Home Depot, Vernon Hills, IL - trouble with hardwood flooring purchase and installation

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on November 29, 2002:

From:

RE: Home Depot, Vernon Hills, IL - trouble with hardwood flooring purchase and installation

Dear Complaints.com Manager- I don't have the name of anyone at Home Depot's corporate headquarters yet, but I'm hoping you can help us out by forwarding it to someone that can help move a resolution along quickly. I also plan on working with some local news companies that does this type of story. I was just helped from buying a convertilbe sofa from Jennifer's convertables due to one of those "buyer be ware "shows I recently watched. I don't want to see others go through what we are going through. Many of my friends have recently sold there shares of Home Depot and when went to one of their competitors they said they get complaints about Home Depot's flooring work all the time. 10/04/02 We begin getting quotes on having Hardwood Floorings installed into our home that we will be closing on. We chose Bruce Hardwood Floors to match the hardwood flooring already in a couple of rooms. We chose to pay a little more overall (mostly labor side) and use Home Depot as we thought they would be a more reputable and would be a safer choice over a smaller company that might not be as stable. 10/21/02 We closed on our new house in Vernon Hills, IL and have Home Depot's measuring person come out to measure and pay non-refundable deposit. The person comes out to measure and was rude to my wife, stating that his job is only to measure and he doesn't have time to replace the heat vents that he pulled up. We also would have to wait five days for an exact quote. 10/30/02 After many calls into Home Depot, we finally get our quote and place the order as they mention they have the hardwood in stock. We are having our newer home (built in 1999) purchase completely professionally painted, ducts cleaned before we move in... so we told Home Depot that time was important and that is part of the reason we bought from them. We were told the job would be completed on 11/09/02 and planned to have the whole house painted except the hallways and family room (where the installation was to occur) and would have the ducts cleaned and painting completed by 11/13/02 so we could move into our new home. 11/09/02 After many more calls, and finding that Home Depot had not placed the order for the parts yet... the quoted installation date was moved back to 11/15/02. 11/14/02 Again, after my wife had to initiate the calls to find that some items were back ordered such as the 1/4 inch wood underlayment, reducer, molding, etc... 11/15/02 Installer came out and (after my wife mentioned that he might as well wait until tommorow when the other pieces get here) said we didn't need the 1/4 inch underlayment, reducer, molding, etc... for him to start the job. Well, he went ahead and started it. He installed the hardwood flooring backwards ... with the lip that connects to the toungue against the wall on most of the boards and cut the others at the end of the room.

Now the tongue won't fit into the floor, the kitchen floor is 1/4 inch higher than our family room so our 18 month old Son and newborn daughter will possbily trip on the flooring and it won't look professionally done. I understand from our painter/handyman that the installer was drunk/hung over one day while installing and the installer is being worked over 70 hours per week so was exhausted. He told both the painter/handyman and my wife not t! o tell anyone about it. 11/18/02 We placed many calls to Home Depot, including our sales associate (Lee) and we sent to there CIS Dept. (I assume that means customer installation services) and asked that a Home Depot Manager be sent out to look at the work not the installation company, but they sent Tony (Owner of Installation Company) and Pat (Supervisor) who tried to cover up the errors that day. 11/19/02 (Evening) After I went into the Vernon Hills, IL Home Depot store and spoke with Lee (who we thought was the Flooring Manager)... he told us to call the CIS department again on 11/20/02 and insist they send someone out from Home Depot. 11/23/02 Finally, Lee went to our home and verified the mistakes. We were told that all was needed was someone from Home Depot to go out and verify the poor installation job. Lee said it was a terrible job and they should redo it correctly. 11/27 After no word/follow up from Home Depot or CIS, I called into Lee at Home Depot CIS again. They said they report from Lee was just being called in (must have been after the message we left). CIS said they would have Home Depots Manager and Installation Companies Owner come out and if everything is as we stated and Lee stated, the Installation company will pay to have floor removed, 1/4 inch underlayment board put in, any damage to our home's (built in 1999) floor repaired, and damage hardwood flooring replaced. We have also asked for a credit since we have delayed our move by two weeks already (mortgage is $2,500 per month) and my wife has had to hire baby sitters, and we both have spent a lot of time dealing with there mistakes.

My point is that we hired Home Depot, the installer represents Home Depot as an Agent... we should only be dealing with Home Depot and they should honor! their word and work. Why are we the ones always initiating calls, why do we have to have the installer back in our home (knowing they will try to cover up and argue with us) when the Home Depot person (Lee) that was sent out has confirmed the errors and we were told that was all it would take? My wife is afraid the installer will do something crazy as he knows where we live!!! 11/29/02 We had to call CIS and Home Depot (Lee) again as well as the Assistant Store Manager. We were told the Ast. Store Manger would be in at 9am and it is now 11:00am and still no call back. We want Home Depot to either give us a large credit for the work and provide a transition solution between rooms that will be safe for the children and professional looking in appearance or a medium sized credit and redo the work correctly. And we want a solution quickly as we are paying a mortgage and not living in the home. We also don't want to be wasting all our valuable time and energy on this. Thank you for your support, Bill Bilkey