Lowes - Farmville

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Install was a disaster when the boys left in charge by the "installer" left our outside water faucet turned on, in Winter, and made a MESS in our gravel driveway by dumping mortar and broken tiles all over the drive.  Installer did not figure placing tiles correctly and we had to come up with solutions for the spaces left between shower and flooring and the spaces left between tiles and wall.  Grout color was uneven and had to be FIXED..it was never replaced but painted over.

Tiles began to CRACK w/in months and have recently cracked more tiles, w/no reason for cracking and cracking in lines, and now Lowes says the job is only guanenteed for one years, and our job was done 15 months ago.  Who ever heard of top grade ceramic floor tiles lasting only one year????  Below is the initial report I sent to Patty at Lowes, Farmville. 

Patty: Walter phoned this afternoon (2/9/14) to reschedule his inspecting the tile job.  Due to a family issue, the appointment had to be rescheduled until Tuesday afternoon.  He offered to come Tuesday morning, but I have rehab scheduled Tuesday morning and have already cancelled last Thursday?s appointment because of the problems which you and I spoke of (and Megan and Jessica inspected) on that day.

When I originally phoned Lowes, and spoke to you, last Thursday morning, I told you of the problems with the job, and I also told you that I  would have appreciated a ?goodbye? and ?we are leaving? on Wednesday (from Walter), and that I would have  appreciated being informed that there were three bags of mortar left in the garage, unused for the job, which I could return to Lowes for credit.  As it turned out, we also ended up with a bag of grout left over, but only two undamaged tiles...which would have be doubled if not for mortar dried on one tile and one tile broken by a misstep when Walter stepped on the mortared tile and it broke in half.  We had originally been told, when we purchased the tiles from Lowes, that we would have a lot of extra tiles, but we must have be sold more damaged tiles than we were aware or told by Lowes.  Now, we are in a situation where the tiles are discontinued and we may not be able to replace tiles, but may have to FIX the tiles we have for this job.   My husband observed lots of pieces of tiles in the drive and he believes that possibly full tiles were cut and that tiles which had a corner off, and could have been cut where full tiles were not used, we tossed aside. 

When Christian left, Thursday, I signed a ? job completed? paper, for Lowe?s, and I now feel that the job is NOT completed, and I feel that until the job is fixed, I should not have signed off.

This delay is definitely an inconvenience for us since we had planned to be able to put our office and home back together this weekend...instead I have no idea when the job will be completed. 

 

I had also mentioned and asked about the inconsistency in the color of the grout, particularly in the office.  Walter said (Friday) to allow a few days for the grout to obtain a consistent color, which I mentioned to you and to him last Friday morning.   The grout is still quite inconsistent in color with several dark areas adjacent to light areas.  My husband and would like to know how much longer we are going to need to wait before we are able to reassemble our office, and since no one has been here, since Chris and Gabe left on Thursday, we are hesitant to do anything except wait to see how this job will be resolved. 

 

I asked Walter if he had received the photos, showing the gaps in the grout and tiles, which you told me you would forward to him, and he said he had not seen them and then that he was unable to open them.

Walter originally stated, to us, that the job would be done on Tuesday and Wednesday, of last week.  We prepared the areas on the weekend before he was to arrive and had moved out all furniture and the toilet.  Then, on Tuesday, he advised me that the job would take an extra day (because he was short handed), and that he would be unable to be here for the completion of the job on Thursday.  

As you know, there were several job problems which my husband and I did not appreciate such as Gabe leaving the outside hose connected on Wednesday; nails left on the garage floor (Wednesday); tiles and mortar dumped in our gravel driveway (even though my husband gave Gabe a trash container Wednesday, and my husband picked up materials/cuts, etc. for Gabe at least three times.  Lowes promised that the job site would be left as ?found? and unless my husband did not have the experience of ability to lean up and avoid a broken water hydrant, perhaps Lowes would have been responsible for damages due to the hose left connected and the brass, spiral type nails and materials left around on our driveway.  It was my husband and myself who swept up the garage when the men left Thursday.    

I loaned Walter  a laser level which he needed for the job, and did not have with him.  Thursday, Jim had to use our saw to make a cut for the Swanstone required (since Walt had taken his saw when he left on Wednesday) to fit the piece (which Walter had marked to be cut incorrectly...from the wrong end as well as the fact that the piece had to be cut (3 times by Chris) before it fit the space need to fill the gap in the bath left between the tile and the shower.      It was fortunate that we were able to supply the Swanstone to correct the shower/tile miscalculation.

Walter had told us that he would mark and cut the two doors and that he would repair the vac pan, he had admitted he had damaged when removing it with his chisel from the baseboard.  Since Walter was not here, on the final day (Thursday), Chris said he did not know how Walter planned to do these jobs. 

It was ?kind? of you to offer to replace our shoe molding with quarter round, but our shoe molding is wood, stained to match and the lengths were installed, by us, so that there are no joints in the lengths (of each wall).  My husband does not want to have to take the time to have to cut and stain and reapply new pieces of molding in order to fill in the gaps.

Lowes has sent me a form to complete about my satisfaction with this job.  At this point, my husband and I are NOT satisfied with the installation, would like to have had this issue handled in a more timely manner.

I would appreciate if you would see that we are not billed for the labor of this job until the job is completed satisfactorily, and at this time, until Walter is able to inspect the job and we are able to determine how to correct the problems, we feel that the labor, for the job, should not be added to our Lowes account.

We must admit that we are disappointed.    I persuaded my husband to have this job labor done by Lowes, trusting that the job would be done well, but at this point, we are afraid we may need to learn to ?live with some of the mistakes?.  This is not our first time having ceramic tile done, as we had two floor (kitchen and bath) and two shower/tub jobs completed in the past...not of which ever required rechecks or fixes.

We go to Lowe's a lot. They seem to be mainly orientated towards contractors and subcontractors. A lot of the time homeowners want small things and a lot of the people they hire used to be contractors. A lot of the stuff they sell are packaged for large buyers. The prices are okay, but their market tends to be orientated towards large volume buyers. I was there this afternoon. I spent a couple of dollars. I would give the particular one I go to an average mark. They are helpful. The quality of service is good. I will continue to use their services.

Betty Martz was extremely helpful.  Working closely with the builder, she got all the right measurements and also discussed the different backsplash options with me.  She had software that showed how the kitchen cabinets would look from all angles.  She helped me find the right color and style for my new home construction.  She understood the color scheme and also helped me find countertop material that met my need for ease of cleaning and maintenance, while also having a reasonable price and looking great!  She alerted me that the color I wanted was on sale if I ordered it before a certain date, and also helped me take advantage of the cabinet makers discounts if I ordered within a certain timeframe.  This helped me to save several hundred dollars.  She provided clarity on the timing of the cabinet construction and delivery.  She also helped me select handles that are harmonious with the cabinets and color scheme in brushed nickel. 
Everything is installed and my new kitchen is fabulous!  
For bathrooms, Betty helped me to find bathroom fixtures that matched well with the design and also helped me select from a range of vanity top options.  There were so many choices, it was a bit confusing, but I told her what the tile color would be and we found a really nice vanity top that matches perfectly.  My new bathrooms are also wonderful.
Thanks to Betty and to Lowes for their wonderful care and customer service!