I will begin by saying that the cabinets are beautiful and well made.
I looked around and Denis from ZDS was the lowest price by far. Which is why i went ahead with him and his company. I didn't however do much research before signing with him.
Lets begin ny saying his cabinets, FABUWOOD, come from the US. Therefore you have no control of shipment and should you require more parts (as i did) you will have to wait PATIENTLY to say the least.
Denis is a great guy dont get me wrong but he lacks deeply in customer service. He is by far the toughest person to contact. All my husband and I get is his voicemail which he also doesnt reply often to. Had i known this i would of stayed away. When you spend this much money the least you can have is a good communication with the company instead of being left hanging.
I have a few issues with my kitchen and will provide some pictures to illustrate. Keep in mind i have a really handy friend that actually has fixed and has come up with solutions for my kitchen and i will be referring to him as we go along.
#1 My hood range was a huge headache. Denis wasnt sure how to properly get the range hood to fit the wood cabinet. his suggestion was not the greatest as it would cause the cooking oils etc.. to be stuck on the cabinets. He came over and butchered the whole for the range hood. He actually was cutting above my gas cook top without even covering it. As a result i had saw dust everywhere.. thankfully it didnt damage my cook top. My friend saw the situation and quickly came up with a solution. He used some left over piece that is the same as the wood unit to properly cut out the accurate size of the hood range. He then installed it and was able to fit our range hood above the cook top. Denis left this kitchen with an unfinished look as another piece is required to close the whole/gap between the range hood cabinet and adjacent cabinet.
#2 upon entering my kitchen you see two panels. One form the fridge cabinet and other from wine fridge (bellow) and microwave (above). All but the panel from microwave has a nice detailed paneling. Therefore upon entering the kitchen it looks bare and unfinished. I approached Denis with this issue and we paid out of pocket for a dummy door to be place there. I wish he had told me the size of this dummy door because i spent money for nothing. Once my friend was going to install the piece we realized it was so very short. My friend instantly came up with a brilliant solution. He used the two drawers that where removed for the double wall ovens. It was the perfect height and width. He was however inconvenienced to bring both drawers to a friends work place to use a certain machine to properly remove the wood surrounding the drawers. Otherwise it would have cracked the face panel. That is when we found out that these where good quality. My friend did not get compensated for his work which is not his obligation but the obligation of ZDS kitchens to have got it rectified to begin with.
#3 from the very beginning i asked via emails for Denis to provide me with all measurements for all appliances. He never got back to me on the size of the cubby whole for the microwave. Once the carpenters where here i had to run off and get a microwave so i bought a walmart 'special'... to only find out its not the right size. The carpenter with good intention looked at his spare pieces at home and installed a trim around the microwave which frankly cheapens the entire look. Its a completely different colour. We then had to pay out of pocket for the proper trim. As a result we are left to uninstall the current one and install the correct one at our own means and expense. Should a client be left with things to do from their kitchen company? You be the judge!
#4 my kitchen doors are over lapping. I know during winter months due to the heat they may separate a little and thats fine but i havent experienced winter months yet and the doors are not separating but over lapping each other. My husband called Denis... which was no surprise we got his voice mail... and of course waited days before calling again and finally getting a hold of him.. Denis was suppose to come on Thursday or Friday and needless to say Its Monday and no visit or call. This is not how a reputable company handles business. no one would put up with this crap. A call notifying us that he couldnt make it until next year would have been much more appreciated.
In conclusion when having your kitchen redone its essential to have cabinets that are local. I cannot stress this enough. You do not want to wait without a reasonable time frame for cabinets and other necessary parts/pieces. I would definitely pay more for this piece of mind. Also find someone with a great track of customer care. We had to hunt Denis down for all the extra stuff that should have been his responsibility to resolve and fix. He laughs it off but i dont think its funny to forget to call or forget to drop off other essential pieces. You get what you pay for.. although these are nice looking and hopefully durable cabinets the fact that it came from US and it was 'back-ordered" and we weren't given a specific delivery time, and we had to keep all the cabinets at home until the carpenters where scheduled in..has left me not so thrilled. I would have had a half assed kitchen if it wasn't for my friend being able to help out for FREE.
You be the judge.. is it worth saving money for all these headaches and still having to fix things? above all are you willing to hire a company that doesnt even have the respect to answer you call or reply to your messages? If that doesnt scare you as a consumer then good luck!
