"Have you ever went into a Lowes, House Depot or Costco and asked to see the owner? Of course not; that's ludicrous. It does nevertheless shed some light on why buying services from the big box stores regularly ends in disaster. Let me state at the beginning that I have absolutely nothing versus the box shops. In truth I invest several thousand dollars there every year. If I require a product they carry I select it up, take it home, plug it in and use it. If it does not work effectively I return it for a replacement or my cash back. No issue. Have you ever tried to return a cooking area or bath remodel? Of course not; that's ridiculous too. That's another reason the big box model doesn't work well for complicated design/build jobs. Make no mistake the box stores want quite to supply premium services along with off the shelf products. It's not for lack of desire that they fail. Why would a house owner think about purchasing a cooking area or bath from a store like House Depot or Lowes?
There are 3 main factors:
1) We assume the rate will be better given that we benefit from their leveraged purchasing power.
2) We assume they will be around in case we have any warranty issues in the future.
3) They offer funding and/or other rewards.
Let's analyze these one by one. Initially, while it holds true that big chains purchase more volume than most retail outlets, they likewise obtain some items (eg cabinets) from name brand name makers that are not of the exact same quality as those the producer offers their retailers. This offers the box shop with much better margins but at the expense of the property owner who is getting an item of somewhat lower quality marketed under the same trademark name. Secondly, while many large chains have really excellent return and guarantee policies, once you add outdoors subcontractors and the subcontractor's subcontractors to the equation it ends up being incredibly tough to resolve any of the myriad issues that can turn up during or after a cooking area or bathroom remodel. Lastly, the offer of funding or some other token reward will never ever make up for the complications and aggravations often connected with box store construction jobs of any size. Also, a lot of merchants have access to third party financing and are ready to toss in a sink or some other item to close a sale.
Let's go through a streamlined example of contracting with a box store to have a cooking area redesigned. First the property owner goes to the cooking area department of the shop either with dimensions of their own or to schedule the store to send someone to their house to collect the essential details. So the very first person the homeowner has contact with is the salesperson in the store. Next a second individual goes to the house and sketches a floor plan which is taken back to the store and provided to a designer, which may or may not be the initial salesperson.
The designer works up a cooking area design and welcomes the homeowner to the store to review it and look a cabinet and counter top options. If other decisions are to be made, such as pipes or lighting fixtures, the property owner will need to deal with individuals in those departments to make those choices and get the items needed. Presuming that the homeowner approves the style and consents to the rate they then pay for the full cost of the cabinets and perhaps the counter top material also. The task is then committed the speeding up department to buy the materials and pick the subcontractor to offer the job to. This subcontractor in many cases has actually never ever seen the job and is sweating off a pay sheet that dictates what they make money for each job of a job.
It deserves keeping in mind that the primary subcontractor, hardly ever if ever, works on the project himself. They pass the task to one of their subcontractors who in turn uses whatever labor is at their disposal to do the job. None of the subcontractors who actually do the work wish to continue working under this arrangement any longer than they have to. For something, the pay isn't that excellent. The box stores squeeze the primary subcontractor so they can offer appealing pricing to their customers. The primary subcontractor in turn squeezes his subcontractors so that he can make as much as possible on each task. The subcontractor who does the work will give up as quickly as he has a better deal or can get a task of his own. Often this takes place in the middle of a task. It's not tough to picture what sort of issues that creates. The cabinets are delivered directly to the client's home where someone need to be waiting to accept the delivery. If the subcontractor who is to do the work is even somewhat professional he will examine the order for damage prior to deconstructing the house owner's kitchen hence avoiding a major bothersome hold-up if among the primary elements has shown up damaged.
Now you have some idea of the number of individuals included and how no one individual has followed the task from the really beginning to a happy conclusion. This method provides too numerous opportunities for miscommunication, lack of follow up and general apathy which lead to the horror stories everyone has become aware of lot of times. If a cooking area or bath remodel remains in your future, consider finding a smaller sized, maybe household owned company where personal attention and duty are the hallmarks. Cabinets and counter tops are commodities. The success and tension level of the project will be determined by the care and professionalism of the individual you work with and they must be there for the entire project."