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Portland man complains about slow work, slow refund from The Home Depot

Chad Lykins hired The Home Depot to do the job and says he was assured it would take a few weeks to get started.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland homeowner says his patience is almost gone after a project to install new siding on his house.

Chad Lykins hired The Home Depot to do the job and says he was assured it would take a few weeks to get started. That was one of the big reasons he chose the store to do the work.

“The start date was a major factor in my choosing Home Depot. I really needed to get this started,” Lykins said.

The Home Depot sent a salesperson to his home and showed Lykins some samples of hearty plank siding.

“We thought it was good, so we bought it. And he gave us a start date of 6-8 weeks,” he said.

That was May 22, 2017. The contract Lykins signed with Home Depot outlined an approximate start date of July 5, 2017, with an approximate “finish date” of July 30, 2017.

But much to Lykins’ disappointment, the work did not begin in July. And it did not begin in August, either. Or September. Or October.

Lykins got more and more frustrated.

“Eventually, around November, which was about six months after we had bought the siding, they say they've got a crew,” he explained.

Despite that claim, the work still did not begin, even though Lykins said a crew did leave a mess in his driveway.

“They drop off a big 40-foot dumpster and a Honey Bucket in our yard,” he explained. The equipment sat there for weeks until work finally started in January – seven months past the original “start date.”

And to their credit, Lykins said The Home Depot did try to make it right by agreeing to give him a $1,500 refund when the project was completed.

One of The Home Depot managers just needed Lykins to fill out a form to process the $1,500 refund.

It’s an email exchange that Lykins said went nowhere. He had already filled out the form twice when he said he got a third email from The Home Depot, asking him to fill it out again while apologizing for the “lack of follow through.”

Experts say it’s always a good idea to keep a record when consumers have disputes with companies.

“It's great to call, but it’s also good to follow up with an email to have that written record,” said Stephen Mayer, the Marketplace Director for the Better Business Bureau of Oregon.

In Lykins’ case, several months went by and he had still not received his $1,500 refund.

The BBB says that’s when consumers need to advocate for themselves.

“File a complaint, especially if they're looking for some sort of resolution,” Mayer said.

Lykins filed a copmplaint with the Better Business Bureau on July 2, 2018. Three days later, The Home Depot responded to the complaint, writing that they would process Chad’s $1,500 refund “that day” on July 5.

But Lykins said that did not happen.

“They've told me three times now it’s going to be processed on the same day, I still haven't seen a refund,” he said.

We’ve reached out to several Home Depot representatives involved in Chad’s project, both by phone and email. We received a call from the corporate office in Atlanta and were told they were looking into it.

And just before this story aired on KGW on a Friday, Lykins told us Home Depot contacted him directly and said “The check is being cut Monday and sent to you.”

The Home Depot also promised to “follow up and make sure everything goes smoothly.”

In April 2018, a KGW investigation showed Home Depot waited six months to begin repairing a Portland-area woman’s roof that experts deemed “structurally dangerous.” Home Depot told KGW the job was canceled out of safety concerns, which was news to the homeowner. The company eventually refunded the woman’s money and help pay the cost of her new roof.

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