Our builder uses Timberlake Cabinetry, which is also the same as American Woodmark & Shenandoah. We have toured quite a few of the homes he has built in where he has installed this company's product. Every single time I see the cabinetry, no matter what the finish or wood species, they look off. The glazing is sloppy, the drawers/doors are not lined up properly and the staining is not up to par. I know people have had good experiences with them, but Ive seen alot of bad. We've chosen to go elsewhwere for our cabinets. Timberlake may be slightly less expensive, but they are obviously cutting corners somewhere. Ive heard that they send replacements quite easily and often, so hopefully they will resolve your issues.

in an 18 cabinet delivery, we had 17 problem items. Glass didn't fit any of the doors - finish errors - chips - missing shelves - mis-aligned drawers, but other than that, everything was fine. Actually, the rep showed up within a couple of days after a little prodding, agreed to all to faux-pas, and hopefully it will be corrected quickly.

Live Wire Oak, thank you for the response, I was hoping to hear from you actually. In our case, unfortunately the sides of the cabinets will be showing because we're bumping them forward a bit for some interest so they definately need to fix that. In regards to having adjustable parts, the hindges of the base doors are all adjustable, but not the drawers. (maybe because they are vanity cabinets not kitchen) Even HD & the AW reps say there is a problem. I totally respect your feedback but can't help but feel that when paying 2000 for 6 cabinets it's only fair and right that we be able to expect better quality than this. I'm disappointed. :c(

Call your retail store, and they'll contact the rep. From there, call American Woodmark's 1-800 nuumber, and they'll make a note of everything. After the rep sees the damage and contacts AM, AM will release the fixed products for delivery.

We just purchased our kitchen cabinetry from AW. We had a super fantastic KD from HD. When the cabinetry came in, we were told we had 30 days to let HD know if there were any problems and if there were, to contact our KD. There were a few things, not many. We received the pieces that needed replacing in about a week. No one came to our house to check the pieces in question, and one of the pieces was a cabinet. As far as the look of our cabinets, I think they look fabulous. My neighbors think so too.

I don't believe lack of QC is limited to AW. I think it applies to just about everything anymore. There have been some posters to this forum that had cabinetmakers and still had problems.

I hope your problem gets resolved and the end result is a beautiful bathroom. Good luck.

WE have AW cabinets that have been installed since 05. I do remember the day they were delivered I sat there and went through each box to check. I did have a few issues, and one slider cabinet that on the 3rd try they got it right!

My HD designer and the AW rep were awesome. I sent out pics of the finished kitchen and they were really pleased.

Sorry that you are having problems, it can be so discouraging to say the least. Hope they can get it resolved soon.

Laura

All my upper drawers have gaps under them (though the lower 2 drawers in each of my banks of 3 don't). Countertop installer says he sees a lot of them like that, often if you just take the drawer front off and turn it upside down it will sit lower (mine didn't, so we'll have to drill new holes but since it's just in the drawer front not the drawer they'll never show).

I was interested in your bumping cabinets forward so sides show. You probably don't want laminate sides showing even if they weren't skinned up. Get some plywood veneer and stain it to match and apply it. In my case, I have a bathroom vanity (3" lower and 3" shallower) in the middle of my kitchen island so staples and yucky sides showing on the sides of the end cabinets. B/c I have fillers I am putting 3/4" thick oak stained to match as "sidesplashes" along the vanity countertop and along the front where end cabinets stick out. Carpenter is joining the pieces now, hopefully I'll get them tomorrow to stain and can post pics for you this w/e (even if not finished and nailed in place).

We had delivery of 22 cabinets a week ago. We had numerous problems. Those we could deal with ourselves, we're going to. The others are:
-paid for matching interior on a cabinet and it did not come that way
-one door with bad and splotchy glazing
-one drawer front that has one side that sandpaper never saw- I know if we didn't replace it I'd touch it all the time!
-cracked/hanging chunk of frame where hinge is attached on another cabinet
-several prominent chips on frame of a cabinet onto which hinges were so loosely attached the whole door dances all around
-one drawer base box not properly assembled so one side is 3/16" deeper than the other (we have several that are 1/16" longer than their opposite side)

The things we have chosen to live with are
-3 cabinets that were not fully stained in support areas (frame)- we'll touch it up ourselves
-chipped/rough cut edges to a few frame pieces
-numerous hinges (at least one per cabinet)improperly installed- cannot be adjusted to actually TOUCH the frame- at some point we'll remove the hinge, fill the hole and redrill

Other than that....the finishes are all really pretty and I'm excited by some of the nice graining we got in our maple. I got everything I wanted with regard to function for a price we could handle.

Ugh, reading this has my stomach in knots. We just had our cabinets delivered (American Woodmark) on Wednesday and we haven't had a chance to go through every box yet...but we will tomorrow.
We did open the super susan because the delivery guy left it on my porch because he couldn't get it through any of the 5 doors to my house!!!
DH had to take both doors off our slider to get it in the house. (wish KD would have told us it was that big!!)
Anyway, we noticed a plastic thing for the shelf is broken. I can't imagine this little plastic thing is holdng up the entire shelf for the spining thing...but it appears to be that way. After I saw that...I though...holy crap, please tell me I am getting nicely built cabients here!!

Thank you for all the responses. I'm still confused as to why they want to come to our house but guess I'll find out when they call to schedule the appointment with me.

ajsmama: in regards to bumping out the cabinets, we purchased wood fittings that fit into the area you reference on the side of the cabinet so it will all match, unfortunately, the part that isn't painted on our cabinet is the actual frame and that will be showing, hence it needs to be corrected. And the statement you made about all your drawers having the gaps, according to my HD rep (who has also been very helpful) they are not supposed to be like that & just confirms my point that the company is relying on it's consumers to do their quality control work and hoping things just don't get noticed.

sprengle1 - I don't understand why you would have chosen not to get those other issues fixed as well, especially when trying to match paint but hope the fixes you do turn out well.

laurielp - I wouldn't worry yet, as most here have said, the company seems ready to fix the issues although I really hope that you don't have any major problems with any of them. (don't take any chances though, get that lazy susan replaced)

Interesting question!! Guess who is hiring Master Black Belt position for "Six Sigma" quality assurance program? Yes, American Woodmark. They absolutely know they hav QC problems, and are instituting a new program to address the problem.
Casey

We are in the process of installing an American Woodmark kitchen - the Cream Maple Glaze in the Savannah door style.

Overall I have been very pleased with my purchase. When the cabinets arrived, the delivery guy had some trouble getting the boxes off the truck and dropped 3 off them, causing damage to those cabinets. Other than that, I have really only seen a couple of fridge panels with slight damage, which I believe is because they weren't properly packaged.

I called Home Depot and they sent out a rep to document the damaged cabinets. Because I live in Alaska, and didn't want to wait 6 more weeks for another shipment, I chose to get those damaged cabinets at 1/2 price and install them. I'm glad I did, because we luckily can't see any of the damage. I would say that HD has been awesome about taking care of any concerns we have.

I'll post pics soon when the kitchen is fully installed. Overall, I feel like I got what I paid for and would recommend this company to anyone not wanting to spend $$$$ on cabinets.

The stain issues we have are small areas, interior edges of frame. So we're going to give those a shot. Exteriors and doors are all beautiful.

If I rejected all the cabinets that have hinges issues...I'd have very few left. That's how extensive it is. It seems almost every cabinet has at least one. That's how it seems anyway. The predrilled holes they use to install them are OFF. Most of the issues are on wall cabinets. QC was HORRIBLE there. The base cabinets I have are in excellent shape except for the one box and the one drawer front.

If they decided to send someone out to inspect, well then they'd get to see ALL the problems we found!

My replacement cabinets have been ordered and are due to be delivered next week.

No rush though, because DH just called to tell me his mandatory overtime (60-80 hour weeks) season starts Monday. Lord knows when my kitchen will get done now!

Glad they got the replacements - and at least your DH is working (does he get paid OT or is he salary?). My cousin has been out of work for more than a month, told me he got a call back and they're negotiating pay & benefits now. This after all 3 kids including newborn have been sick the month he was w/o insurance. My DH's company made the front page of the WSJ the other day and it wasn't b/c their stock had a big gain. So we'll see if he's the next to get the ax. At least my big medical bills are coming this week (EKG, chest Xray, tons of blood tests).

Oh well since I mentioned it I figured I should post pics of the trim my carpenter (cousin) did for my island. It fits perfectly! Couldn't even wait to stain it to show you (even though I'll post pics when it's done too).

Before (left)

After (right - not stained)

{{!gwi}}

Closeup (fuzzy, but you can see how he beveled the edge to match but pulled it back so we didn't have a little groove on the front)

{{!gwi}}

Oh gosh, this thread has me worried. We just took delivery of our American Woodmark cabinets yesterday. The boxes seem to be in good shape, but I haven't opened them yet... will wait for the installer on Monday and we'll do it together. I went with this "budget" brand because our house/neighborhood just won't support a high end kitchen. The budget is tight and we're not do-it-yourselfers. I just hope I don't regret not going with Kraftmaid instead. I realize that AW is a lower line, but I just hope they don't fall apart in a couple of years! We didn't go with Home Depot installers, so I hope there is no problem with replacements. I guess we'll have to wait until Monday. Just curious, does anyone know the approximate cost difference between AW and KM? We didn't price out the KM line since we were already at the top of our cabinet budget with AM.

Our budget and home doesn't support a higher end kitchen (or masterbath) either, that's not really our style anyways so even if we had the money for that we probably would not have opted for something higher end. Usually, when I read feedback from the designers who contribute in the forum, I agree with their perspective, but not on this. I don't believe that just because we bought a less expensive cabinet that we bought what we got. Damage from shipping yes, a paint job that isn't as rich looking, yes and no thrills when it comes to the add ons sure, but not misbuilt drawers, that really can't be adjusted unless you pull them apart (which is absolutely not an acceptable fix in my book) and a shabby half assed paint job in areas "they" think won't show. If American Woodmark is "finally realizing" they have a QC problem, that's great, maybe in a better economy, they could get away with it, but not now when every company is scrambling for business they need to do a better job just to compete.

Ajsmama, that trim looks great. Yes, DH gets OT. I think his job is pretty safe. But you never know. I'm back in school working toward a degree so I can go to work FT in a few years just in case!

Update on my cabinets. My replacements came today. Everything looks good, except the replacement door came in without the drillouts for the hinges. Hey, I'm good, but not that good! I can't hang them by magic!

Just met with my KD at HD on another issue. This guy is a doll. We designed something that the system took and charged me for, but didn't deliver. It can't be done. He figured out how to do what I wanted and they absorbed the cost. The fix was closer to what DH wanted to do anyway, so that worked out!

Told the KD about the door and he said that was the wrong door then. I should get pre-drilled. Also brought in another door that I found a problem on at the hinge when I removed it from the box that was getting replaced. He agreed that needed to be replaced.

Then I brought up about the hinges not sitting flush to the frame. Showed him what I meant and told him a number of them are so far out that I was able to put an envelope with two pieces of paper triple folded behind them. Others are out, but not as far. They are adjusted back as far as they will go.

He is having the rep come out. He said there are too many issues with my job and he wants me to be happy. It seems to be largely the wall cabinets with issues. My custom sizes (made deeper) are fine/perfect. I have 3 3042 cabinets. Two of the boxes had to be replaced (chips, cracked frame). One door is now going to be replaced. The other box has hinge issues. The 3642 had to have a door replaced (our only finish issue) and 5 of the 6 hinges are markedly out of place. And so on.

I am pleased with the customer service response. However, if we were on schedule with our reconstruction (and we aren't because we are fixing work previously done on the house) the cabinets would have needed to go in by now. We've got a little over two weeks before we're ready. Hopefully this will all be resolved by then!

I just installed a whole kitchen worth of AW cabinets, 20+ cabinets. I had only 2 small issues. One drawer was a little loose, fixed with a new screw. And they shipped me a couple wrong filler pieces which they promptly fixed. I am sure they will take care of any issues. Like other have mentioned you have 30 days to deal with issues which sure takes the pressure off trying to find everything when delivered. Overall I am very happy and they look fantastic. I have savanah cherry with a glaze and also butterscotch glaze. Good luck!

Just wanted to update on my situation. A both a rep from Home Depot and American Woodmark came out to our home. Even though the AW rep insisted the drawer fronts are wrong on all three banks, she fixed them in a way that I'm ok with. In regards to the poor paint job on one of the base cabinets, they are replacing the box & one damaged door, but we have to removed one door & take the poorly painted box & the second door back to Home Depot to swap it out. They were very nice about fixing the issues, and luckily so far it seems like things will all work out. Thanks for all the feedback...hope things turn out well for those going through some issues also.

Question for those of you who have your AW cabinets. Do your hinges fit properly? I can't get a picture of mine on here yet, but I'll try to describe my problem as it is extensive.

When you open the cabinet doors and look at the hinges, it is the part of the hinge on the box, not the door. It is the part on the front of the frame, not the side/interior. Does that sit flush to your frame or is it out? Most of mine are out.

Can anybody who has their AW let me know how well your hinges are installed? Are they completely flush to the wood of the frame, or is there a gap?

Thanks!

sprengle 1- I don't know about anyone else with AW, but my hinges do sit flush to the face frame.

Thank you kitchen commander!

The AW rep is coming tomorrow afternoon to look at my order. Most of my hinges are not adjustable to the face frame. I guess I need to go through the rest of them tonight. Fun.

It's kinda crazy.

The rep said it was normal/acceptable. I don't see why you'd have an adjustable hinge front to back if you can't even adjust flush with the frame!

I have 10 cabinets out of the 17 that have doors that have a problem. Or should I say non-problem. Some are minor, one is pretty bad.

I have a picture of it. I'll try to get time to download it in the next couple of days.