We purchased kitchen cabinets from Raywal 6 months ago and although they were accommodating to our requests after they were delivered, it took them 15 weeks to rectify the deficiencies (5 or 6 of them). They were paid in full when the cabinets were delivered, so I guess we were no longer at the top of the list.
There were also a number of items that we noticed after delivery that were surprises.
Our base corner cabinet came without the back half, which we were told was standard so they could fit the cabinets through doorways. I’ve spoken to other people and none of them had the back half missing for their recent renos. The design rep told us the cabinets were like that in the showroom. However, when you’re in the showroom their cabinets are bigger and the countertop is on, so you don’t notice. Basically we have half the cabinet size we thought we’d be getting, eg. wall length is 34”, cabinet length is 17“, see the attached picture.
One of the deficiencies was an incorrect door size and no shelf in our largest cabinet, had to go without that for the 15 weeks.
The knobs we chose in the showroom didn’t match the knobs we received. We were told there are colour variations in production runs so the difference was within the normal range. Not a fan of the darker more matte colour but not much we can do now, other than changing them out ourselves.
We chose the Norfolk door design, but the design isn’t carried through on the smaller doors like the spice drawer and base corner cabinet door. We have 3 different door styles in our kitchen. Raywal’s engineers advised they can’t carry the pattern through on smaller doors.
After having the kitchen for 6 months now, I notice that the shine on the cabinets isn’t as bright as it was. We haven’t put anything on them so not sure why that is and it’s only been 6 months.
The Raywal warranty is only 1 year on materials and workmanship, and lifetime warranty on drawer sliders and hinges. This Homestars website shows their warranty as 5 years, but that is not on the flyer I have, see the attached. My friend recently bought her kitchen from Lowes who offer a limited lifetime warranty for everything.
Our cabinet installer, who by the way was excellent, explained a number of things to us, which we felt should have been explained to us prior to the installation. As this was our first kitchen reno, you don’t always know what questions to ask and you try to do your research and cover all the bases, but you can’t know everything. He advised the soft close on the corner cabinets don’t really work because of the nature of the door and he also explained that the soft close on one of our doors wasn’t possible because of the way the door was attached to the custom cabinet.
Our kitchen has a peninsula and it was actually brought out 3” more than it should have been, this was an oversight on our part as we asked to have this corrected on the plans, but missed it when signing off on the final design. Also, our upper cabinet is an inch shorter than the bulkhead, so you notice it. My recommendation to anyone doing a kitchen reno is to ensure you double check the wall measurements before signing off. I didn’t think I would have to do this, but I am sorry I didn’t.
At the quote stage we didn’t receive a price breakdown, everything was lumped together. It would have been nice to see a breakdown and to see where we saved with respect to the promotion they were offering. Again, my friend who bought cabinets from Lowes got a detailed breakdown, which is good so you know if there are certain things you don’t want to pay for.
I am giving Raywal a 5 because of the delayed response to the deficiencies and the items noted above.
RESPONSE AFTER RAYWAL REBUTTAL:
I really appreciate the response provided for my review and because of that, I am changing my rating to an 8. This was my first kitchen reno so there were a few eye openers as I went through the process. Each company operates differently and I can see that Raywal cares about its customers, so I would recommend them and will definitely consider them for future renovations after their response.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $15,000.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Company Response
Hi Debbie, thank you for your comments. I wanted to speak to some of the points you have mentioned in your review.
As stated on the Homestars website our warranty for direct to homeowner kitchen cabinetry is 5 years. You had inadvertently received the warranty guide for our new home construction cabinetry, which has a 1 year builder warranty. I apologize and wanted to assure to you that your warranty is 5 years.
Our base corner cabinets are notched out at the back in order to accommodate standard doorways. This is the common design in our industry which was expressed by our sales team when you inquired.
You chose an arched door style, Norfolk, for your cabinetry. Smaller cabinet doors (9 ¾” in this case) will have a slightly different profile due to the limited width of the center panel. Again, this is industry standard for smaller arched doors.
When your cabinets are newly installed, just days from running through our finishing department, the sheen level of the cabinets will be at its highest. Over time, as your maple kitchen cabinets are exposed to environmental factors the initial sheen will stabilize to the levels as seen in our showrooms.Again, I appreciate all of your comments and will use them to improve our customer experience.
If you wish to discuss further please reach out to me at 905-889-6243 x317.Thanks,
Trevor Bellamy