Do you step up for what's right, or just go with the flow?

I had new kitchen cabinets put in. Nice maple painted fronts recommended by the contractor, but the bottoms of the upper cabinets were some cheap-ass laminate wood tone so I made them paint it white to match the fronts, and they were all getting their panties in a knot about me being too particular about something nobody looks at anyway. Well I told them that I look, I'm the customer, and I simply don't accept this mindset of lowered expectations. Glad I did. Any other quality mavens out there?

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

Seems kinda of a toss up. You didn't object to it during the quote process. HOWEVER, they should have told you EXACTLY what went in and what it has. IF they did tell you then you have no right to get into a hissy fit. OTOH, if you didn't tell me, how am I to agree or object?

That said, if you don't think it is right, best get it fixed sooner than later. Why pay for something you will end up kicking yourself in the ass every day when you look at it and know it isn't right?

My buddy had a cabinet installer try to put the sheet of wood (not sure what it is called but it comes in a roll) so that it was easy to install. HOWEVER, that made the grain go sideways. He got pissed. Installer told him "Well, I've been doing this for 8 years, yada, yada, yada." Buddy told him "I have been BUILDING them for over 15 years and I have yet to see a tree with the grain going sideways. The trees in my yard go "up down" and not side to side. FIX IT NOW!!!".

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

I feel your pain - where have all the good days gone?

We've just bought an AEG dishwasher (German of course) which I expected to be of much better quality...

These days the trick seems to be to do just enough and not a bit more. Unfortunately this pushes everything down to the lowest common denominator and then the attitude is "what are you complaining about? You've got better than crap"

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Sorry, I'm not with you on this one Raymr. If you wanted the bottoms finished a certain way you should have told them up front. It's ok to want them painted but you should also expect to pay for the paint job.

Nobody puts special finishes on the bottom of cabinets. The bottom is just whatever the material used in the construction of the cabinets is. If you bought cabinets with plywood shelves you would get plywood on the bottom. If you bought it with partical board and plastic wood finish on the shelves then you would get the same on the bottom.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

No don't paint them. We had painted bottoms at an apartment we rented on campus some 20 years ago and the paint was chipping off. Granted, it was probably a DIY rattle can job but we couldn't figure it out for a couple days.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

AEG doesn’t exist anymore since 1996.
The brand name is bought by Electrolux and they licensed it to various (not German) companies.

Rob

I paid for white cabinets - my old cabinets were white underneath, and I presumed, wrongly I guess, that new expensive ones would be the same. I wasn't given any options about shelves. and yes they are the same weird laminate stuff as the bottoms. All I can say is they looked lousy if you're seated at the counter and see the mismatched surfaces underneath. Much better now. Is this a recent cost cutting measure or has it always been this way?

Speaking of appliances, Whirlpool makes refrigerators for Kitchen Aid, Maytag, Kenmore, Viking and others. In some cases the only difference is the handles and the badge they stick on the front. Don't be fooled by a fancy name tag - it might just be a Whirlpool under the covers.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

It depends on what you ordered: stock cabinets with a special door finish (aka: laminated particle board back, bottom and sides) or an upgraded 100% plywood cabinet.

The customer has some obligation to do research to determine what the expectations should be and the seller should help to ensure what he's selling meets those expectations. If the seller showed you only 100% plywood cabinets that were finished everywhere but the top and back, you might have felt there was a bait-n-switch sales tactic. If you got what you were shown, then maybe your expectations were too high.

I was doing some remodelling and specified a plywood cabinet, not just a finished faceplate and doors. I paid extra. Had I received something different and got the "no one looks there..." response I wouldn't have been happy.

It sounds like he tried to clean up the un-met expectations though.

Really? I didn't know that.

I think our dryer, dishwasher and washer were all made in Germany - all AEG - I'll check

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Nightmare. The Bauknecht junk we bought when we first moved here also turned out to be Whirlpool...

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

This is one of the symptoms of what I've referred to before as the "Home Depot Syndrome". Much of society wants everything cheap at any cost today- witness the recent spate of tour bus crashes by fly-by-night operators so some poor SOB could save $20-30 on a bus trip. The recent crash of Colgan Air flight 3407 is another perfect example with their $20,000/yr pilots.