Lowe's

Do you know www.lowes.ca/ reviews your reviews? I was informed that my review below couldn’t be posted because “it did not meet all our website guidelines”. I immediately emailed them and asked “which guideline I did not comply with and where in my review the issue is, so that I can edit and repost it?”, I didn’t get any reply.
Here is my review.

I wouldn’t recommend Lowe’s blind installation service to anyone(It’s my experience from the Etobicoke one in Toronto, so it’s not about ones in USA).
When we pay for a product and service at a store like Lowe’s, we have trust that they will take responsibility if there is an issue with the product or if their service is bad. I was wrong. It was extremely difficult to get a refund for a product that had issues even after bad customer service(We never got any refund for the installation and only got a gift card for the blinds). I recommend anyone with similar issue dealing with a Lowe’s store to call the corporate customer service line to escalate above the store level (this was the only way we could receive even partial compensation).

We had to call and leave about 4 or 5 messages asking the salesperson to call us back after already waiting for 10 days after we got our windows measured and had visited the store about 3 times to pay for blinds and installation(The blinds were already in stock. All they had to do was cut them). Each time the salesperson promised to call us back but she never did(She never apologized about not keeping the promise). The last time we visited to make payment, the assistant manager told us that he couldn’t help us because only the salesperson has all the information about our windows(She promised that she would call us on that day, but she didn’t so we visited again). We were surprised that the company like Lowe’s doesn’t have a system where other staff can follow up when one is absent. The sales person called us the next day to help us make payment on the phone. A month after we paid for measurement(I’m positive it could easily take longer if we didn’t call and visit that many times), the installer came and installed 3 blinds out of 6.

During the installation, we realized that there were product issues(blinds didn’t retract properly, they were at a different level when retracted, and they were damaged from being cut) and called one of their assistant managers. He told us that we could return them and even suggested to take down the 3 blinds that were already hung as well. However, he advised us that we had to talk to the installation manager for the installation refund(We asked for a refund because we didn’t want to go through the whole process again with them. It took about at least 4 or 5 calls and 3 visits and still took 1 month).

My husband called the installation manager the next day. He told us that he couldn’t give us a refund even for the blinds because he disagreed the issue was with the product, he said it’s our taste (We had to come up with another issue later because there were more than 2 issues with the product). He promised to call us back before he took off at 430 pm on that day, but he didn’t. So we had to call the customer service and were told that they would let the store manager reach us within 24 hours. The next day the store manager called and told us that he would make the installation manager (who said would call us but never did!) call us(I could feel that the store manager wasn’t going to help us. He also never apologize for inconvenience that we went through). The installation manager called and told us the same thing, no refund for both blinds and installation. We couldn’t accept this, so we called the customer service again and were told that they would make the market director contact us within 1 business day. No one called again, so we called the customer service. They told us that they would make the regional manager call us within 1 business day. The regional manager never called us but the assistant manager from the store called us and asked us to send him photos with product damage. We sent the photos by email. We had to wait for 10 days after the assistant manager got back to us with the result. 2 weeks after we reported the product issue(we called the customer service a few times), the assistant manager informed us the vendor agreed to take the return, but we had the only 2 options:
1) Exchange to other blinds and get an installation without extra cost to the similar level of work. In other words, we would have to pay more if the work was more difficult(This was new to us because the salesperson never told us this before. He also mentioned that they can’t take any further returns after the exchange. I appreciated that he followed up with this matter at least while others didn’t, but I thought it’s not fair because it was not our fault that there were product issues and experienced bad service from them), or
2) Only get a gift card that we can use in any Lowe’s store but can’t get any credit for installation which was $220 before tax.
We didn’t want to deal with them any more so we gave up on the installation and chose to get the gift card for the blinds only.

We really don’t understand why:
1) They can’t give us a refund for the product(only store gift card) when the vendor agreed to take the return
2) No market director or regional manager ever called us when the customer service representatives said they would and we ended up having to deal with the store which was not helpful from the beginning.

We decided to hire a contractor or a handyman for a small jobs in the future from this frustrating, time-consuming experience. You can pay these people after their work while Lowe’s asks you to pay for everything up front.

I hope Lowe’s understands that customers have many options these days(I found there are very comparative online blinds companies that offer you customized blinds and free samples before you order). The product is similar to each other so it really comes down to good customer service.
I hope this review gives a chance for Lowe’s in Canada to realize how important good customer service is and to improve themselves.