It is not structural. What he proposes sounds fine to me and what I would expect him to do. Sucks they are damaged but this is what the repair typically is. The manufacturer will not make new cabinets, they could ship you new backs and you wait or when they came in he applies them the way he mentioned to you.

Thank you Millworkman!! I was mostly concerned with my countertop being compromised.

My contractor (separate from my installer) made the opening for my recessed refrigerator essentially the size of the refrigerator instead of including a space for the trim. So the opening needs to be 4" wider (2" each side) and 3" taller. He is trying to get out of making any changes to this opening. It needs the 3" on the top so that an anti-tip bracket can be installed and connected to the refrigerator. I would imagine that the extra space is also needed to just get it in the spot.

" I was mostly concerned with my countertop being compromised. "

Should not be an issue. Just be sure the installer has seen everything before you get to far if your contractor shows being somewhat incompetent.

Your frig won't be able to tip if it is tight in the box. Think about the logistics of how that would happen.

Contact the distributor. Did you call them to inform the cabinets arrived damaged? Did they tell you how they are going to resolve a problem? How is your warranty for cabinets going to be affected with all the solutions your installer suggesting? I wouldn't make any decisions before talking to the store/ distributor of cabinets. Personally I would not want damaged cabinets installed at all.

I had vanity cabinets ordered from Porcelanosa ( your cabinets way more expensive). They shipped from Spain. Everything arrived pristine. They were packed very well. 3 sets of vanities. Not even one scratch. I think you should contact distributor.

Thank you all for the comments! Truly helpful! The installer installs roughly 95% of the distributor's Leicht cabinets and handles all their warranty repairs. He was on the spot with letting the store know about the problems and pointing them out to me. I also followed up with my salesperson. The salesperson is back in the office today and let me know that they will follow up in more detail with me today. It is wonderful, though, to hear the persepctives of others to make sure that what I am being told is standard operating procedure.

You are very accurate RNmomof2 zone 5 when you point out that the top of the frig will hit the ceiling and not necessarily tip over completely. I am just worried as I read the appliance company's installation manual (where they make a huge deal about it) and also called their installation hot-line number and talked to the very knowledgable gentleman there. He told me the minimum size of their cut-out (which doesn't seem to have room for the brackets) but still stressed the anti-tipping brackets because the frig is top heavy. I told him that I didn't necessarily think there was room, but he said there was.

Relative to the back panels, there are not holes. There are cracks. The back material is pretty thin and cheesy. A bit of a disappointment there.

I'm going to ask the salesperson if there is some other purpose for the trim besides looks. I'm just nervous that there may be another reason for it (everyone says the ventilation is on the bottom, not the back or sides, and I am not in a high condensation type of climate).

Is the base a stack of drawers? You'll never see the inside of that. I would just have him repair it so it's structurally sound and move on. The upper cabinet? Needs a new box unless you're OK with the repair he's planning. I would make sure it won't decrease the overall storage depth. This will delay the finish date of your project.

It gets better, one of the panels for my integrated recessed french-door refrigerator is missing. So I will be looking at this cyborg looking thing for what I assume will be months.

It's not so much the possibility of tipping, but your refrigerator needs space around it for air circulation. All refrigerators need a space around them and if yours is top heavy, presumably the bracket is also needed.

We are also having Leicht cabinets from German Kitchen Center installed and received broken panels, damaged corners, and many other issues with the install. The quality of work done so far by the GKC provided installer and the quality of the cabinets are not at all worth the amount we paid. We are hoping this is just a fluke and that they will eventually resolve these issues.

Since yours were installed about a year ago, how are they holding up and how has your experience with German Kitchen Center been so far?