Day 122  – Wrong Cabinets Delivered by Adair Homes and Other Updates

There are a lot of emotions that go into building a new home. The excitement of selecting finish options. The stress of meeting deadlines. The frustration of not getting things done on time. The jubilation of getting over a hurdle. The disappointment when things don’t come out as planned.

It takes a lot of debate and decision when building a new home; we spent hours going over different finish options. With Adair Homes we liked the fact that the options we had were finite, we didn’t have to go to home depot and choose everything from scratch.

With that said, there were a few choices for white cabinet colors and unfortunately the white color that we picked out, was NOT the one that was delivered to the house. I admit there was some confusion with how it was written in the order by the Adair Homes Sales Counselor. It was put in as “Dove White” which was the color that was delivered, but there was a clarification to “Bright White” in the order as well. When we asked about this prior to signing we were told that this was how it had to be put into the system.

Knowing this, we asked and emailed multiple times to make sure that what we got, was what we wanted. Each email and conversation we had with the sales team confirmed that what we would receive was the “Bright White” also called “Classic White”.

The first disappointment of the week was when we went to look at the cabinets that had been delivered, only to see that the doors were not aligned and the color looked different than what was in the show room.  I called our site superintendent and was reassured that the doors would be adjusted once the cabinets were installed and that he would check on the color.

After checking on the color, he got back to me and said that what was delivered was indeed the Dove White cabinets. Of course he referenced earlier in the home order where it states Dove White. Basically, he said he couldn’t do anything about it and referred me to his higher up.

I called the next guy up and he again stated that the home order said Dove White, that it was our problem, and that the clarification meant nothing. He also said that the clarification only referenced the butler pantry. I did not have the home order in front of me at the time so I could only go off what he told me. After getting home and looking at the home order, the clarification states “cabinet clarification: kitchen and butler pantry to be BRIGHT white painted”; with BRIGHT in all caps.

We were given two options. 1) we could get it corrected and put a hold on the project, which would put our finish date out two months or 2) we could accept the incorrect cabinet color and keep things moving forward.

We were not given an option for rectifying the issue or offered a concession for what was not our mistake. I was also told the regional sales manager had no interest in looking into the issue or doing anything to amend the situation. There was also mention that this is how “corporate” has done it in the past. I left the conversation feeling very disappointed in the customer service of Adair Homes.

I was able to find an email where one of the sales agents confirmed with us that we were supposed to be getting the “Classic White” cabinets and forwarded it on. After review of that email we were offered a small concession. We decided to accept the concession and keep things moving forward with the installation of the cabinets.

It was a very frustrating and disappointing day going back and forth with phone calls. If that is truly the “corporate” culture of Adair Homes, it is very unfortunate. To put the blame on the customer or push the issue on someone else, is very poor customer service. I know he was not involved in the sales process, but those mistakes were still done by Adair Homes employees.

Mistakes happen, that is okay; but to not offer a resolution and to say the customer is the one at fault is bad business practice. I truly hope that this is not what Adair Homes is about and that our cabinet issue gets resolved quickly. There are a lot of emotions that go into building a new home and it is unfortunate when the builders name is associated with the word “disappointment”.

Other Progress this Week on New Home

Beyond the disappointment of how Adair Homes handled the situation of delivering the incorrect cabinets, we did make some progress elsewhere.

The gas company finally got out and was able to install the gas meter.

Our excavator worked on the front porch. He had to bring in extra rock and compacted it. We met with him and the concrete guy to discuss the design of the front porch. We were able to pick out the color of the concrete stain and the design of the stamp. He is shooting for December 10th to get that poured (weather dependent).

The painters did not get around to painting the exterior, but they were able to work on caulking the exterior. We now just have to find an opportunity in the forecast without rain so they can paint the exterior.

Next week the cabinets are supposed to be installed and the countertop people are supposed to be out on Thursday to template the countertops.

There have been a few small things along the way that have been a disappointment, but the cabinets are the first big issue. If you’re thinking about building with Adair Homes I hope you continue to follow along to see how (or if) Adair Homes fixes the mistake with the cabinets. Thanks for following along!