Lowe's Flooring
http://www.ProfessionalIntegrity.website/NOTDONE.html
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Andrea Reynolds
3521 Post Avenue
Erie PA 16508
(Cell) 814-450-7050
July 31, 2018
Asst. Store Supervisor, Garris Gatling
Lowe’s Home Centers LLC
2305 Asbury Road
Erie PA 16506
Refund requested
On May 22, 2015, I purchased from Lowe’s flooring materials and paid for installation in the amount of $2,934.89. Invoice 73275
Some of the work was done on May 22 and May 23, 2017. Your subcontractors – Lakefront Flooring – did not finish the job and made a mess for me to clean up. I believe they were paid $1275 for the total project, but completed perhaps only 60% of the job at best.
Here is what transpired that made me unhappy:
1. They left on the second day about 2:30 PM and never returned.
2. They didn’t install flooring to the landing on the stairs to the second floor. (See photo.)
3. They didn’t install flooring in the first floor bedroom. (See photo.)
4. They didn’t install flooring in the first floor bedroom closet. (See photo.)
5. They didn’t install quarter round in the first floor bedroom because they hadn’t installed the flooring.
6. They didn’t install baseboard/molding in the first floor bedroom closet or the cubbie under the stairs.
7. They didn’t install transitions between the two bedrooms and bathrooms, nor from the dining room to the kitchen.
8. They didn’t install baseboards at the bottom of the stairs or along the side in the dining room, saying that part of the area needed a curved baseboard.
9. I said the only working toilet was on the second floor. One or more of them decided to urinate in the nonworking toilet in the basement that was not connected to water so he couldn’t flush. Nobody said a word to me. When I discovered it, I had to clean out his urine by hand before calling a plumber. They should have come back to clean it. I should be paid for that.
10. Nobody was authorized to go into the basement. They should not have been down there for any reason.
11. I asked them to please confine their sawing to the mudroom where there was only drywall. I explained that I was on a very tight schedule and needed to paint walls for the next two days so that I could have the movers bring everything from the 3-bedroom house across the street that I sold. I had to be out by the closing on June 1st.
However, they defied me and sawed in every room, making a mess that they left for me to clean up. (Their broom did very little; they should have brought a Shop Vac.) There was sawdust everywhere: all over the walls, inside the electric outlets and light switches, windowsills, windowpanes, and all over the floors. I was still cleaning up sawdust weeks later.
This necessary cleaning threw me off schedule and I got only a first coat on the walls and no edging done before the movers came. It was impossible to paint for months.
12. They left all the cutoffs in the house for me to carry and dispose of myself. I expected they would return to use some of the bigger pieces, but they didn’t.
13. They left me with 6-7 boxes of damaged planks, presumably from the forklift. They could have returned them for me but they left them for me to lift and carry them to my van and return them to Lowe’s on my own. A year ago I was 68 years old, 5’3” tall, and because of a once broken neck I should not be lifting heavy items. I exchanged the planks, and again had to carry them into the house by myself.
14. When they installed baseboard around the opening to the upstairs cubby, they left no room for the door to move. I had great difficulty getting the door to budge so I could add hinges and door pull.
15. In the intervening year nobody has bothered to come see where the job was left unfinished.
16. I hired someone else to install the flooring planks on the landing, first floor bedroom and bedroom closet at an additional cost. Still unfinished are: Numbers 5, 6, 7, and 8 above.
I’d like a generous refund. You were paid in full and had the use of my money for 3 years. Please advise me of the amount you intend to send before sending the check. If I have not received satisfaction by August 15, I shall have to take the next step.
Andrea Reynolds
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Andrea Reynolds
1902 Andover Street, APT 194
Sun City Center, Florida 33573
TEXT: 814-450-7050
Email: HandyAnde1@gmail.com
June 12, 2023
Kevin Albrewczynski
Lowe’s Store Manager
2305 Asbury Road
Erie PA 16506
REFUND REQUESTED FOR FLOORING WORK LEFT UNFINISHED: 3521 POST AVENUE, ERIE PA
On July 31, 2018, I sent a letter (enclosed) to your Store Supervisor, Garris Gatling, detailing my dissatisfaction with your incomplete flooring installation, and I never received a response. I also visited your store several times to get help from an employee in the flooring department who seemed to have no authority to assist me. In other words, I got the run-around.
Then… Instead of responding to my complaint, you sent me a letter saying you would no longer honor my Lowe’s credit card. What an insult.
Not only did you ignore me, a customer who had also purchased from Lowe’s: a shed, steel shelves, lawn mower, leaf blower, floor tile, carpets, curtains, drywall, plywood, luan, door levers, locks, hand rails, power tools, linoleum for 3 rooms, gallons of paint, quartz kitchen countertops, kitchen sink, lighting fixtures for a whole house, but also 3 toilets, 4 faucets, and 3 bathroom vanities; but then denying me use of my Lowe’s credit card which meant you no longer wanted my business even though I had a $7,000 credit limit with you.
I am sending a duplicate of this packet to Lowe’s Headquarters in Mooresville, North Carolina.
In addition, I have posted photographs of work you left undone, work done by additional men I had to hire… on my website, which will become a future book. At some point it maybe necessary to post these two letters as well. See: www.ProfessionalIntegrity.website.
I sold the house (3521 Post Ave., 16508) in August 2019 to a disabled veteran at a loss of $40,000. I now live alone in Florida, at age 74, on only a monthly pension of $400 and food stamps, with no Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.
Wouldn’t you prefer that Lowe’s be seen as my HERO? That depends on your response.
I hope you will make things right so that when my next book is promoted across the United States, offline and online, Lowe’s West Erie will be seen in a good light.
I was a public relations consultant in Toronto for decades, and was quoted in Time, Success, USA Today, and interviewed on national TV by such noted journalists as Sir David Frost, famous for “The Nixon Interviews.”
At the very least you should send me a refund of:
$510.00 which is 40% of the $1275 labor cost, work you left unfinished,
$100.00 to clean out their urine from the not-yet-installed toilet. See #9 and #10 of my 2018 letter.
$100.00 for having to lift and carry 7 damaged and heavy boxes of Pergo to your store that the men should have taken when they left, and bring back 7 new boxes.
$51.00 for 5 years’ interest on the 40% of what you were paid for work not finished from 2017 to 2023 ($510 x 2% x 5 = $51).
$200.00 for my 2 weeks’ cleaning all the sawdust that was in every room on every surface that they had time to do but refused. See previous letter, #11.
I paid two additional men to complete some of the work you left. I paid them upwards of $510. See receipt enclosed.
Total compensation due: $961.00
Please send a check in my name to the address on page one or deposit the funds to my Citizens bank checking account. A deposit slip is enclosed.
Please make this right. Again, I would rather you be seen as a hero on my blog and in my forthcoming book on professional integrity, and not as a company that cheats single, senior women on welfare.
Andrea Reynolds
Copy sent to Lowe’s Corporate Headquarters, Mooresville North Carolina.
Poor quality "Mister fix-it"
I hired him to replace a kitchen faucet I could have done myself. I wrote this letter.
Len,
Return to me half ($12.50) of the $25.00 I paid you, for these reasons:
1. You left the job unfinished: the sink still needs to be caulked and was left without screwing it down, and I’ll have to do it.
2. I asked you to show me how to put the faucet in so I could learn how to do it; you didn’t.
3. You put a kink in the copper pipe for the cold water. I’ll have to fix this.
4. You connected the pipes so the hose for the spray was caught and doesn’t pull out as it should.
5. You flooded my kitchen floor and didn’t even notice.
6. You didn’t show up with caulk so I went out and bought it within an hour of your leaving.
7. You promised to come on Saturday of Labour Day weekend to finish but you didn’t show up.
8. You told me I needed to buy a connector for the dishwasher which I did, but it was unnecessary. The connector I showed you worked fine. You didn’t see that because you didn’t try it on the faucet, only on the dishwasher hose.
9. I’ll have to spend more money buying a proper wrench to finish the work.
10. I paid you for a full job, which you didn’t complete.
11. I will have to undo your work to do it properly.
12. I understand that you think sitting in your van doing puzzles is more important than earning a good reputation for doing good work when you say you want to find paying work.
13. I give everyone a second chance. You blew that one, too.
14. You stated your philosophy is “doing it right the first time.” You don’t honor your words and don’t stand behind your work.
15. I was testing you to see if you had the professionalism for me to recommend you to others through my business, Handy Ande. You failed the test too many times.
I’m not giving you any more chances. Please put $12.50 in cash in an envelope and leave it in the milk box outside my door. That’s the gentlemanly thing to do.
Andrea Reynolds.
Update: I see him around the building and he plainly ignores and avoids me. Of course, he hasn't had the good manners to talk to me or refund half of the money. He's not a gentleman. I paid someone else $30 more to undo the work and do it properly with the right tools. And of course, I'll tell my neighbors of my experience and I will never offer him work through my business.
Would you hire this guy?
Self-Defeating Behaviors
1. A real estate agent who tinkled in the toilet, and flushed, during her return phone call. I could hear it all. (Erie PA)
2. A bank manager who refused to let me open an account because she felt anyone from out of town must be a drug dealer. (Girard PA)
3. A physician who left for lunch while I was left waiting in the reception area. He walked out right in front of me. (Toronto)
4. A physician who charged me $45 to take my blood pressure and when I asked for an explanation of the charge, he added another $25 charge to my bill... twice. (Girard PA)
5. A lawyer I retained who failed to show up in court and instead sent his administrative assistant who had never been in a courtroom and who had to ask opposing counsel what she should do next. (Toronto)
6. An RV dealer who refused to show me the inside of any RV - 3 different attempts - despite the $10,000 check for a deposit in my pocket. (Erie PA)
7. A dentist who was more interested in providing expensive cosmetic dentistry than finding the cause of my severe mouth pain. (Fairview PA)
8. A veterinarian who required that I sign a full page release absolving the practice of all blame if anything went wrong with their treatment, but wouldn't let me have a copy of it. (Fairview PA)
9. Eight out of 9 lawyers who never returned my phone call when I tried to hire each one. One of the firms advertised his services on television to generate new business. That advertising was a waste of his money. (Erie PA)
10. A cashier at a doctor's office made me pay an additional 66% over the doctor's handwritten invoice amount before she would allow me to leave the office. (Erie PA)
11. A real estate agent who showed me only $40,000 homes - many were damaged and in dangerous neighborhoods - when I said I had $40,000 cash for a down payment. (Erie PA)
12. A landlord who refused to provide an affordable, non-toxic solution for a wet basement floor, but had money to put into new flooring in the empty unit next door. (Erie PA)
There are more... If you want to know the details, order my future book or hire me to speak to your organization... I'll spill the beans.
Please note: I give everyone at least one opportunity, sometimes several opportunities, to make things right. I'm always astonished at how many professionals, when confronted with the evidence, choose to do nothing... or get angry.
"Don't paint the door," I said.
"It's the wrong color of red," I said. "It doesn't match the color I painted the porch light and mailbox." The three men, to whom I was paying but hadn't agreed to hire as a group, were about to spray paint the door. They argued with me.
"It is the same color," they said.
"No, it isn't," I said.
One of them said, strongly, "We don't take orders from you. We take orders from J----. He's the one who pays us."
I thought, silently, Who do you think pays your boss so he can pay you? And anyway, I'm the Project Manager on this renovation. He takes orders from me. He doesn't overrule me.
They called their boss, the man I did hire originally, and he told them to leave. It was 1:30 on Thursday.
Their boss showed up at 4:30 and said one of the men will return the next day to mud and stomp the kitchen ceiling. I paid for all the man-hours worked up to 1:30 plus an additional 8 hours for the kitchen work on Friday.
When I returned to the house on the weekend I was stunned to discover the storm door was painted a garish red, different from the toned-down red I used on the porch light and mailbox. The empty spray paint cans used were Flaming Red. The one I used for the mailbox and porch light was Regal Red.
The door was one of the last things that I wanted to be done on the house, only after all the important expenses had been covered. It was not a priority on my project sequence list. Getting the bathroom drywall and plumbing done, and kitchen cabinets, plumbing and countertops were my priorities.
But the worst of it was the red spray everywhere: on the floor, on the newly sanded and primed walls, on my box fans, on my clean, beige utility table, on my coffeemaker (coffee for the workers) and on my white, three-drawer, plastic file cabinet. The floor would be covered by new flooring later, but the walls are a different matter. Red is difficult to cover, and I would have to prime the walls again, which requires more time and more paint.
There's more.
Ten feet from the red painted door was a huge piece of vinyl sheeting crumpled up. Why wasn't this used as a drop cloth to confine the spray? Why wasn't the spraying done outside on the ground instead of the living room?
Then I noticed the painter had, with his red fingers, touched the newly mudded and primed kitchen walls in about 20 places, leaving red finger prints. These walls too, would have to be primed again.
I realized then that this was sabotage... payback for my telling 4 much younger men not to paint the door, not to use the wrong color. This was their immature way of telling me, a woman with a design background, that they didn't have to take orders from a woman.
On Monday morning, I was stunned to see the three men showed up for work! I told them to leave, that I couldn't afford to pay for 4 men, only one. They had been costing me money with their make-work projects like landscaping when, for me, that was budgeted for two to three months down the road. Maybe, if there was any money left.
My Canadian politeness kept me from telling them I was disgusted by their behavior. It's my nature to help others save face. Perhaps that was wrong of me not to say how I felt. Perhaps it was to protect myself from further intimidation by them. Two of the four men were a foot taller than I, they were all stronger than I, they all carried guns, I had witnessed one of the men lose his temper and rage at the other men. And I was outnumbered, four to one.
Then, within an hour they were back to load up all the materials, equipment and tools they had stored in the house. What I realized by this is that their boss, the solo man I originally hired, was also quitting!
That's when I realized I was simply a money source for his unemployed pals. This wasn't a company who cared about their client's priorities; this was a company whose intention was to milk an older woman - a smart, kind woman - out of as much money as possible.
All four are gone now and I've received no apology. While a lot of their work was done well, they did a lot of work that I felt was unnecessary. I also felt they had no concerns for my budget limitations.
I'm wiser now, less trusting, and will find one person at a time to assist me with the work (electric, plumbing, drywall) that I'm unaccustomed and unqualified to do. I will do the painting, which I enjoy. And which, by the way, I was doing professionally before these men were born.
Post script: Later, a different carpenter remarked that this act was intentional vandalism. I think so, too. What do you think?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Why do I post my experiences? It's not to vent so much as it is to teach professionals what is acceptable and what is not. I want future clients and audiences to be aware that not all people they hire have maturity and integrity... and to stay away from this kind of "professional."
For a list of proper behavior, have a look at my own Code of Conduct on my other site:
Why I'm not a real estate agent
I originally wrote this on November 9, 2009. It will be in my future book, and I decided it might make a good blog post as well. It's typical of what I experience far too often. (Don't you love that I don't have to go digging for stories for my book? They just keep showing up in my life.)
In 2009 I took the two Pennsylvania real estate courses in order to educate myself before I did battle with a real estate firm in Canada. One Friday I saw an ad on my local CraigsList from a real estate broker in Erie looking for new agents. I decided to see how good my chances were of associating myself with the agency either as a home stager to help her agents sell properties faster, or a licensed agent.
We met and I shared with her some of my own property selling experience that I could bring to her agency: hosting a real estate radio show, writing a book on selling homes, working with an author on a book about buying condos, owning a real estate advertising service (which I later sold); selling 3 homes, raw land of my own and a timeshare of my Dad's; studying housing construction, and being a home stager. I not only have a degree in Family and Consumer Science, but also a degree in Business and Marketing and owned my own successful public relations and marketing consulting firm for 30 years. I hoped all this would demonstrate my business skills, what a go-getter I am and how much I could bring to her agency and her company's bank account.
She went on and on about the benefits of home staging - Great, I thought! She'll ask me to stage her listed homes for bigger profits - and I asked if she would refer me so I could help her agents sell their listed homes faster so I could increase her revenues and at the same time earn enough to cover my licensing exam fees and professional real estate fees (about $2,000).She said NO.
Huh?
Did you get that? She wasn't willing to let me bring her income faster that would also allow me to cover the expenses required to work for her and earn her even more income.
Instead she told me I should stop writing, consulting, speaking, selling books, and home staging, and go get a $7 an hour retail job working full-time as a shop girl for a florist or department store. "What?," I thought to myself, "Is she insane?" I was speechless. I simply looked at her and smiled, a frozen smile, but a smile nonetheless. In a store I would earn in one day ($45 after deductions) less than I can earn in 15 minutes as a consultant or a day as a home stager ($450). I was incredulous.
I suspected that her intention was to crush my spirit, but for what purpose I couldn't guess. I haven't worked for that low a wage since I worked to put myself through 6 years of university. That was 4 decades ago. I do far better as an entrepreneur and consultant than as an employee.
Why anyone would want to demean or demoralize a person willing to work hard to share half her (my) earnings is incomprehensible to me. (Real estate agents get 25% of their commissions, as do their brokers.) I can't work for anyone who enjoys crushing the spirit of any human, and certainly not for someone who is blind to the prospect of additional income I could bring her agency.
I didn't tell her - and she obviously didn't take any time to check my former web site as I had suggested - that my PR firm had created high profiles for realtors, among other professionals and specialists, so listings and home buyers would come in faster and in greater volume. So, I may yet decide to re-open the Personal Public Relations firm I closed a few years ago, and see if any of her competitors would like me to bring them tons of business.
Here's a little more insight: That day was a warm, sunny Saturday, perfect for prospective buyers to see homes for sale. The agency's phones should have been ringing off the hook, but they were silent; there was no staff working at 11 AM, the lights were off throughout the office, and the large parking lot was empty of all cars but mine and my interviewer. What does that tell you? Nobody was signing contracts. And what does it tell you when a firm advertises for new sales people on Craigslist.org? Desperation, maybe? I just don't understand why that broker was working against her own best interests.
What would have a been better scenario? The broker could have given me a trial staging assignment on one of her agency's most shockingly ugly and hard-to-sell homes. No cost to anyone but me. If I helped the agent and broker sell the home fast and for a better-than-asking-price, then I could have expected future referrals and payment until I could afford the fees to become an agent.
Sure, an agent could stage a home herself, but is that wise? Let's say an agent gets a gross commission (before expenses) of $1250 on a $100,000 home. Net might be closer to $850 after paying for office costs, materials and advertising, not to mention auto expenses. Is she really going to provide additional labor (staging/painting, furniture storage, etc.) of $1000 or more to earn that $850 commission? She'd be a fool; that's not profitable. It would have been better to have hired me to do the work, have the seller pay me at the closing, and let the agent enjoy the benefits of my expertise and effort.
Why wouldn't Erie realtors understand that homes I've worked on sell within no more than 3 weeks at about $10,000 more than expected. Why would any realtor or broker say no? Ironically, I now have the money to become an agent, but can't imagine why I'd want to.
Andrea
Today's blog post is brought to you by my booklet, Sell Your Mobile Home in 60 Days. (In 2000 I sold mine in 6 days.)
PNC Bank
PNC BANK
On June 30, 2010, my 90-year-old father – whose dementia brought me back to the US – wrote me a check so I wouldn't be homeless, and his check bounced. PNC Bank, without my consent, allowed two small purchases totaling less than $15 to go through despite my not having enough money in my account. I was overdrawn by $1.13. As soon as I knew the situation – within 24 hours – I put cash into my account to cover my purchases. PNC Bank then proceeded to add penalty upon penalty amounting to $230.12, and then closed my account. They have since turned this matter over to collection calling it a debt. I call it a penalty for being jobless and homeless in order to be caregiver to an elderly parent.
In my conversations with two PNC branch managers, I asked one (Interchange Rd. near Erie's Millcreek Mall) if I could park in her parking lot at night to sleep in my van since I had nowhere else to go. She said NO. Her lack of compassion and unwillingness to be helpful was dumbfounding; I've been a good customer for more than 12 years.
Not only was I suddenly penniless, so I couldn't rent a room or book myself into a hotel, but PNC would not redeposit the check nor return it. Three-and-a-half months later they were still holding my father's check. By closing my account I could no longer access statements in order to accurately do my 2010 income tax. (On September 16 I also lost all data on my laptop in a storm, so the bank statements I had downloaded were gone.)
I didn't know then that if I had held the check back from deposit for one day the check would not have been returned. I visited my father's bank, First National Bank, and couldn't get any assistance or information because I didn't have Power of Attorney over my father's financial affairs. (I did later.) At the time I asked if I could put enough of my own money into my father's account to be able to cash the check. They said no. I later learned that $27 would have made his check good. I could easily have done that, saving myself several hundred dollars in penalties and a crippling blemish on my credit history.
So, by turning my account over to collection, PNC Bank affected my credit history so badly, that, even when I had enough money to rent an apartment of my own, I was denied a place to live and would continue to be homeless. And because PNC reported this to the credit bureaus I couldn't open an account at any other banks, not even in my father's name when I did have POA over his affairs.
And did you know that PNC Bank received a $7 million dollar bailout from the US government (i.e. taxpayers like you and me)? This is how they show their gratitude?
My book will reveal the response to my letter.
Andrea
Yes, there is an Update/Conclusion to this case. It will appear in my book.
The 30-second visit
The man on the TV commercials came by 30 minutes ahead of our confirmed appointment.
His first words were, "I bet you regret taking on this renovation." I said, "No, what I regret is that it's been hard finding people who can do quality work. That's why I called you."
He walked past me toward the kitchen and said, "This is too big a project for us to take on. But thanks for thinking of us." And he turned around and walked out. He never bothered to see more of the house or see the list I typed up just for him.
He was in and out the door in 30 seconds. I was stunned. No handshake hello, or goodbye. Perhaps he thought (wrongly) that I didn't have the money to finish the project or that this home wasn't in the right neighborhood for him. He'll never know who I am, who I know, what I know, or what opportunities he will miss out on that I can provide.
Of course, it's acceptable to turn down a prospective client if you think there isn't a good fit, but don't be so brusque that you miss out on something you may want down the road. I doubt if I'll call his company for the third house I may buy and renovate.
What could he have done instead? You'll find out in the book.
