Furniture Assembly isn't Expensive, it's Priceless!

Once again we have received several disturbing calls from people who hired someone to assemble their furniture or have their kitchen cabinets installed only to have them damaged, broken, or incorrectly assembled or installed.

I can't for the life of me understand why people go to Ikea, Crate & Barrel, or spend thousands of dollars on kitchen cabinetry only to have it assembled or installed by the person who quotes them the lowest price. Then they call us which ends up costing them more because they already paid some schmuck to do the job, now they have to pay us to come back in and try and fix their mistakes. With furniture it can be a simple fix or at least a minimum cost, but kitchen cabinets are another ballgame. I have seen so called expert installer utterly destroy thousands of dollars of cabinetry by not doing something as simple as mounting the cabinets to studs. I will never forget this one lady who contacted us last November to have us assemble and install about 10 base and 15 wall cabinets from a high end stock semi-stock cabinet company. We quoted her a price that was fair and competitive considering the work that was involved because the wall that seperated the kitchen from the living room was not well built and had studs every 4-5 feet so we would have to take down the sheetrock and reframe the wall and while we were in there we suggested that we run a support brace between each suds for the cabinets to screw into which would act as extra support, and since we were already opening the wall it would only be a hundred or two difference in cost. I felt she would understand the idea and reason for the added support since she made it a point in every email and at least a dozen times during our intial meeting how she would be storing her great Grandmothers fine bone china that was a perfect set and valued at $35,000.00. Which she even went as far as to insure it against theft, fire, etc.

Well, to make a long story short, she informed me very nicely that another company had provided a quote that more than half less than what we estimated. We never consider a person's financial status when calculating the estimate, unless the person has special circumstances such as a single mother trying to make it, or a family who has been through some sort of bad times. However, if the person is well off, great for them! We post our rates on our website to let people know that everyone pays the same. My point being is that this person was well to do and could had afforded to have any cabinets installed by anyone but choose to go with the lowest bidder. The minute I read the email red flags started popping up and I knew what the end result would be. She explained that she really wanted our company to do the work, but wanted us to match the other bidder's quote. I wrote her back and immediately and thanked her for her offer, but there was no way that we could do that amount of work for such a low price. I told her that she should really think this out because if someone submits such a low price compared to three or four other companies who are in the same range, it is normally a sign that the person is new to the business, will do a poor job because they can't afford to do a quality job at that price, or both. Professional companies have operating costs like insurance, rent, license fees, etc, plus quality technicians don't work for peanuts. Nevertheless, I didn't hear back from her until Thanksgiving.

I will never forget this call as long as I live. It was early afternoon and I had traveled to Pennsylvania to be with family for the holiday and my phone began to ring frantically. My daughter said " Daddy, don't answer the phone it's a howeyday and you don't work on howeydays" She was right so I looked at the number and didn't recognize the number so we went about our day, but the phone just continued to ring and ring and ring. Now I was getting upset because this person had called over 30 times in a half hour. then I got worried maybe a friend or coworker was involved in a accident so i decided to call the number back. Before i could even dial the number the phone was ringing again so I answered it and it was the lady who had the kitchen job from 3 weeks ago which we lost to another company. She was in tears crying to me about what happened. After about 20 minutes I was able to understand because she was at the point of hysteria that I was in fear for her health trying to tell her to relax. Well, she had the company that low balled the job do the installation and on Thanksgiving she invited her entire family over and all the women were helping to prepare the big turkey dinner when the first set of cabinets came down smashing everything inside and underneath them. Then like a domino effect they all began tearing each other down breaking every piece of her precious china and smashing her $12,000 granite countertop. I asked her if she called the company that did the installation company, she informed that they didn't have a business card on them and gave her their # in the event she had any problems or needed more work. She told me she called the number they wrote down but it was to a cell phone that was out of time. I thought to myself here is another victim of their own doing. What professional company can't afford a land line or has such bad credit they have to use a pre-paid phone.I really couldn't understand why she was calling me. I guess she just wanted to speak to someone who understood the problem because we can't turn back time and save her china or counter. I finally got her to relax and told her to keep trying to contact this person and I would come by the coming Monday to assess the damages. I also suggested she contact her insurance company since she had insurance on the china.

Before I hung up the phone I knew exactly what happened and was only going there Monday out of pure sympathy for this poor lady, because there was nothing I could do to bring back all her china and the damages and above all embarrassment. As soon as I arrived she began crying again telling me that the insurance company declined her claim because it didn't cover damages as a result of improper installation and/or poor workmanship. She finally got a hold of the " big time " contractor who scraped up a ten spot for minutes only to hear that he wasn't a company and was living in a drop in shelter! Surprise??? Nope!!! I walked into the kitchen and every single cabinet was busted with the sheetrock torn off showing the bare framing and her electrical wires and water pipes. I moved up closer to the wall because I noticed the floor was wet about 6 feet from the sink and saw a screw they drilled directly into the water pipe and was only dripping but would eventually come out and flood the house or drip until it filled her wall, floor and neighbors below with mold and water damage. In a way it was a blessing that the cabinets did come down because if that leak never blew it would be trapped behind the wall and I would hate to think of the damages that would have happened if that blasted water for even just a few minutes never mind an hour or so if they had to call in the super to come in and shut off all the water to the building because at first they wouldn't know exactly where it was coming from. It could have been a real nightmare! I really didn't want to bring this mess to the attention of the building management for this persons sake. I was able to locate a shut off valve in a closet and cut the water off. Then we removed everything and used towels on the floor and a special funnel and hose we made to run the water to the sink because their was a lot of pressure in that pipe. I had the plumber fix the pipe and we went ahead and went with the original plan to strengthen the wall and run braces between the studs, hang new sheetrock with the wall behind the sink being water resistant. We painted it and sold her cabinets from a company we are a distributor for at our cost, and did the cabinet installation at just enough to cover operating costs and actual labor costs. In total she ended up spending about $50,000 for a job we could have done right the first time for under $20,000, and that doesn't include her financial losses in regard to the china and counters.

In my next posting I will tell you to look for in a quality contractor and what red flags should send you running the other way. Always remember that " Quality isn't Expensive, it's Priceless "!