Feb 23, 2026
Signed the contract with MKD Kitchen & Bath.
Late February
A measurer came out, acted like the job was a huge imposition, and made it clear he didn’t want to do it. We asked him to leave. MKD sent Aaron instead.
Mar 5
Aaron came to template the countertop. This was the first we heard that the old counter had to come out before templating, that we couldn’t use our own sink, and that the area needed leveling.
Mar 9
Texted Firas about the quote for the removal and leveling change order.
Mar 11
Signed a second contract for removal and leveling. A crew came out but couldn’t measure, because the surface wasn’t level.
Mar 13
Texted Aaron to confirm he was coming the next day to remove, level, and measure.
Mar 14
Aaron came on a Saturday to remove the old counter, level the area, and measure.
Apr 7
Counter install and backsplash measurement scheduled.
Apr 14
Aaron measured the backsplash.
Apr 16
Dakota was scheduled to install the cooktop and blender.
Apr 24
Install scheduled, then pushed back.
Apr 28
Indray came to install and stayed about an hour and a half. He couldn’t install the left side of the sink, because the hole had been cut wrong and needed recutting. We sent MKD photos of every problem the same day.
Apr 29
Dakota texted that he was coming to do the faucets. Nobody at MKD had told him the backsplash never went in on the 28th, so the trip was wasted.
May 5
Sean was out sick, so we spoke to Amber. MKD admitted there was a logged measurement error but said it was installable, so we agreed to schedule.
May 6
Left a message for Sean.
May 7
Left a message on the main line, after nobody ever picked up from hold.
May 8
Sean called. His system had the wrong installer for both visits. When we raised the overhang problem he said “I am not understanding what you are talking about,” asked “Did you sign off on this?”, and told us to explain it to the next installer ourselves.
May 13
Wrong again. The counter came cut wrong a second time, about 12 inches too short behind the sink. When we asked Indray to deal with the earlier mistake, he said “I think that’s someone else’s job. Nothing I can do here.” We called MKD (eight minutes on hold, then voicemail) and texted the sales rep, Firas, who gave us Jen’s number.
May 13, later
Spoke to Emily, who said Jen was tied up until end of day. After we walked her through it, Emily said: “All of this is on us at this point.”
May 14
Jen Lasky called back. The May 13 piece was mismeasured yet again, now with a return date of May 19. She said there was “a clear breakdown,” that the install manager would take over, and that someone would come out.
May 18
Gary Vallad, the install manager, came to the house and said everything installed so far was not good enough. The bar top had to be remeasured and remade. He promised it would all be done by Friday, May 22. We cancelled an Airbnb guest booked for May 22 to 25, Memorial Day weekend.
May 19
The backsplash behind the sink finally went in.
May 20
Dakota installed the faucets.
May 22
Amber called. Jen and Gary had brought her in to handle compensation. The remade bar top now couldn’t go in until May 29. The May 22 promise was gone.
May 26
After a lot of coordinating, Indray reached the house late in the day. The first thing he said, from his truck, was “How big is it supposed to be? It looks wrong.” He installed the bar top anyway, with no lip on the sink side (the opposite of what Gary had specified), sharp unfiled brackets underneath, bad seams, and no seal by the butcher block. When we asked him to file down the sharp brackets, he said “No, I can’t do that, you should have told me that before install.”
May 28
Called MKD. Amber had promised to call twice the day before and never did. “I apologize I didn’t call you.” We resent the photos: sharp brackets, no seal, bad seams, no overhang. Amber said “I think it was cut wrong.”
May 29
Matt, a repair tech, came out. He cleaned up the caulk and grout (he agreed it was terrible), sanded the sharp brackets, sealed between the butcher block and counter, remeasured the bar top, and said he’d come back to cut down the piece behind the cooktop.
Jun 9
Left a message for Amber.
Jun 10
Eight minutes on hold, then voicemail, asking Amber or Jen to call back.
Jun 11
Called again. Got Brittany; Amber and Jen were both unavailable. Jen texted that they were “waiting on a material update,” then called back. The material had been on backorder, but she was pulling slabs from other jobs for ours. Install set for Tuesday, June 16. We told her Indray was never to come back, which we’d already said, and she was surprised to hear we’d met the “new” crew before too, one more thing their records had missed. She confirmed she is the Director of Customer Experience and admitted nobody had followed up with us between May 29 and June 11.
Jun 15
Emily called to say Lozar would come the next morning.
Jun 16
Lozar installed the bar top. Matt reset the backsplash under it and cut the piece behind the cooktop. He said we’d have to get someone else to trim the wood behind the cooktop so it could sit back far enough to close the gap.
Jun 17
Jen called and offered $2,000 back on the $15,925.72 total. We asked for $5,000. She said she wasn’t authorized for that and could do $2,500 at most.
Jun 22
Called Costco to reopen our ticket and ask whether they could add anything to MKD’s offer, and left Jen a voicemail that we were waiting to hear back from Costco.
Jul 2
Jen followed up asking us to accept the $2,500. Costco had already told us that any compensation above that was between us and MKD. We didn’t agree the amount accounted for everything, and we asked for the name of her supervisor.
Jul 8
We took the $2,500 to close it out. We said plainly it did not cover the failures or our time, and we asked for whoever was above customer service, so the problems could actually get fixed for the next customer. MKD gave us Michael Johnson, the Director of Operations.
Jul 9 to 21
MKD’s accounting needed a signed authorization form before they’d issue the credit. The breakdown: $15,925.72 original, less prior payments, less the $2,500.
Aug 3
Told to expect a call from Wells Fargo to approve the credit.
August
A privacy breach. The Wells Fargo financing set up for our job had been opened using a previous resident’s email address, not ours. That person was notified of a credit account in their name for our purchase, and our private financial information was exposed to someone who is not us, without our permission. One more thing that went wrong on MKD’s watch.
Sep 22
We asked when and how we’d get the Costco Shop Card rebate we were promised. MKD said it had gone out on September 15 and told us to check our email, our spam, and our Costco account. It wasn’t in any of them.
Sep 22, later
Then MKD said Costco had made a spelling error on the 15th and resubmitted it, so another 7 to 10 days.
Oct 2
Still nothing. We asked MKD to bring in someone who could actually fix it.
Oct 5
Jen said again that the card had been sent to the correct email on 9/15 and that we should have received it. We told her again that we hadn’t and asked who else we could speak to. No response.
Oct 7
We forwarded the whole thread to Michael Johnson, the Director of Operations above Jen, and asked him to help us get the card so we could be done. He never replied.
Oct 9
Called MKD. Sean answered, never asked who we were or what it was about, wouldn’t put us through to Michael, and instead sent us to Julie in accounts receivable, who handles the Costco cards. Julie finally emailed Costco’s account manager to ask what had happened.
Oct 9
Costco’s own account managers found that the shop-card system had never sent the card to the corrected email, and reissued it. The card arrived that afternoon, almost eight months after we signed. It ended only because we kept pushing, while MKD’s Director of Operations never answered at all.