The Kohler Company

Review: We purchased a kohler toilet from Lowes, Calgary, installed it on our brand new bathroom floor. Looked ok for the first few days. Went away for a week came home to a leak and a badly damaged (new) floor. Was not certain where the leak came from, possibly the wax ring even though I have never had a problem with installs before, so spent over a week repairing the damaged floor and taking out our wrecked vanity due to water soaking up the side of it. Replaced the same toilet, two days later a leak. This time I immediately removed the toilet and looked underneath. The upper inside part where the water actually flows through the toilet system had two cracks in it and was dripping. This part had some kind of white sealant painted over the cracks but it obviously did not seal. This would show the kohler knew the toilet was faulty yet still allowed it to be sold. We contacted kohler by email and asked for compensation, they requested numbers from the toilet and receipts for our expenses. We emailed photo's of the toilet, plus our receipts. At that time we told them that as they now had all the info the toilet had just been returned to the store. It was then that kohler decided to tell us they want the actual toilet for inspection before they can compensate us. If they were going to ask for the toilet it should have been immediately not after finding out it had been returned to the store. This seems a little too convenient. We went through a lot of stress, expense and unnecessary confusion because kohler sold a less than reasonable product. We feel they should fully compensate us for the cost of the damages regardless of not having the toilet to inspect. Ce is apparently not a kohler strong point. We do have all emails/correspondence saved if you require it. We were offered coupons to the cost of the toilet but do not want any kohler products in our home after this. We would however like to be compensated fairly for the damages kohler caused in our home.Desired Settlement: We would like full compensation for all damages caused by the poorly made toilet.Lowes already exchanged the toilet for us (which is another reason we took it back, who wants a bathroom with no toilet) so more product is no good to us.

Business

Response:

Dear Mr [redacted],

Thank you for reaching out to the Revdex.com concerning the challenges you have had with the Kohler toilet and your report of resulting damages. On behalf of Kohler Co. I want to apologize for the experiences.

Your detail in the matter is appreciated. In order to review an insurance claim, the physical product is required by Kohler Co. I understand the sending of the toilet back to Kohler is not an option due to it being disposed of by Lowes.

I have summarized the issue at hand and submitted it to our Corporate Insurance group. I am awaiting feedback from them since they exclusively handle all damage related claims. A side note: are you able to file with your homeowner's insurance?

I will reach out to you when our Corporate Insurance group has responded.

Thank you,

Kohler Co-Customer Service

Consumer

Response:

Kohler installed faulty connections on the ends of our hot water supply hoses. The material degraded and the investigation showed that it wasn't suitable for use with residential hot water. When my building management asked Kohler to fix their mistake Kohler flat out refused.