Founder’s Choice Cabinetry

If you could give a company zero stars, Founders Choice would get zero stars from me. We used them for the cabinetry in a kitchen that we demo-​ed as part of a gut renovation of our 1910 house.
I worked with Erin from the start. She let me know from the very beginning that they were short-​staffed and busy, which I wish that I had taken as the first red flag. She never came and did a site measure of our space. She ordered the cabinetry based on the measurements I sent her, which I have never heard of. Kitchen design is very detailed and every cabinet maker I have ever worked with has come to take their own measurements. When this later became an issue she outright lied and said that I had refused a site measure, which makes absolutely no sense. Why would I refuse a site measure? No logical reason to do that and she was clearly just saying that to try to cover herself after the slew of mistakes she made.
When the date came for our cabinet installation, my contractor called to let me know that the cabinets did not fit. He said they could jimmy rig it and make it work but wanted me to come by and see everything. When I arrived I discovered that, not only did the cabinets not fit, they were the wrong color and had the wrong drawers. The whole order was basically incorrect.
It was also at this time that Erin informed me that she had never ordered our countertops. She claimed it was unclear that we wanted to proceed with that part of the order even though I forwarded her old emails stating the exact countertop order and that we wanted to include them. Add on an additional $ 6K that we had no idea had not been included in our initial bid. No apology, no price reduction. Up against a massive appraisal deadline at this point, we had basically no choice but to place the order with them and move forward.
To make matters worse, when the people from Founders Choice came to take the botched cabinets away to be fixed, the workers didn’t realize that my husband was on the job site and proceeded to talk trash about the homeowners asking why we were so picky and why we couldn’t just keep these perfectly good cabinets instead of insisting on getting what we ordered. He also came by himself (again, Founders Choice was understaffed that day) and proceeded to have my work crew help him load his truck…
After talking with both Erin and the owner of the company about all of the issues they agreed to take care of installation of the cabinets on their dime as they felt badly. When the day came for installation of the new cabinets, they sent an inexperienced installer who completely botched the installation. It took him almost THREE days to install two walls of cabinetry. During this time, the company became very frustrated with the time it was taking (because they had other installs to get to and were, surprise surprise, understaffed) and said they were not going to finish the job. They told my contractor behind my back that they would pay him to finish installing if he would agree. I got on the phone with the owner of the company to discuss their behavior and what was going on. He said they were too busy to handle the work they had agreed to and he HUNG UP THE PHONE ON ME. The owner of the company. It was at this time that Erin came back in and lied about me refusing a site measure and everything became very unprofessional and curt.
At this point, the company proceeded to tell me we would have to pay more out of pocket to cover the cost of an additional cabinet that Erin had left out of the plans. Another $ 400. I told them I thought it was ridiculous that I was paying to cover their mistakes and I was told that they would walk away from the job and leave it unfinished if I refused to pay the $ 400. So we paid it. They eventually came back out to finish the kitchen installation. Upon inspection, they never grouted any of the cabinetry so there are gaps everywhere. Several finishing boards were missing so we had wood paneling showing where there should have been white cabinet boards. Slats were not glued or stapled so long gaps showed where the cabinets were not attached to anything. It was the worse kitchen installation i have ever seen. Almost $ 20K later and we felt completely ripped off and taken advantage of.
Icing on the cake — we got a phone call from the accountant at Founders Choice a few weeks later to let us know that Erin had forgotten to charge us sales tax on part of our order and that we now owed an additional $ 600 to take care of that. Unbelievable. We refused to pay but they kept harassing us until my husband sent photos of our unfinished kitchen installation at which point they agreed to send someone out to complete the job, two months later. He came and fixed the panels but never grouted anything. And don’t worry, Erin was on the phone leaving me a message 30 minutes after he left, telling us to please now pay the bill for the taxes as the job was now complete!
Don’t use them. They are the worst.

If I could give less than a star I would… I highly suggest using another company. Let me start by saying my husband and I are very laid back, give the benefit of the doubt people in most circumstances. Not in this case. Erin was our rep, at first she was pleasant and attentative but we learned quickly that would immediately be replaced with much attitude and pass the buck blame once she completely messed up on the design of our kitchen. Initially they DO NOT come to your home to measure which was a bit of a red flag-​if you are spending $ 10-​$ 20k on a kitchen remodel you would think the cabinet company would at least come measure and get a feel for the layout. We kept original u-​shape of the kitchen cabinets (no tweaking just new cabinets) The cabinets in our old kitchen went to the ceiling and naturally we were to the understanding our new cabinets would also go to the ceiling, unfortunately that was not the case, of course we were upset to see our cabinets would stop short once they arrived and wanted to get an explanation. Erin placed all blame on us and even said we had a conversation about it and we agreed not to have our cabinets go to the ceiling (crazy we would NEVER have agreed to that). Erin blamed myself, my husband, our contractor everyone but admitting it was indeed her mistake. We finally all agreed they would put crown molding up (our expense mind you). We then discovered we received an entirely faulty cabinet and also she had created a 9−10″ waste of space in our pennisula (isn’t it your job to utilize all available space?) we requested and paid for a new cabinet to be installed in the wasted space. Erin sent very sarcastic and rude emails to our contractor about this decision that I had the pleasure of viewing. To say I was disgusted is an understatement. The faulty cabinets were eventually replaced and we are satisfied with the actual cabinets but Founders Choice will be a company we will forever NOT recommend to our friends and family. Again, I highly suggest using another company! I have never in my life been treating so horribly especially when spending this kind of money. I see that I am not the only one whom has had such a horrible experience.

The cabinets look great now, but…
–One of the sales reps was offensively patronizing when I claimed I couldn’t afford granite countertops.
–They reneged on an oral deal to finish a valance with paint left over from the cabinets we ordered (they tried to charge $ 600 for shop time, so we took the valance back and finished it ourselves).
–They charged extra for 5 additional knobs needed to complete the job. It’s possible our contractor lost some of the original knobs, but you’d think a reputable company wouldn’t quibble about $ 25 worth of knobs after you’ve done $ 11k of business.
Also, I eventually went with them for granite countertops after my contractor got them to cut $ 2k off their price. However, the slabs came over a week late, too wide by 5/​8″ so we couldn’t fit in our stove, and with the incorrect edge (we ordered ogee). They returned to trim one side so our stove could fit, but the counters are just plain slabs that don’t match the edging of our breakfast bar. I’m sure Founder’s Choice would blame our contractor for not ordering the proper edge (he swears he ordered it correctly), but they failed to confirm the order with us and they made zero effort to leave a happy customer. Besides, with the plain edge, they certainly didn’t cut as much off their offer as we were lead to believe. We definitely would’ve gone with a cheaper countertop material if we couldn’t have the ogee edge for the right price.
They also sent the cabinets to us with the wrong hardware installed when we could not have possibly been more clear about what we wanted (those soft-​close drawers are exceedingly annoying). However, Founder’s Choice did come back out and install the proper hardware the next week. I’m not sure if that counts as a point in their favor or not.