Sims-Lohman Fine Kitchens and Granite

Sims-Lohman is the cabinet and counter supplier of choice for the contractor I selected for my kitchen remodel. After settling on the basic job with my contractor, I visited the Sims-Lohman showroom to finalize the design with Andy, one of their designers. Andy was extremely helpful and even talked me down on certain options so that my kitchen would make more sense, instead of upselling me at every turn. Andy helped create a functional, attractive space, and he was easily the best part of my experience with S-L.
My contractor installed the new cabinets I purchased from S-L, and the quality of the Homecrest brand cabinets is great. There were a couple of minor issues that popped up during installation, like a drawer slide that was defective from the factory. Sims-Lohman took care of these issues quickly and easily.
The granite countertops are where things went wrong. The problem begins with the material itself, but the real issue is in the follow-up and lack of responsiveness.
The largest piece of my granite was delivered with a vary large black inclusion sitting in a very conspicuous location against a medium-toned field. It's not a subtle inclusion: it's a full 2-inches in diameter, highly contrasting with the surroundings, and sitcks out like a sore thumb because it's the only imperfection like it among 75 square feet of stone. It takes a new visitor to my house approximately 5 seconds of being in my kitchen to ask "What's that?"
As an aside, I was told later that they usually offer for the customer to visit the granite warehouse and pick out their own slabs to ensure satisfaction with the stone before it's cut. They said they didn't offer that to me because I selected a lower-priced stone that "should be" consistent enough to not require that. However, they admitted that because of the sizes of the pieces I was having cut, a personal selection would have been justified in hindsight.
I understand that a natural product like granite will have imperfections, and I have no problems with any of the other bits of "character" in my counters. But the line has to be drawn somewhere, and a big inky blotch the size of a toddler's hand, smack-dab in the middle of a peninsula is certainly on the wrong side of that line. After asking someone from Sims-Lohman to come back and check out the work, they sent a manager (I can't remember Dan'sexact title, but he was reasonably high up the chain).  At first he started with the "It's a natural product..." line, and I expected that. But I then asked him two questions: 1) "Would you be satisfied with this stone, as installed, in your home?" and 2) "Would you be happy with my telling everyone who visits my home that I got my counters at Sims-Lohman and they, too, could pay a lot of money for this fine product?" He admitted that he couldn't answer "yes" to either of those questions, and agreed to return with samples for replacement. (Samples because the plan was to replace the only section that contained the inclusion, and it was important that I saw how well the newly cut slab would match the rest of the counters that weren't being replaced)
But he never came back. I called a few times and left messages, but felt like I was getting the runaround. He returned my calls once and provided a date and time (just a few days away) when he would return with samples. I made sure to be home then, but Dan never showed. I recognized that I was getting the brush-off, and that since Sims-Lohman already had my money, the desire to make things right had evaporated. 
I could have accepted the company saying "It's a natural product, and our policy is to never replace stone for natural inclusions". I would have been disappointed, but sometimes that's how the dice land. But in this case, I was promised a resolution and then ignored. That's a lot worse. It's extremely poor customer service to say the least. When they ask, I make sure I tell friends and visitors where I got my counters, usually right after pointing out the "spot". And I tell them the story of how I was strung along and then dropped. With any luck, it's cost Sims-Lohman a couple sales.

Very well. No problems.

Designing a kitchen even with professional help can be quite stressful. Overall, the end result is that I have a beautiful kitchen that is well designed and the cabinets from Sims-Lohman fit perfectly and look amazing. There were absolutely no mistakes made in the cabinet order, thought I admit I went over and over the drawings and asked a lot of questions before placing the order. The downside is that it was a much longer process than I had anticipated. However, in taking your time and asking a lot of questions (which I recommend), you can make sure you avoid mistakes. I would recommend Karen at Sims-Lohman because she is patient and professional. Also, Sims-Lohman carries several lines of cabinetry to fit a variety of budgets. I went with Dynasty/Omega and they are awesome. You can find less expensive and more expensive cabinets there, including a line of Amish built cabinets.

Dave Thaler at Sims Lohman quickly and inexpensively designed and ordered good quality kitchen cabinets. Dave knows what he is doing. We needed to keep it inexpensive and were surprised by the pretty good quality of the cabinets.

This was a nightmare! Cabinets took 5 wks for dely. Dishwasher base cabinet missing. Scribe molding for crown was missing. Countertop was too long by 1". Reordered missing DW base, took another 4 wks & the silverware drawer was put on the bottom instead of being at the top. Re-ordered missing counter backsplash for left side, and after 3 wks had to reorder again. It came in finally & laminate piece missing on one edge. All in all, a frustrating experience. Salesman Dennis Paff didnt return calls promptly, requiring repeated calling by me. Complained higher up & still continued to have problems getting order completed. Will never deal with them again.

Our cabinets look great. We get so many compliments. They are off the floor about 8 inches sitting on legs in the front- not something you see too often. We have lots of cabinet space & a pantry, finally. We are very pleased with the result.