DIY Cabinets and Granite

BUYER BEWARE of DIY CABINETS and GRANITE in Picayune, MS! (I cannot emphasize this enough!)
So much has occurred that it’s hard to know where to begin…
First off, the owner, ***’s, EXTREME UNPROFESSIONALISM and the level of IMMATURITY displayed by this “business owner” were both astounding! Our experience with *** *** was a BAIT and SWITCH on many levels and became nothing but a HUGE HEADACHE Whereas he returned our calls and emails in a timely manner earlier on, from the moment he received his 75% down payment on the cabinets from us, we began having issues He immediately began failing to follow through with commitments, communications, and promises he had made to usHis whole demeanor changedTo start, when *** sold us the job, he told us that three things that set him apart from his competitors were that 1) he comes to the jobsite and marks where the plumbing and electrical will go when the customer is ready for that phase of the job and 2) that he used to be a general contractor (which in retrospect is shocking if it’s true!) and 3) he has a “state of the art” computer design program that he uses to provide his customers with a blueprint for the contractors*** did provide us with what he called a “blueprint/schematic” which was nothing more than an ILLEGIBLE grid paper COMPUTERIZED DRAWING according to EVERY contractor (framers, electricians, plumbers) – and that was where the real trouble began He told us if the framers or any other contractors had any questions once they began, to call him We (the framers and my husband and I) called and left voicemails over a period of a few hours and then days, and he never returned our calls As a result of the calls not being returned, the framers were left to decipher the grid paper Consequently, one of the windows was off by inches That phone call that never came caused us to have to modify the size of one of the cabinets from 18” to 11” which rendered that cabinet basically useless, and *** had the audacity to blame that on the framers- as I’ll explain in detail below It’s remarkable that the framers were able to do the amazing job they did considering not having a blueprint It took a lot of talking back and forth with them explaining what we wantedThey were top notch!
After the framers finished their part, the electricians and plumbers came (We all had agreed to meet at a.m.) The plumbers and electricians showed up, and everyone was waiting for *** who also agreed to meet at a.m NOTHING was able to happen until *** marked where the plumbing and electrical were supposed to go(Remember, the “schematics” were illegible- and clearly NOT blueprints.) Again, we began calling *** He did not return our calls, and he eventually showed up HOURS LATER He gave no apologies and informed us that his son didn’t have school that day and that he couldn’t bring himself to crawl out of snuggling in bed with his son Who does that?! -- and then-- Who tells the customer that?! Then, he had the nerve to tell my husband, “I know your wife has to SEE everything, but come on do we really have to mark EVERYTHNG?” My husband and the contractors were taken back by this! My husband got firm with him and said, “Yes, we do.” The contractors began communicating with him to get him to mark everything so that they would know where to put the electrical and plumbing That is where we discovered the window was off by inches My husband called me at work and asked me to come home because we had to modify the cabinet, as a result I did *** blamed the framers for that, and we reminded him that we (the framers, my husband and I) had called him and that he hadn’t returned the calls He then told us that his trip was a courtesy service that he provides I’m not sure what his point was… After a lot of unnecessary ***, we finally had the electrical and plumbing marked, and the plumbers and electricians were able to begin-now ½ hours laterI headed back to work On the way there, *** called me He asked me if I had a minute; I told him that I did He started telling me that he had a problem with the way my husband talked to him when he was hours late and that he didn’t appreciate it After patiently listening to him, I suggested that he call my husband and tell him what he just told me since he had the problem with him He told me that he felt better after venting to me Really?! I told him that out of all fairness, everything seemed to change once he got our down payment and that we are frustrated I reminded him that he wasn’t returning our phone calls like he said he would and that the framers had really needed to talk with him Then I reminded him that he was hours later meeting with the plumbers and electricians than the time we agreed uponHe then told me that he is “just a cabinet guy” I reminded him that part of his sales pitch to us was that he told us he used to be a general contractor and that he’d mark where the plumbing and electricity needed to go From this point forward, *** spent a great deal of time trying to turn the mishaps around on us- and trying to make them our fault and repeating he’s just a cabinet guy The plumbing and electrical were roughed in over the next few daysNext, we were ready for the cabinets They were delivered Once we began putting them together (which my husband and I opted to do ourselves to save some money) and getting ready to install them, we realized that we were missing a base unit, had one upper cabinet that was the wrong size (33W instead of 36W), that one of the other base cabinets was mismeasured and needed to be bigger to fit in the space and match the upper cabinets In addition, we discovered that we were missing trim, a refrigerator panel, and tilt drawers for the sink base cabinets I called *** and brought this to his attention, and he became rude and over talked me Unbeknownst to us at the time, this would become his pattern whenever there was an accountability issue moving forward Quality control was obviously missing with this order His inability to get the order right was just another frustration, and getting it straightened out became just one more battle Regarding the wrong size wall unit, *** advised us that we could keep the wrong size wall unit or wait up to months until the Chinese New Year was over because the Chinese people stop all production for the New Year and that unit was on backorderWe felt like we had no choice if we wanted to proceed with the reno so we agreed to keep the smaller wall unit and use a spacer (Admittedly, we made a huge mistake by not checking the order against the invoice before the driver left and checking the quantity of finishing pieces we needed for the job: i.e.: molding, etc.) In the end, we had to buy a larger cabinet to fit in the mismeasured spot because *** told us “that was on us” He also refused to provide us with the missing molding and sent us an estimate in the amount of $ He truly began trying to nickel and dime us to death I advised them that we would not be paying for items they shorted us To date, we haven’t heard back from him about rectifying the missing pieces situationThe next phase of the job was the “custom hood and island” that we ordered and paid for When we sat with *** to show him how we wanted to design our kitchen, he had advised us that he has a carpenter who could build anything! We provided him with pictures and details of what we wanted for both the hood and island, and he assured us that they could and would be built to our specifications Well, as you’ve probably guessed, that’s not what happened When the “custom” island arrived, it was not at all what we’d talked about or sent him pictures of Once again, I called *** He informed me that he had made an “executive decision” (without consulting us) to “modify some base cabinets”, instead I reminded him of the pictures we’d sent, and he told me that I hadn’t provided pictures to himI then forwarded the pictures and original email back to him He then replied by telling me that the pictures were grainy I became angry and told him that what we originally agreed to and discussed in our consultation is what I expected to get He then told me that I had NO PROOF that we paid for a “custom island” I informed him that I was looking at the invoice he provided us with and that it WAS in writing He yelled at his daughter, who is an employee, to pull up our paperwork At that point, the flood gates opened! I told him everything about how frustrating the ENTIRE EXPERIENCE with him had been! He proceeded to tell me that “having a complaint from us is not a surprise because he’s had nothing but complaints and trouble from us including the blame for a window in the wrong spot”-- when every complaint stemmed from HIS mishaps listed above I told *** that NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD HAVE CHOSEN TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH ALL THESE ISSUES! Then I told *** that from a customer service standpoint, the service was ridiculous, very disappointing, and that there were many misrepresentations along the way He told me that he didn’t need my customer service advice because he has excellent customer service *** became dismissive to me and told me that he didn’t want to talk with me anymore Later that day, he had a carpenter contact us because I DID have it in writingThis experience didn’t have to go like this if *** would have kept his word from the beginning It’s amazing how much havoc one business can wreak Renovating is stressful enough when everything goes the way it’s supposed to And, FYI: While there were a few hiccups and some delays along the way (as is to be expected in any reno or build) EVERY other contractor we dealt with told us how easy we were to work with EXCEPT for *** ALL the other contractors kept their word, did what they said they were going to do, and their work was outstanding! We would highly recommend all of them!
The bottom line is: ALWAYS get EVERYTHING in WRITING (which goes without saying), ASK for REFERENCES, check your invoice against your materials, and BEWARE of DIY Cabinets!
By the way, we bought the missing pieces FOR LESS MONEY from ** *** in New Orleans, LA who sells the same cabinets we bought from ***- because it was worth it to us to be done with ***/DIY Cabinets and we weren’t giving him another penny So, needless to say, we chose another business (*** *** in PEARL RIVER, LA) to purchase our quartz countertops from Everyone at *** *** was AMAZING and very PROFESSIONAL- and THE SAME COUNTERTOPS COST THOUSANDS LESS! We highly recommend *** *** and every other contractor we dealt with- besides DIY Cabinets and Granite! Five months later, we are thankful to FINALLY be finished with them!