[Andy Graves]

NBC4 investigated the Home Depot and it seems that they are receiving a lot of complaints about their remodeling services. Watch the video

[Reuben Hoff III]

What a deal some publicity to tell the truth about some of thier tricks. Thats why I feel us as fabricators have a better chance of working with our suppliers in the long term if we try, becouse as a whole we only have to answer to ourselfs for the profits not the entire stock holder groups. that pressure also leads to these price wars we can see at times just watch Walmart and all those guys this X-mas try to lift their sales to keep stock holders happy after some less than good news last couple months on sales.

[Richard Christ]

Here is a link about homeydopey and some of it’s problems.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/home_depot_kitchen.html

Try googling home depot cabinet countertop customer complaints then save some of the examples to show customers when competing against them.

[John Cristina]

We just ask our customers to do their homework and do their own investigation when spending that kind of money. I think bad mouthing them directly to a home owner makes you look like one of these polaticians these days. Only the negative about the others and not the positives about yourself. I am not sticking up for them by any means, but when I try to sell my company I state what I give them and ask them to check us out. I am aware of what goes on as I used to work for them a while back, before I knew better.

John

[John Cristina]

After reading those links, it makes you wonder if that many people took the time to write, how many people out there have not, that got burned. Prior to doing cabinets myself some years back my uncle had Home Depot do his cabinets, what a hack job that was, so he never finished paying. After seven years of not being complete or fixed by them, they decided to take him to court. It was thrown out and they had to give him his money back.

Most of their customers think they are saving money, but in reality most of the items, of steps of the job are left off. A lot of times people go there because of financing, try to get lined up so your customers can get the same with your company. We did that and saw an increase in sales.

[Tom M]

So far, this got me the most from that website:

“2 months later the kitchen was finally complete. I will never purchase
cabinets from Home Depot. Lowe’s has all of my business now.”

So, you think Lowes will be better, huh?

Tom

[Shane Barker]

As far as the countertops go it depends on the fabricator. Lowe’s sold a Solid Surface job on 10/26, we templated on 10/30 and we are installing tomorrow 11/7. That’s twelve calendar days from the sell to the install. It is not always that fast but we are under contract to have the job completed in 21 calendar days from the template date and in five years we only missed that a couple of times and then only by a day or two. I’m sure not all companies have a track record like we do but it does happen. This particular job was on existing cabinets.

I think the main problem is when the store contracts with an out of the area company that has some distance to travel and way too many stores to handle efficiently. I see it a lot with the products we don’t do for them. Another problem is when the store is also providing the cabinets, we still get tops done in a timely manner but we can’t do anything until the cabinets are installed. It is an on going problem with the box stores providing the cabinets and having backorders, mistakes on placing the orders or receiving damaged product. But in my area the local subcontractors do an exceptional job for the box stores. We do work for both Home Depot and Lowe’s and in my area I get fewer complaints on the Lowe’s store but I don’t know how the national average is. As John said I am not sticking up for them either and I don’t know why people automatically think they are getting a better deal by going to them, because they don’t.

I aligned with the box stores early on in my business because I felt they could hurt my business or they could help, and in last sixteen years I feel they have helped. I have never put up with any crap from them and recently I had my office threaten to stop work on all orders until they paid on two orders that they kept putting us off on. I can’t legally do that based on our contract but I don’t really care, they paid us right away. We are redoing the displays in one store and we do them for no cost so I asked when I could go get my old displays and came to find out they had them for sell, yeah I don’t think so. I contacted the corporate office to find out what was going on and how they thought it was okay to sell something that was not their property, long story short, we are going down this week to get our displays.

I understand contracting with the box stores doesn’t work for everyone but I have made it work for my company, and when it stops working I will stop doing their work, simple as that.

Shane

[Tom M]

You have quite a good deal of independence in your relationship, Shane. I suppose if you give them good work and no complaints, they contrast that with the other sections’ problems, and they realize they have a good thing going witrh you. Do you get a fair price, considering the volume?

Tom

[Shane Barker]

Tom,

They do get good work with very few complaints and I think you are right, it probably does have a lot to do with that. As far as the price I never really think it is enough and even though we give them the laminate pricing and we raise it every year I feel the standard needs to be adjusted. In other words I am limited by what is competitive in our area and I feel the prices have not been appropriately adjusted to the rate of inflation for many years now. I can only do so much before I will loose the work to lower prices.

I have always had the attitude that I could take them or leave them, I certainly have not structured my business around the box stores but they have brought in work when very little was coming in. Lately I have focused more on the Lowe’s stores and I am in the process in trying to pick up another one in my GSA mainly because I do their Hi-Macs work. I feel the same way about the pricing but the volume can really make up for it. I am subject to the pricing set up by LG and Lowe’s but the money is much better with Solid Surface in general. When times get tough and work gets thin it’s nice to get the faxes from the box stores and if they were not going to me they would be going to my competitor.

Shane

[Andy Graves]

Good Points Shane. I think just by the volume alone, the number of complaints will be there. It is impossible to please everyone and if they truely do 11,000 projects a day, and they get 99% right, then there will be 110 complaints. There are fabricators that don’t even do 110 jobs a year. This give you a little perspective about the number of jobs they are involved with.

They only part that suprises me is the sales tactics and the way they deal with complaints. You would think they would be a little more thorough.

[Shane Barker]

Sales Tactics!!! I just don’t know why society has driven people to use the sales tactics that are used today, it is truly an insult to everyone’s intelligence and people need to NOT PUT UP WITH IT. I was just introduced to the world of Axiom and their selling techniques they have Chiropractors use for their DRX 9000 machine. It should be criminal the way they have a care provider selling time on a machine like a sleazy used car salesman.

I have not experienced problems in my area with the box stores sales tactics other than the lack of experience and follow through. As far as the way they handle complaints, I have seen the stores go over and above what most companies would do to resolve an issue, but again this is what I see in my area.

Shane

[Tom M]

Thanks for the response, Shane.
I have been asked, and actually contemplated accepting the role of fabricator for the Big Boxes. The idea of getting steady work while otherwise not busy is awfully tempting. My big problem is fabricating to meet a price point. If I have to alter my model to suit production-like processes in order to see any profit, I’m not sure its for me.

Tom

[Lesley Thomason]

I am with Shane on this one. We work with Lowes too and I have been very impressed with the way they handle any complaints. (On the other hand what I have heard from people in our area about Home Depot leaves me terrified to ever get involved with them…..) There is always that crazy customer who wants what they want even after being told it is not available. (We are dealing with one now and the Lowe’s reps have been awesome!)

We have had to educate some of our salespeople, but I actually have a little routine I do when I call to set up the initial template and I go over what they can expect from us and from the material. I have found that to be tremedously helpful in eliminating problems later. I think it is very important to not build your business around box store work, but to allow it to supplement as needed. I think their prices are fair. They do not have extremely high profit margins, but the overhead is less since there is no advertising and sales work involved in getting the jobs. It is nice to have the work when it is slow, but keep in mind these things kind of go in cycles and I am noticing that when we are slow so are they…..(but of course they aren’t as slow….so the jobs still come in) It boils down to how much extra headache you want ot add to your business. If you are getting everything done in a timely fashion and making a good profit I would say stay out of it. 🙂 Just my two cents.

Lesley

[Shane Barker]

Well said Lesley,

And you are absolutely right it can definitely be a headache at times. I totally understand why some companies don’t want to do that kind of work and why some that were are not any more. I feel very fortunate that we have been able to survive for so long, but it has been a rough road at times.

Shane

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