First, I would like to apologize for the time it took us to generate a quotation for cabinets for this one customer's kitchen. We feel it took too long as well, and we have been actively developing quotation and production capacity as quickly as we can in a *controlled* manner. The quotation was for $13,531 plus a couple of options, or $16,567 total, *not* $70,000 as transcribed in the original Angie's list posting. We agree the $70,000 listed incorrectly is way, way too high for these cabinets. As of April 23, 2013 we have supplied this customer with a quotation for their cabinetry meeting all the requirements they have supplied us, and we have not heard back from them as of today (May 30, 2013, or more than a month later). Our cabinet business has steadily *grown* throughout the Recession at an annualized rate of 25% or more per year. This progress compares quite favorably with the average cabinet company in our industry, which *shrank* 35% at the same time -- and most of our regional competitors shrank even more or went out of business. As of the most recent month, we were one of the top 10 fastest growing cabinet companies in North America according to the KCMA (main industry trade association), a position we have remained in for most of the last 5 years. Obviously, we are proud of this record. I believe this fact alone should address how competitive our prices are for comparable quality. This year, during the industry peak quotation/order season of late February through April, Requests for Quotations exceeded our historical norm by approximately 300%. No cabinet company can increase *qualified* resources to meet such an abrupt spike in activity in only a few days or few weeks. Our approach has been to generate quotations on a First Come, First Served basis as carefully and as quickly as we can, and unfortunately, this one customer hit us right at the height of the seasonal peak. Second, because of our extremely flexible manufacturing system, it is impossible to maintain a straight-forward product catalog -- it would have to be infinitely large. Our competitors mostly restrict their production to 3” increments with a choice of five species, while our system allows increments of 1/16” in any species (we used 30 different species last year) and color -- which means our cabinets fit better (with no fillers), take less effort and expense to install (fewer parts and pieces), and ultimately cost less as a total package than comparable cabinets. We believe this is a great trade-off for our customers in the long run. Since we do not have a finite catalog, the price for *every* job has to be built up from scratch. This process obviously takes more time, especially when customers ask for a series of options, and especially when customers make changes in their requirements. This customer did both. Actually, they changed their requirements *while* we were working up their quotation, causing us to start the pricing process all over again. I would like to point out that Spencer Cabinetry does *not*charge one penny for the initial quotation for any customer. Many of our competitors charge hundreds of dollars for this service. “Free” is not a bad value considering the thoughtful design improvements and cost savings we can add because of our unusual flexibility. I can summarize our attitude as follows: According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average kitchen has a useful life of over 40 years. We would rather take great pains *up front* to get all the details right and have our customers mad at us for an extra week or two that their free quotation took so long, then ecstatic with their cabinets for the rest of their lives -- than have the customers ecstatic they got their free quotation back in a couple of days, then have the design and quality of the kitchen be a disappointment to them for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, we are continuing to increase both our quotation and production capacities. Our quotation times have already dropped by approximately 85% since the tremendous peak in April, and now stand at a very reasonable 3 working days, or normal for this time of year. We appreciate this one customer's concerns, but we believe we have already substantially addressed them. Since this customer has not yet signed a contract with us, they would not have the complete customer experience where we deliver our cabinets (1) on the day we mutually agree to (or earlier), (2) complete with all the cabinets and accessories ready for installation, and (3) blanket-wrapped so the customer can 100% inspect each and every cabinet as fast as it comes off our truck and don’t have to get rid of (or pay for) a large pile of cardboard packaging. And we stage our cabinets in the house for free instead of only dropping them in the garage. On the wall of our showroom we have a large board covered layers and layers deep with a steady stream of letters from excited, pleased, and enthusiastic customers who have gone through the complete experience of purchasing cabinetry from us. Many of them have come back for additional cabinetry over the years, and nearly all of them have sent friends and relative in to us for their cabinetry needs. I invite all interested parties (including any Angie's List representative) to come by our showroom, look at all these testimonial and referral letters, look at our products and prices in comparison with our competition, take a plant tour to see how we build that quality into each and every component of every cabinet, work with our designers, and decide our relative merits for yourselves. Respectfully, Carl Spencer Spencer Cabinetry 360-805-2500 www.SpencerCabinetry.com www.Facebook.com/SpencerCabinetry