Complaint Review: Value Flooring and Cabinets - Lindenhurst Illinois

 We trusted Value Flooring and Cabinets based on a good experience with product from them 2 years ago.  We redid a small condo in June of 2011 and ordered kitchen cabinets from Value, the cabinets delivered and installed were as represented by the company and we were very pleased with them. 

We bought a slightly larger condo this summer and are redoing it.  Because of our previous experience with Value, we intended to order the same cabinets.  However, when we went to them, they told us they no longer carry that line but the have another line to replace it and it is a much better quality cabinet.  They didn't have a display in their store but showed us other displays and said that the Debut cabinets they were pitching were every bit as good.  They said that the Debut cabinets were better than anything we could buy at the Big Box stores and to go there would be a waste of money.  We told them we wanted solid plywood on the cabinets that had exposure on the sides and we wanted no center stiles on the cabinets among other features.  We also looked at flooring, countertops and backsplash tiles for the kitchen.  We agreed to the Debut cabinets as respresented, the manfufacturer has three levels of quality and we expected the mid level cabinet based on the presentation and descriptions from Value. 

Jay Klopack came to our house to make a final presentation and give us pricing.  I told him I needed to see everything we had discussed broken out line by line.  He didn't bring the proposal that way, he brought it all as one lump sum with no specifics as to the line quality of the cabinets.  He was very pursuasive and assured us again about the high quality of the cabinets we would be getting, better than our other cabinets from the previous project.  We signed the non specific order on Thursday July 18 for cabinets, flooring, countertops, backsplash tile and installation of all of it at 4:30 pm.  We also wrote a check for a deposit of $12,800.  I asked Jay when the cabinets would be ordered and he said that nothing would happen with the order until it was confirmed on Wednesday the 24th.  He said the flooring was in stock and could be ordered at any time.

I worried about the non specific order and was uncomfortable with the few details so the next day at 4:45 pm, Friday July 19 I called and left a message on voice mail to call me, that we had moved faster than we were comfortable with and needed to hold the order.  The store is open till 7:00pm but I didn't get a call back.  By Saturday at 10:30 when I hadn't gotten a call, I again called the store and Jay answered.  He said I couldn't cancel the order, he had already placed the order and sent in their deposit.  I told him to call the manufacturer and cancel the order and he told me he couldn't do that, it was too late.  I told him he had to cancel the order and we would be in on Monday morning to discuss it.

I worried all weekend about Jay's unwillingness to cancel the order so I stopped payment on our check.  Immediately after calling the bank, I called Value and left them a message to tell them I had stopped payment and to call me back.  Rich, the owner, called me back about an hour later.  When I told him I stopped payment on the check he began to yell at me and threatened to call his lawyer.  He said they are just a small family business and they would lose the money they sent in with our cabinet and flooring order.  Rich called me dishonest and a bad person.  He had Jay call me and I got more of the same.  I also got text messages from Rich, the last one saying that if I didn't come in and settle this with them by 4:30 that day, (Monday 7-22) he would be forced to call his lawyer.

By this time we were very upset and feeling intimidated and bullyied.  We went in to their store about 2:30 in the afternoon on 7-22.  There was more intimidation by both Rich and Jay.  Rich told me that he had paid $5000 for the cabinets and $4,000 for the flooring.  We offered $10,000 but Jay insisted on all $12,800.  Then Rich said that $10,000 wouldn't cover tax and shipping or give them any profit.  He said $11,200 would be OK and if we wrote out a check for that amount he wouldn't have to call his lawyer.  Because we thought we were getting good cabinets and good flooring, we agreed to buy only those two products from them for a price of $11,200. 

The cabinets were delivered the week of August 13th and our installer began installing on the 14th.  When I went to the condo at the end of the work day and saw them I was dismayed.  There were manufacturing defects on almost every cabinet and they were the lowest grade of quality of the three that the manufacturer makes.  On one cabinet the doors overlap and cannot be adjusted, there is a center stile on one of the cabinets, the lazy susan is not what I expected and the exposed sides of the cabinets are particle board covered in paper.  I called on the 14th and left a message for Jay or Rich to call me asap that there were problems with the cabinets.  I called again and Rich answered, he said there should be wood skins for the sides of the exposed ends.  I told him there weren't any and that these cabinets didn't compare to the ones I got before.  Again he said that the Debut line was much better than the previous ones I purchased and he would have Jay come out. 

Jay came on Friday 8-16.  While showing him all the issues with the cabinets and the poor sanding and finish quality, I actually got a sliver in my thumb from a cabinet door.  He said he didn't understand why they were so dirty under the finish and that we shouldn't have unboxed them all because "now they won't take them back."  He said we would call the manufacturers rep and get back to me.

The mfg rep came out on 8-20 in the am.  He agreed there were lots of mfg. defects and would do what he could to replace the affected cabinets.  Because there were so many problems, I asked him if I could expect the replacements to be any better.  He said that based on the lowest quality line that was ordered, he couldn't guarantee it.  I asked, based on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being best, what level of quality were these cabinets.  He said they were a 4. 

We also learned that the order could have been cancelled up until the mfg. had a confirmation from Value which was AFTER we reissued the check.  Value deceived and bullyied us into thinking that we were liable for $9,000 worth of product and would be sued if we didn't re issue the check and order.

We don't have a leg to stand on in terms of recourse because we didn't insist on extremely detailed specifications for the cabinets that we were expected and had been promised to us.  We should have followed what our instincts were telling us and followed through with the order cancellation.  Now we have cabinets that are very poor quality that leaves such a bad feeling that we will not use them.  We will try to recoup some of our money by offereing them for sale on Craigslist.  In the meantime we have ordered other cabinets and are set back 5weeks on our project and $6,000.

Our second experience with Value Flooring and Cabinets has been stressful, intimidating, demeaning and costly.