First consultation for design was mid August '14. Paid initial 50% deposit August 27/14 with installation to be done the week of October 6th. October 6th came and went without any work being done. Contacted Al (who is a co-owner) countless times, so began to worry I was being defrauded. Al finally made contact a week later and explained there would be a 2 week delay. 2 weeks came and went, no call.
Finally got in touch with Al after numerous calls/emails/voicemails and he explained it would be another 2 weeks. Those 2 weeks came and went. Phone tag resumed until the actual installation began on November 18/14. The majority of the installation took about a week, and the end result was somewhat satisfactory. One of the old upper cabinets was 42", but Al replaced it with a 36" cabinet. This meant the upper and lower didn't line up, not to mention it was 6" narrower than what I had previously. Al advised me it was "a personal choice" and that "the drawings show what's being installed". Strange that the rest of the cabinets were the same size as the old ones and they all lined up. Even stranger that every installer made a deliberate mention that the cabinet was the wrong size and didn't know why Al ordered the wrong size in the first place.
Eventually, after an unbelievable amount of prodding, a replacement upper was installed that lined up with the lower and met the measurement requirements. Finally on January 9th, the installation was complete.
Pros:
- The actual installers were great. Friendly, easy to work with, answered questions
- Finished product is nice and warm
- Cabinets are reasonably priced for the quality
- Initial consultations went smoothly and were informative
Cons:
- Horrible communication after initial deposit (imagine that)
- Al blamed me for "changing my mind" on the size of cabinet. I didn't. It was the wrong size. Your installers agree.
- Timeline for completion was brutal. Was completed 3 months behind schedule.
- Al made it seem to be a "customer is always wrong" approach.
- Al initially refused to give any sort of discount for the errors and delay. Eventually got about 2% back. Yippee.
So to sum up:
Elite Kitchens has nice enough cabinets, but I'm sure they're just as nice elsewhere. They're reasonably priced and the installers are friendly and informative. The timeline I experienced for completion was atrocious, and the communication was even worse. I definitely don't feel like a valued customer, so much so that it made me feel like they were doing me the favour to redo my kitchen. I would recommend Elite Kitchens to people that want reasonably priced products but could care less about timeframes, communication or prompt customer service. I will not be a returning customer.
