Closet Factory Inc

This review is 10 months coming. For 10 months I have been trying to get doors added to the closet they installed for me and I am still waiting. This is despite numerous calls, emails, texts and also having my card charged for work that hasn't been completed. I've called the NY office, dealt with 2 separate designers, now it's the service team I'm trying to pull an install date out of and honestly EVERY STEP OF THE WAY has been a colossal failure on their part. Do not give this company your money. Their quotes are less than their competitors but I promise you the pain and suffering will not be worth it. You get what you pay for and I for one wish I had gone with California Closets. Instead, I'm staring at sections of the closet without doors and my belongings are in bags all over my house because the most recent install was essentially a team coming out without the correct materials to do the job and I'm out the money for it. Make a better choice than I did, give another company your business.

Awful - completely unprofessional approach to customer care. I’ve been calling and email them for over a month now and no one will return my call. My installation date was July 23, it’s now August 22 and no one has called me to let me know what is going on.

They changed the design of the cabinet without my knowledge so what was installed was different from the design. They didn't even finish the installation. The designer admitted to changing the design (via text so I had it documented) and said they would fix it. Over a month later with no response to my emails or phone calls from Debbi Bray, the supposed only person with any power to have someone come back and make the changes to the cabinet, I disputed the balance charged at installation through my credit card company because I really felt they had no intention of coming back. She sent them a letter claiming all was done correctly and I was just unhappy with the results and was demanding that they change the cabinet at their expense. She supported this with a design document that had been altered to reflect what was installed. I was able to prove the document she claimed was the original had been altered months after the original was signed off on. She also sent them an email I sent her, but it had been edited! All I wanted was for them to return and fix the cabinet. They thought altering documents and trying to pass them off as original to make it look like I was the one in the wrong, was a better option.

Worst experience ever. They still have not completed the job . They started installation only working four hours a day thinking they can get it done in 3 days but could not . Had a pause in the work and now cannot get install dates from them since they have already been paid . Rude and obnoxious and half of my master closet has damaged items that the installer should have never installed or better yet , that the company should have never given the installer . Did they think that I wouldn’t notice all the damages ! Like seriously . Aside from that, the guy who is the “designer” made mistakes on each and every closet as far as measurements and other things and tried blaming me for making changes . I would not recommend them to anyone ! They are nice until they get your money

They were horrible. I do not know what was going on. I do not know what happened in the initial interaction, it was over eight weeks before they even got back to me and by that time I was starting to look at other places. I was so disconcerted by them I called American Express and gave the initial down payment or whatever and asked them to just freeze any money going out to the Closet Factory, because I did not know what was going on. Then another month of so past by and then I started getting repeated phone calls and e-mails from them saying your product is ready. So, I said okay it is going to be easier for me to just go ahead and do this instead of trying to find another crew to design this closet and stuff. So they sent someone out and I did not realize that the condo that I had bought for this particular apartment, the structure of the closet, was so big.  So they had to have to rip out almost like a little beam or something to install their closet that they had designed, but they left the raw area where they had ripped out the pole undone. I said, are not you like going to plaster that over or anything and they said that is not part of our job, we are not even allowed to do that. So to this day, I am not living in that particular apartment right now that the little closet is installed, as there are exposed plaster areas still there. So before I really move into that apartment I am going to have to hire someone to plaster and paint what they did not do. The closet that they actually installed was not of the highest quality material that I would have liked and it did not look like it did in the little brochure, but it was installed adequately and their workman was good.  They were polite people. They just said they could not go any further than that. So, to me it was like an unfinished job.

Closet Factory was the worst service provider I've ever had the misfortune to use, and I've worked with many contractors, millworkers, handymen, and other closet companies in the context of both business and home renovations.  The workmanship was shoddy, the materials substandard, the installers inept, the designs impractical and unworkable, and the office astoundingly unresponsive.  The experience was truly awful, and produced far more stress than new closets could possibly warrant.

The specifics:

Installation:  Closet Factory's installation was perhaps the worst part--slap-dash, haphazard and, like their materials, cheap looking and unprofessional.  First of all, a glue gun exploded while one of their installers was operating it in my bedroom closet.  This required over $600 worth of remediation work by my contractor and Closet Factory has thus far failed to reimburse me for this expense.  Also, there were sections of closet that did not match in height--for no discernable reason.  Sometimes the tops of adjoining shelves would be off by several inches, sometimes only by half an inch, but they almost never lined up.  Here's a partial listing of other installation problems:  there were obvious wide seams between joins; glue or some other gunk showed up all over the closets; veneers were applied off-kilter; cases didn't meet the wall or didn't sit squarely on the floor.  

Materials:  The materials themselves were cheap and cheap-looking, and often had scratches, holes, and mysterious plugs or fillers (see photos).  Even after paying a premium for a better grade of finish, the installed closets looked obviously like a very thin veneer of nicer wood was slapped on top of cheap particle board.

Design:  Closet Factory's design was awkward, unusable, and, frankly, ugly.  I've had three other closet systems installed, and while those designs weren't perfect they at least made sense to me.  Here're a few examples of bad design out of many:  
      Closet Factory designed something that was too high in some areas, much too low in other areas, and way too skinny in still others, but in ways that did not maximize the use of space and made no sense at all.  For instance, why would my dress hanging rod be so low that anything but a mini-dress would drag on the floor?  
     Their designs included spaces that could not be reached except, perhaps, by a talented contortionist.  In the entry closet, in order to reach two shelves, I would have had to reach past a barrier (more on that below), angle my arm up at an impossible angle, and then bend my wrist down to a degree not humanly possible.
      The entry coat closet had inexplicable large and very ugly hanging divisions that jutted out over a foot from the hanging rail.  They were like huge wood fins stuck in the middle of my closet.  Not only did they serve no purpose, they prevented easy viewing and access to the coats.  

One might wonder why I didn't catch these design flaws prior to installation, but I relied on their assurances that they knew what they were doing and had years of experience with closets.  Also, for example with the obstructive closet divisions, it's difficult to imagine when those divisions are just pencil sketches on graph paper that they would end up being so large, clunky, and in the way.

Office:  I take it back, the worst part of the experience was dealing with the office.  The receptionist, or whoever answers the phone, is perfectly nice, but the people who are responsible for responding to complaints, inquiries, and questions are not at all responsive.  I can leave messages and send emails for weeks before I get anybody to contact me, and often as not the response is minimal and unhelpful.  It took weeks for them to acknowledge that the initial installation of the closets was problematic, and then there were endless delays getting the closets re-installed.  My initial installation date was January 9, but the closets were unusable for five or six more weeks after that.  During that time, I had no closets and nowhere to store my clothes, but I did have endless aggravation.    

After countless emails and phone messages, Closet Factory had agreed to a partial refund and also to paying the cost of fixing the damage caused by the exploding glue gun.  Many more messages later, and I received the partial refund.  However, to date, I still have not been paid back for the cost of fixing the damage that their worker had done with the glue gun.  

Spare yourself the headache, expense, inconvenience, and possible ulcer, and don't deal with these people.  Deal with anybody else, or install a closet yourself if you have to, rather than subject yourself to Closet Factory.

I've included a few pictures to illustrate their workmanship, or lack thereof.

The office manager was rude, dismissive and basically held my materials ransom- unless I paid twice for one closet. American Express tried to reason with them but to no avail. I would never recommend them to anyone

The actual work here was well done. The organizational part/ the office, communications and getting things done in a timely way are not very impressive. I was promised a date, then it suddenly was not available and nothing was available for some time. The additional shelves I ordered took over a month and were wrong and they wanted me to have them cut to size. My closets were built out well and the designer was great but anything having to do with the office was a nightmare.

unknown

Excellent experience. They spent a lot of time at out house and 8 site visits. They mapped out different routes, priced different scopes of work, followed thru extremely well in measuring and installation. They followed up in all parts. They had another solution for the doors. They coordinated the installation with another service provider.

I THINK THIS COMPANY IS OUTSTANDING. THEY REALLY DO GOOD QUALITY WORK. THE EMPLOYEES REALLY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. SINCE I WAS A REPEAT CUSTOMER I WAS GIVEN A DISCOUNT ON THE PRICE, WHICH I THINK IS GREAT CUSTOMER APPRECIATION.