Lowe's Home Improvement Store

The service went well. It was just a basic tile hat we had laid. One technician came out and completed the job in 1 day. They were punctual and happy to answer any questions I had. They did a great job. I had no problem scheduling the service. We had some scheduling issues at first but they worked through it very well. bbbaaa

We called the Monroe store for an appointment to design, price and order cabinets and had to leave a message for the designer. After a week with no call back, we called the Indian Trail store and got an appointment right away on the call. My wife had drawn a design that she wanted to have replicated with the cabinets from the manufacturer whe had decided on. We worked with two sales/design staff members who spent numerous hours with her to arrive at the layout and style she wanted. We worked with two people because othe first was going on a scheduled vacation before the process was completed, and there was a deadline to qualify for a promotion with the cabinet manufacturer. My wife wanted to have Lowe's take care of the installation as they guarantee the job from start to finish. I agreed because there was the savings of the sales tax that was about the same amount as the cabinet installation. The sales person brought a general contractor out and he provided quotes for the installation and plumbing. We agreed with the offer and signed the contract. I applied for the Lowe's card so we could get the low interest fixed payment plan in short order. At my wife's request, the sales person split the cabinet order to save some money. We thought it was outstanding customer service. Due to Lowe's cumbersome corporate policies, the original order had to be cancelled and reentered. That caused a big delay in the delivery of our Reward Card and a major SNAFU with the credit reporting for the opening balance. I was notified by a credit advisory service of changes to my credit report and found that Lowe's or their credit arm, GE Credit Bank, had overstated our opening credit amount by more than 40%. This is blatant dishonesty in my opiinion. I called the credit customer (dis)service number and got absolutely no satisfaction or action. I called the store and left a message specifically for the store manager. He never showed me the courtesy of a call back. An assistant manager called and spoke to my wife but got nowhere as they are unable to do anything but sell at the store, apparently. Lowe's assigns a project manager to these kinds of jobs. I didn't get a call from anyone and ended up having to call an 800 number to find that person. During the process, he was busy looking for another job withiin Lowe's and provided minimal assistance, all of which had to be requested. The contractor worked with us very well as we were doing the demolition and reconstruction of the room and floor ourselves. We hired our own electrician as the contractor had too many questions to provide a quote. Lowe's and the contractor inspected the cabinet shipment in late March and found that one cabinet was delivered in the wrong color. We were told that the replacement was ordered at that time, but in fact, it was ordered almost a month later on 4/21. That ended up delaying the countertop installation. The cabinet installer didn't want much interaction with us and made some invalid assumptions like outting a 3/8" spacer under every cabinet which caused us to have to use heavy tile adhesive when laying the tile. He misread the layout and didn't leave enough space in a cabinet to allow air flow for an appliance and had to come back to redo it. He didn't return to finish the job after that and the contractor provided another person who worked very well with us. We had an issue with some of the doors and drawer faces, and Lowe's had them replaced with no problem at all. The crown moldings ordered were not compatible with our cabintet style, and Lowe's took them back on a return. Some panels were ordered that were too thick for endpanels but they were taken back and the right panels provided on a trade. When the quote for the cabinet installation was provided, it did not include the lumber and materials needed to have a cabinet installed away from the wall to match the refrigerator depth. Strangely, the Lowe's contract calls for the customer to provide the extra material. There was a problem with some of the hinges as we didn't receive the instruction to adjust the tension. It turns out that one was broken. The manufacturer provided new hinges and the labor to install and adjust them. When the countertopps were installed, they had to move two cabinets to get the slabs into place.That was because the sales people didn't know th order the thin panels called "skins" to bring the cabinet sides flush with the stiles to make it easy to slide the countertops straight into place. We had been told by the Building Inspector that some of Lowe's contractors don't bother to get the permits and inspections that are part of the installation service. We had that kind of issue with the plumber Lowe's provided. We did make them get these. The countertops and installation were done well and the contractor worked well with us around the timing and schedule. The end result is that we are pleased with the cabinets and have since obtained credit elsewhere and closed the Lowe's account. I strongly recommend against using the Lowe's credit method for reasons stated above. While we were happy with the general contractor and their direct staff, we have some issues with the subs. We were pleased with the time and effort spent by the sales people but I have not been so pleased with the follow up to calls, messages and follow up tasks. Our Project Manager was MIA, essentially. We would consider buying cabinets from Lowe's in the future, but all in all, we would have the financing pre-qualified and find and hire our own contractors. Ultimately, Lowe's corporate policies have caused us problems and delays and gotten in the way of the Customer Service that the sales people provide. The store manager failing to return my call is unforgivable in retail sales. I feel like a "C" as an overall rating in generous.