the price was what we thought it would be. We are hoping that our electric bill goes down. They showed up when they said they would. They were very professional. They were very good. They took our cell numbers and called us to schedule and then called us when they were on our way.