My cabinetdoorstore.com Review and Experience

Back in October 2010 I was redoing our kitchen cabinets in the house we had just bought.  The previous owners had made the awful decision to paint over the existing oak cabinets with a cheap dark polyurethane and had done a horrific job of it – brush marks, splatters, drips and uneven spots everywhere (as you can see in the photo above).

So in the process of doing this I decided we just needed to replace the cabinet doors altogether and began to look around online for an inexpensive source of pre-made unfinished cabinet doors.  To my pleasant surprise I found there were many online retailers who would manufacture and ship made-to-order cabinet doors in all sorts of styles.  After looking at the prices of a few of them, I decided to go with a company whose website was http://www.cabinetdoorstore.com.  I didn’t know it at the time, but this was about to be a big mistake.

Now I realize that fabricating and shipping custom cabinet doors is a time-consuming process – I expected that it might take a solid 4 weeks from the day of order to when the doors would even be shipped no matter where I ordered them from.  So I decided to “get on the ball” and start the process right away.

The Sad Story

The way that cabinetdoorstore.com works is you first need to submit your door sizes and what style of door you want to order directly on their website, then wait until they reply with a line-item quote.  So I did that and the next day they replied with a quote for around $600 for the doors that I wanted to order.  The next step is that you need to call a toll-free number (1-866-668-6625) that they give you along with the quote # to place the order.  In the quote I was told to speak to Marilyn.  So I did just that, and that’s where the fun began.

Since they seemed to be located in an Eastern time zone, I called the toll-free number one weekday morning and got an answering machine.  I left a message giving my name, quote number and phone number and said I’d like to place an order.  That whole day went by with no return call, so I called again late in the day and got the same answering machine.  The following day I again called the number and got the answering machine and left another message saying I’d like to place an order.  Once again that whole day went by without a call back.  At this point I was on the verge of giving up on cabinetdoorstore.com, but I still wanted to order those doors, so the following day I gave it one last try; I called the number and once again got the answering machine.  Oh well.

It wasn’t until a day later that my phone rang and guess who it was?  Marilyn from cabinetdoorstore.com.  She didn’t apologize for calling me back so late but seemed nice enough.  In a somewhat bored tone, she spoke to me and I ended up placing the order and gave her my payment information.  I asked her for a guess on the time-frame and she told me about 2 weeks before the doors would get manufactured, so possibly 3 weeks before delivery.  That seemed pretty fast to me, so I thanked her and we hung up.  A minute later my phone rings again and it’s Marilyn – she forgot to tell me that the charge on my credit card would be from “Loyalty Solutions.”  Fine, I thanked her and we hung up again.

So I was glad that was taken care of and thought all I needed to do now was to wait for delivery.  A day or two later my credit card was charged for the agreed-upon amount, and it did say “Loyalty Solutions” on the charge.

Time passed.  I let four weeks go by and didn’t hear a thing from Marilyn either via email or phone or via a delivered package of cabinet doors.  So I decided to give Marilyn a call.  I called the toll-free number one weekday and got the answering machine.  I left a message with my name, phone and quote number and asked for status on the order.  No call back.  I called again later that day and got the answering machine again.  I’ll admit this wasn’t totally unexpected since Marilyn had done this before.

But I kept on it.  For the next 3 business days I called 2-3 times per day, getting the answering machine each time and leaving only one voice-message per day asking what was going on with my order.  At this point I had left 4 voice-messages over 4 business days and had still gotten no response.  And remember, cabinetdoorstore.com (or was it Loyalty Solutions?) had charged my credit card about 5 weeks prior and was sitting on my money.

So for better or worse I let another 4 weeks go by, hoping each day for a delivery and still not hearing back from Marilyn.  Occasionally I would call the number and would always get the answering machine.

That is, until one fine day.

About 8 weeks had gone by since the day I spoke to Marilyn and she charged my credit card.  I still hadn’t received  the cabinet doors that I ordered.  I wasn’t happy.  My dear wife wasn’t happy.  And I was starting to wonder – was this just your typical craftsman-business-incompetence or was it something else?

I called the number again, determined to talk to Marilyn or at least leave a voice-message that would convey my displeasure.  I called.  The phone rang.  And rang.  And rang some more.  But this time the answering machine wasn’t picking up.  Well, maybe they just had an off day.  So I called again the next day – same result, no answering machine.  I called again the next day and now apparently cabinetdoorstore.com had no answering machine at all!

So I tried a different tack.  I sent cabinetdoorstore.com an email (sales@cabinetdoorstore.com) politely asking for any word at all on my order, and letting them know about the last 8 weeks.  Then I waited a day and sent another email begging for any response at all.  After a few business days, none was forthcoming.

My Resolution

A full 9 weeks had gone by and there was no word from Marilyn and no delivery of cabinet doors.  They stopped answering their phone and no longer had an answering machine to take a message.  They also didn’t answer the emails I sent.  It was time to take action.

So I called my bank and disputed the charge that was made 9 weeks prior by cabinetdoorstore.com.  Fortunately for me, my bank issued an immediate “temporary” credit in the full amount of the charge while they “researched” the dispute.  They also let me know that if worse came to worst and they didn’t hear any response from cabinetdoorstore.com within 90 days, that they’d close the dispute and make the “temporary” credit permanent.

I was happy because I had my money and could go elsewhere to purchase the (now much-needed) cabinet doors.

Then about 90 days later I got a letter from my bank saying they had completed their dispute research and permanently credited the charge-back to my account.  I was free and clear.  Since it took my bank the full 90 days to resolve this issue, that means that even they couldn’t get a hold of Marilyn and the incompetent slouches that work at cabinetdoorstore.com.

To this day I haven’t heard back from Marilyn or anyone at cabinetdoorstore.com.

Lessons

I already knew (and accepted) that the vast majority of “craftsman” businesses don’t have great customer service.  That’s understandable, and not a problem for me.  But here are a few lessons learned from this experience:

• Be super-careful when dealing with craftsman business over the internet.  If they do anything during the first contact to throw you off, go elsewhere, or at least let them give you a reasonable explanation as to “why” (and if they don’t do it on their own initiative, go elsewhere).  Marilyn was quick to give a quote over the internet, but had to be “cajoled” into taking an order over the phone by my multiple phone calls.  Then when we finally spoke she offered up no explanation.
• If the website doesn’t give you a physical address (or if that address is outside of the country), go elsewhere.  Turns out cabinetdoorstore.com is located in Canada.
• Stay away from craftsman businesses that have a “chip on their shoulder” when it comes to customers.  A cursory read through the pages of the cabinetdoorstore.com website reveals a lot of passive-aggressive “attitude” against customers.  Here are a few of their condescending remarks: “If you’re like most people that visit the internet, you don’t like to read. Sorry, the only way you’re going to get anything from this is to read and understand it.” “If you’re not sure what you’re doing, stick with the Face Frame plate, even if you do not have face frames……” “Sorry there is NO easy way.“
• Don’t be played.  If you were given a time-frame, stick to it.  I would also expect that any time-frame given verbally would be broken (or denied – “we wouldn’t say that!”) by the business.  I should have disputed the charge with my bank at the end of week 5.
• After this experience here’s my new “craftsman business” policy: if they don’t return my call after 3 business days, the next call is to the bank to dispute the charge.

More Info About This Business

While doing a little more research for this article, I stumbled upon this website: http://www.weblocal.ca/reviews-randy-howse-custom-doors-mcgregor-on.html.  The company that these people are reviewing is called Randy Howse Custom Doors and is located at the same street address as cabinetdoorstore.com.  Their phone number is also the same as cabinetdoorstore.com.  In addition, according to this website, there is yet another name that they do business under – Aaron’s Kitchen Cabinet Hardware.  And if that wasn’t enough, the previous website links to yet another name and website that they do business under – Knobs Plus.  So it seems Randy Howse Custom Doors is doing business under multiple names – a well-worn tactic that many un-reputable, poorly-operated businesses take.

I also found this listing for them at the BBB of Western Ontario: http://www.bbb.org/western-ontario/business-reviews/doors/randy-howse-custom-doors-in-mcgregor-on-1051363.  As expected they are rated an F.

Finally, here is a collection of websites with customer reviews of Randy Howse Custom Doors and all his related business names:
http://www.shopinwindsor.com/Cabinet-Door-Store/492055.htm
http://www.windsorbusiness.com/listing.php?&id=5640&type=rate
http://www.weblocal.ca/reviews-randy-howse-custom-doors-mcgregor-on.html
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Randy_Howse_Custom_Doors
http://homestars.com/companies/2777930-randy-howse-custom-doors-inc
http://www.wikidomo.com/place/600649/called/randy-howse-custom-doors/in/mcgregor_ontario_canada
http://www.wikidomo.com/person/504245/named/randy-howse/at/randy-howse-custom-doors/in/mcgregor_ontario_canada
http://aarons-furniture-rentals.pissedconsumer.com/aarons-kitchen-cabinet-hardware-beware-20100223172260.html

I hope my experience helps you to steer clear of Randy Howse Custom Doors and/or Cabinet Door Store (cabinetdoorstore.com) and/or Aaron’s Kitchen Cabinet Hardware and/or Knobs Plus (knobsplus.com)!

December 2013 Update

I’m sad to see that so many are still currently having the same experience as I did two years ago with this company.  For those who have had or are in the midst of a bad experience with this company, I’d like to encourage you to post your experience on Yelp.  In case you didn’t know, Yelp is a very popular and reputable review website (and Yelp has some very popular smartphone apps as well), and I’ve noticed that there are no reviews at all for this company on Yelp.  A handful of negative Yelp reviews will certainly help others steer clear!  Here is the link:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/randy-howse-custom-doors-mcgregor