After being very pleased with the efforts and ideas of the design team at Ekko, it was a huge disappointment when the first sets of cabinets arrived. They were scratched right through the packaging, many pieces were marred on the surfaces, (even the door fronts,) some pieces were the wrong size, some had badly fabricated laminate, pock marks, you name it. The installer handled the cabinets very roughly, further marking them. Many pieces were going to need to be reordered, and although we wanted to return the entire kitchen, Ekko insisted that we should "just let them install it." Reluctantly, we did, and now regret it. After 6 months, and some pieces being reordered up to 6 times (I'm not kidding,) we finally had to cut our losses, and finish the job ourselves, after 3 remaining gables arrived with drips of lacquer and "chatter" marks on them that we just couldn't tolerate being installed. ( Ekko's answer was to reorder them a 7th time!) We sourced and installed the remaining gables ourselves, had them installed ourselves, finished all the touch-ups and re-levelled/rebalanced all doors and drawers that required it. There was a lot, and of course, we had to pay for all this in addition to the original fee we paid to Ekko. The only compensation they're willing to give us is 10% off the total cost, which we feel is inadequate considering what we're left with and the 6 months it took. Ekko's cabinet supplier is Norcraft in Winnipeg, and it is our understanding they've recently stopped using them. That's a bit too late for us. We wished Ekko would have taken responsibility for the quality of the product and it's installation at the beginning of this journey, as they were acting as Norcraft's representative. If we had to do this over again, I'd not be as enamored of the design phase of the kitchen cabinetry, and ask more questions and seek references for the actual product and it's installation.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $15,500.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Product should be inspected for flaws before it's delivered to customer, and a reasonable level of imperfection should be determined before contract signing so there is no room for debate about what's "industry standard." Installer should cover drawer glides prior to using tablesaw over top of them.