Lowes: If we promise to call him back, maybe he will get hit by a meteor stop bothering us

Why am I wigged out? Well, it's because Lowes Home Improvement in North Scottsdale, Arizona has pushed me just a bit too far. Please note this is my personal story battling the home improvement giant, and while your experience might be great, mine has led me to write this page. I am here to warn others who might be tossed around as I have been. This is my story.

Early in the morning of July 31, 2006 I went to my local Lowes to order "Quality Door" kitchen cabinet doors, drawer fronts, and trim. The folks in the cabinet department were quite friendly and they took the list of items I needed and spent the day writing up the order. Bright and early on August 1, I returned to Lowes to check their paperwork. Sure enough, the salesperson, Kim Moriarty, had written up the order perfectly. Everything was as it should be. I checked and double-checked each item and dimension, and made sure they had my phone numbers and address correct. As I said, everything was perfect. I took the order to the customer service desk and paid Lowes $2894.14 for the 26 items which were to be shipped to me.

Now, I have had experience with Quality Door products before, but previously had ordered them through Home Depot. Because I was a Lowes stock holder, I chose to order through them instead, this time. Kim Moriarty assured me that the items would be shipped to my house. Of course, I pointed out that the catalog said that items above a certain dimension would be shipped to the store, but she promised me that the rest would arrive at my house. Sure enough, the cash register receipt I got after paying said "direct delivery" after each of the 26 items. A notice on the order to be faxed to Quality Door said to deliver to the customer. Remember, I double-checked to make sure the address they had for me was correct.

Kim Moriarty also promised me a 3 to 4 week delivery window. I wasn't too concerned if it took longer. My last experience with Quality Door included an eight week wait, and then another three weeks for the item that they had forgotten to ship (according to Home Depot, it was Quality Door that was at fault for that). Like I said, I wasn't too worried about the wait time.

Sure enough, 3 to 4 weeks passed by and nothing. I wasn't worrying. Then it was 8 weeks. Still nothing. I decided to wait one more week. Finally, 9 weeks and one day after I had ordered and paid Lowes, October 4, I made the phone call to the cabinet department at Lowes to ask about my order. Now, I am usually quite good-natured, so I was quite pleasant on the phone. I was so good-natured that I didn't even ask the associate for his name; he probably told me, but I didn't retain it in my head. So, Mr. No-name took my information and fed it into the computer and realized that yes, I had ordered two months ago. He wanted to get to the bottom of the problem and asked for my phone number so he could call me back.

One week later, on October 11, I still had received no call back. So this time I decided I would speak to a manager. Definitely a manager could get to the bottom of this. I spent a good deal of time on the phone with the assistant or associate manager, Jane Galvan. Jane asked my phone number and through that was able to look up my order. Yes, I had ordered on August 1. She found some notation for August 10th in the computer system. She didn't explain it fully, but said something about Lowes calling or faxing Quality Door on that day stating to the effect that, no, the order wasn't cancelled and that they should go ahead with it. That might not be the exact notation on her computer, but it was something similar. Like I said, she didn't explain full, nor did I ask. I trusted her.

Another thing she explained was that, according to her computer, it looked like the order had been fulfilled, and it sure looked like it had been delivered. Now, I would know if it had been delivered. It's a lot of stuff (26 pieces) and I am here at home all day, every day. If a shipping company had been to my door and found me out (yes, I do go to the supermarket or on bike rides), they certainly would have found me at home later on in the day. I am never away from the house longer than two hours. Not to mention, the shipping companies would certainly have my phone numbers. Jane and I surmised that perhaps the order had been shipped to Lowes and signed for by the shipping department at the store.. Of course, the shipping person was out for the day. She promised that she would leave him a message to look for my order and she would know more when she called me on Friday.

Jane was a very pleasant person and has two offpring serving in the U.S. armed forces. My hat's off to a mother who can raise responsible children who serve our country. In fact, it was because the second child was about to enter the service that she couldn't take care of me on the following day; it was her son's going away gathering and she wouldn't be at work. Now, I am a patriotic American, so I didn't put up a fuss. I told her that I could wait until Friday. She promised that she would look into it and call me on Friday, probably early in the afternoon. Because I had now had experience with the Lowes "I'll call you back" promise, I asked for the name of her supervisor, just in case. She replied that Kevin Miller was her immediate supervisor, but I wouldn't need to call him since she promised to call me back, probably early afternoon.

October 13th came, a Friday afternoon, and no call from Jane. Okay. Now I was getting impatient. 4:30 in the afternoon and still no call. It was now 48 hours since I had last spoken with her, so that was enough time, I felt. I called Lowes again and asked for a manager. I spoke with somebody named Michael who said I really needed to take this up with Jane. Well, I have had experience with Jane and she doesn't follow through; I was still waiting for her call. So I asked to speak with Kevin Miller, her supervisor. Of course, he had gone home for the day and wouldn't be back until Monday. So I asked to speak with Jane. She was out at lunch. So I asked Michael to explain to Jane that she needed to call me back immediately upon her return.

I got the call back and explained to Jane that I needed her to put together an entire report for Kevin Miller so that when I spoke with him on Monday, he would know the entire story. She said, "But I told you I would call you back, and now I am calling you back at my earliest convenience." Now that set me going. First of all, I had to call the store to get her to call back. She had told me she would call back in the afternoon, probably early afternoon. And now at 5:40 pm, she told me, in effect, that it this was what was convenient for her. I explained that it's about time that Lowes started trying to do what is convenient for me. That's why I needed her to make sure Kevin Miller was up to speed on my issues. To be fair to Jane, she did apologize for the "I called you at my earliest convenience," remark after I told her how upset that had made me. On the other hand, she had no idea where my order was.

That night, Kevin Miller called me from his home. Now, there's a store manager who seemed to care; I could even hear his kids in the background. I explained the times and dates and expenses of my Lowes experience. I explained that it seemed that the Lowes "I'll call you back" promise was closer to, "If I promise to call him back, maybe he will get hit be a meteor and never bother me again." I explained how upset I was that Jane was calling me at her convenience, when most retail establishments should push for the customer's convenience. I explained that it would have been okay with me even if Jane had asked somebody to call me with the news that she still hadn't heard back from Quality Door.

One thing did get cleared up, though. The Lowes computer system shows delivery is complete if the delivery is from the manufacturer directly to the customer's house. There's no way for the computer system to know that it's been shipped or not. So, if the item ordered is to be shipped to the customer, and not to the store, then it will be listed as already shipped in the Lowes system. So, at least that mystery has been solved.

So, as of this point, Kevin Miller has promised that he will look into the problem when he first gets in on Monday. He said he would call me, but I told him that with my experience, I think it's better if I do the calling. So, I will be calling him at about 10:00 or so. That will give him time to look into the matter and call Quality Door. And yes, he did give me his supervisor's name and a way to contact that person if I have trouble.

Update, October 17: Well, Mr. Miller, the manager of Lowes in North Scottsdale, came through. He called me early on Monday to tell me that he had located my order. As I suspected, it had been sitting in the Lowes storage area since its delivery to the store in early September. It seems that the Lowes computer system has no way to track orders if they are to be delivered from manufacturer directly to the customer. So, if the shipment is delivered to the store rather than the customer, it shows up listed as already delivered; indeed, from the day I paid for the order back on August 2nd, the Lowes computer system listed it as already delivered. And what did the warehouse people do when this strange order came onto their loading dock? Not much, I guess. The boxes I eventually received were covered in dust.

At least Kevin Miller called me, though. We arranged to have Lowes deliver the order bright and early on Tuesday morning, "only" two and a half months after I originally paid. Any apology? Nope. I think Lowes is hoping a meteor hits me. At least they got one thing out of the deal; I won't be bothering them again. Instead, as I spend many thousands of dollars more in home improvement stores, I'll stay clear of Lowes.

By the way, Quality Door's products are quite nice. That's the only reason I have gone with them again, even after the problems I had with them the first time.

If you are trolling for email addresses for spam, you can email uce@ftc.gov. Otherwise, wigout at this domain will work just fine if you want to get in touch with me.