KraftMaid Fire in Middlefield, OH

Was there any toxic release of chemicals during this fire? We have much contamination in the soil and groundwater in Middlefield already due to the old rubber factories (now closed) that polluted our town for many decades. Obviously, the public will not find out the truth without a records request. Thanks. Ron E. Duncan - Longtime Middlefield Resident

kraft maid allways has and allways will have the money to do what ever they whant to do they are a very bad company and do very evil things  to very good poeple

Hang in there. There are things we cannot control. Will always keep selling your product

Robert, do you personally know of bad things that they have done or are you just spouting BS?

Robert, after working with Kraftmaid for close to 18 years, I can personally testify that this is a company with a solid reputation for taking care of not only thier employes, but always doing the right thing for thier customers. I have designed and sold thier product with confidence that they will always defer to the customer if any issues arise. You have the right to express your opinions in a public forum however, you need to qualify your statements, lacking that, these statements sound as if they come from a disguntled ex-employee.      

As a customer with an order to be received in one day, I think it is really sad that they would just now give me a call and push my order by 8 days.  I feel completely screwed over.  Everything in my house is dependent on these cabinets.  They were later than promised in the first place and now they are adding 8 additional days.   The day they were to arrive, I had counter top people, cabinet installers and the following day had electrical, plumbers, tile and hardwood installers.  They at should of called me much sooner to warn me about this. The lady in customer service was rude and kept saying there was a fire in a smart $%D% tone.  I will NEVER order again through Kraftmaid because of the way they handled this.   

Very sorry to hear of this fire, I am from NJ and will now wait a about 10 additional days for my cabinets which is very understandable considering their misfortune.  Obviously an act of God.  The phone contact I have had with them has been excellent and I wish them the best in recovering from this disruption.  Buy American!!!

I, too, am waiting for an order.  I have yet to receive a call with information regarding a date.  Can I assume the delay will be only 10 days? 

We were supposed to receive our cabinets today (11/2).  We were just notified today and we are being delayed until 11/23. 

I am glad to hear we had no loss of American life.

I was told my cabinet would take three to four weeks.I ordered on 10/1/09.Didnot get my cabinets and the fire was after the four weeks.I was told 11/10/09 and now it is 11/17/09.I have contractors waited and it is hard to schedule them with the way things are being handle.I have to be out of my old house by 11/30/09.Is anyone going to pay for me to stay somewhere until kraftmaid gets it together.If they cannot meet their timeline,they should not tell people that they can to get their business. 

I too am a customer and they got pushed out.  I was already rushing to get them installed prior to my baby being delivered but now they will be here just the day before, which makes it impossible to happen, so I have to bring my baby home to chaos instead of a finished kitchen.  Really upsetting! 

Numerous posts complaining; only one concerned with the welfare of the employees. How sad is that, Nathan M? Get a grip, people, on what truly matters in life!

My cabinets are delay as well.  I am terribly sorry that this had happen, however, it took me several years to save every penny to do something nice for my parents and their first home.  To say that people do not care about others is very sad.  Kraftmaid has a legal obligation to fullfill every order.  I went through a home improvement store to purchase my cabinets and materials.  I was never contacted by KraftMaid about anything.  I was sent an email in which the first line read, "There was a contained fire at one of the KraftMaid plants." How do you think I felt? My advice to customers, make sure you put in writing your concerns, complaints, and expectations and send them to KraftMaid.  I have to wait until one day before Thanksgiving to have my cabinets delivery.  I was promise to have my kitchen done way before Thanksgiving.  I wanted to give my family something nice and to be able to entertain in a functional kitchen especially around the holidays.  Then this happens.  One day before Thanksgiving, we are going to be eating on cabinet boxes.

Crud.  Just learned of delay in my cabinet order by 4 weeks via Home Depot when I called them to check on status.  Fire was 2 weeks ago.  Why did no one call me??? Kraft Maid and Home Depot know the orders being processed, they all have my numbers.  Now I need building permits extended, etc, etc.  No one offered me temp cabinets, or any other solution besides "too bad - wait."  Last time I checked fires inside factories are not "acts of God," they result from human carelessness.  I am glad their carelessness didn't cost any person their life, at least that I have heard.  But, we create insurance to spread the cost of paying for our carelessness - I hope they have some insurance.  I am one of the hundreds who will be inconvenienced due to their carelessness, and may end up being one to file a claim if I have extra costs due to their delay.Regards,   

I am also a victim of the fire, and I say victim because I have been completely pushed aside with this cabinet madness. I am a mother of a almost two year old who is to celebrate is birthday November 29th in our newly purchased home, which needed a new kitchen. My cabinets were scheduled to be delivered November 2nd, 2009, and October 30th the kraftmaid customer service people called to reschedule the delivery, which was after just short of us ripping our old kitchen out for the delivery to be smooth. So I now am waiting to the delivery of my cabinets with a almost two year running around my house, without a kitchen! Wonderful! I am alos very glad that there was noone injured in the fire, however I as well believe that Kraftmaid should have contacted their customers way before they did. And all they have to say is sorry, sorry for the inconvience. The best is that the distributor I went through, Lowes, is just as bad about their contact with me, they NEVER called me, I called them and then had to go back in the store, and all they had to offer me was another 10% off in their store. Yea, that's not gonna happen, I definately won't be shopping in their store for a while. Oh yea, and might I add... I called Kraftmaid and asked for some sort of compensation and they told me I would have to get it from Lowes, which in turn told me that Kraftmaid isn't giving them anything, so they arn't giving me anything, BULLSHIT, if I ever heard it!! I am a manager of a high end grocery store, and I know FOR SURE we would never ever tell a customer that, if we have to take a bite in the ass from a mishap, we will. And I guaranteed the customer that was not satisfied will return to our store, me on the other hand will never purchase Kraftmaid cabinets again nor will I shop at Lowes if I can prevent it. They handeled this whole situation ALL WRONG!!! And I agree with Monte, I might be one of the ones filing a clam as well. Kraftmaid might be calling my new kitchen a write off, if they are don't do something to fix the matter, and soon. I have a HUGE party at my house on the 28th of November, and I will have a kitchen, hell of high water!!!

Kraftmaid was a great company and brand, however quite a few years ago they were bought out by masco corporation, which was good in the sense that it gave them more stable capital to make improvements etc, and they were also led by a very good management team that was focused on the employees and customers, providing a great product, while lowering cost. However that management team is now gone and the current management team focuses on cost cutting, and in a lot of the times, where to cut a job position. They want to give a 4week delivery window, but unfortanetly they run such a tight ship that any internal issues will most likely impact the customer. The culture of getting the product to the customer in a quality fashion is dying, not due to the employees, but rather the style of management in place. I have no idea how the fire started, however, when you constantly cut positions because a consulting company is making money out of the number of employee reductions without looking at the overall picture, it can cause situations that are inherently unstable where failures can occur (ie the fire). I am very glad to hear that no one was hurt since I used to work with many of the individuals in that area. It's a shame that a really great company is turning south & not just because of the economic conditions, but more from looking at only the tangible numbers and not the overall in-tangibles and leadership that make great companies.... Just one person's opinion.

BTW, my sympathies for all of those impacted by the fire both in wages for the time that the plants were down, and those who ordered cabinets and now the dates are being changed. I believe that making changes to ones home is stressful enough without having the time table changed... hopefully it works out and the cabinets are right the first time they arrive and the quality meets the expectations.

My Kraftmaid cabinets showed up latter than expected a few days ago. One of the cabinets was warped so badly it is impossible for me to believe that even an inattentive QA person could have missed the problem. Another drawer base cabinet showed up without the drawer fronts attached. The drawer fronts came in separate boxes with no mounting screws and no indication of where holes would have to be drilled to mount them. These two peculiarities along with a couple of other oddities lead me to believe that my small island grouping was put together out of "seconds" and rejects. I am clearly not happy that these cabinets have arrived in this poor condition. I am also not happy that the Lowe's store apparently has the policy that you can only be serviced by the cabinet department salesman who actually took your order. Maybe I should be happy that the gentleman I worked with is still with Lowe's and I can meet with him tomorrow when he is available.  

I work for a small, privately owned cabinet and granite company that "sells" Kraftmaid (unfortunately).  We carry six other lines as well, and ALL of them are better than the crap that Kraftmaid tries to pass off as a quality cabinet.  I stopped even quoting them to customers because I knew it was going to be a nightmare to deal with them.  They shipped cabinets with drawer fronts unattached, drawer glides broken and large drips in the finish.  There's no way that even the most lax quality-control person could have missed these issues.  Kraftmaid advertises a lot, and the only reason we still display their doors is as a "hook" to get customers in the showroom.  Once they're in (usually bringing along their little catalogs and designs from HD or Lowes), I show them something else.  Just because they advertise everywhere, does NOT make them a good cabinet, by far.  We get no service from our rep. and I had to find out about the fire from another customer.  Thankfully, because I rarely even quote them, none of my customers were impacted by their fire, which was clearly their own fault.  A fire in the middle of a huge building is clearly not an act of God - it was someone's carelessness.  I'm glad nobody was hurt, and I'm truly sorry for the customers that are affected, but to be honest, karma is a bitch.  Kraftmaid got what they deserved for screwing up so many orders and trying to pass off a crappy product as quality.  Now maybe they'll slow down and start taking their time with each order.  They got too big for their britches too fast by over-saturating the market with their arrival into Lowes and Home Depot, and it's finally costing them.  Btw, Richard in NJ, there are PLENTY of American cabinet manufacturers to choose from.  Kraftmaid is not the end all be all of cabinets.