Menards — Local services in Clive

5 years ago, we remodeled our entire house, added a 3rd stall onto our garage, and installed new siding on the entire house. We bought over 90% of our materials from Clive Menards with almost no issues. However, while adding onto our kitchen these past 2 months, we've had nothing but issue after issue after issue with Menards and their suppliers!

It took 3 attempts to correctly order a patio door (delaying it and our project by over a month). We have a defective window installed that won't lock due to the manufacturer missing their marks during production. The wrong roof trusses were delivered to our yard and discovered the day we were putting them up. The online inventory for the floor trusses we bought indicated they had over 50 of in stock, but they were special ordered anyways. After more than a week of calling and speaking with managers and associates about the online inventory and not getting anyone to actually look for them, the special ordered ones failed to be delivered on time by several days. Down to the last minute with no time left to avoid completely rescheduling all of our contractors set to come the next day, we finally got one employee to search for the 53 in stock (we had talked to over 8 by this point and been told all kinds of different things)...guess what? The were there the whole time, just like the inventory indicated! An hour later, I was home and installing them.

Our KLËARVŪE kitchen cabinets came in. We loaded our truck and trailer up with hundreds of boxes - all seemed way too small for large base cabinets, but we knew these came with some assembly. The associate told us that that was it. We've got it all. Well, the guy never gave us the usual print out of the few pallets that were loaded up to give to the attendant. The poor young gate attendant tried to do his best to follow the rules and check off piece by piece, but it would have taken us hours to do. We had boxes stuffed in the cab, in the truck bed, and stacked high in the trailer. Most items had quantities of 6, 8, or even more, but weren't stacked together. Since we were told that that was it, he eventually had to give in and zeroed all items out. Within 10 minutes of being home, I realized that we were missing ALL of our base cabinets and who knows what else. Trying to get back in the gate was a disaster with an order form that's been completely cleared.

We're not done yet. We ordered hundreds of dollars of ledger stone that is displayed in 2 different areas within the store. The stone was a deep slate color and was perfectly what we were looking for. We paid another "handling charge" for something they display in store and online (about our 12th of this addition project) and waited weeks for it to come in. We finally get it home and are ready to install it and realize that it's got sparkles embedded everywhere. My wife called and spoke with Lonnie, hoping to get the number for the manufacturer to call and ask if they've changed the product or if we possibly got the wrong one, as what we have and the display look like two different items. After making her feel as though she's a woman that doesn't know what she's talking about, he claimed the displays are really old and the sparkles were likely just rubbed off. This stuff isn't able to be simply rubbed off. After making her feel like she's dumb for even calling, he says he will call the manufacturer. Take a guess if you think we ever heard anything back from Lonnie? No. With the way the call went, we knew that was coming.

All this was just the major stuff. I could go on forever about all the minor inconveniences, such as defective can lights not being fully punched for electricity, Bosch fiber cement blades being completely shot after 3-5 cuts, ordering lumber from the project center that was in stock, only to immediately get to the yard to find that it wasn't there.

Update: Missing another order of cabinet doors that was scanned, zeroed out, but never actually brought out to us....

I special ordered a top vanity sink for my bathroom from the Clive (Iowa) Menards. When it arrived, I did not notice any issues. Once it was installed by a contractor, it was found to be cracked and a small hole in the bottom of the sink, causing both sides to leak. I called the Clive Menards store said they will replace the vanity. They said once the new vanity arrives, they will exchange it for the old one, but the old one cannot be brought into the store before the new one arrives. Once the new vanity arrived, I had to hire the same contractor back out to uninstall the old and then install the new vanity, costing approx. $380.00. I went into the Clive Menards store and the pluming associate stated I needed to fill out a form titled “INSTALLED GUEST COMPLAINT FORM” and mail to corporate to be refunded the labor for the reinstall. There is no email or fax, you have to fill out this form and mail it in, so that already raised my suspicions (Obviously they are hoping to discourage you from doing the work of mailing it in and you dealing with the issue).

The attached photo below is the response from Menards.

I went into the Clive Menards store, asked for a manager and I was told the General Manager would speak with me. A lady named Michaella (Spelling may be wrong) arrived and I informed her of my issue. She was polite and calm but showed zero sympathy. Below is a summary of our conversation: Michaella stated they cannot refund anything related to labor or materials. I stated per this letter, Menards is assuming every product they sell, the owner is assumed to know how to install it. Michaella stated, "We are a do it yourself store, but we don't assume you know how to do it all yourself". I replied, "So I am out the $380.00 because I don't know how to install the vanity and did not see the it was broken beforehand?" Michaella stated if I had to broken vanity with me, maybe a discount could be added but since my current vanity is installed with no issues (I informed her of this earlier), nothing can be done. As I stated earlier, I was told I could not bring in my broken vanity until my new one arrived, so there was no way for me to get a discount. Whether Michaella knew this or straight up lied to me, I don't know, but I will assume she did not know.

Menards’ website states, "Menards does things right - our strength and success can also be seen in the well-stocked and maintained stores, the lowest prices in town, and the way customers are always treated like family in a local, hometown hardware store atmosphere." If this is how they treat their family, wow! They sold me a broken vanity and assumed I knew how to uninstall and return it. I should not be penalized for their faulty products and the labor to uninstall it to be returned. They have no customer service phone number, you have to email them, so that tells you something in itself.

I will never set foot inside another Menards again, which is very sad to say based on this experience. Unless you are a contractor or know how to install/uninstall what you are purchasing, be very careful because Menards and the Clive store will not care if...

Check out lady was very courteous... Picked up a 1 gallon and a 5 gallon pails of mismixed paint in bargain area. The 1 gallon rang up correct , the 5 gallon did not...waited approx 20 minutes for someone from paint dept....no one showed up...a lady manager and a man showed up and I explained where the paint was at...in the bargain area...more or less told me I lied and paint lid had not been removed...I told them that is not taken off...she stated...well this hasn't been off...pointing to the pour spout and mixing port...with paint around lip and a circle of paint where lid had been put down to add the tint...I would say that the tint was wrongly added so pour lid was replaced and set in bargain area. The lady and man treated me terrible in front of cashier and customers checking out...I explained that they need to spend some time in paint dept and see how paint is colored (tinted) I do spend alot of money here each year and have since you came in to the Des Moines Iowa area...It is sad that people like this work for you...dont know if I will continue to do business with you at this time...I am 68 and feel very hurt and...