Lowe's Home Improvement

Initial Business Response /* ([redacted]0, 5, 2015/12/16) */
Thank you for the details regarding this complaint from [redacted]. We are anxious to do what we can to find a fair resolution for all parties.
From our records, [redacted] entered into an Agreement of Purchase and Sale (standard form from...

the [redacted]) for an uncompleted home at [redacted], on September 21, 2015. At that time he provided a $[redacted] deposit.
The language in the Agreement surrounding the Deposit is outlined in Clause 4[redacted] it states, "It is understood and agreed that if the Buyer does not complete this Agreement in accordance with the terms thereof, the Buyer will forfeit the above deposit in addition to any other claim the Seller may have against the Buyer...".
This Agreement was also subject to both lawyer's review and financing approval by September 28, 2015, outlined in Clauses 5 and 25. To clarify, the Buyer has until September 28, 2015, to terminate the Agreement if either financing or legal concerns were an issue. Both Clauses state, "... either party shall be at liberty to terminate this Agreement and the deposit shall be returned to the Buyer". As we received no notification to the contrary, both clauses were deemed satisfied and the deal became firm and binding. Once real estate deals become firm, we begin work in earnest to complete the home as contracted, in other words we start spending money to complete the homes. At this time, all commitments are solid.
The home was contracted to close on October 29, 2015. Closings are handled between lawyers to make certain all terms and conditions are met prior to any funds being released.
On October 29, 2015, we received the following from our lawyer, "We received a letter late yesterday from the Buyers' lawyer that due to the mortgage instructions not being received they are not able to close today and are requesting an extension of one week to next Thursday, November 5, 2015."
We did not receive any word that financing had fallen. However we did extend the closing date in good faith, at no cost to the Buyers, to help our client resolve the mortgage instruction issue.
On November 3, 2015, I was contacted by a representative of [redacted] explaining the financing was only approved for 75%[redacted] asking if Cresco would like to mortgage the remaining amount. This is not something we do. However, realizing that financing had fallen we put the Buyers in contact with 2 other mortgage brokers to try and help secure financing.
As the brokers were trying to arrange financing, we sent [redacted] a second letter, with further options available to him if he wanted to keep the deal alive. Our first goal is always try to save the deal and get the home sale.
[redacted] elected at that time to forfeit his deposit and walk away from the deal.
Since he expressed no interest on purchasing the home we put it up for sale again[redacted] it subsequently sold.
At all times during our relationship with [redacted] we were transparent and wherever possible we worked to close the deal with him or gave him options to extend time frames at a reasonable cost.
We did not explore our legal rights in terms of our financial losses; we were respectful and let the deal fall based on the deposit clause.
As a long standing member of the building community we would encourage [redacted] to continue his search for a perfect home. We would be prepared to offer him a credit of $[redacted] towards the purchase of a new home built by Cresco to be closed by December 31, 2016.
Trusting this information is helpful in resolving this concern.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3**0, 7, 2015/12/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I believe some clarification is in order in reference to the above complaint [redacted]. As indicated in my initial complaint Cresco's, [redacted], [redacted], when notified we were not proceeding with the purchase of the property at [redacted] because we were unable to get financing as per our agreement, [redacted] stated, "I will get you a mortgage". Have your broker send me over all the mortgage information and I will give it to [redacted], the finance person we deal with. Do not worry "I will get you a mortgage."
Hearing this we contacted our broker, [redacted], [redacted], who spoke with [redacted] and forwarded all the documentation to [redacted] as requested. I also explained to [redacted] that our furniture was on trucks waiting to be unloaded at a cost of [redacted].** per day and that we were now staying at a hotel at a cost of $[redacted] per day until we found a rental home to move into.
[redacted] once again stated "Do not go to rental "We will get a mortgage for you" we will have an answer soon; that was on November 3, 2015. Over the next 7 days we heard the same story from [redacted] saying hold on one more day. Finally on Friday [redacted] stated that we would have an answer by Monday. On Friday November 6th, 2015 we received a letter from Cresco lawyers stating conditions they wanted fulfilled.
"Option 1: To Extend the closing date to no later than December 18th, 2015, subject to; a)the buyer releasing the original $[redacted] directly to the seller to be credited on the purchase price on closing; b) there will be $[redacted] per day per diem from November 9th ,2015 thru to December 18th , 2015; c) a further deposit will be required on November 9th , 2015 in the amount of $[redacted] to be held by the sellers lawyer. Should the transaction not close by December 18th, 2015 then the total $[redacted] deposit will be released to the seller: or
Option # 2
Your clients release the $[redacted] to us immediately in return for releasing each other from the obligations of the present Agreement of Purchase and Sale. When your clients are prepared to buy again , my client would deal with them as a fresh customer with market prices and product available at that time...."
We spoke with our lawyer and he responded on our behalf to Cresco in a letter of November 9th, 2015 stating "I am writing further to your letter of November 6, 2015 and with respect to the purchase and sales agreement between our clients.
The financing clause of the agreement of purchase and sale stated that the financing date was September 28, 2015.
[redacted] have not been successful in securing financing for the purchase.This fact has been known to the vendor. The vendor has been actively working with the purchasers to find a lender and has given them repeated assurances that should a lender be found by today, that the transaction would be able to proceed. The purchasers have relied upon these representations.
It is the purchaser's position that by doing so, Cresco has effectively agreed to move the financing date from September 28 to today's date.
In accordance with clause five of the agreement of purchase and sale, [redacted] have asked that I inform you that they have been unable to arrange financing for this transactions. The agreement is therefore terminated and they are requesting the return of their deposit.."
The response received on November 10th, 2015, from Cresco's lawyers w[redacted] stated, "I write further to your letter dated November 9th, 2015. We disagree with the position as outlined in your letter. The only thing that was ever agreed to was an extension of the closing date to November 5th, 2015, as set out in our letter of October 30th, 2015. At that time , as far as we were aware, your clients had financing in place and were simply waiting for [redacted] to instruct after losing their file. No subsequent extension has ever been agreed to. Cresco graciously attempted to work with the client in an attempt to close the deal. At no time did Cresco agree to extend the condition deadline[redacted] no inference of that can be attributed to them based on their actions.
I have spoken with Cresco and they have advised that your client has until 12:**pm on Thursday , November 12, 2015 to confirm the release of the deposit in exchange for Cresco allowing them to walk away from the transaction. If We are not notified of the release prior to that time Cresco has advised that they will be pursuing all legal remedies available to them against your clients, including but not limited to any losses resulting from carrying costs or potential losses as a result of a reduced sale.....
As you can see we were had no choice but to release the $[redacted] or be subjected to; as Cresco has put it; " If We are not notified of the release prior to that time Cresco has advised that they will be pursuing all legal remedies available to them against your clients, including but not limited to any losses resulting from carrying costs or potential losses as a result of a reduced sale.....
[redacted] The money we spent to make this a home were not only the $[redacted] for the deposit but also the additional $[redacted] for cabinetry upgrades[redacted] the $[redacted] for a backsplash upgrade to the kitchen area. This total cost to us was $[redacted] cash from my settlement funds. To compound this we were told after notifying [redacted] on November 3, 2015 that we could not get a mortgage to not rent a place , hold off "I will get you a mortgage". Cresco's [redacted] insistence that we hold off from renting a home and to hold out for the mortgage that he so convincingly stated that they Cresco; would get caused an additional financial loss, [redacted] The costs to hold the furniture on trucks and to live at the hotel for the six days only that [redacted], [redacted] stated that he was working on the mortgage are Trucks @ [redacted]/day x 6 days or $[redacted] and Hotel rental @ $[redacted]/day x 6 days or $[redacted] for an additional total cost to us of $[redacted] over and above the initial money spent.
Therefore this mortgage transaction has cost us a total of $[redacted]. As I stated this is no small amount for a family that just wanted to use their money for the purchase of a new home. While Cresco has offered in their rebuttal statement to hold the $[redacted] until we decide to purchase another home from them up to December 2016;unfortunately;we have lost way too much money as shown in the above figures. The only equitable solution for us is to be reimbursed for our losses. We dealt with Cresco in good faith and in the trust that their agents were honest and reputable. We had no reason not to believe that they would get the mortgage for us as stated by [redacted] on numerous occasions. [redacted]
Our position at this point is that we want to be reimbursed for the losses incurred, not only in the deposit but also the associated costs with the mortgage.
Thank You,
[redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4**0, 9, 2015/12/23) */
I understand the financial pressures that are caused when a large purchase over $ [redacted] does not proceed. Every business and person buying and selling in a tough economic climate must always be aware of costs and opportunities.
As a business that was affected by this lost deal, we had the opportunity to either:
-aggressively pursue all financial commitments that were secured by a legal and binding agreement, or
-to take the higher ground, mitigate our losses and walk away from a deal that was not going to work.
At Cresco we take pride in our customer service and relationships with both present and future customers. We made the conscious decision to walk away from a $ [redacted] deal, mitigate our losses and leave the door open for a future customer. At all times during our relationship with the Buyers we were transparent and wherever possible we worked to close the deal.
However to ask us to take responsibility for financial decisions made outside our control is not reasonable.
The Buyers decision to contact vendors directly and making personal commitments for Cabinetry and kitchen upgrades, knowing the entire deal was in jeopardy, is a personal responsibility.
It is important to realize that once we were informed the deal was about to fall, we put the Buyers in contact with 2 other mortgage brokers to try and help secure financing for the Buyers.
This deal could have been halted on September 28, 2015 if the Buyers or their lawyer had been forth right, at no cost to either party. At this time no commitments for extra storage, hotels, cabinetry or kitchen upgrades were made. No one would have had any financial impact.
To state 6 weeks after the fact there was a problem, could have led to a disastrous financial conclusion for the Buyers, if they were dealing with a builder less concerned with customer relationships.
Unfortunately, the deal was not halted. As such we were forced to use the deposit to mitigate our losses. The home did sell shortly thereafter, but for a lower price. The difference in selling price, combined with our legal fees and additional customizations the Buyers requested us to complete, far exceeded the forfeited deposit.
I could not agree more with the Buyer, this deal resulted in bad consequences for both sides!
Moving forward I would encourage the Buyers to continue their search for a perfect home. We continue to offer them a credit of $[redacted] towards the purchase of a new home built by Cresco to be closed by December 31, 2016.
Trusting this information is helpful in resolving this concern.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Operations Manager
Final Consumer Response /* (42**, 11, 2015/12/31) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
We do not believe that you fully understand the financial pressures that we as consumers have endured by following and trusting the word of your agent [redacted], Cresco.
[redacted], [redacted] When we were told that we did not get the mortgage our losses were in the range of $[redacted].**. To say that you understand the financial pressures that such a monetary loss has had on us is unwarranted on your part as Cresco, through its representative, [redacted], contributed to these escalating costs.
We as consumers, once we heard from our broker that the mortgage fell through,immediately called [redacted], Cresco, saying the deal was off and we would be looking for a rental home. We followed [redacted]'s misleading encouragement as he stated "Do not not rent a home" I will get you a mortgage."
[redacted]
[redacted]
Our situation is that we trusted and put our faith in the word of Cresco representative, [redacted]. After telling [redacted] that we could not get a mortgage and that we would be renting a home, [redacted], Cresco, clearly stated "Do not get a rental", "I will get you a mortgage. These words did not imply that [redacted] would "TRY" to get us a mortgage. [redacted], Cresco empirically stated "I will get you a Mortgage"[redacted] we, as consumers had no reason to not believe him or trust in his word.
[redacted], Cresco,stated,"have you broker send me over all the mortgage information and I will give it to [redacted],the finance person we(Cresco) deal with. Do not worry. "I will get you a mortgage."
As I mentioned earlier and in some of my previous correspondence and will reiterate here, It was only at [redacted]'s insistence and our trust and faith in his word
that we continued to move forward. Even after explaining our escalating costs regarding furniture storage and hotel costs we were continually assured by [redacted] of Cresco that he would get us the mortgage and we "trusted his word". As a representative of Cresco, [redacted], should not have given us a commitment that he would get us a mortgage. [redacted], Cresco, when told that we were done with the deal and were going to a rental home should not have told us, "Do no do a rental" "I will get you a mortgage. It was that trust in his word, one that Cresco, prides itself on that caused us to incur unnecessary costs as we waited for [redacted], Cresco to obtain the mortgage as he on numerous occasions promised.
The associated costs for a home we do not own were listed before but I will summarize them to be in the range of $[redacted].**.
As a business entity, you Cresco in a letter to us on November 12, th made it very clear that if we did not release the deposit of $[redacted] you would, "....be pursuing all legal remedies available to them against your clients, including but not limited to any losses resulting from carrying costs or potential losses as a result of a reduced sale". We as consumers do not see this as you stated "taking the higher ground"
You state that at all times your relationship with the buyer was transparent and wherever possible you worked to close the deal. We disagree with that statement because transparency would mean honesty and we were told by [redacted], Cresco, "I will get you a mortgage." A statement that you now state has no validity , but one we believe that as an agent of Cresco, [redacted]'s word was taken as true to us.
You go on to state in your reply "However to ask us to take the responsibility for financial decisions made outside our control is not reasonable." That statement in itself is redundant since the financial decision to incur additional costs regarding the storage of furniture and the hotel costs were based on Cresco's [redacted]'s persistent assurance that we do not go into a rental and to hold off "I will get you a mortgage."
This statement was told to us on numerous occasions over the additional 6 day period we stayed at the hotel and held our furniture in storage on [redacted]'s insistence as 'he was getting us a mortgage.'
At the time that we approached the Vendors as you state in your letter we were under the impression with a letter from our bank that we had the mortgage at 95 with some conditions that had to be met. So we had no problem paying cash for cabinetry and kitchen upgrades because we believed we were ok with the mortgage for the house. So in answer to your question we did not spend this money or do these upgrades knowing the deal was in jeopardy.
You state in your letter that you were forced to use the deposit to mitigate your losses. you state that the home did sell at a later date but at a lower price but in actuality the house sold for $[redacted].** and we purchased it for $[redacted].** originally so there was no loss on your part. In actuality Cresco made [redacted].** on the sale plus our $[redacted] deposit so the losers here were us.
Our resolution to this is that we should be given back our damage deposit and all incurred costs in this agreement. Cresco representatives should not have requested that we send over all information to them from my previous broker so they , Cresco, could get me a mortgage for the property at [redacted]. We believe, They, Cresco,took on the responsibility of all incurred costs by telling us not to rent a home but wait because we(Cresco) will get you a mortgage. [redacted]Cresco, [redacted] had me incur losses in the amount of $**,[redacted].** dollars [redacted] Our only remedy at this point is to recoup our losses and hopefully look at our options in the future. I hope this is helpful.
[redacted].**

I didn't know that cold Stone Creamery hires and allows their employees to smoke weed. The store smells like it a ton. The manager [redacted] is very unfriendly and constantly smells like weed. I will not be taking or allowing my family to this Cold Stone Creamery on Bell and Litchfield in Surprise Az anymore.

We had a three day install by Lowes started on June 23, 2014 and as of today still don't have the proper installation of the floor. Many delaysOriginal install was June 23, 2014. The installer ruined our original transition pieces by placing the floating floor on the original ones and then gluing a different transition piece on top of this and gluing it to my carpet. The installer came back to do repairs and this was corrected. The rest that follows has not been corrected.- this is a floating floor that requires a 5/16 inch gap around the edge. This gap is bigger then this in places and my baseboards won't cover these gaps. In other spots there is no gap, the floor is tight against the cupboard. The closet in the kitchen and against the cupboards, walls and outside door where there is no baseboards are all cut crooked. The registers are all cut crooked.- As for the installation of the tiles...they are not snapped together properly. They are lifting in spots and seperating in others because these were not snapped together properly. - The installer used a saw to cut these tiles when the instructions say that you use a square and you score them with an utility knife and snap them. All tiles that were cut are not cut square.- The installer has left goobs of silicone in the corners and a good inch or more of it on our tub.- As for the casing around the door of the pantry, the installer snapped this on one side and cut it three times on the other side. this means that on one side 5" of casing is missing and the other side is cut in three different lengths. On July 16, 2014 [redacted] from [redacted] flooring who is the installers boss came and filled it in with wood filler the best he could, as this door is surrounded by 3/4 inch by 3/4 glass tile, grouted to the frame. NOT HAPPY, you can still see the damage.- As for the pattern that I requested with the installer when he came to measure. I expected him to honor our verbal agreement. I specifically told him that I wanted a brick pattern. He even discussed with me the different ways that floor could be installed and we agreed on the brick pattern. [redacted]- As per the instructions on the box the floor is best installed parallel to the longest wall in the room. This was verbally discussed with the installer and I asked him to install the floor as described on the box. He started the install inside of my pantry! - I had contacted the installer about his install and he said he would fix the issues.- We were told by Lowes employees from the flooring department that any specifics with our floor install were to be discussed with the installer...which we did.- on July 15, 2014 [redacted] from [redacted] came to assess the install. He took pictures and ensured me that this would be fixed. - [redacted] from [redacted] called me on August 8 to set up a date to have the floor repaired and stated that the carpet guy he would like to use was on holidays till the first week of September. We agreed on September 3 for the carpet repair and September 4 for the flooring repair.- further damage to the floor. The installer came to fix the issues on September 4th, 2014. I went home at noon to see what progress was occurring. I found the installer using a pry bar to try and move the tiles around. THis caused chipping of some tiles and more tiles to buckle. I explained to [redacted] (Lowes installed Sales Manager) that this was making things worse. He proceeded to tell me that this is now a product defect. This is a bad install.- I expected that the install of the floor be honored as discussed with the installer at the time of the initial measuring. I did not expect the installer to damaged my home.- We would like to see a full refund and reimbursement for all incurred expenses caused by this install.- I haven't been able to get a hold of [redacted] from Lowes for 2 weeks now.Desired SettlementI want the floor removed. The damage that occured during the install repaired. The toilets in both bathrooms will have to be moved and then put back...so the wax ring needs to be replaced on both toilets. The silcone mess needs to be cleaned up. And most of all no more damage. We want a full refund.