So here is another way of breaking down the issues. Here are the problems with Lowe’s:
- the salesperson/project coordinator took the order for white windows with almond interiors (this would color match exterior and interior and deal with the issue that we have interior wood trim but wood windows would be high-maintenance and more expensive). She then called a few days later, i.e., after the 3-day contract dissolution time, to say that they can’t do those windows and we have to go with white or simulated wood-grain. Since the interior is almond, we went with wood grain after having inspected her samples. That turned out to be a bad choice because of the horrible way Reliabilt makes those windows (see other posts about this).
- the salesperson/project coordinator strongly recommended the contractors, saying they were the best installers, had a great track record, would get the job done quickly, etc. There is no way she could have said that honestly after experiencing the poor performance during installation.
- the salesperson/project coordinator then would begin a habit of not communicating when we, the homeowners, raised issues.
- the salesperson/project coordinator had to take a week or so medical leave I am guessing it was a week because she didn’t respond to voicemails and texts starting Dec 4, and it went through Dec. 12). During that time, we got a phone call from another employee at Lowe’s saying she was filling in for the coordinator; however, when she agreed to follow up on a problem that day, she never did contact us before she left work, and we have never heard from her again.
- the store has phone problems. Every call to Lowe’s takes requires going through the service desk; however, they never pick up the phone until the system has gone through 8-10 cycles of trying the service desk for 15 seconds and then going back through the menu system.
- the store has busy/unavailable/poor managers. If I do get a hold of the service desk and ask for a manager on duty, I typically get put on hold again, and then half the time I am disconnected. The other half result in going back to the service desk so they can try again. The first manager to which I gave the description of the installation problems and need to get the kitchen vents resolved took down my name and number to follow up but never did. The 2nd time doing that with a manager (but taking down his name for the record) resulted in the salesperson/project coordinator calling me within 10 minutes.
- the salesperson/project coordinator promised new kitchen and dryer vents but tried to have the installers paint the existing rusted one and use a cheap bathroom vent instead of a dryer vent.
- Lowe’s had some kind of problem delivering the windows on time. The last-mile shipper told us that Lowe’s did not load their truck with the materials so for the first day of installation, the windows arrived late morning, causing a delay.