Dear BBB....

Dear Better Business Bureau,

First, your website where I wished to give a (bad) performance review of a company is one of the worst websites I've had to contend with in ages. You'd think you really don't welcome reviews, and you didn't even know it was going to be bad before you forced me to come to a screeching halt in your totally FUBAR site.

But I have a BLOG! So here it is.

The company I wish to complain about is called Barlow Co, in Tolleson, AZ. Home Depot hires/ subcontracts with them for installation projects. They deliver appliances. They also are supposed to remove the old one, install the new one, and haul the old one away. Well, they delivered the new one.  That part went well, until you consider that a  major part was incorrect, or so I was told, which I had to pay the actual installer $25.00 for its replacement, and another part was missing. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

As soon as the new dishwasher was set next to the stove in the kitchen, the employee started giving us excuses as to why it was impossible to install it in our kitchen.  They were coming so rapid-fire that I suspected he was anxious to join his buddies in the bar or something. First, the hose was supposedly too short. According to him, the hose came out of the front of the machine, had to travel to its back, then along the wall over a foot! Gasp! into the sink area where it was to be hooked up. This was a complete lie, as the person who finally did the installation, days and many many phone calls later, informed us. The standard length would have been perfect, a straight run from the sink to the back of the machine. It would have even been long enough had it connected in the front! However, by this time it had been returned to Best buy, supposedly in exchange for their 2nd contractor to arrive to  do the install with one of the "correct" length. Home Depot doesn't carry them. Nor did the installer, because the standard ones are included with the dishwasher, but he rummaged in his truck and found a much longer one... for $25.

Then the original contractor claimed that our counter was too low and this new machine absolutely wouldn't fit. Another lie. We had asked before ordering whether dishwashers were all the same standard size or did we have to measure at home to be sure? The answer from the store was they were standard. With the new machine sitting up on sturdy styrofoam blocks, with more inside along the top, we could see the whole package was taller than the space under the counters, but surely the machine itself was small enough? Upon installation, it fit perfectly.

Then there was the "problem" of a trim strip across the front of the old machine at floor level, put in when laminate flooring was installed, which was immediately solved with a light tug and a handy seam right where it needed to be for removal during, say, putting a new dishwasher in. If it had been damaged, well, there's more wood trim in the house that matches. Big deal.

Then there was the idiocy about not even taking the old one out, as contracted for. If we had to get a later install, at least we could get the old one out, right? This is where his lies really got creative. The old machine would have been fastened to the counter above it (lie) and when the crew came in to remove the counter, it was their job to remove the old dishwasher (lie and highly improbable: not in their skill set.) Further, the new one couldn't be put in until after the new counter was in place, or those guys would damage the dishwasher and the warranty on the dishwasher would be voided. (Lie and total hogwash.)

There was another part which needed - actually needed this time - to be replaced, as it never arrived with the dishwasher, something to hook up the electrical supply properly. Lucky for us, our new installer had a spare, donated because a recent customer had gotten two with his order and handed the extra over to this installer, who simply passed it along to us.

Need I say we were disappointed, confused, pissed off, and given the totally unnecessary burden of trying to coordinate with Home Depot to get the job done, try to figure out whether it would fit, try to locate a new longer hose never needed for extra cost, and working to get a usable path around the new machine in our little galley  kitchen?  We were even angrier when the real installer from a second company informed us not only how bogus all those claims were, but informed us that most of his business comes from this company regularly reneging on its installation comitments, though this was somewhat tempered by the speed and competence with which he fulfilled the removal and installation of the new dishwasher. Perhaps we lucked out in getting the competent installer, but that should have been the first option.

I'm not sure why Home Depot continues to subcontract with Barlow Co., but they will be hearing from me as well. This is no way to do business. 

For the record, the second company, the one we praise highly, was XPO. I'd put in a good word for them on your site, but....