You are most definitely not being too critical! I'd do what ever I had to in order for it to be rectified by the orig person or work something out where you are compensated to have these done over.

This is awful, no excuses for bubble I would not accept them. If you are not getting anywhere it might be time to talk to a higher authority or even get legal advice. So sorry for you this should be a time of delight getting new cabinets.

Thank you! As far as having work rectified by them, we have come to the conclusion that they just aren't capable. The thought of them coming back again makes us nauseous! They have been back around 5-6 times already (or more) and this is the latest photos "after" their touch ups and fixes!

Thanks Diane! When I asked about the bubbles, the response was "that can happen with excessive moisture". Huh??? We said- "that's why we asked for you to take them back to the factory". Their response "Bubbling can happen in the factory too".

Bubbles happen when the service is not properly prepared or so is splashed on the still wet service. Had an Audi that needed body work after someone tried to break into it after the clear coat was applied they drove to fast over the floor that was wet to keep the dust down ended up with bubbles. Took two weeks to have it all sanded off and redone on their dime. These cabinets need to be redone by someone who cares. Push to get them refinished by another company. Stand firm, do not give in they will try to wear you down if they can!

Not service surface

No idea who did this work, but it is some of the shoddiest I have ever seen. Depending on the amount of work, 40-50k is reasonable for new cabinets. My advice: Ditch the liars. They are lazy, careless, and will never fix them properly. If the actual shape of the cabinets (as in the woodwork,) is fine, hire a professional painter to sand down and repaint onsite. This is your safest route at this point in the project. I don't believe in being spiteful, but writing a negative review might be a good way to finalize the fiasco with them. (And keep other homeowners from going through the same hell.)

Thank you roziechic. I am so disappointed and have contemplated an "objective" review showing these types of photos, for other potential clients to judge for themselves. And to think I picked this company because they have 35 "5 star" reviews on Houzz.com. Clearly they are fakes! From now on we will always go with my "real life" recommendations from friends and family!

So I would not pay them; or if you have take them to small claims court to get a refund. I agree they do not have the skills to do the job.

That is unacceptable. You are NOT being too critical! I would be absolutely livid over those results.

This work was done by Pacific Coast Custom Design (PCC design, Inc.) located on Ellis street in Fountain Valley, CA.

Unacceptable; especially for that kind of money. How can they not die of embarrassment?

Unfortunately, I chose this company based on their MANY Houzz.com 5 star reviews. Makes you wonder how many reviews are posted by family/friends versus actual clients. They are clearly spending more time managing their online reputation than on quality custom cabinet work.

You should leave a review on Houzz. I read the reviews (for Pacific Coast Custom Design / PCC Design), and their response to the one review that was critical was to deflect responsibility and criticize the client. Not a class act. Although their response (if they leave one) to you might be the same, I still think it's worth it. Good luck!

Definitely way too much money for those horribly done cabinets. You might try getting ahold of Houzz and letting them know about the ongoing issues.

You can also report them to the Better Business Bureau in your area, assuming they're members - and even if they're not members in some cases.

I recommend trying to get ahold of someone else at the company, or someone higher up. If you're dealing with the owner, you might tell them you don't want to take this to court to get your money back, so you'd appreciate it if they'd fix these issues within the next 30 days, or you'll have to take action.

All these are unpleasant options, but if I put $40k into kitchen cabinets and they came out looking like this, I would tell them they can have the cabinets back and return 100% of my money, or pursue it in court.

Sorry you're having all these problems.

The other, unpleasant but possibly preferable, option is to fix them yourself and just give them horrible (honest) reviews on every forum you can find them on.

Good luck.

Thanks for your help and support everyone! I did report them to the BBB already, which was not much of a help. The BBB posted my complaint, but since the company wasn't registered yet, they chose to register themselves under the alias "PCC design", so now anyone that searches them on the BBB won't see my complaint.

In addition, we have withheld the last payment (only about 2% of the total) to get them to come back and fix the mistakes. When they came back they took the doors back to their factory and brought some back in worse condition. We are now even worse off. We complained again that the job still isn't done right, and that was 3 weeks ago and we have heard no response.

Honestly, at this point we just want them out of our lives. But I do want to make sure others don't fall into the trap of using them.

The good news is, their contractor's license appears to be active. The bad news is, if the California Registrar of Contractors complaint process is anywhere near as difficult and time-consuming as that of Arizona's, you're in for a very long and painful resolution process.

We're now in our 4th year of living without any cabinets at all in our kitchen after the Registrar determined the cabinet maker was non-compliant to his contractual agreement. (He tore out the old cabinetry then for 2 years gave us excuse after excuse on why he 'needed more time').

It's taken this long to win the case against the contractor - as a result his license was revoked - and we're now working toward getting our money back (through the Registrar's recovery fund), so we can get our cabinets built.

Do take Lydia's advice and give them a firm and clear ultimatum. If that doesn't work, as painful as it is, you may want to turn to the Registrar.

Rogerc - so sorry you are having to go through all of this! At this point, I think it is project abandonment on their part if they don't respond to our request for further repair. The main issue now is we don't want them to repair anything anymore. We have given them several chances and every time it comes back with more issues/problems. We did file a complaint with the CA state board of Contractor's in an attempt to "scare them" but clearly that did nothing to inspire quality work. We will consider possibly re-opening the case with the contractor's board, but need to decide if that headache is worth it.

We are planning to leave honest reviews of their work with photos on websites, but since we didn't pay the last payment (even though very small) - could they still legimately put a lien on our home as retaliation?

I would think an active complaint with the CSLB would negate their ability to place a lien, as the complaint is a form of lawsuit. Not an Attorney here, but I doubt a lien could be initiated in a matter under judicial review.

Did the Board conduct an inspection or did you not get that far with the process? In my opinion, the Inspector would agree with you that the workmanship doesn't meet standards of the State.

Normally, that's the point most contractors would get their act together and get it done correctly. We believe ours had some unusual cognitive issues that prevented him from realizing the importance of the matter. After the Board gave him 4 months to fix the problem (which he agreed he could do), he then started telling the Board the same thing he'd told us for 2 years... "I need more time". Hence, he lost his license.

I would never give the pleasure of knowing I was without cabinets to a contractor for two years.

Joseph - Sorry, I'm not getting your point. The contractor took the cabinets out and was taken to court during that period. How is it I've informed him of something he's fully been a part of? And what sort of contractor would take pleasure in this? Can you explain your comment?

Sorry for being obscure. I was trying to say I wouldn't let the contractor keeping me from having cabinets for two years know that it bothered me.

Oh yes, I see. In theory, I could have bought new cabinets sooner.

However, under Arizona's Registrar process the homeowner has to win the case and the contractor's license must be revoked before you can recover any payments made to the contractor. This contract was for solid walnut custom cabinets throughout our entire home, so our 50% deposit was very substantial. For economic reasons I had to wait out the Registrar's cycle before going forward with a new contractor.

This work in the photos above was done by Pacific Coast Custom Design (PCC design, Inc.) located on Ellis street in Fountain Valley, CA.

Hello everyone, I can relate to this similar problem with hiring a (Waterloo County). cabinetmaker of over supposedly 30 years experience. This is the finished look after the 3rd time doing the cabinets. We now are dealing with lawyers. Plaintiff claims i am to fussy since "you are only going to sell the house". Any one know of a good inspector that understands cabinet work for preparing for court. This is only the "Readers Digest" version.

I feel your pain, Dave Moore. We never received any compensation for the shoddy work our "contractor" (Pacific Coast Custom Design in Fountain Vally, CA) did. Their work was egregious! We posted photos of their work on every review website, to make potential customers aware of their poor worksmanship. We had initially chosen them because of their 5 star reviews on Houzz. Later, we discovered a large number of their reviews on Houzz were fakes- including reviews posted by their own staff and the owner himself.! This was extremely disappointing and we will never use Houzz again to help with decisions on choosing vendors.

I am just reading this thread since I’m having a similar experience with my contractor. He has made so many mistakes and is unwilling to take responsibility. The poor workmanship is unacceptable. He has harassed me, lied to me, & intimidated me. I’m in the process of filing a complaint with the Contractors State Licensing Board. I’m curious what the outcome was with your kitchen cabinets. I’m in Huntington Beach, and most likely will need to find a new contractor.

Hi- unfortunately we never did get a resolution besides withholding the last 2K of our payment to them. The cabinets are still chipping and it still irritates me but now that it's been 5 years I am moved on to thinking about getting a painter to repaint or maybe just new cabinets entirely (but hubby says I need to wait 5 more years for that). Most of my friends with white cabinets tell me that they did need to get theirs repainted after 3-4 years, but none of them had the issues I had with installation. I have also heard that pre-fab cabinets are actually better as far as durability then custom, but we have weird shapes and sizes in our kitchen and I don't think pre-fab would ever work. As far as I know- our contractor is still working and producing horrible cabinets for people around town. But sounds like there is more than one contractor doing that.

In our case, although the contractor's license was revoked under our complaint due to his noncompliance to the requirements of the statute, when we then went to court to pursue getting the $40k we had paid him refunded, we lost the case.

Why? Back when we had first met with the contractor to discuss having him build our cabinets his contractor's license application was 'in-review'. We lost the case because his license only became effective two-weeks after we signed the contract. Small but very costly error on our part. A five year ordeal ending with a big $lap in the face.

Lesson learned - always check for the license on the day you sign the contract!