Home Depot Home Services, Lombard, IL

My kitchen cabinets were resurfaced in June, 2021 by Home Depot Installation Services in Lombard, IL. The Good It took three trips but the subcontractors did a great job – the quality of work is not the issue! The Bad After the installation, I was left with 22 pieces of molding and 9-8’ pieces of laminate. Approximately 60’ of molding and at most two sheets of laminate were used. There is enough overage to do almost four more kitchens of this size! The Ugly I mentioned this to the Installation Coordinator on the phone and a 7/21 email. She said she had to bring this up to her manager - I heard nothing. On 10/6, I emailed Home Depot Customer Care. Finally, on 10/12 there were several emails between the manager and myself. He stated “I can assure you there was no charge for the additional material.” He also stated “Our software will not allow us to order additional material. All measurements and requested material is automatically calculated to prevent overage or short shipments.” This job was performed under contract including charges for all materials. For an installer, it is better to have excess material. For over thirty years I installed home audio systems - I understand bringing extra material to a job. The question here is how much overage is acceptable. I paid for enough to do four additional kitchens - this not acceptable! The value of the overage is difficult to determine as this material is not sold in Home Depot stores. I stated that it is valued at over $1000. This was going nowhere so I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and communicated with a Resolution Expeditor from Home Depot corporate in Atlanta. She states “this was extra material brought from The Home Depot warehouse.” While everything passes through various warehouses including cabinet doors, the question is whether this was from the Home Depot’s inventory or ordered specifically for my job. These materials are only available through Home Depot Home Services – they are not available through Home Depot retail stores or their website. A shipping label from the manufacturer, Elias Woodwork, with my name was attached to the cardboard protecting the laminate. Clearly, this was not from the Home Depot Home Services’ inventory! She also stated “it is important to understand that our system automatically orders all material. It will not allow us to order extra material.” The installation took three trips, the installer left the material so it could be used in later visits to complete the job. She also said “Any additional charge that does not align with the measurements outlined during the audit process automatically gets credited back to the customers original source of payment at the time of order. This process was put into place by corporate to prevent extra material from being ordered.” Additionally, she mentioned “all orders are audited twice prior to being ordered. The measure tech self-audits the order to confirm what was measured matched what was sold. Then, a different measure tech audits the same order again to confirm alignment. All material is ordered once the final audit is approved.” The Downright Ugly I was curious why an audit system was implemented by Home Depot. The answer could be from a 2007 case filed in United States District Court, California Western Division. Andrea SPIEGLER v. HOME DEPOT ( SPIEGLER v. HOME DEPOT U. | 552 F.Supp.2d 1036 (2008) | 2d103611483 | Leagle.com ). This case concerns overcharging on cabinet refacing. “Plaintiffs allege that defendants based their pricing to plaintiffs on an initial calculation made by one of defendants' sales representatives, while unbeknownst to plaintiffs, defendants based the commission they paid to their sales representatives on a subsequent lower, and allegedly more accurate calculation, made by one of defendants' ‘Measurement Technicians’ … Plaintiffs contend that this dual pricing practice, which defendants routinely employ for all of their customers whose jobs are priced at their homes, results in an overcharge because they should have been charged a lower price based on the second calculation.’” The case was eventually dismissed but was possibly why a Home Depot representative mentioned that an audit system was implemented. Cases of excess materials for customer jobs go far back to at least 2007. In 2017 someone commented on that site that the same happened to them. The same happened to me in 2021 - I have enough excess material to do four kitchens of this size - if there is an audit system, it is not working! Could this be a salesman looking for a higher commission? Could the ordering system automatically order excess material? Could this be Home Depot looking for higher profits? Could this be happening on all Home Depot Home Services projects? Conclusion I have enough molding and laminate to do four kitchens of this size ordered specifically for my job and did not come from Home Depot inventory. If there is an automatic audit, this should have triggered a red flag that should have been caught. It has a label from the manufacturer with my name on it and I complained about this several times finally receiving an answer after complaining to Home Depot corporate and the BBB. If these is an auditing process that automatically credits the customer, why have I not received the credit that I am requesting? This is not good business, I do not recommend doing business with Home Depot Home Services.