ComplaintsforRiceland Cabinets Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  05/08/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My wife and I ordered custom cabinets from Riceland cabinets for our home at **** **** ******* ** ******** **** ***** in June of 2022 and a 50% deposit was paid to get the order started. When the cabinets were brought to our home to be installed Sep 26, 2023 the cabinet doors were not the door styles we ordered and the fireplace and mantle cabinets were not wide enough to fit our fireplace and also did not have the correct raised panel design that we ordered. *******, our salesman, came out and met with us and said he ordered the correct door styles but the shop built the wrong door style. ******* told us they could have the correct door styles built and install the correct door styles after the cabinets were installed. He also told us they would take the fireplace cabinets back and rebuild them to fit the space and build them with the correct door style. After many attempts to get things corrected with ******* with no success we were told that ******* was let go for making mistakes on several jobs. We were assigned a new salesman named **** who came out and looked over the job and took photos and measurements. Some time later **** got back with us with 2 options. Option 1 offered us a discount of $6500 to keep the incorrect door styles that were built and installed and gave us a completion date of early December for the completion of the kitchen and fireplace/mantle cabinets. Option 2 would be to build new cabinet doors in the style we ordered and the matching fireplace/mantle cabinet with an install date of after Christmas. My wife and I chose Option 1 because she wanted to move in and put our existing home in ********* on the market as soon as possible. The cabinets install was not completed until March 16th. For some reason they hadn't ordered the glass upper cabinet doors until March. I asked **** for an additional discount to compensate us for the additional 3 month delay in completing our cabinets. He agreed but didn't make the adjustment.

  Business response

  05/15/2023

  Dear BBB of ***** and Mr. ******,

  We thank you for your inquiry. Mr. ****** is correct but only on 1 issue and that is that his cabinets had the wrong door style. He was given full credit for that error. Mr. ****** then embarked on a journey to make changes/additions to the mantle through the month of January 2023. This took weeks and his response time was slow on a constant basis. How is Riceland to build and install cabinets in December in Mr. ******'s home and not know what he wants? Mr. ****** should check his emails on when he finally approved all drawings. Mr. ****** also demanded a certain installer and Riceland and Mr. ****** were then held to this sub-contractor's schedule. Riceland is a custom cabinet shop. Our normal lead times are 8-12 weeks AFTER FINAL APPROVAL FROM THE CUSTOMER. Mr. ****** continued to make changes to his mantle through January 31st, 2023.

   

   

  Customer response

  05/15/2023

   I am rejecting this response because:

  Riceland Cabinets is making more excuses. There is no reason a living room mantle should have prevented Riceland from completing the kitchen by the December completion date in the agreement.  The kitchen cabinets and the living room mantle are in separate rooms and not connected in any way.

  The living room fireplace mantle was built the wrong size due to errors in measurements taken by Riceland.  While they were redoing the cabinet due to incorrect measurements we did ask for some changes.  Again, the living room fireplace mantle should not have prevented the kitchen cabinets from being completed in December as agreed.  The glass doors for the kitchen that were in the original design were not built until March.
  

  I was told several times by several different Riceland employees that after Riceland let the salesman working with us go they had to distribute his workload among the remaining salesmen and their shop was experiencing delays due to the numerous jobs like mine that had to be redone.  

  I'm certain is the reason our kitchen wasn't completed by the December date in the agreement.  

  Business response

  05/19/2023

  Mr. ****** contends that there is an agreement that his job would be completed "by the December date". There is no agreement. Mr. ****** does not understand the retail custom cabinetry business as we have been in business since 1962. Riceland never puts a definitive/guaranteed completion date on any retail job. Why? Because we want the customer to get what they want. Retail customers have jobs and we have to schedule around them. Retail customers make changes and additions that can take weeks to complete. Mr. ****** needs to review his texts to our scheduler whereby he changed the install date on multiple occasions. Riceland will let customers know the date they are on the schedule but never a completion date. What happens if the installer breaks a door on installation date or drops a load of cabinets on their way in? Riceland would need to remake the door or all of the cabinets and on many occasions must order in special paint or material that can take 3-4 weeks to come in. We do not have a stock of items sitting in a warehouse, we must re-build from the raw material stage. Mr. ****** states that " Riceland Cabinets is making more excuses" We are not. Mr. ******'s job did not start out well but Riceland completed it's full obligation. It is Mr. ****** who is "making more excuses" to avoid paying the agreed upon amount for the agreed upon cabinetry. Did Mr. ****** get the cabinetry that he agreed upon? Yes! Did he pay for that cabinetry? No!

  Customer response

  05/22/2023

   I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Obviously whoever is responding from Riceland cabinets is not aware of the email agreement that was sent to me on Nov 7, 2022 and did not read the 3 pages of the agreement that was submitted with my original complaint to the BBB.  

  I have attached a copy of the full agreement as well as a copy zoomed to the section of the agreement dated Nov 7, 2022 stating "Timing would depend on which option you choose".  We chose Option 1 because it was to complete the cabinets for templating within 2 weeks which would have been approximately Nov 21, 2022 and the mantle was to be finished "Late first week of December".  Please read both of these documents from the Riceland email sent Nov 7, 2022 that I have added to the complaint today.

  The agreement clearly stated that the cabinets were to be completed for countertop templating in 2 weeks and the mantle would be completed separately by late  first week of December.  Riceland claims that changes I made to the mantle held up the kitchen completion which is absurd.  The mantle is in a separate room and is unrelated to the kitchen cabinet installation.  Riceland is obviously aware of the distinction between kitchen cabinets and mantle because in the email for Option 1 they had separate completion dates for the kitchen cabinets of within 2 weeks and another completion date of the mantle to be first week of December.

  Mr. ****** incurred 4 months of holding costs for the home because it wasn't inhabitable without a kitchen.  The kitchen could not be completed until Riceland upheld their agreement for Option 1 with a timing of 2 weeks from Nov 7th for the kitchen completion to get it templated for countertops.

  I don't know how much more clear I can make this.  I offered a fair and equitable payment to Riceland and they have refused.  We are prepared to defend our position in a court of law should Riceland choose to pursue a lawsuit. It should be a cut and dry case with the documentation I have provided here.

   

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