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  • Report:  #460246

Complaint Review: Home Depot - Lexus Contracting - Nassau-Suffolk Plumbing - Jericho New York

Reported By:
- Glen Cove, New York,
Submitted:
Updated:

Home Depot - Lexus Contracting - Nassau-Suffolk Plumbing
Jericho Tpke. Jericho, New York, U.S.A.
Web:
N/A
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Contracted with Home Depot in Jericho, NY 2008 for new kitchen. Bought appliances at Hicksville Sears which were to be installed by Home Depot. Lexus Company was contractor for Home Depot. They sent Nassau-Suffolk Plumbing and Electric to install appliances. Never tested dishwasher once installed. Whole job was paid in full to Art Peganoff, supervisor (who was let go by Lexus).

Christmas Day ran dishwasher which flooded the new kitchen floor. Dishwasher motor was noted to be on the ground when the investigation started. However, Sears claims Home Depot should have known it was defective because they installed it. Home Depot says they are not liable because it was a defective product. But of course they are claiming that "the customer comes first."

The supervisor who collected for the job never helped us file with insurance through Home Depot and once we did, we were told this would all be resolved within sixty days. It is now mid-June and we have a destroyed kitchen floor and are going to small claims court. By the way, the Kenmore (Whirlpool) dishwasher was replaced because as the claims rep said "it was defective but the installer should have known it was." We were told to hold onto the defective dishwasher as evidence. To date, we have not heard further as to what to do with it.

When the final payment was made to Home Depot, the supervisor had written on the bottom of the payment slip "unresolved matter regarding dishwasher." If I was wiser, I would have not paid the remainder until this matter was resolved.

I have been round and round with the insurance companies that represent both Home Depot and Sears and have gotten nowhere. So now we are going to small claims court so this can be resolved and we can finally finish the job with a new floor.

Be careful out there. They are all only looking after their own interests, not the customers.

Kj

Glen Cove, NY

Kj

Glen Cove, New York

U.S.A.


2 Updates & Rebuttals

C Ed Wright

Verona,
New Jersey,
U.S.A.
Need to determine who is actually liable

#2Consumer Comment

Fri, July 03, 2009

Insurance will only pay after it is determined who is liable; the insuranc company providing coverage for that entity is then liable to settle any claim against that entity. There is a chain here: Home Depot referred the job to a primary contractor who then hired various subcontractors to accomplish certain tasks involved in the remodel. Sears is liable for the defective dishwasher but maybe not the damage due to flooding since it never should have been operated with so obvious a defect -- at least that seems to be their position; which sounds logical. The d/w installer should have noticed something visibly wrong, but the real defect of his performance was failure to test upon completion of installation, or better yet, after making all connections but before completing installation; the catastrophic failure would have been instantly observed, the unit and water shut off, spilled water immediately cleaned up, the defective unit disconnected and exchanged by whoever picked it up originally (if delivered by Sears, they would handle that); and no damage to the floor would have occurred, because anything used in floor construction can handle a brief moment of local wetness. Spills happen. Major floods are another story. For example, IFF I had installed a ceramic tile floor, I would have tiled & grouted watertight to all cabinetry under the D/W, range & fridge and any water damage would only have been to any particle-board cabinetry; plywood cabinetry, on the other hand, would probably not be damaged by a brief flood assuming it was cleaned up promptly. But not all tile installers do that, a major installation flaw -- THAT may actually be the ultimate source of liability: Failure to extend water resistant floor surface under the major apliance(s). All major appliances eventually fail do to age, wear & tear, etc. A kitchen floor, where spills and minor or not-so-minor floods are occasionally normal and expectable, should never get damaged by water (unless by a major flood while nobody's home for an extended period of time). Your libility question is complicated by the number of entities involved plus the questions of why the floor that should be water-tolerant was damaged by a brief relatively small flood (about the equivalent of dropping a large pot full of water, something that EVERY kitchen floor should be able to withstand!). Contact a lawyer because probably only a judge will be able to assign liability where it belongs. THEN insurance can pay.


The Consumerist

Tempe,
Arizona,
U.S.A.
Installer issues

#3UPDATE EX-employee responds

Thu, June 11, 2009

The odd part about your whole installation is you buy Appliances from Sears and have Home Depot install them. This leads to a super happy install cluster %@#$ because it sounds like Sears Is blaming Home Depot for a poor installation vs Home Depot blaming sears for a defective product. It sounds like the installer totally destroyed the Dishwasher or did something wrong. A motor doesn't just end up on the floor all by itself. If you dealt directly with one company either Sears or Home Depot this would've all been avoided completely.

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