You have got to be KIDDING!

More rounds of telephone tag. More chats with people at Home Depot who have no authority or accountability. Finally the call from Rose at Monarch. "I'm calling to confirm our installation of those two cabinets for the morning of January 15, 2008." WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She then proceeded to tell me that there is no way they could come any sooner, they're swamped with work. Okay, my contract (and my very large cheque for payment in full... up front!) has a July 22, 2007 date on it... what dates are you working on right now? Should you not finish your older jobs first? Particularly since I can't use my microwave now, never mind the cold wind blowing in through the exposed vent where it will eventually live, and my car is parked on the street in the snow because there ins't room for it in the garage. Oh and let's not forget the week of vacation I wasted while waiting for things to get done that didn't get done. "Sorry. We're trying to hire more installers and if we get someone sooner we can move it up."

Then a discussion with Shelley, the project manager at Home Depot. "What do you want us to do?" I want you to send someone over to install my two cabinets, put on the crown molding and the light rail so Bob can come and finish the wiring for microwave and let me get on with my life!!! If Laurie would have ordered that cabinet in the right size in the first place, everything would have been done a month ago!!! I'm not waiting another six weeks. I'm NOT. "My hands are tied. All I do is schedule things and keep track of what's happening." Oh yeah? Okay, I will hire someone myself to do this maybe-2-hour job and Home Depot can refund me whatever it costs me for that. "Well, I can't authorise that. Only a manager can do that. I'll have to get one of them to call you back." I have to go to work in 90 minutes, so when will that happen? Let him talk to Rick. (His response to January 15? "Are you F***ING KIDDING ME?!!!") "I'm so sorry about all this Jan, I know it's very frustrating. But we really have nothing to do with the actual installations, we have subcontractors for that. It's the Alberta Advantage, you know, too much work and too few people to do it." Shall I puke now, or restrain myself until I'm off the phone? It's been more than an hour since I talked to her and I'm still furious. And the manager has yet to call. Rick has found the contact information for Mike Holmes and he's getting things together to tell him our horror story. Seriously, Mike needs to consider whether he wants his reputation tied to this outfit. Mom told me today that Bruce told her that people in the industry know Home Depot is a fly-by-night operation. They don't take responsibility for anything but collecting the money, they hire companies like Monarch without checking the credentials of their installers, and then when there are problems, they pass the buck. I think things would have gone better if I'd just done all the work myself, even knowing what little I do about it. I think I need to call the Better Business Bureau too.