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Monday, December 1, 2014

Home Depot rejects bad reviews. Had a disaster with a Vigo Corner shower. Got some refund after 2 weeks of battle.

I wrote this review and Home Depot rejected it. So, I go public.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/vigo-industries-edison?hrid=el6ZnqGX-oxbUIn-7-amOQ

I had a very bad experience with a Vigo frameless shower. I ended up scrapping $1k after wasting labor for 2 people for 2 days.

Here is what happened.

1. I bought this from homedepot for about $1k after taxes. homedepot.com/p/Vigo-42-…

2. Problem 1: Mine is a remodel and not new construction. The wall on the right was not perfect 90degrees. The right panel on the top was off by about 3/8 inch. I thought Vigo would have an adapter or a sealing strip which is 1" to account for it. There was none.

3. Problem 2: The hinges were not holding the door securely to the left panel and not holding the left panel to the wall. The screws were hex and needed Allen wrench used often in fancy furniture and not in rugged uses.

4. Problem 3: The gaskets which stop water leak around the door were not factory cut to size for this particular enclousure. They are geenric and the instructions provided are so confusing that the gaskets were cut wrongly by not one but 2 separate teams of labor.

5. Vigo sent replacement gaskets and hinges. Still the problem was not solved even though I was prepared to order a custom glass panel on the right for $600.

6. The only favor Vigo did for me was to refer me to Blossom Hill Glass in Campbell, CA which came, measured and replaced the entire shower in 1 week. Perfect gaskets, no leaks. I paid $2100.

Feedback to Vigo:

1. Make hinges and screws more robust.
2. Gaskets MUST be perfectly sized for each shower.
3. There must be wiggle room for imperfections in existing walls or warn people buying that this is meant only for perfect 90 degrees before buying.

Conclusion:

I went to local Home Depot. The store manager was not authorized to give any refund. The store customer service was kind enough to call homedepot.com and ask them to give me refund but they asked me to come on the line and told me to contact the manufacturer which was what I did to begin with and I was back to square one. The local home depot customer service gave me a corporate phone number to call for refund. I finally did that and they agreed to put in a request for refund to the refunds department. 4 days later I get an email from the refunds department saying they need more information and there was a phone number and extension to call. I called twice and left voice mail and got no response. 2 days later, I emailed a photo of my attempted installation of the Vigo enclosure, an invoice for a custom enclosure and the leftover hardware because the glass was damaged and had to be disposed off. Another 2 days later I called and spoke to another person who promised 70% refund which was posted a day later. Boy! It was a battle!

Net summary: Spent $1k on parts,  $1k on labor, got back $750 on parts, spent $2.1k on custom enclosure. Effectively I lost $1.25k but lot of grief on top of it.

Moral of the story: Order online from Home Depot ONLY if installation is available.
If they cannot install, they cannot charge.