Kitchen/Family Room Renovation
We chose to switch custom cabinetry suppliers at the final drawing stage. This decision was not made lightly and had nothing to do with the quality of product but everything to do with the behaviour of Andrew.
It is beyond any logic why Andrew steadfastly refused to accommodate a custom request given the unique situation we faced with the limitations of our flooring choices and challenges of dealing with a century home. Does this company not purport to be a custom cabinetry designer? The only reason given was that it wouldn't look as nice. Is it not my ultimate choice, as the customer, of what I will and will not accept as a design work around? But more egregious was the lack of integrity in dealing with the issue. Andrew was verbally informed by my designer in early March that this accommodation would be required. Further, he was informed in writing with a drawing of the requirement on March 17th. At no time between the verbal/written notice and the receipt of the final drawings on March 31st did Andrew inform my designer of his issue with the request. This lack of transparency and failure in collaboration and communication is unacceptable to me. I will not deal with an individual who so blatantly has disregard for his clients requirements nor the company that supports this behaviour.
This issue was not the only time Andrew tried to circumvent my designer's role in my renovation. Behaviour, again, that is unacceptable but was given a pass at the time with a hope that it was not going to happen again. I can only guess that he is incapable of collaborating with another designer as well as an old house that offers its challenges.
Escalation to the owner resulted in a response that we need to keep the integrity of our process in tact and that they hadn't modified a design like our request. Three other high quality and reputable custom cabinet makers quoted that the modification requested is easily accomplished and that they had done it before.
I am truly fortunate to deal with a designer and builder of such integrity and capability that they were able to offer me an alternative high quality cabinetry solution which has a better design in the same timelines within an incredibly short period of time. No fuss over the customization and design recommendations that will provide better utilization in both the kitchen and family room.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $40,000.00
- Company Response
Thank you Sandra for giving us the opportunity to work with you on your renovation project. Andrew and I hold a deep respect for you. You are a great person and we had no intention to have this situation escalate to this point. Andrew has been working with you for months and spent countless hours and company resources in this design process to ensure your complete satisfaction with the final product. That is why I called you personally yesterday to apologize and issue you a FULL refund. I do want to thank you for your compliments on the quality of our cabinetry. Everything we do we do to the best of our abilities, we take pride in it.
I want to be clear the breakdown here had nothing to do with you. The breakdown occurred with your contractor Laura very early on in the process.
You were not privy to all the goings on behind the scene and as a client nor should you have been. Your kitchen design was very simple and if Andrew was able to freely follow our process this situation would have ended very differently. Laura had very little respect for our process that has taken 50 years to develop and one that ensures ultimate client satisfaction after installation and beyond. In one conversation I had with Laura personally she questioned why we were not able to get the kitchen in production without all final framing in place. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from someone who purportedly has 40 years of experience! I have and will never put a kitchen order in production without all the final walls up, it is just too risky for everyone involved. Sandra you mentioned that in your contract with your contractor it is written that they will take full responsibility for any issues with the cabinetry. I don’t believe that takes the onus off us if something were to go wrong. In all cases we take full responsibility and warranty all cabinetry we build today and well into the future. Following borish instructions from your contractor on how the cabinetry should be built is a recipe for disaster. They are not cabinetry experts nor will they stand behind an issue with the cabinetry 3 years or 5 years from now.
The custom requests you sited that we could not accommodate for you were due to the fact that they were just bad ideas. Let’s also be clear that these bad ideas kept coming from Laura 4 days ago. To say that everything was established 3 weeks ago is unfair. You and Laura were still making final selection in our showroom 1 week ago.
Sandra I also want to share with you how we came to first know of your contractor. We were brought into a project they were removed from by the client. This client was not very happy with them and chose to move on with another contractor. I understand it was amicable but they did something after the fact that doesn’t sit well with that client or us. They asked to come back and take pictures of some of the work they did on this project and the client agreed albeit was a bit hesitant. The pictures they took included cabinetry designed 100% by Olympic Kitchens, they then made a decision to use those pictures in their own marketing material. I’m sure they will remove the pictures after reading this but you can go to their Houzz page and see OUR work on their main welcome picture. I cannot fathom how a company can steal another company’s work and call it their own. Oh wait the fun doesn’t stop there. This same picture of our work appears on a popular fireplace companies website and brochure for the fireplace used in that project. When I saw it I asked the client if they allowed the picture to be used and they said they had no idea. I called the fireplace company and they acknowledged this sensitive situation and were kind enough to compensate the client for the use of the images. I did not ask for a dime, I wonder if Laura did as those were the pictures she took. I didn’t disclose this information to Laura or yourself Sandra because it would just have gotten in the way of getting your project completed. At this point it just proves how little respect Laura has for us as a company let alone our process. The integrity in question here is not ours its Laura’s.Sandra I do wish you the best of luck on a successful end to your project, sincerely.
Louie Katsis
Owner of Olympic Kitchens