Lowes (or Home Depot) "at home" services

You are much better off (both quality of work and price).  If you go to an independent supplier (plumbing or fixture supply shop).  They usually have better deals.  They will also be able to reccomend someone local who can give you a real estimate.   I have found that the HD or Lowes is about 33 to 50 percent more expensive than a regular install.  So go Local. 
You will be keeping money in your local economy and getting better service.  Whats not to like?  

 Lowes and Home Depot have a regional manager in charge of these home installations. You need to find out who that person is in your region and contact them. We went with Lowes on a Zodiaq countertop upgrade last year. To make a really looooooong story short, we went through all three of the authorized Zodiaq installers within our area, neither of them were able to complete the job to our satisfaction, one of them managed to flood our living room and wooden hallway floor.

 After the second attempt to install the countertops, Lowes had an employee at our house anytime the contractors were there. When we saw a mistake, he took the contractor aside and told him it needed fixing. Working with the regional manager, we scheduled the work that was done in our home. This guy also arranged for the new carpeting and wood floor resurfacing. When it was all done Lowes ate the 6000 dollar tab for the countertops, replaced our carpet and resurfaced our hallway floor. We had to deal only with the Lowes guy they sent to our house and the regional manager.

 Home Depot this year for new appliances. It took them three delivery attempts to finally get us undamaged appliances. We got in touch with the manager in charge of these things and they took 100 dollars off our bill very time they screwed up the deilvery. The third delivery guys marred my newly resurfaced wooden floor in the hallway. They gave us a 400 dollars store card to spend as we wished for the troubles alone. They also sent out the insurance adjuster and cut us a check for 1500 bucks to fix the floor.

 I was reluctant to pay Lowes as a middle man, but I am really glad we did. I would most likely be tied up in court with the contractor otherwise. Find the regional manager and he/she should be able to make things happen for you.

I see what you are saying but the point I was making is that if you use a reputable and recommended local person then you don't have to deal with poor work and flooded hallways.  You get the job done quickly at a much better price.   Big Box store will use the cheapest contractors with the worst labor to do the install because it increases their profit margin.   

My problem is that we are new to this area and don't know the "reputable" local dealers.  We've tried asking around, but all of our local friends live on West Point and they have their work done by "building services."

We have a great floor guy that we've used for small jobs, but otherwise have just gotten really sick and tired of leaving countless messages with various tradesmen to NEVER hear back.

Back home in Iowa, my uncles do various jobs and are plugged in to the local network, so it would have been as easy as picking up the phone and having someone stop over on their way home from work to do it as a favor. 

My biggest problem is finding time to train for my races AND do the house renovation work (on a timely basis).  Apparently my wife has grown sick of living in a "construction site." 

I would recommend going to a supply house and asking them to recommend a good sub. 

Also if you found a good floor guy you like ask him as well.  Chances are if he is not able to do what you need he knows a good guy to do the work. 

Typically a good craftsman would never recommend a guy who does a shoddy job.   

 I see your point and agree with you for the most part. The three installers were the only guys that Dupont would allow to install Zodiaq in our area, so they were the reputable guys in theory. We also have a home repair work force in San Antonio that I can best describe as migrant. There are countless cases where you pay half up front, they come out and measure and you never see them again. Or if you have a shoddy install, you wind up in court.

I had one of the contractors argue with me about the angle on one of the counters he put in. It was actually miscut at about 80 degrees instead of 90. I put a carpenters square on it to show him. He wanted to argue with me about it and said it was in limits. I told him to get out of my house. Lowes backed me on it and the next company that took over came in and removed his mistakes and took the material back to them and I never saw the guy again. Believe me i hated the thought of paying Lowes to be middle man, but I am glad I did.

 I think it depends on where you live and the size of the job whether the big store middleman is a good idea. The main point I was trying to get to condorman is to find the regional manager and start complaining. He will get things popping for you and will probably knock some $$ off the price if you ask.