We are building a new house and upgraded the builders cabinets to a
brand called Cardell. Of course the lady at the showroom told us these
are very good cabinets, well built. We chose the shaker style, maple
cabinets in a honey color. We upgraded to solid
wood, dove tailed drawers. When the cabinets were
installed we were appalled with what we saw. Nearly every door and
drawer front has some sort of defect. Obvious staining imperfections,
wood filler visible on the fronts, saw marks on many doors, sanding
scratches, one door is cracked, a 1 foot long gouge on a trim piece.
Not difficult to find these unsightly areas. When the cabinets were
installed the carpenter split the frames on 3 cabinets when screwing
the lower cabinets to the upper cabinets from improper pilot holes, or
lack of. I had to firmly insist to the builder I wanted the cabinets
with split frames replaced as he wanted to put a piece of trim over the
split, stating I wouldn't ever see the cracks. I firmly insisted I did
not buy scratch and dent cabinets and wanted the split cabinets
replaced. He reluctantly agreed. The store rep came to the house to
show him
the doors and drawer fronts that were bad, he said we had to meet with
the Cardell rep as we did have obvious issues. The store rep told us
there will be imperfections as these are not custom cabinets, they are
"Chevy" quality cabinets. We waited a couple weeks
to hear when the meeting would be when the building supervisor informed
us he met with the Cardell rep and they picked out 15 doors that
Cardell will replace. That is not all that are affected and I'm
resentful we did not get to show the rep our concerns. The three
cracked cabinets were replaced and the doors on these replaced
cabinets all have similar defects as I cited above. We now are
convinced we made a bad choice with Cardell and are stuck with them.
Anyone out there have any experience with Cardell? The 15 new
doors have not arrived yet, I dread seeing them as I anticipate more
"discussions" with the building supervisor. What would others do in
this situation? We are really disappointed in our
decision. I hope anyone considering Cardell will read this first.
betty