DAVES CABINET INCORPORATED

We recently purchased a home in the Chesapeake area and remodeled a large portion of the downstairs including new hardwood floors and a complete kitchen remodel.  We had a general contractor who was amazing and we subcontracted out the kitchen cabinets to Dave's Cabinets.
The initial response from Dave's was amazing with great collaboration on the design and placement of the custom cabinets.  Once the kitch was designed and contract was signed.  There were some minor delays with the installation.  Once the installation started, it quickly became evident that the installer worked on his on time and did not show up as promised - My general contractor kicked him off the job.  To complicate the installation, all of the agreed upon extras (including special LED lighting we had purchased for all of the under cabinet space as well as along the sides of he glass cabinetry) was not including in the building of the cabinets.  As a result the below list of work arounds was what we were left to deal with.
1. Lack of symmetry around the glass cabinets.  Because the lights were an after thought in the build design the cabinet had to be rebuilt with a pocket on the side for the wires - this is not mimicked on the left side of the cabinet.  This also resulted in ceiling lighting that was moved by my contractor per drawings provided by you now being slightly off.
2. Ensuring the power packs could get placed without cutting huge holes in the top of finished cabinets- thus requiring a finish plate to be screwed to cover the whole (unfinished look and obvious with doors open that top of that cabinet is lower than adjacent cabinets.)
3. Not taking opportunity to use the pocket behind the upper corner cabinet to route the wires (thus another cabinet that requiring the last minute solution to make look acceptable). 
4. Contrary to the approved drawing my cabinets holding the wall oven was 2 inches "less deep" than the refrigerator "garage"  as a result the quartz countertop having different overhang when you look at left and right sides.
In hindsight, I would have not purchased the lighting because Dave's team's understanding how to integrate these into the building and hanging the cabinets was not a level commiserate with what I paid for the cabinets. 
It appears I funded his learning curve and as a result I did not get the finished product I expected while paying a premium price.
Nothing in this post was not communicated to Dave's cabinetry.  After much consternation they reduced my invoice by $500.

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Cabinets produced on time and much nicer than I expected. The cabinets are in solid oak and draws in bottom were deep to accommodate DVDs and CDs We are very pleased with the cabinets.

 1. We signed a contract in May to begin work 6 weeks from the

time of down payment. Although the work was not very extensive, it took

approximately 6 months to complete. This put our house in a state of

disrepair for what most people would agree is an unusually long period for

any contract.



2. The extended length of time occurred because the installers would not

always show up on the day scheduled and then we would have to reschedule.

This happened three times. Additionally, when the installer finally showed

up, the following craftsmanship issues occurred: A piece of granite was not

cut to fit, glass was not cut correctly and the crown molding was stained

with two different shades. These were not the only issues.  All of this

compounded the problem because we had to reschedule to install the reworked

craftsman issues which created more opportunity for the workers not to show

up.



3. A minor point but I had to call Dave's cabinets to reschedule anytime a

worker didn't show up. I think the rescheduling should have been initiated

by your staff and not me. I'm not the one who didn't show up.



In any case, the job is now completed, but it should have been done in half

the time and without all the pain, anxiety and inconvenience. 

Provided helpful suggestions for customizing cabinets and did excellent work.

The only difficulty that I had is following up. They don't follow up very well. I asked them to come and they don't. But they're good with planning and making suggestions. They helped me decide on with the choices and they showed samples. What's positive thus far is the workmanship. Follow ups is important, so they need to remember that.

After speaking with several granite fabricators, we chose Dave's because their pricing was lower than the others.  The issues we had made us go HUH?  Our salesman, never provided stone samples at the initial consultation, we were told to go the the stone yard and pick what we wanted.  A firm price did not cross our desk until we made a selection.  I am discouraged with the installation crew's professionalism.  The first thing that happened when the arrived at our home, was the crew leader taking a hammer and smashing the support structure of our sink base to make room for the new sink.  Could you not use a screwdriver or a saw to modify the structure?  Instead,we now have a jerry rigged cabinet.  When one slab was being installed, they damaged another cabinet, blowing out the side wall next to the stove.  while the helper was retrieving tools to repair the cabinet, the crew leader took out his hammer to force the screws and nails back together, causing the cabinet's veneer to crack about 10 inches.  There was no repair to that-just OH WELL!
My second home's install was uneventful.

We were very pleased with the work they did

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Very positive experience.  From salesman to installation, I was treated very well.  Dave's Cabinets staff was very responsive to all of my needs.  I had two drawers rubbing the newly installed granite and they came right out the next morning after I called and solved the problem.

The main problems were their poor scheduling and unresponsiveness.  For example, they were supposed to do demolition on a Friday, so we packed everything up and covered the furniture and draperies in plastic.  My husband took the stove out.  Not only did they not come on Friday, they didn't set foot in our house for three weeks.  Things kept going downhill after that horrible start. Our contact person would rarely talk to us or return our calls.  They kept promising and changing delivery dates.  I put in for four different days off from work for them to deliver the cabinets.  The fourth day, they finally came after 5 in the afternoon, which meant I didn't need to take off work.  I would have been home by then anyway.  When I couldn't figure out where one large cabinet went, they discovered they had delivered it to the wrong house; it belonged somehwhere else. Then we found out they didn't order the countertops when they were supposed to, so we had to wait for them.  That also meant that we didn't have a sink for several more weeks. The one bright point was their installer, who was wonderful with quality control.  He refused to install pieces that didn't fit exactly right.  He sent several back. They promised to finish by Easter that year but missed that date by far.  Even though the overall quality of the cabinets is pretty good, it took me over a year to enjoy my new kitchen.  I couldn't walk into it without thinking about the whole nightmare experience.  Because of that, I wouldn't recommend Dave's Cabinets to anyone.

Overall, the project went great.  There was one minor defect in one of our cabinets that we noticed upon delivery.  We contacted our sales rep, John Leonard, who arranged to have the installer fix that defect on-site, thereby eliminating any delay in our installation.  Immediately after the cabinets were installed, Dave's sent a representative to take precision measurements for our counter tops.  Once measurements were completed, Dave's estimated delivery and installation of the counter-tops within 7-10 days.  Our conter tops were installed 7 days later, right on schedule.  We appreciate the great value and customer service provided by Dave's.

Dave has installed cabinets for us before. So we knew he would be good. He built the cabinets that he installed in our home and did a great job. He is very skilled at what he does. He showed up when he was supposed to and did a fine job. I would be more than happy to recommend him to anyone else in the area.

Other than a couple of design glitches in two of the cabinets, which they hurried to fix for us, this was and went as well as we could have expected. I really liked and appreciated how they scheduled and stuck to it completely. The whole job and experienc