National Lumber

In July 2017, I purchased two doors from National Lumber, one for the kitchen, and one for the basement, with the expressed understanding that they would do the measurements. I told them that I did not know anything about such things, and that my carpenter would not take responsibility for the measurements. They agreed to this, came out to my house, and did the measurements. Unfortunately, they mis-measured one of the doors. Badly. When my carpenter went to install the door, he noticed it had a 6" jamb, and I had a 4" wall. I called National Lumber, and they took the door back, and replaced the jamb. They told me they would have the door back to me in two to three days. It took a month. When the door came back, the carpenter came back, removed my existing basement door, then went to install the new door. Then he discovered it was also too wide, and too tall. By like 2 inches. He had to put plywood in the opening while this got sorted out. National Lumber told me, by email, that they would "rectify" the problem, and even sent me specs for a new door. When I questioned that the price on the "new" door was $200 more, they said "disregard the price, we're just trying to determine the R.O (rough opening)". They were apparently trying to do the right thing. Then they decided that maybe there was another way. After almost three weeks passed, with plywood covering the opening, and virtually no contact from National Lumber, I received a call from a Bennett Freedman. He never asked for any input from me, but stated that this situation was my fault, that it had been my responsibility to confirm the door measurements. Freedman acknowledged that National Lumber had done the measurements, and that I had stated that neither me, nor my carpenter, would verify the measurements. He scoffed at the fact that I would rely on their employee's measurements, stating that the person that had come to my house was "just a salesman". Hmm, according to the "salesman's'" business card, he was "PRO Force Specialist" and according to National Lumber's website, a PRO Force Specialist "is trained to meet your every business need. From estimates for plans and engineering, to jobsite support including on-site orders, instruction on product application and access to other specialists". Apparently all that training did not include wielding a tape measure. Freedman said that he would offer me $200 off a new door, if I absorbed the full cost of the door ($989) that National Lumber's employee had mis-measured! Essentially, take it or leave it. I was wild, of course, and told Freedman that he was being absurd. I asked Freedman to send me an email outlining our conversation, and to include the name of the owner of the company. To my astonishment, in his follow - up email, Freedman embellished our conversation to say that I had acknowledged, in our call, that the PRO Force Specialist had "expressed concern (to me) over the size of the door." Meaning that he expressed concern that the door wouldn't fit?? And that I went along with that, and paid for it anyway? These two doors cost over $5500! But, what I found most amazing is that Freedman had cc'd this false statement to the owner of the company, Steven Kaitz. So he lied, not just to me, but to the owner of the company! Freedman had a very poor grasp, of many of the facts, of this matter, the most important being that he did not seem to be aware that the door in question was the same door that National Lumber had already taken back. In his email, mentioned above, he stated that “On another door you ordered, the door came thru with the wrong jamb size which was corrected by National Lumber at no cost to you.” The door in question was the same door, the basement door, for which National Lumber had already acknowledged its error, and tried to rectify. I couldn't believe that National Lumber could take the position that they accepted responsibility for one measuring mistake, by their employee, but not another, on the same door! I sent a certified letter to Mr. Kaitz, outlining what had gone on. Nine days later, after receiving no response whatsoever, from him, or anyone else at National Lumber, I sent an email to a Mr. Dean Wagar, who had been cc'd on the Freedman email to me. I stated that if I did not hear something by the close of business, that I would file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I had already filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office, for Consumer Affairs. Within a few days, Mr. Wagar came out to my house. After a few minutes, he stated to me that there was "shared responsibility" in this matter, never acknowledging that his employee had submitted the wrong measurements for the door. Then, he did a turnaround, and stated that the door would, in fact, fit the opening, and that my carpenter had been just too lazy to make the opening large enough! He said that if we cut out a section of the cement foundation, the door would fit, and said he would send a carpenter to make it fit. The following day, I received an email, from Wagar, again re-stating that there had been "shared responsibility" in this fiasco, but offering a refund on the badly measured door, and the offer of a replacement door, for an additional $200, because it would be a custom fit door. I accepted the offer. When the new door arrived, incredibly, it also didn't fit, being too tall for the rough opening. This time, to my surprise, National Lumber apologized, picked up the door the same day, and had a new one delivered, hallelujah, that actually fit, in about a week. Several takeaways here: disregard the happy talk commercials that air, during the Red Sox games, in which Steven Kaitz gushes about how they treat their customers like family. Neither Mr. Kaitz, nor anyone else at National Lumber even acknowledged receipt of my certified letter, which outlined all of the above facts, including Bennett Freedman's lie. I was treated horribly, and by not one, but several National Lumber employees, and had plywood covering my basement door, for over two months, from mid September to late November, due to this fiasco.