HOME DEPOT

.

Initially things seemed to go well. They came timely. But they cut a hole in the roof of my three sided screen porch to vent the roof. A screened porch is already vented. It has been over a year and I have yet to get it fixed, despite several promises. I feel like they are hoping I will give up. After all, why should it need to be fixed - no harm done when the porch is already vented. However it is the principle of the thing. They did something I did not want and I want it fixed.

Home Depot was having a sale on insulation. They sent out a representative to measure the insulation in the attic. He came in a small VW Beetle so he did not have his own ladder. We happened to have one rickety, old ladder. Thankfully there were no accidents. Who comes to a site without equipment?! We got an appointment. It was quite a wait, they said they were backed up. The day came and no one showed up or called! Another appointment was scheduled. This time they were punctual. Everything seemed fine. Over the winter, there were a lot of icicles forming on the gutters. When we researched it, it would usually come back as an insulation issue. After thinking it over, in the summer, we got a second opinion on the insulation. Someone came by (with their own ladder!) and said that whoever did the insulation did a crappy job! All the insulation was in the middle of the attic and they did not spread it out. Also, they didn't put the maximum amount of insulation in, so basically we are having the job done again this fall, but it will be done right! This is the 2nd time Home Depot screwed me over, so I will never deal with them again. The 1st time was installing a front door at a different location.

The staff is always professional and knowledgeable.

unknown

unknown

I purchased the new wall oven via Home Depot's web site.  This transaction went fine.

What I did not know and, importantly, what was not emphasized on the Home Depot web page was that removal and installation of the oven was not included.  This, I found out, was handled by an outside contractor and was billed separately by Home Depot. The cost for the removal and installation was to be $129.00 plus any additional labor required to modify the cabinet that the oven was to be installed in. 

Sixty-nine dollars of this fee was charged initially for a "measurement visit."  The installer arrived as scheduled and measured the existing opening in the cabinet with the old oven in place. Only one man was sent for the job, so he was unable to remove the old oven; it weighed over 100 lbs.  He pulled the oven part way out of the cabinet to make his measurements.  When he was finished, he concluded that the cabinet opening was too small to receive the new oven, both in width and depth.  He was very reluctant to do the cabinet modifications himself.  He suggested that I buy a smaller oven!

This is when things began to go south.  I had previously carefully measured the height, width and depth of the cabinet opening and had downloaded the installation dimensions from the new oven's manufacturer's site.  After repeated measurements on my part of both the new oven, now sitting on our living room floor, and the cabinet, I was convinced that just a small strip of wood needed to be removed to make the new oven fit.

I was unable to convince Home Depot's installer of this.  He seem very unwilling to return with a helper to removed the old oven and then let me do the cabinet modification.  An electrical box needed to be relocated as well.

I visited Home Depot's appliance department and talked with two appliance department employees.  They could offer no suggestions.  It seemed to me that their hands were tied by company policy and they were locked in to the contracted third-party installer.

After consulting Angie's List, I called a nearby electrical contractor.  All it took was a brief telephone conversation to arrange for two electricians to show up two days later and remove and electrically disconnect the old oven.  Total time:  18 minutes.

I removed the small strip of wood from one side of the cabinet and remeasured.  All dimensions were within the specifications of the manufacturer's installation instructions.  Time for me to do this work:  about an hour.

I called the electrical contractor back and an electrician and an apprentice showed up the next day, moved the electrical box and installed the oven.  The new oven fit perfectly in the modified cabinet.  (What a relief!) The electricians also moved the electrical box outside of the oven compartment to an area behind a drawer below the oven.  This was the standard way to do the electrical hookup, they said. The Home Depot installer did not seem to be aware of this.  Total time:  1 hour.

Conclusion:  the Home Depot installer measured two of the three dimensions of the oven cabinet incorrectly; he left us a sketch of his measurements.  He knew, or should have known, that the new oven weighed 138 lbs and had to be lifted from the floor in the living room and installed in the kitchen at about 33 inches off the floor.  This should have been, and was, a two-person job. He also appeared to be unfamiliar with electrical hookup methods for wall ovens.

I elected not to dispute the $69.00 "measurement visit" charge.  I suppose I could have argued my way to a refund or partial refund, but it did not seem worth the aggravation.  As I did not use HD's contract installer for the installation, there were no further charges.

I told several people at Home Depot's appliance department during my phone and in-person conversations that HD should make it clear on their web page that installation was needed and was available for extra cost.

Note:  My "A" rating for quality above is not for Home Depot, but for the oven itself, a Whirlpool Gold Series.