Talk to any contractor or carpenter — or most people who are reasonably familiar with home construction and repair — and they’ll tell you that a “4×4” piece of lumber is not actually four inches by four inches, and that it hasn’t been that way in any of our lifetimes. Yet some Home Depot and Menards customers are — literally — making a federal case out of this discrepancy, accusing the retailers of false advertising. [More]
home improvement
Home Depot, Menards Customers Cry False Advertising When They Learn “4x4s” Aren’t Actually 4×4
By 6.22.17
DirectBuy Wants Everyone To Know Its Business Model Is Less Terrible Now
By 11.4.16
Yesterday, we shared the news that DirectBuy, a company often featured on this very site for its anti-consumer practices, had filed for bankruptcy protection. However, the company wants to make sure that you know something: it has been making changes to become less terrible, including monthly fees instead of multi-year contracts. [More]
Sears Bringing Paint Back To Store Shelves Nationwide
By 8.30.16
Now that home improvement materials are selling like hot cakes, Sears is hoping it can capitalize on the DIY trend by selling paint for the first time in four years. [More]
Beaver Wanders Into A Lowe’s Store, Finds Nothing Useful
By 5.18.15
If you find a trip to your local home-improvement superstore daunting and stressful, imagine being a young adult beaver preparing to build your first home. One of the rodents wandered into the chain’s location in Fairbanks, Alaska, and wandered the store’s aisles aimlessly. It was as likely to find twigs and mud as you are to agree on a paint shade for the master bedroom. [More]
How To Not Suck… At Deciding When To DIY
By 10.23.13
Considering how expensive home repairs can be — and how dang easy they make fix-it jobs look on TV — it can be incredibly tempting to save some money by doing it yourself. But DIY isn’t always the less-expensive option when you figure in the costs for all the things that could possibly go wrong. [More]
Lowe’s Installs Wrong Door, Wants Customer To Pay For Installation Of Replacement
By 2.7.13
A Sacramento woman ordered a beautiful new front door for her house: shiny white with brass fittings and a window up top. It was a very nice-looking door, and that’s what was on the estimate she received. It wasn’t the door the installers actually brought to her house and installed in the front of her house, though. That part’s no problem: they just need to come by and replace it with the correct door, right? None of this would be a big deal at all if they didn’t want her to pay for the second installation herself. [More]
Kohler Advertises Lifetime Warranty, Actually Means it
By 6.26.12
Often our readers feel like “customer service” exists to send customers in circles, and a “lifetime warranty” only lasts as long as the company thinks the lifetime of the warranty should be. But there are exceptions, those companies that we say have gone “Above and Beyond.” Robert tells us that one of those companies is plumbing fixture maker Kohler, home of the $6,000 toilet and a lot of great customer service. [More]
Research And Determination Made Lowe's Fix My Carpets
By 5.9.12
A few years ago, Justin had workers from Lowe’s come install carpet in his house. After the warranty on the work had expired, the carpet began to stretch out in high-traffic areas. Even though he’s not a professional carpet installer, Justin does have extensive experience with walking on floors, and knows that’s not how it’s supposed to work. He researched possible causes, learned that it was due to an installation error, and tried to get Lowe’s to admit their mistake and fix the problem. Here is the exciting plot twist: they did. [More]
Save Money When Remodeling Your Kitchen
By 12.23.11
You don’t have to overcook your budget to revamp your kitchen. Be willing to get your materials from unorthodox places, as well as learn how to do some of the improvements yourself, and you can end up with a better-looking kitchen than your neighbor at a fraction of the cost. [More]
Lowe's Wants You To Be Your Own General Contractor At Home
By 6.22.11
Eric’s dad bought his kitchen renovation from a local Lowe’s store. What he didn’t know is that to wander in and buy services like this from a big-box home improvement store, you personally are in charge of the comings and goings of the different contractors, and must know enough about construction to make them come in the right order. Funny, I thought that was the entire point of going to a big-box store and hiring them to install everything for you. [More]
Lowe's Teaches Us: Protection Plans Are Useless, And/Or Lock Up Your Receipts
By 4.27.11
W. warns us all: don’t buy expensive tools and the Master Protection Plan that goes with them from Lowe’s. If you do, keep the receipt somewhere that you will absolutely not lose it, like a fireproof safe or stapled to your forehead. How does he know? It all begins with selling a used saw that originally came from Lowe’s. [More]
Former Installer: Why You Shouldn't Get Lowe's Installation (Or Why You Should)
By 3.1.11
An anonymous reader who once worked installing as an installer for Lowe’s shared some very helpful advice with us: you probably shouldn’t go to a big-box store for your deck-building and window-installing needs. Why is that? Let him count the ways. [More]
How To Make Your Home More Environmentally Friendly On The Cheap
By 11.29.10
You don’t have to line your roof with solar panels, disconnect all your appliances and install a sun roof in every room to green up your home. Nor do you have to wage a destructive deforestation campaign against the green in your wallet to work your way into the good graces of enviro-snob acquaintances. [More]
Home Depot Won't Let Me Use My Electronic Gift Certificate Without Printout
By 11.4.10
Lucas saved up his credit card reward points to buy a Home Depot eGift Card with the understanding that he only needed the number to make a purchase. A Home Depot clerk denied his purchase, insisting she needed to see a physical copy. [More]
Pool Manufacturer Shuts Down, Leaving Homeowners With Empty Pits And Liens On Their Homes
By 8.25.10
The Aqua Pool & Spa company in California had been building pools for over 20 years and had built up a good reputation, but after a bank went under and called in a $3 million loan, the company abruptly laid off everyone last week and shut its doors. Now everyone who was in the process of getting a pool built is stuck with torn up yards and half-finished pools. What’s worse, subcontractors are now dunning those customers for payment for services or supplies, even when the homeowners already paid (through Aqua Pool & Spa) months earlier. [More]
Lowe's Proposes To Settle Sulfur-Spewing Drywall Claims With Piddly Gift Cards
By 8.12.10
Lowe’s is proposing to settle in the tainted drywall class action lawsuit with gift cards. The gift cards will be $50, $250, or $2000. Never mind those who entire homes, way of life, and most of their possessions and electronics ruined or contaminated by the sulfur-emitting drywall. Here, how about a discount on a new showerhead? [More]
NYC Forces Retailers To Stop Selling Illegal Knives
By 6.21.10
If you were planning on picking up a sturdy switchblade or gravity knife from one of the Home Depots in NYC for your next home improvement project, or because you wanted to stab someone, you should note that they’re no longer available. That’s because last week, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office persuaded that store and 13 other retailers to stop selling such knives. They’re generally illegal in New York, and the retailers have agreed to surrender their inventory and forfeit any profits they made from illegal knife sales over the past four years. [More]
Couple Discovers Secret Room In New Home, Secretly Filled With Moldy Garbage
By 6.1.10
Every kid talks about how they’re going to have a secret room in his house when they grows up… so imagine the delight of reader Jeannine to discover the house she bought actually came with one! And then imagine how that delight turned to revulsion as she and her partner opened it up and found countless piles of garbage covered with white puffy mold! It would turn out to be only the first of many secrets the house revealed to them, including a basement with 75% secret asbestos tiling! Oh, it’s like something out of a fairy tale! [More]
