Crew 2 - Home Depot's Contracted Installer - A Review

[puma1552]

Terrible company, and they deserve a public review for all to see. This is a combo review for both Home Depot and their contracted installer, Crew 2. It's a combo review because the whole experience has been a horrible ordeal.

At the end of May or very early June I had Home Depot come in and do some floor measurements as we were going to buy a hardwood laminate floor for all of the bedrooms, the landing at the top of the stairs, and the stairs themselves. Before the guy came in to measure, I removed all of the flooring down to the subfloor so he could measure for floor flatness and take a look at the subfloor so that there were no surprises. He came and did the measurements.

June 7th, my wife and I went to the store and ordered the floor. I'll spare you the condescending attitude of the store employee who just wanted to rush me out, didn't want to answer my basic questions about the installation, and seemingly couldn't answer some questions. At the time of the order, the store employee was looking at pictures of my subfloor that the measurement guy took. We ordered the floor.

Floor was backordered until June 24th. Floor finally came in on that day, and Home Depot wanted to give me an asinine 6 hour delivery window to bring it to the house. I said screw that, got my dad's SUV, and went and picked it up myself. A 6 hour window is absurd. This was Wednesday, June 24th.

Enter Crew 2 and their terrible service.

I called Crew 2 and asked to schedule an installation the morning of the 24th. I was transferred to a manager named Corey. No answer, so I left a voicemail saying I wanted to schedule an installation, call me back etc. No call back.

Called back on Thursday, June 25th. Transferred to Corey again. No answer again. Left another voicemail. No call back.

Called back on Friday, June 26th. They were going to transfer me to Corey again and I said no, I need to speak with someone else because Corey doesn't answer the phone or call anyone back. They transferred me to Roxanne. No answer, left a voicemail, same thing - no call back. This was in the morning. I absolutely wanted to get the installation scheduled before the weekend as at this point my house had been unlivable for a month. I called several more times on Friday before finally reaching another manager, Nate, late in the afternoon. He pulled up my file (so presumably saw the pictures the measurement guy took), saw what the job was, and we scheduled an installation for July 14th/15th, which unfortunately was the earliest they could do.

The floor is now in my house and everything is accounted for, and the installation is scheduled. What could go wrong?

Then Monday, June 29th, I get a call - not from Crew 2, but from the Home Depot store - telling me Crew 2 looked at the pictures of my subfloor and refused to do the installation. Crew 2 didn't call me direct, they didn't have the balls to - they had the store employee do their legwork. So I asked why or how this could be, and I was told that my subfloor is particleboard and they won't install over particleboard subfloors, it has to be plywood.

So the Home Depot measurement guy, the guy at the store, and manager Nate at Crew 2 couldn't tell me that I had a subfloor that wasn't suitable for laminate (according to Home Depot/Crew 2)? Basically Home Depot wasted 6 weeks of my time in an unlivable house with no flooring? I was livid, understadably so.

So I call Crew 2 because I just wanted to talk to them about the situation, discuss the issues, and maybe look towards a resolution. The girl tells me she will transfer me to manager Chris, but that it would have to be a voicemail since he's out to lunch and she would make sure he would call me back after returning. I said that's fine. Left a message at around 11:00 AM. Figured I'd give the guy til 1:00 to call me back, which was plenty generous at this point. I actually waited until sometime after that to call back after of course receiving no call back. I called again and the girl said he was on the other line but then said - oh, he just got off let me transfer you right in. 2 seconds later Chris's phone rings, but no answer. He basically hung the phone up, it rang from me, and he immediately walked away just ignoring the call. I left another message. Still polite at this point. No call back.

Called Chris one more time at the very end of the day and left a somewhat firm message this time, telling him it is imperative I receive a call back before the end of the day to discuss the flooring situation as I need a resolution ASAP. No call back again. What a garbage company.

I then spent the next few days calling Crew 2. Never a call back. I then finally called one last time and asked to speak with Nate, the only person I ever got a hold of to schedule the original installation. I knew he wouldn't answer the phone, and of course he didn't. So this time I left a voicemail that basically told them I was extremely disappointed and disgusted with the way they handle themselves and how unprofessional they are and how I will never, ever use them. I told them that the literally hundreds of one star reviews of their company are absolutely accurate and that I guess the only thing I can do - since nobody there would ever call me back - and remember, I was nothing but polite up to this point - was to leave a couple one star reviews myself and make a post on a public forum, so here we are.

So in short, Crew 2 is a complete garbage installer that is barely worth the $0.89 cents per square foot Home Depot pays them. They don't answer the phone, don't call people back, and they don't even have the balls to call the homeowner directly to discuss any problems. They weren't even willing to talk to me to discuss a resolution - they just flat out rejected the installation and that was the end of it as far as they were concerned. Home Depot is terrible too in that they wasted 6 weeks of my time (really more than that since now I'm at square one again with no scheduled installation) because their people have no idea what they are doing.

So in the end, the entire load of crap in my house is going back to Home Depot and I am paying a bit more to get an even nicer floor with a local specialty store that both answers the phone and listens to what I have to say, and answers my questions. And for what it's worth, I spoke with *several* specialty flooring stores where all they do is flooring and each and every one of them told me a particleboard subfloor is perfectly fine as long as it's flat and that Crew 2 and Home Depot are misinterpreting manufacturer instructions. Go figure.

Do not buy a floor from (or really have anything installed by) Home Depot as they contract out to the cheapest, sleaziest company - Crew 2 - to do the installations. Or in my case, reject an installation and not have any willingness to have the decency to call a customer back. **** Crew 2. I told them point blank I'd leave a negative review on a public forum in my last message and they still had no interest in calling me back even then for damage control and to save their own ass, so here it is.

 

[rdowns]

Can you tell me which store this was? Would love to share this with a HD VP in my networking group.

 

[A.Goldberg]

Unfortunately, this is entirely what is possible when you deal with Home Depot and whoever they use as their local contractors. I've head horror stories through the grapevine. Delayed work, poor craftsmanship, etc.

I would contact corporate if you want your complaint to go anywhere.

It may do nothing to help your situation at this point, but it might prevent this from happening to others in the future.

Hopefully paying a premium will be worth it.

 

[puma1552]

Can you tell me which store this was? Would love to share this with a HD VP in my networking group.

I debated posting the store up until I felt I had given them adequate opportunity to address my issues and resolve this, but after two calls to the store with of course no callbacks and being brushed off, I feel I've given them an opportunity to fix this and they haven't so the store is #2833.

I called the store this morning looking to talk to the flooring guy Steve, who is the one who called me last week to tell me the installation couldn't be done and offered me a refund (I said I needed to talk to my wife and discuss before doing anything). He wasn't there so they transferred me to a girl back there who didn't seem interested in helping me at all; I told her Crew 2 refused to install my floor so I needed it picked up and needed a refund, and her response was to give me Crew 2's phone number to schedule an installation. Thanks for not listening AT ALL to ANYTHING I just said. She seemed utterly inconvenienced by my lousy request for a refund and for the store to come pick the stuff up and told me she'd call me back after helping another customer.

Yeah right, no call back after three hours so I called again, this time I talked to Dave in flooring. He said I could get a refund and that someone would come get my stuff, but said I'd get the refund in a couple days but he had nothing to do with refunds. So wait, how am I supposed to get my refund after you hang up the phone? I don't think so. So I asked who does the refunds and he said the store manager, so I asked who that was and it's a guy named Ryan. I asked if he was there and Dave said yes, until 10:00 PM. I asked to be transferred to him and oh of course he was in a meeting, but Dave assured me he would call me by the end of the day. It's now 5 hours later. Any call back? Of course not. And in the process Dave slyly shirked any responsibility and basically told me the store manager would handle it all.

So I'll call once more tomorrow morning and if I don't get a refund and a set day for them to pick up the floor, I'll go in person immediately after work tomorrow and will not leave until I have a refund.

Absolute worst case? I'll rescind the entire charge on my credit card - and they'll stand behind me after making a good faith effort - and then I'll tell the store I have my refund so they have seven days to pick the stuff up or it's going in the trash. It's pathetic I even have to consider getting nasty but here we are. Being polite has gotten nothing but doors slammed in my face from everyone.

Unfortunately, this is entirely what is possible when you deal with Home Depot and whoever they use as their local contractors. I've head horror stories through the grapevine. Delayed work, poor craftsmanship, etc.

I would contact corporate if you want your complaint to go anywhere.

It may do nothing to help your situation at this point, but it might prevent this from happening to others in the future.

Hopefully paying a premium will be worth it.

Very likely going corporate, and it looks like rdowns may be on it already.

I got a quote from the specialty store tonight, only $900 more for an even nicer floor. What a freaking no-brainer. They will get phase 2 of the flooring remodel, and phase 3 as well, which is a total somewhere north of $10k within this calendar year that Home Depot could've had but lost completely. They blew it, but I'm sure they won't hold anyone directly responsible for blowing a $10k-$12k sale and all the other remodeling jobs they would've got from us such as hanging all new doors, doing a bathroom, etc. They blew it bigtime.

Bottom line - I'm just a regular guy who bought a floor in good faith, Home Depot made several mistakes with the subfloor, and the junk installer has jerked me around and refused to call me back and the store continually blows me off on picking it up and giving me a refund. How am I supposed to feel at this point? What a disgusting business practice all around. Both Home Depot and Crew 2 should be ****in' ashamed of themselves.

 

[rdowns]

FWIW, I forwarded your posts to a Home Depot VP I know. He said he'd get it into the right hands.

You should leave them a bad review on Yelp as Yelp provides local results for Google.

 

[mscriv]

So sorry to hear things didn't get handled appropriately and that it's been such a pain.

 

[puma1552]

FWIW, I forwarded your posts to a Home Depot VP I know. He said he'd get it into the right hands.

You should leave them a bad review on Yelp as Yelp provides local results for Google.

So sorry to hear things didn't get handled appropriately and that it's been such a pain.

Thanks guys, appreciate it.

An update - I called the store again this morning to get my refund situated. I spoke with the assistant store manager, Brandon, who told me someone would be at the house within a half hour to pick up the floor, and when it got back to the store I would get my refund. My wife happened to be home. 1.5 hours later nobody had shown up so I called Brandon back and he said he'd look into it and shortly after the crew came to pick up the floor and did so without issue. I had told Brandon to please call me upon receipt of the floor back to the store to make sure the refund gets handled correctly. I did not receive a call back.

I got tied up at work and didn't get a chance to call back until about 4:00, but when I did Brandon had left and wouldn't be back until Thursday. Since the floor had then been returned, I figured anyone at customer service should be able to get me my refund. After some trouble with the people at customer service locating and confirming that the floor had been returned, I eventually got my refund. So the floor is gone and I have a refund processing (I'll confirm with my CC in the next couple days). Glad to be done with this.

I still think I should receive somewhat substantial compensation for the ridiculous ordeal this was and how much of my time was wasted when I could've been told 5 weeks ago by the measurement guy, or a month ago by the guy I ordered the floor from that they wouldn't install my floor. Even more so for what a complete joke Crew 2 has been and how unprofessional they are to not ever return a single phone call no matter who I left a message with, how many messages I left, or how polite I was. Complete waste of my time and my house remains unlivable as of yet with no floor and all of our furniture in the front family room of the house.

 

[rhett7660]

What a big pain in the butt to say the least. Well, in the long run, you got your money back and you are really only out of some time and headaches!

On the bright side, you now get to start the search for a new floor!

 

[D.T.]

Holy smokes. Glad that got worked out - I try to DIY as much as I can, but I hit limitations on time, skillset, etc., so at some point I have to go to pro services company.

The big difference with HD, is they choose, they outsource, there's 2 layers of communication that's easily broken.

I was careful (lots of calls, research) in choosing our AC company, almost 10 years ago, they've been outstanding - and get this, for $1500 I got a 10 year warranty. Ten Years. At the beach where everything outside dissolves. Needed it one time about 2 years in, then recently - and this recent service we wound up with basically a whole new air handler (evap motor, tray, coils, lines) and a brand new, really nice thermostat. About $4K worth of parts and labor, covered under warranty, no questions asked.

I had sort of the same thing happen with HD, had two bozos take measurements for a new glass sliding door, got the door - but I let it sit (bad on my part) for at least a year, just kept getting back burnered, and kept getting offers from an uncle to do it (I suggested it was too difficult). Finally one holiday break he gets here to do it, can't (shocking...), so HD sends out their guy, he says all the measurements are wrong. Swell, so eventually after hours of my time, I get authorization to swap it - I call my own guy who was recommended by a neighbor, in 10 minutes of talking to him I could tell he could do it. He re-measures, facilitates the exchange (which wound up costing me nothing), does a beautiful install (it was very complex).

 

[Huntn]

This sounds like a job for Angie's list...

As far as particle board underlayment, a plywood floor is required for hardwood floors that are nailed in, so they are held in place properly. This is building code in many places however for a hardwood or laminate manufactured floor that floats, the underlayment would not have to be plywood, just level.

 

[puma1552]

^^^Thanks guys.

Still waiting for the refund to show up, but I did get the new, nicer floor from the specialty shop officially ordered this morning and scheduled for installation. Floor will be here on the 24th, and installed on the 27th/28th. Got even sweeter when I learned the new floor is on sale so we are only looking at a mere $3550 all-in, which isn't even much more than the HD clowns. Can't wait!

 

[rdowns]

Lesson to learn from this thread- the big box stores are not the place to buy major home improvements like flooring. I work in the tile industry and HD carries low quality crap, most of it made only for them. Lowes is similar.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

This is why I avoid professional work from big chain stores that use out house contractors. It's either going to be a bait n switch, job poorly done, or both. And too many times they overbook themselves, so they don't give a damn about your business.

 

[AlliFlowers]

The "big box" stores are great if you're doing DIY. The problems happen when their contracted help is brought in.

I had a less convoluted issue with a washer purchased from Lowe's. The contracted company was not able to get parts to repair the machine. After a month, Lowe's sent out a loaner washer. I lost the use of my living room at that point because...where else do you put a washing machine that's waiting to be repaired? For quite some time they kept telling me that the parts would be in and everything would be fine, but they finally decided...after 2.5 months...that the parts wouldn't be in and everything would not be fine, so they refunded the cost of the original washer (with a Lowe's merchandise card), so that we could get a replacement. Total time from the day the original washer broke back in the beginning of April to the time the new one arrived and the other 2 machines were carted off this Monday...ugh.

 

[puma1552]

Lesson to learn from this thread- the big box stores are not the place to buy major home improvements like flooring. I work in the tile industry and HD carries low quality crap, most of it made only for them. Lowes is similar.

I had reservations about a box store doing it for exactly the reasons mentioned, but figured I'd chance it since they do hundreds a day and surely must be doing something right for a lot of people at least. Now I'll never go anywhere but specialty shops.

Funny you mention the quality, the floor we had from HD was a Pergo which I remembered being good, but I talked to the specialty shop owner and he said he refuses to carry Pergo - he said they used to be good and they used to carry them but somewhere along the line they kept running into installation problems with the Pergo and only the Pergo not going together well and Pergo insisting it was the installer until the specialty shop just plain dropped the brand; he said when you do this all the time for years and consistently have problems with one brand and one brand only, it's clearly a problem with the product.

The new floor is an Evoke hardwood laminate which I had never heard of but he tells me is on par with Mannington, which is a higher end one and what we have now. Hope it turns out good.

 

[QuarterSwede]

The big difference with HD, is they choose, they outsource, there's 2 layers of communication that's easily broken.

I work at HD and this is exactly it. All their contractors are local and from my experience they all suck if you have anything custom going on (pretty much everyone). Also, they have what they call Expeditors or COS's that handle issues all day. You think it's bad that you have to deal with it. Those guys/gals have multiple issues and very pissed off people to deal with daily. Most of the long term ones are excellent at their jobs and getting answers/results though. However, every once in a while they have their hands tied because of the way something was done/paid for. It can get really crappy for everyone.

All that to say I really doubt I'll use THD as source for any professional installation. I prefer experts in their field myself that I deal with directly. Two layers of communication is often a bad idea.

*This is by no means official communication from The Home Depot. It's just my personal opinion.

 

[QuarterSwede]

I had reservations about a box store doing it for exactly the reasons mentioned, but figured I'd chance it since they do hundreds a day and surely must be doing something right for a lot of people at least. Now I'll never go anywhere but specialty shops.

Funny you mention the quality, the floor we had from HD was a Pergo which I remembered being good, but I talked to the specialty shop owner and he said he refuses to carry Pergo - he said they used to be good and they used to carry them but somewhere along the line they kept running into installation problems with the Pergo and only the Pergo not going together well and Pergo insisting it was the installer until the specialty shop just plain dropped the brand; he said when you do this all the time for years and consistently have problems with one brand and one brand only, it's clearly a problem with the product.

The new floor is an Evoke hardwood laminate which I had never heard of but he tells me is on par with Mannington, which is a higher end one and what we have now. Hope it turns out good.

Pergo sucks. I have it and it's scratched to hell by my furniture. I refuse to use laminate of any type in the future (it was the floor that came with the house when we bought it).

 

[puma1552]

You have to be absolutely kidding me.

I got a voicemail today from some girl at Crew 2 calling to confirm my installation appointment tomorrow. Are you ****ing serious? That ship sailed long ago and the floor has long been sent back to the manufacturer and I've LONG since moved on since nobody - NOBODY - at that ******** company answers the goddamn phone.

Oh and of course I've heard nothing from Home Depot for my troubles.

 

[mscriv]

Oh and of course I've heard nothing from Home Depot for my troubles.

I would totally understand if you are just completely over dealing with this, but if you do want to get anything from Home Depot I'd suggest going to the store in person and asking to speak with the general manager or whomever is the person over the entire store. I'd play any saved voicemails you have for them and explain the cost this has been to you in terms of wasted time, effort, and discomfort with your home being without a floor. Ask for a gift card or some form of compensation in order to "restore your faith" in ever considering their store again. If he says they can't or won't do anything then you can confidently walk away and never do business there again.