Buying An Extended Warranty From Lowe's? Keep The Paperwork Very, Very Safe
When the dishwasher that Greg bought at Lowe's broke down after a failed repair, he called up the store. A manager instructed him to bring the appliance, which was covered under an extended warranty, in to the store and they would exchange it for one that actually worked. Only when he brought it in, the employees on duty treated him "like a criminal" because he had lost the receipt in a recent move. Wait, don't appliances have serial numbers that they can use to look up warranty information? Nope.
More »
You Can't Fix A Washing Machine With A Microwave Door
Lori's front-loading Whirlpool washing machine is broken, and has been since the end of November. This would be less infuriating if Lowe's hadn't sent six large boxes of the wrong parts to her house, as well as two repairmen who can't do anything because the correct parts still haven't shown up. She wrote to Consumerist in what is clearly a laundry-induced rage.
More »
Legislators Call For A Boycott Of Lowe's After It Pulled Ads From American Muslims TV Show
Lowe's seems to have jumped right from the frying pan into the fire, amidst a controversial move to pull its advertising from a show on TLC about American Muslim families. So far at least one legislator is calling for a boycott of the store for doing so.
More »
Lowe's Slashes 1,950 Jobs, 20 Stores
It's hard times for hardware folk, with Lowe's announcing that it will slow growth while closing 20 stores and leaving nearly 2,000 people out of jobs. The company shut down half the stores already and plans to whack the others within the next month. It still plans on growing, opening 25 more stores this year, but will open only 10 or 15 stores a year starting next year rather than the 30 it previously planned.
More »
Home Depot, Starbucks To Make A Pile Of Post-Hurricane Cash
Reports state that Hurricane Irene could have done anywhere from $3 billion to $10 billion in damage during her brief trip up the East Coast. That's a lot of plywood, nails, plaster and everything else that will be needed for repair. It's also a lot of coffee for beleaguered consumers.
More »
Line Your Samsung Oven With Aluminum Foil, Void Your Warranty
Do you line your oven with foil? Rae does. She always has, and her parents always have. It's such a normal thing to do with an oven, it didn't occur to Rae not to do it. She lined her oven with foil, then popped a frozen pizza in there on the first night after it was delivered. The foil melted the interior oven surface, and now Samsung tells Rae and her husband that they've voided the warranty.
More »
After The Storm: Shop At Home Depot, Eat At Waffle House
Which retailers are best at preparing for major disasters? According to some experts, big-box chains like Home Depot and Lowe's earn high marks for responding rapidly to blizzards, tornadoes and hurricanes. Then there's Waffle House, which FEMA administrator W. Craig Fugate cites as being one of the indicators he uses to determine whether a community has recovered from a disaster: If the restaurant is open and serving a full menu, things are okay.
More »
Lowe's Wants You To Be Your Own General Contractor At Home
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 »
Climb In Your Time Machine To Take Advantage Of This Rebate At Lowe's
"Hi STEPHEN," said the e-mail intended for new homeowners that Steve received from Lowe's. "Get settled in with up to $400 cash back on Whirlpool Gold Kitchen Appliances!" How thoughtful of Lowe's to tempt customers with a great rebate offer... that ended two months ago.
Lowe's Puts Me Through A Lengthy Song And Dance For Flooring
Stories like the one we heard from Consumerist reader James S. just make us flat-out exhausted by the time we're finished. In this case, it involves a lengthy ordeal with Lowe's as James and his wife try to get a new floor installed.
More »
Lowe's Teaches Us: Protection Plans Are Useless, And/Or Lock Up Your Receipts
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 »
Lowes Ups Stinky Drywall Settlement From $4,500 To $100,000
Remember
those stories about the drywall sold and installed by big American chains that turned out to be contaminated by noxious sulfur smells? Well, now Lowe's has upped its max payout for affected homeowners from a max of $4,500 in cash and gift cards to $100,000. Replacing the amount of appliances and other possessions irreversibly tainted by the horrid smell can easily reach that one-hundred grand mark so this is a step in the right direction, and lays bare how paltry Lowe's initial offer was. It's just business, baby, stinky, stinky, business.
More »
Former Installer: Why You Shouldn't Get Lowe's Installation (Or Why You Should)
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 »
Whirlpool, Free Us From This Fridge's Unholy Buzzing Sound
Justin and his wife saved up and bought a sweet, petite, shiny new Whirlpool refrigerator from Lowe's. They were thrilled with their new purchase for about three weeks, until it began to make an unholy buzzing noise. No one can make the buzzing stop. Not Whirlpool, not Lowe's, not an endless procession of repairmen, and not either company's executive customer service. What now?
More »
Lowe's Recalls 11 Million Roman Shades & Roll-Up Blinds
Roman shades and roll-up blinds have become the drop-side cribs of the home decor world. They're a known risk and there have been
industry-wide recalls, and yet they continue to be made (shoddily) and sold... only to be recalled. This time, it's Lowe's Home Centers recalling just about every Roman shade and roll-up blind it's sold since 1999.
More »
Lowe's Holds Sale, Underestimates Demand For 90% Off KitchenAid Stand Mixers
Home improvement retailer Lowe's went on Facebook and invited all of its friends to a totally awesome pre-Black Friday party late Thursday night and early Friday morning. Like all really fun parties, too many people showed up and things got out of hand. Which is to say that the doorbuster item, a KitchenAid stand mixer at 90%, sold out quickly, and took the store's entire site down with it.
More »
Lowe's Ups Chinese Drywall Settlement To $100,000 Per Victim
Instead of a few bucks and some gift cards, Lowe's has amended its stinky Chinese drywall settlement so that plaintiffs can get up to $100,000 - money that will come in a lot more handy for people whose entire houses and most of their possessions were ruined by the sulphuric fumes.
More »
Lowe's Proposes To Settle Sulfur-Spewing Drywall Claims With Piddly Gift Cards
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 »
"Weat Paent Man" Sign At Lowe's Makes Reading Fun Again
There is a free thinker at the Lowe's in Fort Oglethorpe, GA, who has rejected the system's stifling rules for spelling. Nice penmanship, though.
(Thanks to Tim!)
Introducing Consumer Reports' Weekend Deals
Our smarter siblings over at
Consumer Reports are really on top of things today: After some digging around, they've come up with a list of deals out there this weekend at stores like Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe's to help you stretch your hard-earned dollars.
More »
Lowe's Is Totally Hitting On Me And Other Customers
Steve was taken aback when Lowe's asked him and other customers for their phone numbers as they were checking out.
More »
(Photo: Phillip)
Lowe's Coupon Invites You To Spend More, Save Less
Lowe's mailed Phillip this coupon, imploring him to deny logic and spend $250 to get what at first glance appears to be the maximum savings. But Phillip used some mathemagicianal reasoning and discovered that it pays more to spend less in the case of this coupon set.
More »
Lowe's Travels To The Future To Discount Your Appliances
Mary was purchasing a washer and dryer set for her home at Lowe's. Just as she was finalizing the purchase, a sales circular with a lower price on the very appliance she was buying dropped through the time/space continuum, and visited the store from the future. Or maybe an employee put it out early. Either way, the store's manager very generously let Mary buy her washer and dryer for the much lower future price because of an employee's mistake.
More »
Lowe's Replaces The Refrigerator From Hell
—>Buddy, owner of the refrigerator from hell, has sent us a follow-up. Lowe's has agreed to send him a check for the replacement cost of the evil fridge. Hooray! More »
The Tale Of Lowe's And The Refrigerator From Hell
—>Reader Buddy has a lemon of a fridge that he purchased from Lowe's with an Extended Warranty. The store keeps sending people out to fix the appliance, but nothing seems to work. More »
Hey Lowe's: Is Halloween Next? Or Christmas?
—>The Christmas trees are in full effect and the decorations are crowding out the Halloween stuff at the Lowe's in Alexandria, VA. More »
Martha Stewart And Home Depot Enter Pact
—>Starting in January, you'll be able to buy Martha Stewart-branded patio furniture, storage bins, and toilet wine kits at your local Home Depot, thanks to a new multi-zillion dollar business deal the two companies have cooked up. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's old deal with Kmart—which a company tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution earned them upwards of $1 billion annually at its peak—expires that same month. More »
Lawsuit: Lowe's Cabinet Installers Drill Into Water Lines Three Times
—>Here's an interesting little lawsuit from West Virginia. A customer is suing Lowe's, claiming that installers contracted by the hardware giant drilled into his water lines. Not once. Not twice. Three times. More »
Lowe's Ignores Your Mom Until She Gives Up
—>Here's a story that made us sad. Reader Mary's mom went to Lowe's to buy a mailbox, and was ignored until she finally got so frustrated that she gave up and just left, in tears. Don't cry, Mary's mom. We will not ignore you. More »
Customer Battles Lowe's Online Over $3500 Fence, Wins
—>Last year, Lowe's horribly botched Allen's $3500 fence installation (see picture, left). When he complained, the installer and Lowes dodged responsibility, but still demanded $3500. Allen refused to pay and they sent his bill to collections. So Allen put up Lowes-sucks.com with pictures, correspondence and phone recordings of his customer service debacle. Instead of fixing Allen's problem, Lowe's sent him a cease-and-desist to get him to take down the website, claiming "trademark infringement." That's when our site picked it up, along with Ars Technica, Digg, and others, driving lots of traffic to Lowes-sucks.com That was a year ago. Now it seems Allen has won his fight. More »
Expect Fewer Deals At Home Depot, Lowe's
—>Home Depot and Lowe's are starting to realize that the surging housing market — which had fueled their own sales for the last few years — is really and truly over and it may not be coming back for a good long while. What does this mean for their customers? An emphasis on lower prices every day — and fewer promotions.
More »
Dear Lowes: A Gallon Has 128 Fluid Ounces, Not 116
—>A reader wants to know why Lowes advertises and sells gallons of house paint that aren't full gallons. Their website says the cans are "1-Gallon." Their receipts describe them as 1 gallon cans of paint. Even the stickers they print out and place on the lids say "One Gallon." But Brian notes that when he brought the paint home and really looked at the cans, "One of the labels read '116 Fluid Ounces; 3.43 liters', the second label read '126 Fluid Ounces; 3.725 Liters.'" More »
Lowe's Is Apparently Too Incompetent To "Build Something Together" With You
—>Reader Scott really wanted to give Lowe's some money to install a new door in his house, but, sadly they were just too incompetent to actually do it. After a month and a half of incorrect orders, botched installations, and having to cancel his credit card because an employee from Lowe's called him up to ask for his mother's maiden name, Scott finally got a refund and vowed never to do business with Lowe's again. More »
Consumer Reports Says It Doesn't Pay To Buy Cheap Paint
Our friends at
Consumer Reports tell us that even though the price of exterior paints and stains has gone up a few dollars per gallon on average from last year (due to price hikes for many of the petrochemicals that go into paint), big box stores are keeping consumers isolated from manufacturers who would
love to be passing on those added costs. It may be tempting to cut costs by buying a lower quality product, but CR warns against using crappy paint. Specifically, CR suggested Behr (sold at Home Depot), Valspar (Lowe’s), and Kilz (Wal-Mart) as competitively priced paints that "ranked among the top performers."
More »
Don't Believe That Guy Who Works At Lowe's Who Can "Get Everything 1/2 Off"
—>Here's the story of a guy who had to learn the hard way that "your friend who works at Lowe's and says he can get you everything 1/2 off" is a liar and a criminal. More »
A Lowe's worker says that at least at his store they're marking down all open-box appliances 50% to try to get rid of them before the end of their fiscal year. This type of stuff varies by store, so your best bet is to grab a manager and see if they're willing to bargain. More »
Consumerist's 1st Annual Christmas Creep Gallery
—>Thanks to everyone who participated this year. The offenses against Halloween and Thanksgiving that you documented were many and varied. More »
Retail Panic: Will This Be The Worst Holiday Season Ever?
—>Analysts aren't pleased with Lowe's and Target's latest news. More »
Lowes Resorts To Legal Bullying Instead Fixing Their Horrible $3500 Fence Job
—>UPDATE: Allen writes to say, "The issue between Lowe's, their attorney and I was settled amicably and in a timely manner..." He couldn't say more, but his website has been taken down. More »
Lowe's Removes Your Carpet, Disappears For A Month
—>Rebecca was sick of her old wall-to-wall carpet and hired Lowe's to remove the old stuff and install some new laminate flooring and some new carpet as well. More »
What Retail Slump? Target And Lowe's Are Doing Just Fine
—>Target and Lowe's cheered everyone up by announcing that they're doing just fine in the "tough selling market" that Home Depot was so worried about. More »
Lowe's Makes "Katrina Cottages" Available Nationwide
—>The small cottages designed to replace FEMA trailers after Hurricane Katrina are popular, so popular that Lowe's has decided to offer them in their stores. More »
Get a 10%-off Lowe's coupon. [Lowesmoving.com] More »
Lowes Steals Money From Old Lady's House, Threatens To Sue Her For Slander
—>Subcontractors working for Lowes stole money hidden in a reader's elderly mother's bedroom. When the mother complained, Lowes threatened to sue her for slander. More »
Customer Satisfaction At All Time High
University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) increased to an overall 74.9 score out of 100 in the fourth quarter of 2006, its highest level since the survey first started in 1994. That's a gain of almost 2 percent from the previous year and a 0.7 increase from the previous quarter.
So who is winning and who is losing?
More »
Lowes Blows
Dear Consumerist: More »
