Hundreds of Home Depot customers have complained of substandard work by outside contractors, some of whom turned out to be unlicensed and unscreened, including an unregistered sex offender. The problems were highlighted by a series of Team 5 investigations.
July 19, 2007
The Home Depot has made significant changes to its internal employee and subcontractor policies nationwide, following a series of Team 5 Investigations.
"They put my life in jeopardy," said Niki LaBrecque of Chemlsford, a 27-year-old woman who hired The Home Depot to refinish her kitchen cabinets. The subcontractor it sent was unlicensed and a convicted sex offender.
LaBrecque said he did shoddy work, a complaint echoed by hundreds of The Home Depot At Home Services customers across the state.
A 2001 internal manual obtained by Team 5 Investigates instructed employees not to "tell customers that The Home Depot's installation program is an outside service" and to "use a blank labor bill with the labor rates deleted" so customers won't know exactly what they're paying for.
Interviewed in Atlanta, The Home Depot's vice president of At Home Services, Gary White, said the 2001 manual is no longer used, but he declined to share a copy of the company's current policies. Now, Team 5 Investigates has obtained a new, current manual, which includes significant changes.
Dated June 4, 2007, the current guide provides great detail on The Home Depot's new background check policy, demanding that subcontractors verify the identity and Social Security number of each worker or face a $500 fine. The contractors could also be fined $1,000 for failing to get a permit, and if a customer complains to an attorney general, The Home Depot could fine them $2,500.
Another new guideline calls for transparency, stating that customers should be told that independent contractors, not The Home Depot employees, will work in their homes.
"We're building a much more regimented process to help ensure and inspect everything that our contractors are doing," said White.
Email This Page!