Our Horrible Experience With Expo Design Center of San Jose, CA
More than One Year and Not Yet Done...
In July of 2007, Kimi and I started a kitchen remodeling project with Expo Design in San Jose. We got a 10% discount on the project. So, doing the whole thing through Expo SEEMED like a good idea. We proceeded in picking out cabinets, appliances, flooring, tiles, etc... all from Expo. We were assigned a designer, "Our Kitchen Designer, MG", who laid out the kitchen for us according to our desires. While this process took a long time, we were excited about the kitchen that we were going to get.
The actual demolition of the kitchen was not scheduled to start until November. Kimi and I removed the old cabinets ourselves so we could re-use them elsewhere in the house. We were ready for them to proceed. The project has been going for over 1 year now - and we have been without a kitchen for over 8 months. We have had extensive delays due to:
Cabinets:
The cabinets we chose (Thomasville) are not of the quality that are on display at the store. We received cabinet doors with gaps in the seems that was, to us, unacceptable. The doors in the store do not show this. The store actually admitted that the cabinet display doors where hand picked from a sample!
Expo was unwilling to correct the door problem. So, we asked to meet with the Thomasville rep directly. It took Expo almost 2 months just to give us the contact information of the Thomasville rep. Fortunately, the Thomasville rep was very nice and ordered us new doors without resistance. So, why was Expo ("Our Kitchen Designer, MG") so uncooperative? We don't understand.
Countertops:
Expo quoted us $3800 for our countertops. "Our Kitchen Designer, MG" said that this cost was not exact because the exact cost would not be known until the countertop people made the template. And, the template could not be made until the cabinets were installed. We agreed that this was okay. What we could not understand is how "Our Kitchen Designer, MG" could, after the template was made, tell us that the cost was going to be $4500!!! How a "expert designer" can be off by over 20%, I still don't understand.
When we finally negotiated a countertop price, the countertop people came to make a template. NOBODY from Expo was there. And, Expo does not do this through a general contractor - they do it directly with the countertop vendor. So, the countertop people proceeded to make a template for the cabinets that were installed by the contractor.
After some time, the countertops arrived and were installed by the countertop vendor. At this time, "Our Kitchen Designer, MG" called me at work to ask me how many holes I wanted in the countertop, when she was the one that ordered all the apliances, including the sink and faucet!!! I told her, "enough holes to fit all the stuff that YOU ordered for my kitchen!"
Later, when the contractor looked at the countertops and the appliance list, they discovered that the countertop was cut too short and the cooktop would not fit! So, we had to make another countertop. The next time the countertop people arrived, again, NOBODY from Expo was there. So, the countertop people asked us (the homeowners) how it was supposed to fit!!!
Back to the Cabinets:
When the contractor started inspecting the rest of the cabinets to make sure the other appliances would fit, they found that the cabinet where the refrigerator would go was 36" wide and 71" tall. The refrigerator we ordered is 36" wide and 72" tall - and requires 1/8" of free space on each side and 2" of free space on top. Now, the cabinets at the end of the kitchen will need to be destroyed and replaced along with the tile floor that was laid around it.
No Garage Either:
Before Expo would start the project, they required that everything be delivered to the house. That meant that all the appliances and cabinets needed to be stored in the garage. Since that time, the cabinets have gone in. But, the all the packing material and other garbage was left in the garage. Since Thomasville has continued to ship replacement doors and now all the parts for fixing the refrigerator section of the cabinet, we still have a garage full of kitchen appliances, cabinets, and worst of all, garbage.
Check the Part Numbers:
After all the appliance problems, I started inspecting the appliance specifications myself. I found that Expo ordered us a hood that is 27" deep when our cooktop only requires a 24" depth version. We have a galley kitchen, so we do not want the hood to hang out into the galley isle. We told the Expo people that we wanted the hood to be as small as possible while meeting the requirements for the cooktop. When I checked the order sheet to see if we recieved the wrong hood, I found that Vent-a-hood places an "X" in the 11 digit part number to indicate a 27" depth. Nowhere in the order sheet description does it indicate a 27" depth.
When I confronted Expo with this, they wanted to charge us for restocking. They said that we signed the order sheet and where thus responsible for the appliances ordered. I find it unbelievable that they want to charge us a restocking fee when they have had the (wrong) hood sitting in our garage for over a year!!!
I guess the lesson here is that one must scrutinize the part number for every item ordered through Expo.
Update 1/2/2009 (13+ months now)...
In the past months, there has been more excitement. The city inspector failed to approve the electrical inspection because the cabinet lights were not installed properly. More importantly, an outlet was missing. The plumbing also failed. The result of this was that the contractor had to punch two holes in the outside of the house to correct the problems.
We're almost done! We at least have a mostly functional kitchen. The only thing remaining is the wine cooler. The problem is that the installers did not install the cabinets high enough to fit the wine cooler underneath it. They installed the cabinets as if we were putting linoleum on the floor (we have tile). So, the cabinets are too low. Expo is now looking for a solution.