Picking out and paying for new home appliances is stressful enough. These products come with numerous different features to learn, and very high price tags. But buying a new appliance may just be the beginning of your troubles. A Georgia man reports that a new washing machine installation from popular home improvement retailer Lowe's recently left his house flooded. Read on to find out why he's now calling out the company for its silence.
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A man's house flooded after getting a new washing machine from Lowe's.
iStockA man from Auburn, Georgia, has been dealing with a homeowners worst's nightmare: flooding. Glen Frazier told local ABC-affiliate WSB-TV Channel 2 that it happened within minutes of his new washing machine being installed by Lowe's.
"They left and when I came in the house, my wife says, 'What’s that noise' and I say, 'It was water,'" Frazier recalled. "Water was pouring from the light fixtures, from the seams, from the sheetrock."
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He said he went weeks without a response from the retailer.
ShutterstockThe damage created a major unexpected expense for the Georgia family. Frazier told WSB-TV that water remediation alone was going to cost them more than $8,000, and he suspects that number will only increase with the repairs needed.
But the money wasn't what upset Frazier most about this situation. In fact, he told Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray that he understands that accidents like this can happen.
Instead, Frazier said his issue lies with the silence that followed from Lowe's. The Georgia man said he went two weeks without any response or help from the home improvement retailer, despite multiple efforts to contact them. According to Frazier, he repeatedly called Lowe's and visited his local store to no avail.
Lowe's did eventually get back to Frazier.
iStockLowe's has since gotten in contact with Frazier about the flooding situation—but only after the Georgia man went to extensive lengths.
According to WSB-TV, Frazier decided to turn to the Consumer Action Center after weeks of silence from the home improvement retailer. Founded by Atlanta-born consumer expert Clark Howard, the Consumer Action Center is a "free community resource for advice on money and consumer issues," per its website.
The volunteers at the center were able to connect Frazier to Elliott.org, which provides consumers with contact information for the top executives at major companies.
"With a lot of big companies, they are not trying to do the wrong thing, but they are so bureaucratic you have to use unconventional means to get that problem solved," Howard told WSB-TV.
After sending a message to an email address he found through the center's help, Frazier told the news outlet that he quickly received a response back from a Lowe's executive.
"I told her the story and she said this should never happen," he shared.
This is not the first time the company has been called out.
iStockBest Life reached out to Lowe's to get more information on what the company is doing to help Frazier, and we will update this story with their response.
But the Georgia man is hardly the only customer to experience similar issues with the home improvement retailer. In Jan. 2023, a woman from Wilmington, Massachusetts, told NBC10 Boston that she had spent months trying to get Lowe's to reimburse repairs after a faulty dishwasher installation left her with water damage in her basement.
Yolanda Girouard said she bought a new dishwasher at Lowe's and was offered free delivery and installation services with the purchase. But two weeks after it was installed in her home, she noticed that the ceiling tiles and insulation in the basement below her kitchen were wet. Her plumber inspected it and found a leak traveling down from the new appliance.
Unlike Frazier, Girouard was able to get in contact with Lowe's, but that didn't help her much.
"I must have talked to, no exaggeration, 12 people," she said. "Had to keep resubmitting all the information, the pictures. I was on hold, 'Oh, we don't do that, you have to talk to so-and-so,' but four months back and forth and back and forth."
Finally, Girouard decided to turn to an outside organization like Frazier. She contacted NBC10 Boston for help, and they were able to get $1,900 in reimbursement funds from Lowe's for the Massachusetts woman, as well as a $200 gift card.
"The satisfaction of our customers is our top priority," a Lowe's spokesperson told the news outlet. "Lowe's customer relations worked directly with Ms. Girouard to address her concerns, and we are pleased that the issue has been resolved to her satisfaction."
